Postsecondary Education for First-Generation and Low-Income Students in the Ivy League: Navigating Policy and Practice

262 Pages·2018·2.405 MB·English

by  Kerry H. Landers (auth.)

POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION FOR
FIRST-GENERATION AND LOW-INCOME
STUDENTS IN THE IVY LEAGUE
NAVIGATING POLICY AND PRACTICE
Kerry H. Landers
Postsecondary Education for First-Generation
and Low-Income Students in the Ivy League
Kerry H. Landers
Postsecondary
Education for
First-Generation and
Low-Income Students
in the Ivy League
Navigating Policy and Practice
Kerry H. Landers
School of Graduate and Advanced Studies
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
ISBN 978-3-319-63455-5 ISBN 978-3-319-63456-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-63456-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017955008
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To Mom and Dad for their love and support
F
oreword
Americans know what it means when African Americans “pass” as white or
gay people “come out” of the closet, but as Kerry H. Landers notes in this
stirring new volume, low-income and first-generation students at elite col-
leges quietly engage in the same sets of decisions: should they “pass” as
upper middle class, or “come out” as who they are?
At selective colleges, low-income and first-generation students are
often “invisible” (to draw upon another racial analogy), Landers notes,
because there are so few of them. At Dartmouth College, the main subject
of her study, new research from Stanford University’s Raj Chetty and col-
leagues finds that the median family income is $200,400. You are 27 times
as likely to bump into a wealthy student from the top 20 percent of family
income at Dartmouth as a disadvantaged student from the bottom 20
percent. For the class entering in 2015, just 13 percent were first-
generation college students in a nation where more than two-thirds of
adults lack a four-year degree.
While colleges have done an admirable job of opening doors to women
and minorities, economic class “is the last barrier” says Landers. “We have
not put class on an equal footing with race or gender when reforming
public policies for access to higher education.”
This is a shame on several levels. For one thing, research shows that
low-income students who attend elite colleges actually gain a larger boost
in wages than do wealthier students. It is painful, therefore, Landers notes,
that “those students who have the most to gain have the least access to
institutions that pave the way for social mobility.”
vii
viii FOREWORD
Low-income students, who come to college with different sets of life
experiences than typical students, also enrich the conversations that take
place and deepen the learning that goes on. But these benefits are less
likely to be secured when disadvantaged students are so outnumbered that
they feel uncomfortable speaking out. When students pass as middle class,
Landers notes, “we lose their authentic identities, voices, experiences, and
the opportunity to change our institutions.”
But speak out they do in this volume, with great eloquence and passion.
Some of the most powerful portions of the book are those in which
Landers features the voices of some 20 low-income Dartmouth students
she interviews, along with other disadvantaged students at elite schools.
These students may have been especially candid with the author because
Landers lets them know that she herself is the daughter of a welder and
secretary.
There is Steven who notes matter of factly that his on-campus job pays
more than his mom’s job; Emma who is forced to confront a fraternity
that holds a party with a “white trash” theme; and Ceasar, who, in a
Facebook post, underlines the point that poverty, unlike race, is a condi-
tion that people try to rise out of. “My father has been a painter for 22
years,” he says. “When I received the news that I had been matched to
Dartmouth through QuestBridge, he cried. It is the only time I have
witnessed tears run down his face, but he was just so happy that his eldest
child would never have to work in manual labor.”
Low-income students, the author notes, work the “triple shift”—work,
study, and extracurriculars. They grow frustrated that they don’t know the
“secret handshake” of the upper class. It all can be exhausting, Landers
writes: “Learning the culture feels like adding another class to an already
full course load, and this new class lasts all four years, day and night.”
These students have to fend for themselves. They are “flying their own
helicopters.” They are not told by their parents “do what makes you
happy,” as the wealthier students often are. Many low-income students,
after all, want to help their parents financially when they graduate. Indeed,
many send a portion of their work-study check home to support their
families.
One of the treasures of this book is Landers’ willingness to stick with
students over the years. After interviewing them as undergraduates, she
contacted the students 4 years out of college, and then 12 years out.
Seventeen of the 20 went on to graduate or professional school; several
were doctors, lawyers, or business people. “Despite the challenges and
FOREWOR D ix
insecurities the alumni faced as students,” she writes “they all stated that
they would recommend low-income students attend an elite college.”
How can we give more smart but economically disadvantaged students
a chance to enjoy the American Dream and tap into their extraordinary
talents? I have been studying and writing about low-income and first-
generation students at elite colleges for more than two decades, and it is
easy to get discouraged. Despite lots of self-congratulatory press releases
about no loan programs and generous scholarships, selective colleges and
universities remain bastions of privilege.
And yet, I have a couple of reasons for optimism.
One is that students are beginning to speak out and organize around
class identity. When giving a speech at Middlebury College, I was dumb-
struck when, in introducing me, a group of students who organized the
forum publicly announced their names and how much money their fami-
lies paid annually in tuition and fees. The first student said his family paid
$18,000; the next that his family paid the full tuition of more than
$50,000; and a third said her family could not afford to pay anything but
she worked and paid $1200 annually. Topics that were taboo when I
attended college were now out in the open, in an effort to spur discussion
and reflection about the role of economic class at Middlebury.
Likewise, at a Harvard conference last year, an amazing group of disad-
vantaged college students—of all races and ethnicities—came together to
say it was time to organize around first-generation identity. Ana Barros
said, through tears, that she had entered Harvard a few years earlier feeling
shame about her low-income background. But now, with hundreds of
working-class students from Ivy League colleges surrounding her, she said
first-generation status is “a badge we can proudly wear.” She concluded,
to a standing ovation, “Thank you for giving me a community.”
The second thing that gives me hope for action—ironically—is the rise
of Donald Trump. Trump’s administration, itself, is likely to be hostile to
inclusion and unsupportive of low-income and working-class people. But
the Trump phenomenon, which blindsided most elites, might encourage
universities to look inward and try to figure out how to understand and
reach out to the constituency of white working-class people who were so
desperate for help that they supported a deeply flawed and dangerous
individual with a strong authoritarian streak.
As a practical legal matter, moreover, Trump’s elevation to the presi-
dency, and his ability to shape the US Supreme Court, could well lead to
decisions that clamp down on the use of race in admissions. Today,
x FOREWORD
race-b ased affirmative action is a relatively conservative policy that seeks to
assemble freshman classes of mostly wealthy students of all colors. In the
event this system is overturned, universities will be prompted to look to
new paths to diversity that bring in more working-class students, a dispro-
portionate share of whom will be students of color.
This new emphasis on class could open the door to students now shut
out from elite universities like Dartmouth and tackle a critical source of
bias on liberal, cosmopolitan campuses. As Anthony, a low-income African
American Amherst student, notes in this book, “Amherst is very open and
nonjudgmental about race,” but “the judging is done based on your class
instead.”
My final reason for optimism is the power of Kerry H. Landers’s deeply
American vision, in which “the children of the corporate executive, the
middle manager, and the janitor” all come together “to share a classroom
and a dormitory and engage in conversations that will educate one another
as they assume positions of power in industry, government or education.”
Senior Fellow Richard D. Kahlenberg
The Century Foundation
A
cknowledgments
Writing a book about low-income and first-generation college students
was a personal journey, which caused me to reflect on my life experiences
through a scholarly lens. I have many people to acknowledge for helping
me write this book. I would like to thank both my parents for their unwav-
ering support. I could not have finished writing without my mother’s
l istening and understanding and my father’s encouragement and m odeling
of perseverance. Both my parents exemplify people from working-class
backgrounds who worked selflessly to provide better educational and
financial opportunities for their children. They are the most hardworking,
generous, and kind people I know. My brother’s excitement and enthusi-
asm for my book kept me inspired.
Thank you to my editor, Mara Berkoff, who reviewed my manuscript
and took a chance on it; to Sheila Macrine who led me through the pub-
lishing process and provided invaluable guidance, encouragement, and
expertise; to Tennile Sunday and Elizabeth Molina-Markham, who care-
fully edited my manuscript and kindly offered helpful suggestions; and to
Lisa Lucas, who thoroughly revised my references. I am indebted to Nancy
Leavitt-Reibel for her tremendous effort in helping me to become the best
writer I could be and for believing my book was worth writing.
I am deeply appreciative of my family, friends, colleagues, and graduate
students who were thoughtful enough to ask how my book was going and
polite enough to not keep asking. I am grateful for their humor, patience,
and encouragement while I secluded myself to research and write.
I would like to acknowledge the researchers whose work provided valu-
able insight including Elizabeth Aries, Richard D. Kahlenberg, Kenneth D.
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