Investing in a New Student Experience to Achieve Equity and Opportunity
Bruce Vandal, Bruce Vandal Consulting
Football games played in empty stadiums, the student union is closed, and the rec center is off limits. The traditional bucolic image of students roaming tree lined sidewalks on a college campus is no longer reality. For many, the “traditional college experience” was never how they experienced postsecondary education. Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other underserved students have neither had equitable access to nor have equitably benefited from the classic college experience. Stripping away the layers of campus amenities during the pandemic has revealed the core value proposition for postsecondary education — delivering a high-quality learning experience with the necessary supports that prepare students to achieve their life goals and participate in civic life. With the amenities associated with the traditional on-campus experience unavailable to students, now is the time for institutions to prioritize the offering of student services that meet the unique needs of today’s students, particularly underserved students.
In a postsecondary environment transformed by the pandemic and the call for racial justice, institutions should provide more holistic supports, engage in proactive advising, and deliver high quality instruction if they are going to attract, retain and graduate all of today’s students. There is ample evidence demonstrating that student success is rarely a function of student ability to learn and succeed, but is largely due to the structural barriers postsecondary institutions and society as whole places in front of students. Fortunately, we have effective evidence-based models for how to remove unnecessary barriers and put today’s students first. Programs like CUNY ASAP have proven that a combination of financial supports, structured program pathways, and intensive advising can dramatically improve student outcomes. In the last UntappED Potential post, Andy Carlson described how providing basic supports to address food insecurity, housing, and mental health services can help many students.
While these types of external supports are critical, they must be combined with improvements in teaching and learning. Strong Start to Finish at the Education Commission of the States recognizes that the alignment of instruction with effective advising and other supports will result in improved outcomes by ensuring students enter and succeed in a program pathway and appropriate gateway courses aligned to their academic goals. Strong Start to Finish is currently working with postsecondary leaders in 13 states and systems to implement and scale evidence-based instructional models and supports for students who have been traditionally placed in ineffective prerequisite developmental education course sequences. State systems like the University System of Georgia have already begun to see dramatic improvements in critical student success metrics that predict student success after implementing reforms. It is only through implementation of reforms at scale that institutions will begin to reach the students who will benefit most.
Improvements in instruction at colleges and universities are currently supported through several organizations that are developing tools and resources to support faculty. ACUE, Motivate Lab, Charles A. Dana Center, John Gardner Institute, and Carnegie Math Pathways are providing professional development for faculty in traditional, online and hybrid settings. In addition, NASH and AAC&U are working with postsecondary systems and institutions to ensure equitable access to experiential learning — aka High Impact Practices like internships and service learning that provide learners the real world experiences that prepare them for work and participation in a democratic society.
While all of these efforts existed pre-pandemic, most of these organizations are pivoting to respond to the rapidly changing postsecondary environment. With the support of these organizations and others committed to institutional transformation, it is critical for postsecondary institutions to implement solutions that are responsive to both the unique challenges of the pandemic and the urgent need to prioritize equitable outcomes for students.
The pandemic and racial justice movement are demonstrating that if postsecondary institutions want to be engines of opportunity, they must move past providing high priced amenities and focus resources toward building deeper and more meaningful relationships with students through high-quality and highly supported learning aligned to students’ life goals. Further, institutions must recognize and address the historical inequities in postsecondary education that contribute to educational, social, and economic inequality for Black, Latinx, Indigenous and other underserved student populations. Now is the time for institutions to prioritize reforms that will demonstrate to students that a postsecondary credential is essential to achieving their goals and participating in civic society.
