This is an outdated version published on 2022-06-27. Read the most recent version.

Higher Education Access and Success of Rural Students

Ensuring College-going Advice is Relevant to Rural Populations

Authors

  • Karen M. Ganss University of Colorado Boulder
  • Ty McNamee Teachers College, Columbia University
  • Shadman Islem Boston College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3776/tpre.2022.v12n1p133-137

Keywords:

college access, college success, rural education, community-based organizations

Abstract

Despite the inclusion of “rural” in the title, Rural America’s Pathways to College and Career: Steps for Student Success and School Improvement covers content more specific to a particular college access organization than it does direct guidance on rural student achievement. In this review, the authors discuss areas of academia and college access where content of the book may be applied practically to some rural and other populations as well as caution readers to take a critical approach to claims made by author Rick Dalton. Authors conclude that although areas of the book offer practical advice for increasing access to college and career to underrepresented student populations in general, including rural students, there are deficit perspectives on rural people, places, and education presented that warrant more rural-relevant and strengths-based examples in order to more effectively contribute to the current literature on rural education.

Author Biographies

Karen M. Ganss, University of Colorado Boulder

Karen M. Ganss, MS, is a student affairs professional with the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, in Boulder, Colorado. She has a BA in business administration (2009) from Western Colorado University and a MS (2014) in college student services administration from Oregon State University. As a rural Colorado native and first-generation college student, both her research and professional passions surround increasing awareness and support of rural higher education students.

Ty McNamee, Teachers College, Columbia University

Ty McNamee, MA, is a doctoral candidate in Higher and Postsecondary Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Concurrently, he serves as a Graduate Research Associate at the American Council on Education and Instructor in the Student Affairs in Higher Education program at Colorado State University. He holds a BA in English (2013) from the University of Wyoming and a MA in Higher Education and Student Affairs (2015) from the University of Connecticut. Growing up on a farm/ranch in rural Wyoming greatly influenced his research interests which focus on rurality and social class related to higher education, particularly college access and equity for rural students, as well as teaching and learning and faculty development at postsecondary institutions.

Shadman Islem, Boston College

Shadman Islem, MA, is a first-year doctoral student in Higher Education at Boston College. Prior to BC, he worked in Graduate Student Affairs at Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. He holds a BS in Brain and Cognitive Sciences (2017) from the University of Rochester, as well as an MA in Higher and Postsecondary Education (2018) from Teachers College, Columbia University. His research interests are in spatial inequality and the geography of opportunity, shaped by his experiences as both a first-generation American and college student.

References

Ardoin, S. (2018). College aspirations and access in working-class rural communities: The mixed signals, challenges, and new language first-generation students encounter. Lexington Books.

Belkin, D. (2017, December 1). For colleges, a rural reckoning. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-colleges-a-rural-reckoning-1512159888.

Brilliant Pathways (2021). Where we work. CFES Brilliant Pathways. https://brilliantpathways.org/where-we-work/

Byun, S., Meece, J. L., & Agger, C. A. (2017). Predictors of college attendance patterns of rural youth. Research in Higher Education, 58(8), 817–842. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-017-9449-z

Chambers, C. R. (2020). Let's give ‘em something to talk about: Spurring college conversations among rural students, schools, and families. In H. C. Green, B. S. Zugelder, & J. C. Manner (Eds.), Handbook of research on leadership and advocacy for children and families in rural poverty (pp. 279–294). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-2787-0.ch013

Dalton, R. (2021). Rural America’s pathways to college and career: Steps for student success and school improvement. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003080268

Koricich, A., Chen, X., & Hughes, R. P. (2018). Understanding the effects of rurality and socioeconomic status on college attendance and institutional choice in the United States. Review of Higher Education, 41(2), 281–305. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2018.0004

Means, D. R., Clayton, A. B., Conzelmann, J. G., Baynes, P., & Umbach, P. D. (2016). Bounded aspirations: Rural, African-American high school students and college access. Review of Higher Education, 39(4), 543–569. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2016.0035

Means, D. R. (2019). Crucial support, vital aspirations: The college and career aspirations of rural black and Latinx middle school students in a community-and youth-based leadership program. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 35(1), 1–14. https://jrre.psu.edu/sites/default/files/2019-06/35-1.pdf

Marcus, J., & Krupnick, M. (2017, September 27). The rural higher-education crisis. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/09/the-rural-higher- education-crisis/541188/

McNamee, T. (2019). Social capital in the rural United States and its impact on educational attainment. In P. George & R. Bartee (Eds.), Contemporary perspectives on social capital in educational contexts (pp. 201–220). Information Age Publishing, Inc.

National Student Clearinghouse (2020). High school benchmarks - 2020: National college progression rates. https://nscresearchcenter.org/high-school-benchmarks/

Pappano, L. (2017, January 31). Colleges discover the rural student. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/education/edlife/colleges-discover-rural-student.html

Sansone V. A., Sparks C. S., & Cano-McCutcheon, P. (2020). Metro and non-metro variation in postsecondary enrollment: The role of race, ethnicity, and residential location in Texas, Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis 9(1), Article 6, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.31274/jctp.11013

Wells, R. S., Manly, C. A., Kommers, S., & Kimball, E. (2019). Narrowed gaps and persistent challenges: Examining rural-nonrural disparities in postsecondary outcomes over time. American Journal of Education 126, 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1086/705498

Published

2022-06-21 — Updated on 2022-06-27

Versions

How to Cite

Ganss, K. M. ., McNamee, T., & Islem, S. (2022). Higher Education Access and Success of Rural Students: Ensuring College-going Advice is Relevant to Rural Populations. Theory & Practice in Rural Education, 12(1), 133–137. https://doi.org/10.3776/tpre.2022.v12n1p133-137