WEBVTT

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[Music]

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Hi, my name is Patricia
Gandara, and I am a professor

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of education at the University
of California, Los Angeles.

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I am also the codirector of
the Civil Rights Project.

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It's very important
for young people

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to develop college-going
aspirations early,

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to have some sense early
on in their school careers

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that college is a goal for them.

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For many minority students,
low-income students,

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this isn't something that comes
to them until they are well

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into high school and
people begin discussing it.

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I think we have done a pretty
good job of convincing students

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in high school that
college is important

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and they should set
that as a goal.

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And the evidence for
that is that most

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of the surveys I have seen over
the last few years show that 90%

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and above of students,
no matter what kind

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of background they come from,
anticipate going to college.

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But when students have not been
prepared for this earlier on,

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it's oftentimes too late to
make those aspirations real.

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In elementary school,
a lot of programs begin

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to simply introduce the idea
of college, of what it's about.

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But certainly by middle school,
kids have to know that this is

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where they are headed or at
least that it's an opportunity

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or possibility for them.

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Many decisions are
made in middle school

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that have huge repercussions
in high school

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for whether kids will be able
to be ready for college or not.

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One of the important ways,
though, that young people learn

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about college and learn about
how to prepare for college

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and why they should even go to
college is from their peers.

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And so when students are in very
isolated and segregated schools,

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which many minority students
are, they are not exposed

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to peers who know
anything about this,

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and it really prevents
that from happening.

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So the extent to which
we can help ensure

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that the low-income students,
the minority students,

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aren't all on a single track,
that's a track to nowhere,

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or aren't all clustered
together in schools

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in which there are few
middle-class students

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or students who are aspiring
to college-the extent

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to which we work on those kinds
of problems is we are going

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to increase the real
aspirations of young people.

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One of the strategies that's
used with young people

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to raise their aspirations
for college-going is

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to use mentors from
the workplace.

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So students have the opportunity
to actually go to places

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where middle-class people
actually work, where people

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who need college degrees
work, and get the opportunity

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to experience what that's like
and what really is entailed

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in these kinds of jobs,
which is often really foreign

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to young people who are coming
from low-income backgrounds.

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They have never known anybody
who does these kinds of jobs,

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and they have never been
able to make that connection

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to why one goes to college.

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Examples of the kinds of
things that people can do

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to really foster a
sense of college going

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and raising aspirations
include things

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like college campus visits,

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actually seeing what a
college campus is like,

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and then making it more real
beyond that by introducing them

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to students like themselves
who are in college.

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That's even better than people
who have been to college

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because if it's somebody who
is a peer, somebody very close

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in your own age who you can talk
to about what that's really like

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and who can explain to
you from the same kind

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of age cohort what the
experience is like,

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that can be really very
important for students.

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I know it was for me.

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That's what made a
difference for me going

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to college is I knew one person
who had the aspirations of going

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to college and she
talked to me about that,

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and that planted
the idea in my mind.

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If I were giving advice to
a principal about how to go

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about doing this in
his or her school,

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I think the first thing I
would say is that it needs

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to be comprehensive, that it
needs to not only work directly

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with the students in
raising their aspirations,

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it needs to happen
with the faculty

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and having the faculty
understand

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that the aspirations
need to be supported

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across the faculty
for these students.

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And I would have a
piece, of course,

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that deals with the
parents, because the parents,

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oftentimes-all parents want
what is best for their kids

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and all parents want
opportunities

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for their children, but usually
the problem here is parents

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don't know what those
opportunities are

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or how to engage them.

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So I would say that you've got

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to do a really comprehensive
effort

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and not focus in
any single place.

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[Music]