Good Ideas Are Not Enough: Considering the Politics Underlying Students' Postsecondary Transitions

Abstract

Over the past decade, there has been a deepening interest in youth and adult postsecondary transitions, be these from school to work or from high school to college. This work, based on a wealth of evidence and numerous programs, has developed a variety of best practices for improving students' transition experiences and success in the workforce, with a particular emphasis on disadvantaged, underrepresented youth. Yet much of this work presumes that the current inequality that exists among students in U.S. schools is simply the product of a lack of evidence-based policy solutions. This perspective ignores the important structural and historical factors that have shaped and continue to affect the educational opportunities available to individuals who grow up in poverty. Policy solutions meant to address this inequality must be based on rigorous evidence but also take into account the political forces aligned against addressing this long-term and persistent structural problem within American society.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank all the participants in the University of California ACCORD conference on postsecondary transitions for their helpful feedback on this article, especially Danny Solórzano and Amanda Datnow. Vicki Park also provided detailed and extensive comments on multiple drafts. I also thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on my work. Any remaining errors are completely my own.

Notes

¹In California, schools that have adult education programs are referred to as adult schools. They offer a wide range of programs—including General Educational Development (GED), English as a Second Language (ESL), and career and technical education programs.

²A list of award recipients may be found at https://www.casas.org/home/?fuseaction=pp.welcome. The analysis of the winners is based on my review of the 2005–2009 award recipients.

³According to CASAS (n.d.), promising practice nominations are identified through the Workforce Investment Act Title II program evaluation process. This includes evaluation surveys, site visits, student learning outcome data, and reports from other program educators.

⁴See http://www.nacubo.org/Research/News/Pell_Grants_Natural_Experiment_Found_to_Increases_Low-Income_Students'_College-Going_Rates.htm.

⁵A detailed description of the MTO study may be found at: http://www.nber.org/mtopublic/