Urban High School Students and the Challenge of Access: Many Routes, Difficult Paths(17 Higher Ed)

Urban High School Students and the Challenge of Access documents a year in the life of five adolescents preparing for college. The text examines the different pathways that brought these students to where they are: living in poverty, attending overcrowded schools, and the pressure to be the first in their families to attend college are just a few of the challenges these students must battle en route to college and that impact their chances of success once there. Their stories provide clues to practitioners and policy makers about how to improve college access at urban high schools.

About the Author :
The Editors: William G. Tierney is Wilbur-Kieffer Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis at the University of Southern California. He earned an M.Ed. in education from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in administration and policy analysis from Stanford University. In addition to numerous articles, he is the author of several books, including: Competing Conceptions of Academic Governance: Negotiating the Perfect Storm (2004); The Responsive University: Restructuring for High Performance (1998), and Preparing for College: Nine Elements of Effective Outreach (2005, coedited with Zoë B. Corwin and Julia E. Colyar). Julia E. Colyar is Assistant Professor of Higher Education at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. She received an M.A. in English from the University of Toronto and her Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Southern California.

Review :
«'Urban High School Students and the Challenge of Access' is a powerful and poignant year-long account of the lives of high school graduates in a working-class neighborhood of Los Angeles. Charting the different post-graduation pathways of five of these students, the authors present gripping and illuminating accounts of the complex dynamics among high school, college, and urban life and the perils and promises that are in store for many young people today. Every student reacts to the brute inequalities of modern life differently, and the authors powerfully capture these differences and offer major steps that educational institutions can take to improve substantially their chances of success. This is an important book!» (Peter McLaren, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles; Author of 'Capitalists and Conquerors: A Citical Pedagogy Against Empire') «This is an engaging book that paints the picture behind the numbers. Through the use of cultural biography, the authors take us into the lives of low income students struggling to become college-goers in spite of enormous handicaps. This is a hopeful text, one that shatters stereotypes about low-income students, and examines how some students who shouldn't make it to college, do. We can learn a great deal from this wonderful book about how to shape policy with real kids - not just numbers - in mind.» (Patricia Gándara, Professor, University of California, Davis) «This book focuses on the greatest challenge facing higher education - the inaccessibility of colleges for the poor and minorities. This book stands out: The research is powerful and the conclusions are compelling and practical.» (Arthur Levine, President, Teachers College, Columbia University) «As debates continue to rage over the quality of urban education, this outstanding volume gives voice to the very students at the center of these virtual struggles for educational access and success. Cultural biographies reveal the complexity of adolescent lived experiences embedded in neighborhood social contexts. We see how these remarkable students negotiate the often-treacherous pathways to college and beyond. Clear lessons emerge for educational practice and policy in urban schooling from this tour de force study.» (Walter R. Allen, Allan Murray Cartter Professor of Higher Education and Professor of Sociology, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles)