Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

Here at CEW, we recently expanded our social presence to Bluesky. Be sure to follow us at @georgetowncew.bsky.social, and let us know if there’s any content you’d like to see!

A system that channels lower-income and underrepresented students away from better-resourced selective colleges to open-access institutions perpetuates further inequalities later in life. Selective institutions have more money to invest in their students’ success, primarily in spending on instruction, student services, and academic support. Students at open-access institutions do not have the same access to this level of resources. The negative repercussions are evident in disparate graduation rates. Less than half of students at open-access institutions complete their degree, compared to almost 80% of students at selective colleges. https://bit.ly/3JoPdvi

In the trajectory from kindergarten to a good job, the most talented disadvantaged youth do not fare nearly as well as the least talented advantaged youth. We need sweeping reforms that provide just, safe, and equitable education for young people. National Education Association #aew2024

CEW staff gathered yesterday for our first in-person retreat. Working remotely has its challenges. We spent the day talking about how to improve our internal communications and collaboration.

November is Native American Heritage Month, an opportunity to celebrate and recognize indigenous communities’ contributions. Did you know that American Indian/Alaska Native students remain underrepresented in selective college enrollment? Without efforts to close this gap, we’ll continue to perpetuate inequality in education and the workforce.?

CEW’s Artem Gulish and Catherine Morris presented at the Student Success US 2024 conference to highlight our recent report, "Graduate Degrees: Risky and Unequal Paths to the Top." Thanks to Times Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed for hosting!

Postsecondary education can play a critical role in safeguarding democracy from the threat of authoritarianism. While people express authoritarian attitudes at all levels of education, we found that higher education can help mitigate authoritarian preferences. Read more in our report “The Role of Education in Taming Authoritarian Attitudes”: https://bit.ly/32tzWon

From 2009 to 2019, the enrollment landscape at selective colleges and universities by race/ethnicity saw little fundamental change. In 2019, Hispanic/Latino, Black/African American, and American Indian/Alaska Native students collectively composed 37% of the college-age population but just 21% of selective college enrollments. This is despite the fact that Hispanic/Latino enrollment in selective colleges increased by about 50,000 students, almost doubling Hispanic/Latino enrollment in these colleges from 2009 to 2019. Enrollment of Black/African American students only increased by 5,000 at selective universities, and American Indian/Alaska Native student enrollment declined over the period. https://bit.ly/3JoPdvi

Civic engagement is the foundation of a healthy democracy. On election day, we encourage citizens to exercise their rights. Get out and vote!?

The residue of racism and discrimination throughout our nation’s history continues to put historically underrepresented groups at a disadvantage, beginning at birth and accumulating over their educational experiences and working lives. Race-neutral admissions models can maintain or increase representation for underrepresented racial groups at selective colleges. But they offer much less potential than race-conscious approaches to substantially increase representation among Black and Hispanic students so that selective colleges’ student bodies come close to mirroring the demographics of graduating high school students. While fall enrollment numbers suggest that achieving a racially diverse class isn’t impossible without affirmative action—it is a lot harder. Our team explores how colleges can achieve racially diverse classes in an op-ed for Inside Higher Ed: https://lnkd.in/evvYn6GY