Basic Needs, Diverse Learners, and New Cooke Scholars
March 22, 2019 – Here’s our weekly roundup of education news you may have missed. Basic needs insecurity and upward mobility are featured in higher education coverage. K-12 articles discuss access to academic enrichment programs for students with financial need. Also, meet our new Cooke College Scholars and see where our Cooke Young Scholars are headed on their college tour!
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Elementary & Secondary Education:
- Attending summer camps can help students develop essential relationship skills and a sense of independence, state Daniel J. Richmond and Robert Warner in The Conversation. Their article also includes resources for families with financial need to access these enrichment experiences.
- Shifting away from deficit-driven language is essential to serving academically advanced learners from diverse backgrounds. Benna Haas, gifted specialist for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, outlines such strategies for the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC).
Higher Education:
- As colleges think more about how to support student success, many look to solving basic needs insecurities such as homelessness and food scarcity as described by The Hechinger Report. However, some argue that providing social services to students may result in mission creep. Matt Reed responds to this criticism in Inside Higher Ed.
- In the spirit of March Madness, The 74 publishes its annual upward-mobility bracket. Villanova University and the University of Michigan lead the ranks, which are calculated by “the percentage of low-income students … who reached earnings in the upper 40 percent of household income by their early 30s.”
- An executive order put higher education into the headlines this week. Politico explains the order’s largely symbolic focus on campus free speech, as well as its directions to add program-level earnings data to the College Scorecard.
Student Voices:
- “Although food pantries are a critical resource for students struggling with food insecurity, they are essentially inadequate and unsustainable,” says University of Virginia student Gwen Dilworth in The Cavalier Daily. “Food pantries simply aren’t capable of alleviating the hard choices students are forced to make long-term — between food and textbooks and medicine — due to high tuition rates and inadequate financial aid packages.”
- Students at the University of Kentucky are campaigning for the creation of a Basic Needs Center on campus, reports the Kentucky Kernel.
- The Scarlet & Black examines Grinnell College’s changes to the admissions and recruitment of underrepresented students.
Cooke Foundation Highlights:
- Our 2019 Cooke College Scholars have been announced! These 106 high school seniors were selected from over 5,500 applicants and will receive up to $40,000 annually for up to four years, along with comprehensive advising and access to a community of nearly 2,500 fellow scholars and alumni.
- “Hollie Wagner tells a story that many first-generation college students can relate to,” writes The Evergreen State College. “She thought going to college wasn’t financially possible. Now, she will continue her education as a graduate student at the University of Washington thanks to the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship.”
- Teen Vogue, Forbes, and Inside Higher Ed cite Cooke Foundation research in their coverage of college admissions.
Social Media Spotlight:
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@thejkcf Young Scholars visit Swarthmore College @swatadmissions @swarthmorecollege #jkcfcollegetour
Header image: Cooke Young Scholars at the Foundation’s Senior Summit 2018.