Where college diversity works

[WhiteTara]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/where-college-diversity-works-014913943.html?nhp=1

Kelly Hogan was stunned. The biology professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) saw statistics generated by the university that showed something sobering about her Biology 101 class: More than 70 percent of the African-American students and more than 40 percent of Latinos were failing. First-generation students – the first in their families to attend college – were also struggling.

Faced with teaching 400-plus students, Ms. Hogan had resorted to a traditional lecture model. Now, she realized, “nothing I’m doing here is really in line with how learning works.” If she wanted to offer all her students the same chance to learn, she had to change the way she taught.

So she decided to introduce new material through assignments and start classes with a question. She often told students to consult with their neighbors, effectively turning endless tiers of passive teenagers into a buzzing hive. Hogan tried a host of other techniques as well – polling students electronically, for instance, to find out how much they knew about a subject.

Just three semesters later, the results were dramatic. The failure rate among African-
Americans fell by half. The percentage who achieved C’s tripled, and more than 10 percent scored A’s and B’s. Latinos and first-generation students improved, too, as did white and Asian students. Today, building on some of the experimentation Hogan began implementing in 2009, UNC is channeling $1.8 million into transforming the way introductory science courses are taught.

[Prism]

1. I want to quote a bit more

Covenant Scholars now total 2,400, or 13 percent of UNC undergraduates. Their families’ median income is $26,777, and their backgrounds are diverse: 41 percent are underrepresented minorities (all minorities except Asian), 42 percent are white, and 58 percent are first-generation college students.

Once on campus, Covenant staff members act as an information source and fairy godmothers. If grades slip, an academic specialist offers help. If students have a problem, counselors listen and link them to services on campus. Opportunities exist to hang out with fellow Covenant Scholars, connect with peer and faculty mentors, and get free tickets to music and other performances on campus. Students can also sign up for such things as workshops on business networking or an evening with graduate students to learn about applying to graduate schools.

Only about one-third of Covenant Scholars regularly take advantage of such offerings, but Ort is fine with that. “If they come and assimilate just like any other student,” she says, “we think that’s a win.”

Before the program existed, graduation rates for students from low-income families hovered just under 57 percent. Today, almost 81 percent graduate, of which more than half (56 percent) leave debt-free. Those who take out loans most often do so instead of participating in work-study programs, to cover what their parents can’t pay, or to finance summer school. On average, their total college loans run about $10,300.

And that is how it's done.

[WhiteTara]

2. This shows it is possible to educate kids without

breaking the bank and boring them to death.