Well, the 18 month old has been whisked off to see a whale if the family
can get through the traffic, so, I'll continue responding to past message
that I could not get to in a timely fashion.
Paul, Genevieve, and I share an interest in Community Colleges, the people
who go to them, and what happens as result. Paul can write about his
interests, which I see as closely related to the theoretical positions
he has posted here, if it seems useful to him.
Here is the source of my interest.
The University of California is in an extremely difficult and dangerous
bind. Its regents have forbidden affirmative action in almost all of its
forms which has reduced enrollment of African-American, Latino, and
Native American students. The same regents have told the university to
increase the diversity of its student body and faculty.
To "make sure" they get their way, the Regents, in collaboration with the
state legislature, have dropped a TON of money on the University to go out
and "grow their own" eligble students. They have said that they expect this
money to double enrollment of under-represented populations in 5 years. One
year has gone by.
Most UC campuses do not have an orientation or sufficient faculty to bring
off such a change even if it were theoretically possible to do so, but a lot
of people are trying in a variety of ways to "make a difference." My own
view is that the entire exercise could very plausibly be seen as a plot
to make the University look bad by throwing a lot of money at it and then
saying, when the rates don't rise as hoped, "See, THOSE people are
unchangable (I'll get to Jensen in a later note).
There is one route that I can see that could, in principle, make a difference
and make it fast. It turns out that through the arcane rules of our state
educational system, if someone goes through two years of community college
in the academic track and gets a B average, the University is obligated
to admit them to finish their education. The factors that were weighted
heavily against them in high school no longer apply. SAT scores are no
longer relevant. Having taken advanced placement classes (not available
in many poor schools!) no longer counts.
But, historically, the affected populations do not choose to go to UC after
Community College, but go instead to the State University system (its
tracking all the way up, of course). The solution I am working on is to
create systems of interinstitutional collaboration with our local community
colleges which identify high school students who do well at their local
schools by local norms and go to their local CC. Working with CC
faculty we have initiated a variety of forms of educational enrichment
and engagement, including versions of the university-community collaborations
that create the afterschool educational activity systems we call 5th Dimen-
sions. This includes release time for CC profs who are horribly overworked,
interactive real time video-conferencing as a form of distance learning,
and web discussion pages plus a "circut rider" who helps each collaboratoin
stay coordinated. Its a hell of a difficult task, but our initial
results are encouraging with respect to my initial goals. At the same
time, they make the way CC's play out the class division of access to
resources incredibly clear for analysis.... if you can stand watching
the triage.
Perhaps I am simply doing the work of power by such efforts. After all,
it won't change the class/race structure of the state or the nation. But
it does open a wedge to solving a really serious problem..... I think.
And it might keep a much worse situation from developing.
more to come.
mike
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