Best Practices

Too many of New England’s young people are denied educational access and opportunity. The stakes are high not only for our disadvantaged youth but also for the rest of us. A population denied access to college carries significant economic and social costs and ultimately places our nation at risk. Dennis Moore, superintendent of the Madison County, Georgia, schools, has calculated the financial cost of lack of access. Moore’s research shows that every student who fails to graduate from high school costs his community an average of $600,000 over a 20-year period in public assistance, incarceration and other health and social services.

The question ultimately becomes not how much damage is done or who’s at fault, but how do we
provide greater access, thereby closing the widening gap between haves and have-nots?

Many commentators contend that the solution cannot be found in our schools but lies with society.
Earlier this year, for example, James Traub argued in the New York Times Sunday Magazine that what happens in school cannot overcome cultural, economic and family forces. As the leader of an organization that has helped hundreds of students take one more step, I disagree. We must look to our public schools to help make college a reality and begin closing that gap between haves and have-nots. But how?

At the Foundation for Excellent Schools 1999 National Conference, U.S. Secretary of Education
Richard Riley rightly said, “We must first end the tyranny of low expectations.”

Once committed, we need strategies to help all young people achieve. Proven practices in low-income
communities are especially important. The nonprofit Foundation for Excellent Schools (FES), based in
Cornwall, Vt., is currently helping 80 schools in low-income communities in 25 states to raise student
performance. FES helps schools strengthen their capacity to serve students by providing training for
team-building, leadership development and planning; building partnerships among schools and colleges, communities, parents and businesses; and maintaining a national network that allows schools to share successful practices.

In the impoverished, crime-wracked Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, David Ruggles Junior
High raised its reading scores by 12.5 points last year. No magic bullet, students were rewarded for reading, and classrooms competed to see which one could cumulatively read the most pages. Faculty from the University of Vermont trained Ruggles teachers in the pedagogy of reading and writing. Ruggles adopted a culture of literacy.

Pickens County, Georgia, is the rural counterpart of Bed Stuy. Pickens County lowered its dropout rate
from 42 percent to 8 percent in five years by first admitting that it had a problem and then enlisting the community, parents and higher education in the quest for solutions. More than 100 community members and local businesses contributed $1,000 each to support scholarships, ensuring that every Pickens graduate had a “nest egg” for college. Community members spoke in schools throughout the county on Friday afternoons, chronicling their struggle to access education.

In New England, FES has created connections among schools and between schools and colleges that are helping at-risk students access educational opportunity. In Vermont, One More Step, a statewide
initiative directed by FES and supported by the Nellie Mae Foundation, pairs 800 student mentors from 15 different colleges with at-risk students from 20 different schools. At Vermont’s Bridgeport Central School, principal Ron Conry reports that “Our seventh and eighth graders are handing in their homework more consistently. There’s a buzz about going to college. It’s because of the mentors.” At Oxbow High School in Bradford, teacher Becky Difrancesco says, “It’s brought two dozen at-risk students into the higher ed loop. The college connections have created dreams for our kids.”

Early this year, 50 students from Middlebury and Williams colleges mentored, tutored and practice
taught in the Bronx and Harlem. One student at Harlem’s A. Philip Randolph High, who had struggled
with math concepts, finally learned algebra through one-on-one support from her Williams College tutor. “A light went on. You could see the excitement in both the tutor and the Randolph student,” says Philip Smith, the Williams admission dean emeritus who oversees the exchange. Smith reports on another bonus, “About a third of our students who intern in New York City schools during January pursue teaching in low-income schools.” That movement of the best and the brightest into the teaching profession may be the most crucial step in improving schools, according to “Quality Counts 2000,” a special report published by Education Week.

Throughout New England, examples of higher education- sponsored early awareness programs abound. As educational demographer Harold Hodgkinson has noted, low-income kids are not exposed to the “folklore of college.” We need to provide this exposure. In urban centers nationwide, Harvard alumni chapters are sponsoring early awareness programs for middle school students and families. The Harvard program spawned the idea for an FES early awareness day at Columbia University last May for 300 New York City students and families. They heard from admissions and financial aid personnel and chatted with young alumni from a half-dozen New England colleges over pizza. “It helped our kids and their sibs get street smart about moving through the maze to college. Usually they learn too late, if at all,” says Aura Rivera, principal of Roberto Clemente Junior High.

On a chilly Saturday in January, Middlebury College students hosted 50 middle schoolers from Vermont’s rural schools for an early awareness day. At “Midd Day,” the middle schoolers participated in a chemistry experiment, ate in the dining hall, learned about applying to and paying for college and watched a hockey game. Nancy Frenette, principal of Currier Memorial School, says, “The day was motivational. Our students began to think about their future, and that’s meant more focus in the classroom.” Many of the middle schoolers have stayed in touch with their Middlebury hosts via email.

Another initiative has college athletes conducting goal-setting sessions in schools across the state. Bill
Beaney, coach of the Middlebury men’s hockey team that has won five straight national Championships, enlists his players and other athletes from colleges in Vermont to meet with small groups of students and ask them about goals.

There’s no easy way to close the college access gap. It begins with the belief that access can be a shared dream, that we have high expectations for all children. Then we can look to our schools—the institution that serves our youth. School leaders need examples of success to build the will and the know-how. They need to reach out and find creative solutions to the access challenge. Ultimately we all need to get involved in creating connections. Wouldn’t it be great if every college and university admissions officer in New England spent a week visiting elementary and high schools talking to younger students about accessing higher ed? How about if each one of us gave an hour a week mentoring a young person from a low-income community? If we all don’t get involved, we all stand to lose.

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Rick Dalton is president of the Vermont-based
Foundation for Excellent Schools and former director
of enrollment planning at Middlebury College.