The Many Faces of College

By Michael Diedrich, Policy Associate, October 20, 2011 at 3:00 pm

My father was the first person in his family to go to college. The oldest son of an LP truck driver in rural Wisconsin, he spent two years at the Manitowoc Community College before transferring to the electrical engineering program at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

For this and many other reasons, I have enormous respect for the work done by community colleges in helping us become a more educated society.

All of which is to say that I, too, am cheering the news that the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system has for the second year in a row enrolled over 200,000 students in credit-bearing coursework. This is particularly meaningful for me as I know that several of my former students are among that group.

When we talk about the goals for our elementary and secondary school system, it is not uncommon to hear advocates from many ideological stripes identify “college for all” as the ultimate goal of our school system. I prefer the slightly less catchy “universal post-secondary readiness,” but I understand the sentiment behind the first goal.

As we engage in these conversations, however, it is important to remember that “college” can mean a lot of different things. For some students, it means an undergraduate degree from a big university like the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota. For others, it means a small liberal arts experience at a private college like St. Olaf.

For many of my former students, college starts at North Hennepin Community College, while for some of my high school classmates, college meant Winona State University. Both of these are part of MnSCU, and that one system enrolls almost half of Minnesota's students in higher education.

MnSCU schools, spread throughout the state as they are, ought to be powerful allies for our elementary and secondary schools. Our local policymakers might want to spend some more time exploring what kind of partnerships could result from increased dialogue between our K-12 and post-secondary systems.

Rather than let our instruction and curriculum be driven by Washington-mandated tests, let's encourage our schools and colleges to focus on what students really need to succeed on the college path they're most likely to take.

Posted in Education | Related Topics: Higher Education  MnSCU  Achievement Gap