Latinos and first-generation scholarships
About 200 Dallas Hispanic students are getting a taste of college life this week, thanks to the Hispanic College Fund sponsoring a symposium at SMU to expose high schoolers to the demands of college. The students also will compete for $10,000 in scholarships, which will help some of them become the first in their families to consider college.
The Hispanic College Fund is a private national organization, but I hope folks in Austin are paying attention. Investing state funds in scholarships for first-generation collegians could steer more of Texas' growing number of Latinos to college. (Philanthropies could help too by investing in first-generation programs that Texas schools offer.)
Here's why the money would make sense:
The college-going rates of Texas Latinos lag behind those of Anglos and African-Americans. True, new Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board data shows the number of Texas Hispanics in college grew by 74 percent from 2000-2009. But the board also reports "only 4.4 percent of Hispanic Texans participated in higher education
The Hispanic College Fund is a private national organization, but I hope folks in Austin are paying attention. Investing state funds in scholarships for first-generation collegians could steer more of Texas' growing number of Latinos to college. (Philanthropies could help too by investing in first-generation programs that Texas schools offer.)
Here's why the money would make sense:
The college-going rates of Texas Latinos lag behind those of Anglos and African-Americans. True, new Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board data shows the number of Texas Hispanics in college grew by 74 percent from 2000-2009. But the board also reports "only 4.4 percent of Hispanic Texans participated in higher education
Parental engagement: Successful strategies require follow through
In researching ways to get more parents involved with their children's education, which is a primary goal for ourGap project, I've had two informative conversations this month with Heather Weiss of Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. During one talk yesterday, we started discussing New York City's efforts to engage more families. Weiss, who started and directs the school's Family Research Project, reported that one strategy involves giving parents plenty of access to data about their children's school work in hopes of getting them ready for college.
I stopped her at that point and said we are trying something similar in Dallas with a pilot program in three
I stopped her at that point and said we are trying something similar in Dallas with a pilot program in three
