Faculty, staff and administrators see the importance of fostering equity at their institutions of higher education; however, perceptions and prioritization of this equity varies greatly by community.
Looking at trends across three separate reports: Hitting their Stride, Time for Class and Driving Toward a Degree, Tyton Partners was able to examine the gap that exist between the perception and practice of equity across the student lifecycle.
Historically, only 40% of degree-seeking Black students and 55% of Latinx students have graduated from a four-year institution within six years, compared to 64% of White students. [https://nces.ed.gov/]. Looking at Tyton Partner’s latest reports, funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, developing equitable education policies, gateway courses with digital learning, and student advising are top factors in closing these persistent equity gaps.
According to one report, nearly two-thirds of higher education staff believe that equity is a top priority at their institution, and staff from schools with higher proportions of poverty-affected students and students of color even more likely to say equity is a priority and well connected to institutional goals.
“We were struck by the fact that as a field, we still have work to do prioritizing and operationalizing equity—while there is some agreement that it is a priority [greater than 40%] across institutional stakeholders across the student lifecycle, [developmental education instructors, first year course instructors, and advisors] there was a distressing percentage of respondents, particularly in the student support and advising population, that felt ‘neutral’ on the statement that their institutions prioritize equity,” Gates Bryant, Partner, Tyton Partners said. “Traditionally, equity research has been difficult to operationalize—it’s multifaceted and complex and the unbalanced nature of the replies is a symptom of this complexity. Without more dedicated attention, equity will continue to fall by the wayside.”
Still, there is a clear divide in the goals and what actions are being taken. According to the findings, while most respondents agree that their institutions are working toward prioritizing equity, implementation of actions, such as disaggregating student data by race, are not common.
In addition, about half of respondents agree that technologies, policies and infrastructure are being scaled at the same rates in developmental education and advising, but there remain differences in implementation of key specific practices, indicating that not all students are benefitting equally.
Some of the recommendations coming out of the reports are to encourage diversity across support staff that is reflective of the student body in order to create more of an impact. Plus, faculty at institutions serving higher rates of students of color and poverty-affected students say that equitable digital learning enablers lag, such as access to instructional designers, information technology support, and centers for teaching and learning.
“The pandemic exacerbated several pain points. Specifically, access to quality technology and Wi-Fi for students,” said Catherine Shaw, Director, Tyton Partners. “The learning loss resulting from COVID-19 was not experienced evenly across all student segments. We need to recognize that basic learning infrastructure like laptops and internet are not an insignificant cost for some students.”
To address this point of inequity, some institutions have implemented laptop loaner programs and others have included computers and internet as a part of the formal costs of attendance, making these items more accessible.
Still, closing equity gaps will take sustained leadership, investment and focus, according to the Tyton team. While there is no magic bullet, institutions that are supporting high quality teaching and academic support in general education policies, disaggregating data, and putting students at the center of their planning and work, are achieving better results in helping students get through gateway courses. (For example: ASU, UCF, Colorado Technical University).
The Tyton Partners team does note that one of the silver linings from the pandemic was the increased exposure to student lived experiences.
“We heard from faculty teaching in introductory courses that they had increased exposure to see the challenges that their students are facing, and this has impacted their own teaching practice and use of tools to engage learners more equitably,” said Kristen Fox, Managing Director, Tyton Partners. Over three-quarters of faculty and administrators anticipate continued and increased ongoing use of hybrid or blended learning in introductory level courses and in ongoing digital transformation which, when implemented well, can lead to better course level outcomes and use of effective practices.
While researchers believe there is still a lot of work to be done in making sure equity is an actionable priority for all faculty and support teams, the adoption of consistent and constant measurements of sentiments towards equity and implementation of practices will help move along the progress.
And with all of the recent government funding that was passed, Tyton Partners believes there is a unique opportunity for institutions of higher education to invest in those areas that are shown to improve outcomes for minoritized learners: equitable teaching and learning enabled by high-quality digital tools; equitable advising practices and technology; and development of education reforms.