Through personal and professional experience, education, and research, I've been driven by the belief that the world can change more profoundly for the better by releasing the potential of more of its students. I've worked for non-profit organizations for thirty years while focusing on education access and knowledge development. Imagine the cure for cancer or the discovery of new forms of propulsion being locked up inside the minds of students lacking opportunities to excel.
Today’s US Supreme Court decision challenges those of us who have been working toward greater educational access to now go back in time and start over. Clarence Thomas, who is sitting in a seat that was previously filled by an African American, benefitted from a US Senate process that picked him–with a race-conscious eye. He has now completed his betrayal of that act with his opinion. I accept the challenge to reset the history he and the rest of the Roberts court wants to leave behind. I stand with Harvard’s current president, my alma mater, Tufts (who released their own statement–sent via email, though not on their website) and all others who want to see our children succeed. That commitment includes rejecting this decision, renewing my commitment to Black and Brown students and restarting my advocacy.
Since the last post featuring Hugh Price, I’ve been thinking a lot about the way information about the Civil Rights Movement has been passed to me from lions that participated in it.
Receiving that energy directly from those sources has influenced considerations of my own purpose.But now, there is a gap of a generation or two in between those lions and those on the front lines of newer political movements like Black Lives Matter movement, and other more spontaneous protests.
It was my original intention for this next post to dig into that gap and think more deeply about what it means.But then my 7-12th grade alma mater, Providence Country Day School (PCD) in East Providence, Rhode Island, asked me to join their board of trustees.This offer is meaningful in a great number of ways.
Primarily, in an earlier post, I described what it was like being the solitary, lower-middle-class, African American at a small, independent, private New England school.Everything about your identity always seemed subject to scrutiny.As I inhabited that space in my large afro, music, and neighborhood— the used cars we drove to school in, the labels inside my off-brand oxfords might be discussed in their profound oddity.So my inclusion is somewhat iconoclastic.
This invitation is also meaningful because it presents the challenge of converting my turbulent time into actionable counsel.It does not justify or erase confrontations I experienced on and off campus, but it does give them meaning. As I look forward to an eventual board orientation, I find myself asking again the question, “What does a good education look like?”Answers will enhance the insight I share.
A third reason to be grateful is the connection this will provide to my elementary school. Henry Barnard School, a K-6 laboratory school that was run by Rhode Island College until 2020 has merged with PCD.While the formal parts of the merger have been completed, the more practical pieces still have to be integrated.This is also work in which I can participate.
Professionally, I still have a far way to go to meet my own expectations.But in the meantime, I can use my 25+ years of experience in the education space to give it meaning.I will invest a substantial part of it into the future of the schools at the beginning of my own path.
College shopping is among the biggest challenges that a family can face in education and yet can be the most rewarding. All of those decisions that began with the first child care provider (if one could do that) through the sequence of later schooling is topped off by a decision about college. It may be the last educational decision in which parents participate. That inevitability is another reason to pull in as much information into the college search as possible.
This month, I’m sharing some resources for you to consider in a new series I’m calling “5 Key Takeaways”. This first version of the series will focus on college shopping. The takeaways I’m offering are the following:
Typical national college ranking leaves out other valuable perspectives
When looking at other forms of college ranking, one should look at inputs and outputs
One primary output to look at is one’s return on investment
A second primary output is the concept of social mobility
We should not let quantitative rankings overrun or overshadow individual experience
In the Youtube video I run through those takeaways and share the following resources:
The primary goal for providing these resources is to de-emphasize the prestige-based rankings that tend to dominate our searches. I hope these perspectives add to your to family conversations.
When I worked in the education policy space, there were several researchers who stood out because of their work on access and equity. Among them was Anthony Carnevale, now Professor of Policy at Georgetown and the Director of their Center on Education and the Workforce.Back then, his research focused on standardized testing and how it should recognize the context within which students learn.
At Georgetown, he continues to be a powerful force on the side of equity.Not many have the breadth of perspectives on how students get to college and the prospects for success afterwards. Thus, for the parents who are approaching educational planning strategically, the recent interview I had with Dr. Carnevale had a lot to offer.We talked about strategic “opportunities and threats.”
Our conversation began with Tony (as he prefers to be called) talking about how The Center on Education and the Workforce came into being.“Foundations asked me what they should do with the money they were holding on to—I told them to give to me”.His pitch worked because back then, in the early eighties, he recognized pivotal changes in the labor market.“Jobs that used to only require a high school degree had vanished.Now 70 percent of the good jobs required a bachelor’s degree or more.” Tony explained.He also tied his observations to a report that was as important to the education policy community that the Kerner Commission report was to the civil rights community.A Nation at Risk, released to the world in 1983, documented in stark detail the failures of the nation’s education system from kindergarten through college.
In more modern times, Tony has been behind more than 80 reports that look at various aspects of educational opportunity and career pathways that A Nation at Risk found to be in peril.
Summarizing just the first report, “Three Pathways”, looks at the likelihood of students getting good jobs based on the path one takes leaving high school.Defining “good jobs” as those earning roughly 45,000 per year, they found that 20% of the good jobs that exist were obtained students following a high school path.Jobs fitting this category include truck drivers, construction equipment operators, and office support.
The second path is called, “middle skills”.Such skills are those which are obtained with community college level technical training and end with a certificate or credential.They were found to earn 24 percent of all good jobs.These kind of jobs are composed of law enforcement officers, electricians, computer control programmers, and highway maintenance workers.
The third path, the bachelor’s degree, accounts for 56 of all good jobs.This category includes managers, journalists, computer programmers and architects.However, the other to look at the same data is to consider the fact that almost 75% of all jobs obtained by those with a BA meet their definition of good jobs.
Moreover, when comparing job growth across blue-collar to skilled industries, the differences could not be more stark.If you have possessed middle skills, and looked for jobs in the skilled services industries, you saw a 77 percent increase in your general area with 20 million new good jobs.Blue collar industries only saw and 800,000 job increase and for those with bachelor’s degrees, 500,000
The main takeaway for parents planning strategically is that students while the more a student earns, their income potential increases, options to get a good job are still plentiful for those who do not attend or graduate from a four-year college.
Thinking more about the path to college, I asked Tony about how families should decide among these forks in the road.He lamented then about the school’s role in the process.“We need much better career counseling.Not enough resources are being spent to help students make choices.” He also doesn’t think that just using a “career predicting” diagnostic test is enough.He favors more interpersonal connections with professionals.If you are a parent with a child who is still trying to figure out in which direction you are headed, please comment below to say whether and from where you are getting career information.
“Already”, Tony said, “the SAT is not being applied correctly.First, if you get a 1,000 (meaning not the highest percentile) you could still be the kind of student who could graduate from Harvard, even if you couldn’t get in.”Here he is suggesting that the test is not a full measurement of student potential.
Now, Tony argues, college outcomes are more of a reflection of a family’s income than a student’s potential.“If you are in the top tier of test takers, but your family’s income is in the lowest 25%, only 30% of your peers complete college.But if your family’s income is in the highest 25%—even if you were in the lowest tiers of test takers, 70% of you and your peers are likely to graduate.”
As we got to the end of a policy-heavy discussion (which I asked for), I was incredibly moved when asking him about how his family history impacted his own career path.As the third generation from immigrants hailing from Italy, he was given a charge.The patriarchs two generations back planted in the minds of Tony and his two brothers (all PhDs) that because of the patriarchs’ desire to honor their new American citizenship, Tony and his brothers must “make the Carnevale name great”.
Last year I wrote a blog post about how earlier generations can manifest inter-generational momentum by sharing their own aspirations.But the charge issued by Tony’s grandparents and uncles activate that concept in a profound way.I can say that in my eyes, who as a younger researcher in education policy who kept seeing Tony champion causes of diversity, he has definitely lived up to that charge.
This month I’m stepping out from beyond the perimeter of these webpages to expand my circle of inclusion.
As of this writing, I’m simultaneously launching a YouTube channel!On it, I will hold on-camera interviews with friends, colleagues, and others whose expertise in education matters make a difference in the lives of our students.
While I will continue to post topics each month here, my goal is to spark actual conversation with each guest and with each of you should you decide to listen in.I will be deliberate about drawing out tips for parents to implement, but I’m also interested in the broader picture that impacts educational opportunity and outlook.With a mixture of guests and topics, I hope the mosaic we build brings form and definition to the world that we as families have to navigate–to in turn prepare our students to be high achievers regardless of what is next after high school.
In this first discussion, I’m talking with a good friend James Rose, who is the director of an organization in DC called, “Reach4Success”. While over the past three years, roughly six trillion dollars has been awarded to 172 million recipients according to the National Student Loan Data System.However, families must pass through the necessary crucible of financial aid applications to receive those awards.Mr. Rose’s program helps families navigate the application process and trains others who can pass along the knowledge more broadly.
I’m looking forward to having these discussions or “virtual coffeehouses” to share the kind of knowledge that can help you make room for the dream you and your family share.In the case of financial aid, knowing that college is possible can certainly help students hold on to the optimism that may be driving their effort.
I hope you will join me online and subscribe.Thanks in advance for your continued support.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve created puzzles like the one below for my day job’s magazine and for customers. When writing the clues, what becomes clear are the opportunities one has to set the context for both the clues and answers. In many cases, I deliberately use a cultural context for common words. That practice then gives way to the greater truth, that the context of our experience offers insight into the questions we face.
When one mentions “parents’ advocacy” in November 2021, especially in the context of schools, one likely thinks of the raw conflict currently playing out between parents and school boards around the nation.Those confrontations are distractions.There are more fundamental questions to answer concerning the relationship between the education students of color receive and what their parents expect. Continue reading Advocacy….after a few fundamental questions
Introduction
One of the books that lingers in the background of the mission driving Achievement Factors is Our Kind of People, by Lawrence Otis Graham. It lingers because it presents a way of looking at the world that is discordant with the one I’m trying to foster with these efforts. I’ve touched on the book in a previous post, but I raise it again because as of this writing, Fox has just broadcast a second episode of a show that they named after it. In the eponymous show, two Black families are set in contrast to each other on Martha’s Vineyard, a residence for many and a vacation island for many others in Massachusetts. The fictitious story the show attempts to tell draws from the elitist themes of the original book, but wraps them in so much social dysfunction it might snuff out the light of self-discovery that the original book can kindle.
Someone I greatly respect told me a few days ago that I was too old to pursue a PhD. “Once you get past 30 (as of this writing, I am well past that age), you won’t get admitted to a program from an elite school,” he added. In the moment that he said, “you’re too old”, time slowed down. I then sank into an inescapable vertigo as I reached out to take hold of an ambiguous ambition.
