How one Minnesota university more than doubled its native student graduation rate

Part 2 of the "Equity or Bust: Are Ontario's Public Schools a Model for Pennsylvania" Series: Ontario has become widely lauded for its education system, celebrated for both high performance and relatively smaller achievement gaps between wealthy and poor students, particularly compared to the system in Pennsylvania. Keys to Ontario's success include celebrating diversity and catering education modules to the varied backgrounds of their students, as well as increased parent-teacher involvement.

While many of America's classrooms are increasingly diversifying, the demographic makeup of their educators is not, and turnover of minority teachers remains high. A program in New York City called NYC Men Teach is working to foster better representation of minorities at the front of the classroom, providing resources like financial incentives, professional mentoring and training, as well as increased visibility to the growing need for male teachers of color.

Native and Indigenous individuals are using TikTok to share aspects of their traditions, challenge stereotypes, and empower young people to be proud of their culture. The videos range from instructional, teaching people indigenous languages or dance, to putting a "cultural spin" on trending content. The hashtag #NativeTikTok has over 1.3 billion views and users comment that the videos help them feel more connected to and proud of their cultures. The videos follow the tradition of preserving culture through storytelling and offer positive representations of Native and Indigenous people and their cultures.

The town of Clinton, Iowa was struggling both economically and with student retention until a partnership with an American businessman and a Chinese company brought 72 Chinese students to fill empty seats in the public high schools. Not only does this stir up the local economy with businesses jumping at the chance to serve a new audience, but the students all benefit from the cultural and educational exchange. The Clinton school board and district representatives all voted unanimously for the program, and both sides are looking forward to continuing to develop and grow the program.

Community colleges were originally designed to be affordable and accessible, yet the myriad pressures on students means that the best intentions often don’t lead to positive results. But the University of Central Florida and its partners are proving a new model called DirectConnect—heavy on individual attention and clear academic goals—that paves a surer path.

Students with low-income that attend public schools can find themselves locked in a system that prevents them from getting into the best colleges, from being unable to afford tuition, to not having the ambition, to not knowing a school that would welcome them. Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA targets high-performing low-income students. The college provides outreach to high school students in poor communities, financial aid to low-income families, summer workshops, and on-site advising and academic support.

To better serve employers and respond to student concerns about the costs of higher education, some colleges and universities are debuting accelerated bachelor’s programs that allow students to graduate in three years instead of four. Though these programs are still new, one such degree track at Johnson & Wales University reported lower dropout rates between students’ first and second semesters compared to its traditional four-year programs.

Fort Lewis is the only Colorado college tackling the student homelessness crisis with a rapid rehousing program. The school’s basic needs administrator works with students experiencing homelessness to get them in temporary housing within 24 hours and permanent housing with financial assistance as quickly as possible.

In the past decade, an increasing number of Chinese students have enrolled in American public schools in smaller towns, including in Clinton, Iowa. The trend serves as an important exchange program for both parties and fills the empty seats in towns where populations continue to decline.

Part 4 of the "Equity or Bust: Are Ontario's Public Schools a Model for Pennsylvania" Series: Ontario is widely lauded for its education system. But, like Pennsylvania, evidence in Toronto suggests that Ontario has struggled to close achievement gaps between historically underserved minorities and their peers. Many believe universal pre-K will prove to be the decisive factor in bridging that gap.