Daily Lumina News 022820

When you’re undocumented, fear colors every interaction. Fear that people will find out. Fear that people will use your status against you. Fear of law enforcement. Fear that you’ll do something to get your parents deported. Fear that you’ll be deported and separated from your family.
Paola Santana knows these fears firsthand. As a strategy officer for Lumina Foundation, Santana works to close persistent, unfair education gaps for students of color and all who want to learn and lead better lives. Santana and other Lumina staff members are sharing their personal journeys around race in America as part of Lumina's commitment to equity and justice.

Going to college can change the course of someone’s life. And yet the American higher-education system waylays a lot of students. It is deeply stratified. And for many people, it remains out of reach entirely.
Educators, policy makers, and funders have all started talking more about social mobility, but are they pulling the right levers? In this interview, a campus leader, a public official, a researcher, and a college counselor discuss structural inequalities, expectations of students and their motivation to enroll in college, and the kind of support they actually need.

Nashville schools and the city's community college are joining together in a new effort to better prepare the city's students for their future.
The partnership will link Metro Nashville Public Schools and Nashville State Community College together under a formal agreement that allows the two to share student information and resources. The goal of the effort, called "Better Together," is to improve college success and prepare students for Nashville's workforce needs. The agreement also bridges a key gap in how the district hands off its graduates to a college where about a quarter attend.

The profile of today's college students is changing. Students are more diverse than previous generations. Twenty-four percent are parents, 37 percent are older than 25, 49 percent are financially independent, and 42 percent are students of color. About 40 percent of today’s students attend college part time.
A new policy brief calls on policymakers and institutions to think more intentionally about the needs of part-time students. Among the report's suggestions: make career pathways more transparent and use technology to offer flexible and innovative student support services.