Inside Higher Ed published a book review of The College Fear Factor by Seton Hall University professor Rebecca Cox yesterday.  According to the review, Dr. Cox believes a mismatch exists between many first generation college students’ expectations and those of their professors, and that pedagogical norms may be furthering learning gaps.  I think Dr. Cox is on to something very important.

Dr. Cox reports that first generation college students “admitted to feeling intimidated by professors’ academic knowledge ….  Essentially, students were afraid that the professor would irrevocably confirm their academic inadequacy.”  She goes on to say that first generation college students are reluctant to ask for assistance even when they need it.

That was very true of me even though I excelled at virtually every academic endeavor I ever undertook.  It took me years before I could bring myself to ask a question or speak unless spoken to in class, and I was near the end of my formal education before I was able to talk to a professor outside of class.  While I rarely needed academic assistance, I never asked for it even when I did.  My few bad grades resulted from my inability to ask for help from my professors when I didn’t understand something.  Meanwhile, I observed classmates from different socioeconomic backgrounds having no such difficulty even when they asked stupid questions (and yes there are stupid questions, beginning with those you ask because you didn’t bother to read your assignment) and wondered what was wrong with me.

Dr. Cox notes that first generation college students tend to devalue teaching methods that don’t involve professors lecturing to (or more aptly “at”) them.  I remember thinking that about the Socratic method when first exposed to it in law school.  I initially thought it allowed the professor to prepare less; only after several years, and practicing it as a professor, did I realize that it takes more time to prepare and forces students to prepare for (or drop) your class.

After reading the book review, I now am wondering two things: (1) How on earth did I ever graduate from college, much less earn a law degree?  And even more baffling, how did I find my way into higher education?  (2) Have I been an ineffective professor for students just like me?  I hope not.

I will be reading Dr. Cox’s book, which is available through Harvard University Press.

The National Governors’ Association’s Center for Best Practices published an issue brief earlier this week titled “Measuring Student Achievement at Postsecondary Institutions.” The brief raises some important points about higher education accountability systems:

• The brief takes policymakers to task for relying too heavily on graduation rate calculations that examine only first-time, full-time fall cohorts.  If we assume that all students start in the fall as full-time students, the measure works.  But more than half of all community college students, for example, do not meet these criteria.
• The brief criticizes policymakers for not taking “inputs” (e.g., numbers of disadvantaged students being served) into consideration when evaluating an institution’s success in graduating students.  To paraphrase (rather loosely) former Texas Governor Ann Richards, it’s not too hard to score a home run when you were born on third base; not so for those less fortunate.
• The brief suggests that policymakers should place greater emphasis on remediation milestones because most students, particularly at the community college level, need it and because so few students who need it succeed in college.
• The brief suggests that policymakers should gather data on whether students actually put their degrees to work by obtaining jobs in their fields of study or jobs that require the most recently attained credential.

It’s amazing that someone has to write a report making these points.  All are obvious and well known.

Several weeks ago The Chronicle of Higher Education published a student essay deserving of some attention by those who profess to be interested in student access issues.  The essay describes a first-generation college student’s feelings of social exclusion and rang so true that it was painful to read.

Some quotations worthy of reflection:

• “I’ve never traveled out of the mid-Atlantic region, the latest issues of The New Yorker and Harper’s have never appeared on my family’s coffee table, and before arriving on the campus, I thought every working person got paid by the hour.”  College access professionals need to understand that, even under the best of circumstances, students from poor socio-economic backgrounds have not had the quality or quantity of enrichment opportunities of their upper and middle class classmates.
• “As a high-school senior trying to decide where to attend college, I felt besieged by information.”  College access professionals need to appreciate that there is ample, indeed overwhelming, information available to poor students about college selection, admissions, and financial aid.  What is missing is quality counseling to help poor students put all of this information into context.  Such counseling can be provided effectively only by a professional counselor or peer, not through a website or brochure.
• “I don’t want to alienate myself by letting my college friends know that I’m not well traveled and don’t understand their references, so I act as if I were in the know, hoping they won’t suspect that I’m from a different class.  This ‘cultural passing’ gives me a feeling of accomplishment but also leaves me dejected, knowing that I am still an outsider.”  College access professionals need to understand that many such students try hard to hide their otherness and are reluctant to seek support.
• “There were undoubtedly other working-class students on the campus, who could have provided me with the support I needed, but I couldn’t find them.”  Most campuses have African-American groups, religious groups, LGBT groups, etc., but no groups for poor students.  Poor students could benefit from a support group.