Closing the opportunity gap : identity-conscious strategies for retention and student success / edited by Vijay Pendakur ; foreword by Shaun R. Harper.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Pendakur, Vijay, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

College dropouts--Prevention.

College dropouts.

Minority college students.

First-generation college students.

Educational equalization.

Culturally relevant pedagogy.

Physical Description:

xiii, 172 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Sterling, Virginia : Stylus Publishing, LLC, 2016.

Summary:

This book offers a novel and proven approach to the retention and success of underrepresented students. It advocates a strategic approach through which an institution sets clear goals and metrics and integrates the identity support work of cultural / diversity centers with skill building through cohort activities to enable students to successfully navigate college, graduate on time and transition to the world of work. Underlying the process is an intersectional and identity-conscious, rather than identity-centered, framework that addresses the complexity of students' assets and needs as they encounter the unfamiliar terrain of college. In the current landscape of higher education, colleges and universities normally divide their efforts between departments and programs that explicitly work on developing students' identities and separate departments or programs that work on retaining and graduating higher-risk students. This book contends that the gap between cultural/diversity centers and institutional retention efforts is both a missed opportunity and one that perpetuates the opportunity gap between students of color and low-income students and their peers. Identity-consciousness, the central framework of this book, differs from an identity-centric approach where the identity itself is the focus of the intervention. For example, a Latino men's program can be developed as an identity-centered initiative if the outcomes of the program are all tied to a deeper or more complex understanding of one's Latino-ness and/or masculinity. Alternately, this same program can be an identity-conscious student success program if it is designed from the ground up with the students' racial and gender identities in mind, but the intended outcomes are tied to student success, such as term-to-term credit completion, yearly persistence, engagement in high-impact practices, or timely graduation. Following the introductory chapter focused on framing how we understand risk and success in the academy, the remaining chapters present programmatic interventions that have been tested and found effective for students of color, working class college students, and first-generation students. Each chapter opens with a student story to frame the problem, outlines the key research that informs the program, and offers sufficient descriptive information for staff or faculty considering implementing a similar identity-conscious intervention on their campus. The chapters conclude with a discussion of assessment, and suggested "Action Items" as starting points. -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Family engagement for first-generation families and families of color

Retaining and graduating empowered men of color

Identity-conscious approaches to first-year, peer-to-peer retention programs

The promise and challenge of leadership development for women of color

Social capital

Career discernment and career capital development for students of color and first-generation college students

Empowerment agents

Food, shelter and success

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781620363126

9781620363119

1620363119

1620363127

OCLC:

931226711

Publisher Number:

99968759313