Minority Gains in Higher Ed.

Sally, this statement ” That’s why I think the focus should be on vocational skills for ‘minority’ students so they can make a living first, and then emphasize going to college.” Is the very thing that we as “minorities” have been fighting for hundreds of years. There are more than enough intellignet black and hispanic students that can go to college. They do not need a vocational track!!. You sound like the white school teacher that told her black children in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s that those dreams are unattainable and you should just go to trade school.

While this is a track that some students need, we most certainly do not all need to work first to become more College eligible!!!!

Good high school students need the resources to become good college students. If they have the grades, Colleges and Univresities have the resources on our campuses to get them graduated. PSU boast a 65% African American graduation rate. That’s better than the entire national average and 4th among state flagship universities. And our population is mostly urban and with little means. Are you telling me all of them should have “worked first".

It is time to take our heads out of the sand and make equal education for all a priority. Otherwise, we will continue to lose ground to every other ountry that educate their young for the betterment of their futures!!!!

Curt

Curt, Multicultural Director at Penn State, at 9:16 am EST on October 30, 2006

Booker T., is that you?

How about we do away with these blanket, non-descriptive terms and use appropriate labels when needed, such as “undereducated", “underrepresented"? That way, we can include whatever racial/ethnic/social group without making the discussion always (ALWAYS!) black and white.

Sally’s other suggestion to relegate the education and training of disadvantaged students, particularly those from racial/ethnic minority groups, to tech/vocational programs would be a detriment to our already diversity-challenged society.

The problem is not simply with employment or employability. Along with all of the other societal ills and -ism’s, disadvantaged persons suffer from a lack of personal vision. We should do all in our power to ensure that upcoming generations are aware not only the problems they face (believe me, they know, because we parents from disadvantaged groups do a fine job of reminding them through our fierce protective instincts and endless protesting), but also about the possibilities that exist for them—beyond skin color, hair texture, height/weight, gender, sexual identity, or religion.

Let’s keep two fires burning: one to eradicate the mechanisms that perpetuate disadvantages, and the other to build up our children and broaden their vision.

adrikin, at 9:34 am EST on October 30, 2006

Presidency data

How can the numbers of four-year presidents have gone up so much in every race/ethnic category? By my calculations, there are 201 more in 2005 than in 2000. How did the statistics change among the institutions that were in the survey group in both years?

Nate Johnson, at 11:01 am EST on October 30, 2006

Voc Ed is AWOL in our High School System

I’m a public school trustee, and unfortunately, no one of any race has enough opportunity to learn vocational skills. We turn our noses up at things like plumbing and electrical, turn our noses up at “voc ed” in general, eliminate wood shop, metal shop, autoshop, etc.....In order to take a voc ed class here in California, you have to go to a Regional Occupational Program, which sometimes means needing transportation to some other high school, and many of the courses are things like flower arranging, computer skills, etc. There’s nothing wrong with those things, and we offer some excellent programs for service industries, but what we think of as traditional voc ed — auto, electrical, carpentry — has been getting short thrift in our system. In the name of eliminating racism we do some pretty strange things and probably do a signficant number of students of every race a disservice.The role of voc ed has largely been left to the junior college system. Unfortunately, too many students who might have gotten hooked by voc ed drop out of high school without making it to the JCs. I suspect the lack of voc ed is a huge factor in our horrendous high school graduation rate.

Maryann, at 2:01 pm EST on October 30, 2006