Last week, a team from MCC attended the fourth
Pathways Project Institute: Schools Coordinator Assistant Professor Jessica Wilkie (English/Philosophy); Associate Professor, Brighton Faculty Chair of the Teaching and Creativity Center, and Writing Across the Curriculum Coordinator Amy Burtner (English/Philosophy); Associate Director and Associate Professor Holly Preische (Advisement and Transfer Services); Provost Andrea Wade; and me. Each institute focuses on a specific aspect of guided pathways; this one placed a special emphasis on equity in design and outcomes. In other words, how could the guided pathways help community colleges fulfill their mission of access to opportunity for the full diversity of our students.
One of our plenary speakers,
David Dodson, referenced the work of Raj Chetty and the
Equality of Opportunity Project. Chetty, a Stanford economist, has researched the likelihood of upward mobility for low income individuals. For example, one visual analysis from the Equality of Opportunity Project shows the “
Geography of Upward Mobility": the chance that children born to parents living in the bottom 20% will ever reach the top 20%. A glance at the map shows that the likelihood is not strong anywhere, but where you see red and deep red, the chance is even slimmer. In Monroe County, this likelihood is between 6.1 and 7.1%. In his causal analysis of the effects on children of living in various counties, the Equality of Opportunity Project found that living in Monroe County had a -9% on the future income of children born into poverty.
The goal of the Equality of Opportunity Project is to identify strategies that increase the likelihood of mobility. One of these is postsecondary education, and the project has partnered with the NYTimes on a set of interactive tables that show the economic journeys of graduates from all US colleges. You can find
MCC’s results here. The tables show that the percent of our students who
are lower income has increased over the past three decades; 1 in 6 comes from a family earning less than $20,000. This adds a sense of urgency to our work. While the average MCC grads see almost double the likelihood for upward mobility as compared to the Monroe County baseline, we can do and should be doing more to transform their futures.
So, what does “doing more” mean? Here are some thoughts, and I would welcome even more.
MCC has invested resources in fully integrating
Career Coach with our academic programs. Students (and advisors) can use it to get a clearer picture of what they will earn upon graduation from MCC or—equally important—if their career paths will require additional education. No matter what you teach or the office in which you work, you can share this tool with students. We want students to follow their passion, but they should also know what their passion will pay.
Some of the programs that would be most economically advantageous to our students are not accessible to them. Whether because of pre-requisites or size limits, the door is shut. Some of our peer colleges in the Pathways Project have re-imagined entry points into such programs. For example, Indian River State College created a parallel Nuclear Technician program that provided students accelerated foundational skills education, enabling them to meet the entry requirements for this accredited and highly regulated program. All students in the parallel program completed and found employment at about $50,000/year. Other colleges have redesigned curriculum, moving lectures online to maximize lab time and expand access to high demand, high wage career pathways. Still others have followed MCC’s recent experience of partnering with universities to accelerate students journey from associate through bachelor and onto graduate degrees in health fields.
The Pathways Project is providing MCC with much more than a vehicle to refine and improve our Schools model: it is re-grounding us in the access and opportunity mission that drives the work of our College and all community colleges. This is important and impactful work, and my appreciation goes out to all at MCC who are making it possible every day.
Do you see ways in which MCC could do more to connect students to increased economic mobility? If so, share your thoughts on the
blog or send me an email.