Making Equity an Integral Part of Michigan's College Access & Success Strategy

1. Making Equity an Integral Part of Michigan's College Access & Success Strategy NCAN Annual Conference, St. Louis September 14, 2011 Facilitator: Brandy Johnson, MCAN Nanette Reynolds, Ed.D. Co-founder, The Imagine Fund Consultant, MCAN Chuck Wilbur Senior Policy Consultant, PPA Promise Zone Project

2. Agenda • Introductions • Expectations of Workshop • The Michigan Context • MCAN Partners in Equity • The Imagine Fund • The Promise Zone Project • Moving toward Equity within MCAN Operations • Moderated Discussion/Q&A

3. Introductions Brandy, Chuck & Nanette

4. Workshop Expectations • Explain the Michigan context for engaging in strategic efforts to infuse and embed diversity/equity/inclusion within MCAN operations and strategies. • Highlight two MCAN partners which are striving to have positive impacts on targeted populations: The Imagine Fund and the Promise Zone Project. • Share MCAN’s vision for the future: Closing college participation and completion gaps.

5. The Michigan Context Brandy Johnson Executive Director Michigan College Access Network

6. National Perspective

7. Michigan’s Population 2010 Michigan Total State Population by Race: 9,883,640

8. Attainment Rates by Ethnicity Michigan Data • 5.3 million working age adults (25-64) • More than 35% have at least a 2 year degree • Closing the attainment gap between first generation, low income and students of color will require “concerted and strategic efforts over many years” A Stronger Nation Through Higher Education, Lumina Foundation for Education (Sept. 2010), pg. 54

9. Economic Impact Those with bachelor’s degrees earn about 3 times as much as high school dropouts and about twice as much as high school graduates. Greater income means: • Increased purchasing power • Greater accumulated wealth • Higher taxes paid • Decreased use of social services • Decreased use of public healthcare Alliance for Excellent Education, The High Cost of High School Dropouts: What the Nation Pays for Inadequate High Schools, Issue Brief, August 2009 www.all4ed.org If all racial/ethnic groups in Michigan had the same educational attainment and earnings as whites, total annual personal income in the state would be about $12 billion higher. (Measuring Up, 2008)

10. 2011 Postsecondary Educational Aspirations by Race/Ethnicity (MI) Source: ACT Profile Report - Michigan, 2011

11. 2011 Michigan Average ACT Composite Score by Race/Ethnicity Source: ACT Profile Report - Michigan, 2011

12. 2010 College Entrance Rate by Race/Ethnicity for Recent High School Graduates (U.S.) Source: Tom Mortenson, Postsecondary Education Opportunity, Updated 2011

13. College Completion Rates: 3-yr grad rates for AA-seeking students (MI) Source: NCHEMS, 2009

14. College Completion Rates: 6-yr grad rates for BA-seeking students (MI) Source: NCEMS, 2009

15. Michigan’s Strategy

16. MCAN’s Mission MCAN will dramatically increase the college participation and completion rate in Michigan, particularly among low-income and/or first generation college students of all ages.

17. MCAN’s Vision In order to build and sustain a vibrant economy and strong communities based on a highly educated population, MCAN will work to ensure that everyone in Michigan has the opportunity to access and succeed in postsecondary education.

18. MCAN’s Goal Increase the proportion of Michigan residents with college degrees or high-quality credentials to: 60% by 2025

19. MCAN’s Strategies • Coordination • Advocacy and Leadership • Professional Development • LCAN Development • Implement Statewide Initiatives • Strengthen Partner Initiatives

20. LCAN Development • Support the creation, expansion, and sustainability of high-quality, community-based college access strategies through technical assistance and funding opportunities • Grant opportunities • Planning • Startup • Collective Impact

21. Local College Access Networks • Community-based college access coordinating body • Supported by a team of community and education leaders representing K-12, higher ed, nonprofit sector, government, business, and philanthropy • Committed to building a college-going culture and dramatically increasing the college going/completion rates within their community • Coordinate programs, services, and resources that lower the barriers preventing students (particularly low-income and first-generation) from pursuing postsecondary educational opportunities • Integrate MichiganCAP, KnowHow2GO, and other statewide college access initiatives at the community level

22. Local College Access Networks

23. Partner Initiatives

24. The Imagine Fund Nanette Reynolds, Ed.D Co-founder, The Imagine Fund Consultant, MCAN

25. The Imagine Fund History • Passage of Proposal 2006 – 2 which amended the Michigan state constitution, banning affirmative action in the public sector • Subsequent chilling effect on our public college campuses • Unanticipated effect on targeted scholarships • Grass roots effort launched to provide scholarships • Planning and pilot implementation supported largely by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, MI

26. The Imagine Fund Mission • The mission of The Imagine Fund (IFund) is to ensure access and expand equal opportunity to higher education for students based on their race, color, sex, ethnicity, national origin and/or other cultural characteristics. • Our goal is simple: to ensure that diverse, first generation, academically qualified and economically challenged students throughout the state of Michigan have the resources to pursue higher education and achieve their dreams of a college degree.The founders of The Imagine Fund are committed to inclusion and equity on the college campus and fully appreciate the benefits of diversity in the workforce.

27. Scholarship Details Criteria: • African American or Hispanic • Academically qualified • Economically challenged and Pell eligible • Attending at public university in Michigan • Studying a junior level or above • Meeting satisfactory academic progress Scholarship award: Last dollar award; $5,000/yr

28. Post Proposal 2006-2 • Graduate and undergraduate enrollment of under-represented minorities at Michigan public universities dropped during the first year Proposal 2 was in effect – including including by 29.6 % at one institution – and the number of students continues to drop • Higher education participation and graduation equity gaps continue to widen

29. Opportunities for Future Alignment within MCAN Network Possible future criteria for IFund signature scholarships: • Graduation from an LCAN community high school • Award for upper-class study, after successful completion of first two years of college with a Promise Zone community scholarship • Graduation from an Achieving the Dream community college Required service learning by IFund scholarship recipients with College Positive Volunteers and/or Michigan College Advising Corps members Collaborate in substantive research on disparities in Michigan higher education

30. Promise Zone Project Chuck Wilbur Senior Policy Consultant, PPA Promise Zone Project

31. Michigan’s Economic Crisis Over the Last Decade Demanded a New Approach • A million jobs lost from 2000 to 2010 • Job loss centered in automobiles and other manufacturing industries • Impact most severe in Michigan urban core communities and others with low levels of educational attainment

32. In 2004, the Cherry Commission pointed the way to a better future • Make post-secondary education universal in Michigan • Create “Community Compacts” to raise educational attainment at the local level • Recognize the centrality of cultural change

33. The Kalamazoo Promise is Announcedin November 2005 • Free college tuition for graduates of Kalamazoo Public Schools • Funded by anonymous donors • Begins with high school class of 2006 • Goal is to spark economic and community development, not just to send kids to college

34. The Kalamazoo Promise has Produced Tangible Results in Key Areas • More financial aid for more students • More students taking AP classes and other rigorous courses • KPS student enrollment rose 10 percent after decades of decline • Housing values rise • Kalamazoo attracts new housing and new business investment

35. Why does “The Promise” Work? • Clear, simple and understandable to children of all ages and their parents in contrast to government programs that provide help but don’t create confidence about college • Universal messaging—”The Promise” is for all, not just the poor • Creates culture of learning inside and outside the schools

36. What’s Unique About “The Promise”? • There are many important and valid strategies that promote educational attainment and economic development in distressed communities • “The Promise” pursues these two critical goals with one strategy—using a universal college scholarship program to create a better educated workforce, strong neighborhoods and a dynamic local economy

37. This Combination of College Access andEconomic Development is Key • College Access strategies in low income communities can be perceived as “brain drain” if there are no attempts to create local jobs in knowledge based industries • Economic Development strategies that do not raise the educational levels of low income residents can be perceived as “gentrification.”

38. OK, it’s a great idea, but what if you don’t have a billionaire or two…. How could Michigan, given its challenged fiscal environment, spark the creation of local promises in communities struggling with high rates of poverty and unemployment?

39. Michigan Creates “Promise Zones” • Bi-partisan legislation introduced in 2007, signed into law in 2009 • Ten high poverty communities are designated “Promise Zones” in April, 2009 • Local “Promise Zone Authorities” are created to provide scholarships that allow all high school graduates the ability to earn, at minimum, an associates degree tuition free

40. How Promise Zones Work • Each Promise Zone determines its own “Promise”—selecting higher education partners and deciding how much scholarship support will be provided • Each Promise Zone creates a sustainable development plan to pay for its Promise program

41. How are Promise Zones funded? • Each Promise Zone funds its scholarships through three sources • Students must file the FAFSA and accept Pell grants and other needs based aid --Promise Zones are able to capture half the future growth in a state property tax within their boundaries --Promise Zones raise funds from foundations, businesses, individuals and community organizations

42. Most of us pay taxes but we don’t “capture” them.What’s that all about? • A mechanism called tax increment financing has been used widely in economic development but typically on “bricks and mortar” projects • It allows communities to tap the future impact development will have on property values and tax revenues to help spark that development today • Michigan is the only state (so far) to use this mechanism to expand opportunity for higher education

43. Promise Zones are Progressing • Three Promise Zones—Baldwin, Benton Harbor and Pontiac are already providing scholarships to students in their communities • Six Promise Zones—Battle Creek, Detroit, Hazel Park, Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw plan to begin providing scholarships to the Class of 2012

44. Promise ZonesLasting Benefits for Michigan: Develop a culture of learning in high poverty areas Increase the number of Michigan residents with college degrees Create stronger economies in our core cities and other distressed areas Strengthen cities by attracting and retaining families that place a premium on education

45. Promise Zones Reaching Underserved Populations • Promise Zones are limited to communities that have above average poverty rates • The Promise Zone communities have high levels of unemployment and high concentrations of low income families • The Promise Zone communities also have low levels of educational attainment that make them less attractive to knowledge-based businesses

46. Who do the Promise Zones reach? 16 percent of the state’s children live in Promise Zones… but 35 percent of those children receiving public assistance Almost 60 percent of the state’s African-American children and a quarter of the state’s Latino children live in Promise Zones. Only 23% of the adults in the Promise Zones have an Associate Degree or higher, compared to 36% statewide.

47. Michigan’s Diversity Strategy Nanette Reynolds, Ed.D. Co-founder, The Imagine Fund Consultant, MCAN

48. What do we know? • Historical inequities in various measures of academic achievement, K-12 • Historical inequities in college participation and graduation rates • Proposal 2006-2 has had a chilling effect in Michigan • There are tangible benefits to postsecondary degrees/certificates • Michigan is in midst of an economic crisis • Strategies to achieve The Big Goal of 60% by 2025 must be all inclusive

49. Closing the Gap • It will be impossible to reach the Big Goal without significantly increasing college success among: • working adults • low-income students • first-generation students • students of color • Attainment gaps among racial and ethnic groups have persisted in Michigan for decades • Closing these attainment gaps is clearly a challenge, but it can and must be met. A Stronger Nation Through Higher Education, Lumina Foundation for Education, pg. 54

50. Working Definitions • Cultural competency: knowledge, understanding and responsiveness to people from different backgrounds • Equity: comparable opportunities and support • Equity lens: view of the world from a broad perspective • Infuse & imbed diversity: e.g., move from an expressed commitment to normal, daily practice; pay attention to who is and who isn’t at the table; consider the impact of a decision on all affected groups