Thus, in the first of the five categories that I have identified, there is a project entitled "Educational Access for Hispanic Youth," operated by Madonna College in Michigan. This venture exemplifies the effort to strengthen the scholastic background of minority students so that they are more apt to continue on to college and, once there, succeed.

Graduation rates for minority students who enter higher education are mentioned much less frequently than enrollment rates, but glimpses of the limited data available indicate that minority college students are considerably less likely than whites to get degrees. Only 24% of black students and 20% of Hispanic students at 4-year colleges got baccalaureates within 6 years, compared with about half of white students, according to a report released early this year by the National Institute of Independent Colleges and Universities.

Getting through high school is an important first step in the educational advancement of disadvantaged minority students, who frequently have few role models to help them recognize that they can realistically aspire to a college education. Financial pressures push them toward jobs and some peers disparage education. Disadvantaged minority students may foreclose possibilities by dropping out of school.

The program run by Madonna College sought to keep youngsters enrolled in high school and, at the same time, give them more of the grounding in math, science, and English that they would need for higher education. Parents were engaged in the effort to recruit participants, who were tested so that they could be assigned for tutoring in groups of similar ability. The tutoring workshops met on Saturdays during the school year and for 6-week sessions during the summer.

This approach was by no means unique or even unusual. But the fact that it was needed and the favorable results that were reported attest to the continuing necessity to motivate students and help them gain the preparation essential for postsecondary education. What began at Madonna College for high school students of Hispanic background expanded to include blacks and Native Americans, in effect underscoring the widespread need for such programs.

The hurdles seem never to end for disadvantaged minority students. Even if they avoid dropping out of high school, make their way to college and obtain a degree, sometimes an obstacle remains in the form of an examination for graduate school or a test for professional licensing or certification. Several states in the South that test candidates for teacher licenses have found that blacks suffer a disproportionately high rate of failure, for instance.

The Southern Regional Education Board developed a FIPSE project designed to improve the pass rate of minority students, particularly those being graduated from historically black institutions, on teacher certification examinations. In part, the project called for revising the undergraduate course content to reflect the material to be covered by the test. Many of the activities were a rehearsal of test-taking skills.

It is appropriate that such a project focused on students at historically black colleges and universities. These institutions have viewed the socialization of their students as part of their mission and test taking, after all, is partially a matter of socialization. Whether or not one approves of tests, they are a reality and so long as tests exist, those who are more savvy in taking them are going to start with an advantage. But even a grasp of test-taking skills is not enough to ensure success on tests. The program of the Southern Regional Education Board encouraged the participating colleges and universities to strengthen liberal arts education and to improve students' powers of analysis.

Most historically black institutions of higher education offer students a nurturing environment, but financial restraints frequently limit just how much colleges and universities can do for their students. It is an unfortunate irony. Students attend these institutions because they believe their needs will be better met. In spite of good intentions, however, the institutions cannot always do what they would like to do for their students.

The fiscal plight of the libraries on these campuses illustrates the problem. A FIPSE grant to Atlanta University was aimed at using technology to provide access to computerized bibliographic information via a cost-effective network and to train librarians at 15 historically black institutions to use online information retrieval services.

What is particularly appealing about this project is the potential for help that it offers at a time when colleges and universities must learn to accommodate financial constraints. The idea of using a network and harnessing technology on behalf of that network is one that might be applied more widely to help this group of institutions with other problems as well.

Finally, disadvantages of a different sort were featured in another FIPSE project, this one aimed at handicapped students: the learning disabled. 10% of all students in elementary and secondary schools are classified as handicapped, and the largest single category of handicapped students-about 40% of the total-comprises those with learning disabilities. Colleges and universities have done surprisingly little to recognize the special needs of learning disabled students, reasonably intelligent people whose brains process information in a manner that may make it difficult for them to read or spell or compute simple numbers.

The "Equal Educational Opportunity for Learning Disabled College Students Project" at DePaul University in Illinois was a response to the needs of this group. DePaul observed that "many students with learning disabilities can benefit from a college education, given appropriate support." And, indeed, the handful of institutions that have made special efforts have found this to be true.

Early intervention and supportive services can help enormously in what higher education can do for minority students and handicapped students. In fact, all students who eventually end up in college would be better off if colleges and universities showed an interest in their preparation long before they completed high school.

[Introduction - Part 1] [Table of Contents] [Introduction - Part 3]