Dive Brief:
- New Jersey City University President Sue Henderson and CUNY professor James Muyskens have made their case for education equity in a new op-ed for University Business that looks at the nation’s demographics and the needs of the economy.
- In the piece, the pair highlighted the fact that 2014 was the first year in which U.S. public schools enrolled more minorities than white students and that educational attainment rates among low-income students have stagnated while those in the upper quartile of the socioeconomic ladder have soared.
- With an economy that will increasingly rely on a college-educated workforce, Henderson and Muyskens argue postsecondary schools need to improve their success rates with underrepresented minorities and low-income students.
Dive Insight:
The vast majority of college students today are considered “nontraditional” by the U.S. Department of Education’s standards. These students are parents, single caregivers, older adults, GED holders, full-time workers, part-time students, or independent of their parents for financial aid reasons. In some cases, they are a combination of several of these classifications.
Adults used to be able to achieve middle class status without a college degree, but that will be increasingly difficult in our changing economy, meaning postsecondary institutions will need to figure out how to support a long-underserved group or relegate a large portion of the population to poverty. Federal and state governments are considering ways to hold colleges more accountable for the outcomes of traditionally disadvantaged groups, providing another incentive for institutional improvement.