Education and Work


Yesterday’s siloed and archaic structures that fail to reflect the lived experiences of today’s students on a path to earning tomorrow’s credentials. These structures force institutions and individuals to conform to a single, idealized path experienced in isolation as a lock-step sequence - from K-12 to college to the workforce - when we know that for many this is just not the case. 50% of students nationally worked while enrolled, 20% earned more than full-time minimum wage for the 30 week school year ($9,600).

And, as the potential for more students to re-enroll in college after debt forgiveness is on the horizon, its an open question if they will stop the jobs they currently have. Surely, many of them are a part of the 39 million adults with some college but no credential who often face financial barriers to return that have been lessened.
Yet while we know that time can be the enemy, for adults it is more rigid in terms of the particular points in the day they can participate. Graduate programs have figured this out and offer virtual classes during the week and a longer in-person course on a couple weekends - just ask any executive MBA or ED.D student. In short, institutions need to be (adult) student ready which means they need to do a few things different for this population.
So, when it comes to these adult students (who are not part of a college's first-time, full-time graduation rate cohort), let's break the lock-step framing of a direct production pipeline to validate, honor, and reflect the lived experiences of today’s students pursuing tomorrow’s credentials along their holistic learning journey. A journey that recognizes individual perseverance rather than institutional retention, growth rather than gains and careers rather than jobs. This must be done with the words we use, the frame we deploy that allows education and work to occur simultaneously and the core believe that each and every student is valuable.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking Back at 100 In-person Talks

Image
It is an honor to be invited to give a talk, as agendas are often tightly packed. Recently, I hit 100 invited presentations, which led me to wonder: where have I been?  The answer is illustrated in the map above - which includes 76 cites(1). From Boston, MA to Conway, AR to Godfrey, IL and Plano, TX to major cities along the western coast and places in-between.  With each visit I get to better understand, and hopefully empower, the wonderful people and communities they create. To all that have invited me to been community with you I again share a sincere, thank you.  While a minor surgery has me sidelined for the next month, I look forward to being back on the road and in your town soon. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the chance to learn new tools like  Datawrapper  as I heal. Note:  (1)The map also includes places where I gave a "refereed" presentation; meaning I submitted a proposal that was peer-reviewed and accepted.
Read more

Collecting Data that Matters for Today's Students

When I began in my role at the Lumina Foundation I often I'd get a pitch to build a data tool for "students." Yet when I asked for them to define what was meant by "students," the response was underwhelming.     This ocurred at a time when enrollment drops and  #attainment  data showed what we needed was an effort to reach  #todaysstudents  ,particularly  #adults  who identify as  #black ,  #hispanic ,  #nativeamerican  to empower them with the information they sought when deciding to enroll.   It is with that spirit, and understanding, that we engaged the thoughtful  Sova team of  Alison Kadlec   Verónica (Vero) Guajardo, PhD (she/her/ella) Stephanie Gardner, Ed.D.   Quintina Barnett Gallion  to conduct this research.  The goal of which was to hear directly from adult students of color to help ensure that current and future data tools feel relevant and useful to them I encourage you to learn from Sova’s Turning the Mirror: Data Adult Learners of Color Want to S
Read more

The Failure of, and Oppression Perpetuated by, Academic Fiefdoms

  Let's end academic fiefdoms. They exist, and we see them constantly in written formats.   As I completed a  #blind -review of an  #academic  paper and was bothered; deeply. The literature review, where the work of others is recognized, was sparse.  Here are five reasons why it should not be: First, the methodology suffers.  Without understanding how others in the field examined the problem one's  #methodology  suffers. The implementation of many researched  #practices  also occur in other  #states  where  #scholars  have deployed a range of  #analytical   #methods  to understand on-the-ground perspectives. Ideally, literature reviews empower scholars to leverage the analytical thoughtfulness published by others.  Second, the discussion is shallow. A literature review pulling findings from existing scholars situates findings and discussions within a richer context allowing one to detail how the findings are similar too, or different from, existing studies. Third, uninformed ne
Read more