Educating a Diverse Nation: Lessons from Minority-Serving Institutions

by Clifton Conrad, Marybeth Gasman

Overview

In an increasingly diverse United States, minority and low-income students of all ages struggle to fit into mainstream colleges and universities that cater predominantly to middle-income and affluent white students fresh out of high school. Anchored in a study conducted at twelve minority-serving institutions (MSIs), Educating a Diverse Nation turns a spotlight on the challenges facing nontraditional college students and highlights innovative programs and practices that are advancing students’ persistence and learning.

Clifton Conrad and Marybeth Gasman offer an on-the-ground perspective of life at MSIs. Speaking for themselves, some students describe the stress of balancing tuition with the need to support families. Others express their concerns about not being adequately prepared for college-level work. And more than a few reveal doubts about the relevance of college for their future. The authors visited the four main types of MSIs—historically black colleges and universities, tribal colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander–serving institutions—to identify strategies for empowering nontraditional students to succeed in college despite these obstacles.

Educating a Diverse Nation illuminates such initiatives as collaborative learning, culturally relevant educational programs, blurring the roles of faculty, staff, and students, peer-led team learning, and real-world problem solving. It shows how these innovations engage students and foster the knowledge, skills, and habits they need to become self-sustaining in college and beyond, as well as valuable contributors to society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674976023
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	03/13/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Clifton Conrad is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Professor of Higher Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Marybeth Gasman is Judy and Howard Berkowitz Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania and author, with Clifton Conrad, of Educating a Diverse Nation (Harvard). She is a regular contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, and Chronicle of Higher Education. Gasman was honored by the White House in 2015 and was selected in 2018 by Education Week as one of the ten most influential voices in education.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Learning from Minority-Serving Institutions about Cultivating Student Success 1

1 The Challenge of Educating a Diverse America 14

2 Minority-Serving Institutions: Educating Diverse Students for a Diverse World 21

3 Tribal Colleges and Universities: Culturally Responsive Places 35

4 Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Designing Pathways for Student Success 93

5 Historically Black Colleges and Universities: It's All in the Family 152

6 Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions: Pathways to and through College 201

7 Practices for Educating a Diverse America 257

Conclusion: A College Education for a Diverse Nation 273

Notes 277

Index 291

Editorial Reviews

Conrad and Gasman insightfully take us into the living–learning environments of exemplary minority-serving institutions and highlight a variety of nontraditional approaches to effective pedagogy and culturally relevant practices. Their book is an invaluable asset for educators and institutions looking to generate strategies for enhancing minority student recruitment, retention, and high academic performance.

John Silvanus Wilson

Educating a Diverse Nation gives us a compelling narrative, filled with robust research, facts, and recommendations to help colleges and universities better educate the growing population of Americans who will comprise the majority of college students in the decades ahead. Conrad and Gasman have made an extraordinary contribution in studying the work of exemplary minority-serving institutions (MSIs) to educate students for success in all walks of life and professions. This book provides important lessons to inform the rest of American higher education about high-quality, culturally relevant teaching and learning for the twenty-first century.

Martha Kanter

Educating a Diverse Nation gives us a compelling narrative, filled with robust research, facts, and recommendations to help colleges and universities better educate the growing population of Americans who will comprise the majority of college students in the decades ahead. Conrad and Gasman have made an extraordinary contribution in studying the work of exemplary minority-serving institutions (MSIs) to educate students for success in all walks of life and professions. This book provides important lessons to inform the rest of American higher education about high-quality, culturally relevant teaching and learning for the twenty-first century.--Martha Kanter, New York University and former U.S. Under Secretary of Education

Conrad and Gasman insightfully take us into the living-learning environments of exemplary minority-serving institutions and highlight a variety of nontraditional approaches to effective pedagogy and culturally relevant practices. Their book is an invaluable asset for educators and institutions looking to generate strategies for enhancing minority student recruitment, retention, and high academic performance.--John Silvanus Wilson, Jr., President, Morehouse College

From the Publisher