Diverse Magazine

by Robin Chen Delos
The American tradition of generational upward mobility is at a standstill, and for some minority groups the younger generation is obtaining postsecondary education at lower levels than older adults, according to a new report released Thursday by the American Council on Education (ACE).
by Robin Chen Delos

Disability Bill Divides Higher Ed Groups
Some groups fear ADA bill will require institutions to expand services.

To keep up with international competition, U.S. colleges and universities need to set a deadline to educate 10 million more people by 2012 and particularly focus on those from low-income and minority groups as well as “nontraditional” adult students, said Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.
by Phuong Ly

For the third consecutive year, more than a 1,000 academics, activists and political leaders gathered in New York on Friday to strategize on the problems that beset young Black males.
by Jamal Watson

by Ronald Roach
A recent report by the Washington, D.C.-based Education Sector, an independent education policy think tank, brought to light a little-discussed dimension of race and retention analysis. Documenting that there are 62 U.S. colleges and universities where the six-year graduation rates for Black undergraduate students have recently outpaced those of their White peers, the report authored by Education Sector research and policy manager Kevin Carey has pointed out that schools where underrepresented minorities maintain high graduation rates in comparison to Whites place a detailed emphasis on understanding how all of their students are performing.

by Michelle D. Anderson
Teachers must be sensitive and inclusive to all students’ cultural backgrounds, educators and advocacy organizations said during a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

Diverse reporter Michelle Nealy chats with Indianapolis venture-capitalist-turned-filmmaker, Bob Compton, about his provocative new documentary, “2 Million Minutes.” The film chronicles six students from India , the United States and China during their high school years. Compton highlights the pitfalls of American education in today’s global economy and praises those cultures that revere academic achievement.
by Michelle Nealy

by Samantha Cleaver
When Dr. Ratna Naik was offered the job of dean of physics at Wayne State University, she was reluctant to accept. Coming from a culture that valued silence and the voices of men over women, Naik was afraid of speaking to large groups and wondered if anyone in a department with two women among 30 faculty members would listen to her anyway. After a year, she took the position.

by Reginald Stuart
Ward Connerly is working to end affirmative action programs in five states, but opponents are fighting back. There are no massive crowds at his rallies and no news media entourages documenting his every word and move. Still, Ward Connerly, champion of the nation’s “antipreference” movement, is busy revving up his “Super Tuesday Equal Rights Campaign,” hoping for another knockout punch to the nation’s affirmative action programs for minorities and women.

As a witness to the aggressive proposals by the for-profit colleges to roll back anti-fraud protections in the federal student aid programs, I have to pose the question: For-profit colleges offer convenience and service to the low-income community, but at what cost?

by Charles Dervarics
New legislation to increase education level of preschool teachers.

Many of Bill Cosby’s critics forget he was not born with a silver spoon. Bill Cosby, like many of us, has fallen a time or two but he always managed to get back up. This, I think, is what Bill Cosby in his new book, Come On People: On the Path from Victims to Victors, is imploring us to do; that is, to get back in the race called life.

by Add Seymour Jr.
Five years after the University System of Georgia started an initiative to boost enrollment of Black males, officials are seeing results, but they also realize more needs to be done.

by Michelle J. Nealy
As soon as they walk through the door, new community college students should see an advisor who will help chart the path students need to follow to achieve their educational goals, but that’s only happening for half of the students, say researchers from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement, which is releasing a new report today that provides a blueprint for community college student success.

More federal aid should not prompt colleges and universities to raise their tuitions, witnesses told a House committee Thursday. But some lawmakers continue to seek a link between the two issues as they consider new initiatives to promote college access and success.