Category Archives: Higher Education

African America Part II: Changing Demographics

Higher Education, Uncategorized, , , , ,
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By Fonna Seldu on Flikr

In African America: What The Media Won’t Tell You, I wrote about growth in the African American population from “The Untold Story”  – a Nielsen Corporation report.  There are other important facts about us in this report I want to share with you.  First, African Americans are, on average, younger than the non-hispanic white population – 31.4 years for African Americans versus 39 years for non-hispanic whites in America.  This means that advertisers have a longer period to build brand loyalty with African Americans and that we should  be careful about what companies we have long term relations with.  Our dollars will be even more important to them in the future so we should spend them carefully.

This will be even more important in the future because Blacks in America are going to college in greater numbers than Whites in America –  70.9% of black high school graduates versus 67.3% for non-hispanic whites.  This means we will consume longer with more money to spend because we are better educated.  The impact of more Blacks going to college is also reflected in the increased African American presence in the STEM disciplines. In 2011,  6% of STEM professionals were Black up from only 2% in 1970.

Finally, Blacks in America are not just focused on making and spending more money.  As our incomes rise at faster rates than non-hispanic whites, so does money allocated for the future in categories such as insurance policies, pensions and retirement savings.  This is important because too much black wealth has been in real estate instead of financial assets.  That’s why the real estate bubble that started the recession we’re recovering from now greatly reduced Black wealth in America.

This is just some of the information that shows  African Americans will continue to play a more important economic and demographic role in American than what is shown in the media.   Let me know what you think about this data.  Next time I’ll share more information with you about how diverse the black population in America is.  We’re not just one group of people.

A Review of ‘Where Everybody Looks Like Me’

Book Review, First Generation College Students, Higher Education, Mentoring Students, Non-traditional Students, Success In College, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

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I just published a review of “Where Everybody Looks Like Me”  By Ron Stodghill on Afro.com.  You can read it at:

http://www.afro.com/where-everybody-looks-like-me-and-the-challenges-facing-hbcus/

Let me know what you think.

African America: What The Media Don’t Tell You

Higher Education, Success In College, The Costs and Benefits of Higher Education, Uncategorized, , , , ,

John BullockI recently read a report done by the Neilsen Corporation on African American consumers in America which they titled “The Untold Story”.  There is so much important information in this report that I am going to do a series of four posts on it.  This post is an overview of the report and includes some very interesting statistics.

First of all, our numbers in America are increasing.  From 2000 to 2014 the African American population in American grew 35% faster than the overall population of the country and more than twice as fast as the white population in America.  You need look no further to better understand  the anger and fear some white people are feeling as shown in the news media on a regular basis. By 2060, Nielsen estimates that the Black population in America will be 74.5 million comprising 17.9% of the total U.S. population.

We are also becoming more educated.  The percentage of Black high school graduates enrolled in college was 70.9% exceeding that of both Whites and Hispanics.  Also, the high school graduation rate rose to over 70% outpacing all other groups in America.

We are also making and spending more money.  The percentage of black households making over $200,000 a year increased by 138% and African American income growth rates outpaced that of non-Hispanic Whites at every annual household income level above $60,000.  The result is that African American consumers spend 1 trillion 100 billion dollars annually!

This is not the picture of African America you will see in the media but it is the truth – it is who we really are in America today.  I’ll share more information with you in the next post.  In the meantime, let me know what you think about these surprising facts.  I’d like to hear from you.

In addition to the blog posts, I am going to begin podcasting my content in an effort to share information with more people.  If you are interested in subscribing, please let me know in your comments about this post below.

How Good Is That High School Diploma?

First Generation College Students, Higher Education, Success In College, The Costs and Benefits of Higher Education, Uncategorized, , , , , , , ,
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Copyright State Farm

I’ve been reading with some concern about accountability for k-12 education going back to the individual states as a result of No Child Left Behind being discontinued.  This will make national evaluations of high school students’ abilities harder.  Every high school graduate should have some idea of how he/she compares with graduates from other high schools across the nation because the market for jobs is national and becoming more international every day.  Allowing states to be individually responsible for assessing what their students know and can do will make this more difficult.  An article from the New York Times shows why this is so important.

How can we ensure that all students get the quality public school education they deserve?  Let me know what you think.

Is That Ivy League Education Really Worth It?

First Generation College Students, Higher Education, Mentoring Students, Success In College, The Costs and Benefits of Higher Education, Uncategorized, , , , ,

Take a look at this article.  It has some eye opening numbers in it concerning earnings ten years after graduating from some of the most expensive colleges and universities in the nation.

For Minority Students—Getting Into College Is Not The Only Challenge

First Generation College Students, Higher Education, Mentoring Students, Success In College, The Costs and Benefits of Higher Education, Uncategorized
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Copyright Elina Olivio – NYU Photo Bureau

Studies have shown that one of the most important aspects of success in college is quickly fitting into the college experience and establishing personal and social relationships that help students succeed.  These and other articles show how hard this can be for minority students at elite universities.  While these universities have increased their enrollment of minority students but have not adequately addressed the huge socio economic differences between many of the minority students and students from much more affluent families.  The differences affect personal and social relationships which, intern, affect the value of each student’s college experience.

The result can be isolation and a distorted view of their college experience.  In his book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of a student who chose to go to an Ivy League university rather than a flagship state university.  At the end of her first year, she ended up at the bottom of her class which made her feel completely inadequate.  She was so used to being first in everything she couldn’t see that she was making it academically in a very exclusive world-class group of students, regardless of her position in the class. Without the personal, social and academic relationships with instructors she needed, she decided to change majors for something easier and give up her lifelong dream of being a medical researcher. This is a loss that could have been prevented. Unfortunately, she was admitted but felt left out and could not deal with this on her own.  To admit, retain and graduate more minority students, elite colleges and university must do a better job of addressing this critical need for minority students.

Achievement Gap Economics

First Generation College Students, Higher Education, Success In College, The Costs and Benefits of Higher Education, , , , ,

566200801_89ede04e1f_zA recent article in the New York Times focused on achievement gaps caused by socio economic differences instead of racial differences between students in America. These achievement gaps begin to show up early – cognitive differences start to appear in children from the top and bottom socio economic sectors in America before kindergarten and only increase as they progress through school. Furthermore, the achievement gap between high and low income students has increased. Since 1970, the achievement gap on standardized test of reading has increased by almost 40% between the 10th and 90th percentile household income .

What this means is that there is  limited upward mobility in America – more limited than in most first world countries. A child born to parents with income in the lowest bracket is ten times more likely to end up in that same lower bracket than they are to rise to  the highest bracket as an adult (43 percent versus 4 percent). And, a child born to parents in the highest income bracket is five times more likely to stay there than end up there than the lowest (40 percent versus 8 percent). These results run counter to the historic vision of the United States as a land of equal opportunity.

The good news is that a college degree can make a big difference. Without a college degree a child born into a family in the lowest income bracket has a 45 percent chance of staying there forever and only a 5 percent chance of moving up into the top bracket. Children born into the lowest income bracket who do earn a college degree have only a 16 percent chance of staying there and a 19 percent chance of moving up into the top bracket.

Upward mobility means more than just money. Parents in higher socioeconomic brackets invest not only more money in their children, but more time as well. On average, mothers with a college degree spend 4.5 more hours each week engaging with their children than mothers with only a high school diploma or less. This means that, among other things, by age three, children of parents who are professionals have vocabularies that are 50 percent larger than those of children from working-class families, and 100 percent larger than those of children whose families receive welfare, disparities that some researchers ascribe to differences in how much parents engage and speak with their children. By the time they are three, children born to parents who are professionals have heard about 30 million more words than children born to parents who receive welfare. Additional language skills put child at a distinct advantage when they start school and will probably follow them throughout their educational career.

All of this information makes getting a college degree even more important for all students – especially disadvantaged students. It’s the best investment they can make with a higher return than any other way to invest the cost of a college education. It doesn’t just mean more money, it can mean changing the path taken in life. If you’re in high school now, do the best you can and do everything you can to get a college degree. If you are in college, stay there until you’re finished. Getting that degree can be a life changing experience for you and for all the stakeholders in your life.

Talking Good Talk

Coaching, Higher Education, Mentoring Students, , , , , ,
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©: Rashida S. Mar b. on Flicker

In my last post, Strong Shoulders, I talked about the importance of having family and mentors who shape a young person’s life from birth. I was blessed to have people like this in my life. The first one I want to tell you about is a friend of the my family we called, The Bishop. He was not a man of the cloth as the name suggests and I’m not sure how he got this nickname but that’s what my father, who was his lifelong friend, called him. The Bishop was known for his sage advice and one day, he  told me,

“Granville, be grateful in your life if you can have three friends – your mother, your father and one other person.”

I am grateful that for more than fifty years, I  had, my mother and father in my life, guiding, supporting and encouraging me. They are the ones who helped me learn how to think and how to express myself. As long as we lived at home, they  my sister and me to be home for dinner six days a week – Sunday through Friday. Saturday you were on your own and that helped me  learn to cook to eat on the weekend!  However, each night we had a family dinner, we would finish the meal and then do what I call, “talk some good talk”. There were no restrictions on what we could talk about or  who could talk. All comments were taken seriously and responded to critically. Not that what was said was criticized but that meant that if you didn’t have something substantive to say, you  listened and learned until,  then you talked. I learned so much about people and the world at that dinner table. As I approached adulthood, the discussions became more important to me than the meals. I always learned something.

My wife and I had the same rules in our house – home for dinner six days a week for good food and good talk. Our friends and our daughters’ friends were always welcome to join us for dinner and conversation – around our table, everyone was family. My daughters who are now 25 and 32, one with children of her own, still say how much they enjoyed being able to talk with us about anything and, to some extent, reconnect at the end of each day.

My mother use to say that you can’t make the world safe for your kids you have to make your kids safe for the world. I think talking good talk at dinner is a great way to do that. Even though I can’t be with them at dinner, I take every opportunity to talk some good talk with my students in my roles as teach and mentor. I believe this can be just as important to student success as doing well in the classroom.