SILCS is a four-week summer institute to promote diversity in the field of English. For more information about the Institute, visit the links to the left. For our current events, program profiles and institute news, read our blog below.
Profile: Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers
5 May 2008, 9:04 am
In our second in a series of program profiles, we have selected the Phillips Academy Andover program IRT. The Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers is focused on increasing diversity among those students pursuing careers in education at both the K-12 and the higher education levels. IRT includes two programs: the Intern Summer Workshop, in which 25-30 interns attend an intensive four-week workshop in July, and the Associate Program, which supports and counsels students as they apply for graduate schools.
The Institute for Recruitment of Teachers was founded in 1990 by Kelly Wise, current executive director and former dean of faculty at Phillips Academy, with a mission to “deepen the pool of talented minorities entering the teaching profession in our country.” The institute was designed to increase the number of African American, Latino/a and Native American students pursuing advanced degrees for teaching, counseling and administrative careers so the pool of potential faculty members at both the K-12 and university levels will become more diverse. (link)
The program is open to rising and graduating seniors with a 3.0 GPA or better. Applications are closed for this year, but keep an eye on their site for information on how to apply for next year’s program.
News: Graduation Rate Gap
21 April 2008, 9:42 am
Education Sector, an independent research group, released a report today [PDF] that said while there is a staggeringly large gap between the graduation rates of black and white students, the gap is relatively easy to close.
Florida State University has been particularly successful in closing this gap–it is the only institution of its size and type where black students graduate at a higher rate than white students. FSU’s success is due in part to its Center for Academic Retention and Enhancement (CARE), which starts identifying potential students as early as the sixth grade, using counsellors and summer programs to help guide the students through the application process into college, and onward through graduation.
Education Sector found that most of the problem had to do with not paying attention to the students. When students were left to fend for themselves, they tended to do poorly and drop out; those students who were helped by mentors and counsellors tended to remain in school. This did not translate to coddling students or lowering standards, but rather increasing the quality of the teaching and the engagement of the students, as stated by the National Survey of Student Engagement:
Although African American students at the lowest levels of engagement were less likely to persist than their White counterparts, as their engagement increased to within about one standard deviation below the mean, they had about the same probability of returning as Whites. As African American student engagement reached the average amount, they became more likely than White students to return for a second year (link, pg 8).
The report suggests a few policy changes to close the graduation gap. Such changes include changing the rankings published by U.S. New and World Report to include graduation gaps instead of just graduation rates; improve the measures of graduation rates; improve accountability systems; and move back to need-based financial aid.
Profile: OSU Program for Humanities Development
17 April 2008, 10:26 am
In the weeks leading up to the Institute, we will be profiling other programs that aim to increase diversity in graduate studies. If you know of a program that we don’t mention, please let us know at [silcs at wheatonma dot edu] and we will be glad to talk about it.
The Ohio State University College of Humanities will be starting their own diversity institute this summer. The Program for Humanities Development (PHD) is a two-year program aimed at college sophomores from historically underrepresented groups who are interested in a PhD in the Humanities.
The PHD offers two summers of guided coursework, research, mentoring, and cohort building. Moreover, during the academic year, PHD students will receive ongoing programmatic support at their home institutions. This unique structure provides students with the opportunity to gain foundational knowledge about graduate study in the Humanities and then build upon that foundation with discipline specific research (link).
PHD, like SILCS, came out of the findings of an Ad Hoc committee on the status of African American faculty members in English. The committee, which published a report, Affirmative Activism: Report of the ADE Ad Hoc Committee on the Status of African American Faculty Members in English [PDF], discovered that summer programs for students of color can greatly affect their retention in graduate programs.
The deadline for this year’s program has passed, but keep an eye on the website for information on application deadlines for next year.
Welcome
14 April 2008, 10:09 am
Welcome to the SILCS blog. We’ll be using this space to keep you updated on current events, showcase programs at other colleges and universities that may interest you, and let you know how the Institute is going. If you want to make sure you don’t miss a post, please subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for reading!