Author Archives: John Mullaney

Philanthropys Challenge – College Success

Last month, I had the opportunity to attend a meeting sponsored by the grantmaking affinity group called Grantmakers for Education. The meeting challenged colleagues from grantmaking institutions to think beyond College Access, i.e. programs that ensure high school students get in to colleges, and focus instead on College Success. College Success considers the number of students who not only get into college, but complete it. The line up of speakers was impressive by any measure bringing together some of the most serious thinkers in the area.

This is a problem in the NE Ohio and in other areas the Nord Family Foundation provides support. Lorain County Community College is one of Northeast Ohio’s treasures. Its University Partnership Program is a gateway to higher education that opens opportunity for students who would otherwise not have either the funding or the time to leave home to get a college degree. Dr. Church and LCCC board are examples of how American “can-do”, tenacity and focus can realize hope in a part of the world that sees economic challenge and hardship increasing every day. The unfortunate news however is that approximately 40% to 60% of the students entering LCCC are not prepared for college work. A good many are students coming from public schools but there is also an increasingly large adult population that is returning to school after time in the workforces.

This problem is not reserved for Lorain County or Northeast Ohio. It is a national problem found at other Community Colleges across the country. Jamie Meristosis of the Lumina Foundation for Education suggests there are two levels at the Community College level that challenges to the remediation issue. First is the challenge of unprepared public school students and secondly, the problem or adults returning to the workforce.

Foundations seem to focus on the first challenge as they try to play their role in improving public schools. My own involvement with the issue leads me to the analysis of public schools in inner cities provided by Christopher Barbic, founder and head of YES Prep Public Schools, “The system is broken. The way we provide public education to inner city kids in this country does then a great disservice.”

One of the featured speakers was Dr. Michael Kirst Professor Emeritus of Education and Business Administration at Stanford University. Check hise blog site. Unprepared high school students is is a focus of his research. pondered by Dr. Michael Kirst. His main topic was the dis-articulation between how learning takes place in high school, and what is expected of students when they begin college.

A GREAT review of the issue of remediation and its definition can be found at Crosstalk. In this article, Dr. Kirst addresses the issue of remediation and college preparedness in public schools saying,

College Success Begins in High School

More than 70% of high school graduates now go on to postsecondary education. Yet, a new study of high school student engagement reveals some major concerns about the level of college preparedness of those students. See Voices of Students on Engagement: A Report on the 2006 Survey of Student Engagement out of Indiana Univeristy School of Education.

Using a national sample of grades 9-12, the survey found that:

· Fewer than half of the students go to high school because of what happens within the classroom environment
· A great majority of students are bored every day, if not in every class
· 43% spend 0-1 hour doing written homework, 83% spend 5 hours or less
· 55% spend 0 or 1 hour per week reading and studying for class, 90% spend 5 hours or fewer
· Students want more active learning such as peer working groups and presentations
· Girls report being more engaged across all dimensions of high school engagement than boys. (Girls were 58% of 4 year college graduates in 2006).

Engagement within a high school context is about a student’s relationship with the school community (adults, peers, curriculum, facilities, etc). More importantly, however, Kirst states, ” I believe that this study should raise concerns that many of these high school students will become at-risk college students who will not experience college success for the very reason that they were not sufficiently engaged in high school.” posted by The College Puzzle at 4/01/2007

Dr. Kirst’s analysis gives pause to any grantmaker attempting to “reform” schools in this country. As more foundations and affinity groups envision schools that will prepare students to succeed academically and intellectually in college.

The challenge for philanthropy is I thin, to find places where true innovation in learning is taking place and challenge the school infrastructure to bring it to scale. We would do well to visit schools and find programs that foster student engagement. In my experience, these schools make innovative use of technology to enhance already good teachers. In many instances, finding such institutions is difficult. Innovations in schools is almost impossible because public schools have become risk-averse institutions. Schools are so focused on performing well on tests, that few teachers will take the time and fewer principles will take the risk of implementing programs that will risk having students not peform well on the tests. Philanthropy will continue to have a role to serve as informed voice against the unintended negative consequences of No Child Left Behind legislation.

Education and the Achievement Gap

Through the foundation’s work with Fund for Our Economic Future, I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Randy McShepard who runs the philanthropic department of the RPM company in Akron. Randy and a group of other African American leaders conducted a study to try an understand the roots of the achievement gap among African American men in the Cleveland Schools.
The study was published and last year, Randy spoke with Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Regina Brett on WCPN about the report if his group which is called Policy Bridge. I think the report has importance to our topic, in that it addresses the education gap in our schools, especially with African American boys. It is called “Rap on Culture.”
The report really pushes many of us to address that uncomfortable conversation about race. What role can philanthropy have in supporting the black leadership as they try to confront these issues?
WCPN did a terrific call-in show on the report. Listen to the podcast at

I would really like to know what people think.

Challenges for Science, Math, Technology and Engineering in K-12

Last year I had the opportunity to attend a conference sponsored by Philanthropy Roundtable “Quantum Leaps – Improving Math and Science” which took place at San Francisco, California. (A note to readers, Philanthropy Roundtable puts on superb conferences. It is worth the time and money to attend).

The opening speech was given by Dr. John Hennessy, President of Stanford University

Dr. Hennesey referenced the book Rising Above the Gathering Storm, published by the National Academies of Science. Supporting the findings of the research, Dr. Hennessy stated that the biggest challenge to American Education is improving the quality of teaching science and technology and with well-prepared teachers, we will prepare young people for the mental challenges these disciplines invite in College, Graduate Schools. Well prepared students will inevitable contribute positively to the American business sector..

Engineering, science and mathematics degrees awarded by universities to men and women who are U.S. citizens each year is decreasing at alarming rates. The majority of degrees in these disciplines are now awarded to students from overseas who return to their native countries, such as China, Southeast Asia and India. The number of women and minorities represented in these fields is intolerably small.

Most universities freely admit that over-all American young people are not prepared for college and university work in mathematics and science. Calculus and physics, once optional in the high school curriculum, are now essential for those who are even remotely interested in technology, engineering, physics or business.

For most students entering colleges and universities, basic proficiency in all subjects continues to decrease in general. The most alarming drops are in math and sciences. Research has shown that teacher quality and preparation in the field is the most important predictor of quality teaching and learning. Students with Advanced Placement (AP) courses in high schools generally compete well due to the extra level of rigor that the AP requires. The AP also requires a minimal training for teachers to know their subject.

The majority of teachers in public schools are under-qualified to teach because they do not hold a degree with a major in the subject area.

Another truly alarming fact is the number of students requiring remediation not only in science and math, but in English and reading. This fact is reported in the work of Dr. Spellings, Cabinet Head of the U.S. Department of Education.

Graduation rates remain surprisingly low among students who enter college ill-prepared for higher education. Those who successfully complete degrees in math and science do not opt to pursue careers in public education.

According to Dr. Hennessey, the challenge for K-12 education in the years ahead will be:

  • recruiting math and science teachers
  • providing intensive continuing education for existing teachers
  • opening opportunities to bring teachers into colleges

The government should explore the following policy initiatives:

  • embark on a loan forgiveness program for those who complete college in science and math and enter the teaching profession.
  • integrate new and innovative ways to present math and sciences into pedagogy using creative and enhanced web-based platforms.

Teachers on the K-12 level must be encouraged to underscore the importance of group-learning. They must integrate blogging into classroom teaching and enhance online learning. Science and engineering require group thinking and learning which is discouraged in current K-12 environments.

Finally, there is a need to establish a National framework for Science and Math education. The tradition of local (State) control in the US is entrenched and presents and enormous struggles for those who attempt the undertake it. But this is exactly where philanthropy has a role in the years ahead. We must find new and creative ways to address this critical failure to provide American K-12 students with the most fundamental exposure to Science and Math.

The challenge for philanthropy will be to encourage public school officials to embrace instructional technologies and test its impact on the true learning that takes place in science and math. Thwarting that challenge is standardized “high-stakes” testing which reduces risk taking in learning and by its punitive outcomes, is a major disincentive to new learning skills. It is philanthropy’s challenge to work with governors in each state to reexamine the impact “high-stakes” testing in its current form has on the culture of learning in their schools. Finally, it will be up to congressional representatives to reexamine the impact of the testing components of No Child Left Behind and make needed changes to reinvigorate Science, Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) in our schools.

Notes to the Reader

I have worked in some type of philanthropic activity for most of the 25 years of my professional career. My English and Philosophy majors prepared me for that career in ways I could not have imagined when I took my first job that brought me to the Dominican Republic. The ensuing career included working in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and even Cambridge, Massachusetts. For the past ten years I have served as director of a family foundation office in Amherst, Ohio about 30 miles west of Cleveland. I have come to find that few people in my profession write with and for each other – too busy I suppose with grant review or reading grant evaluations. My colleagues often find time to have telephone conference calls with one another, but few really write. The wisdom shared is evanescent and too valuable to be lost to the archive of public knowledge.

People in the philanthropic sector have great collective wisdom. I am priviledged to work with many people who are dedicated and highly intelligent individuals. We have much to offer each other and others. My colleagues know that I push more open use of social software tools in the nonprofit sector. I have pushed to have us make better use of blogs, wikis and other tools that will keep us connected. I have heretofore not had much luck. My inner English major urges me to persevere.

With that background, I begin with site with a friendly nudge. Put fear aside, and write. Let our colleagues in the government and nonprofit sector share our conversations. It is a very democratic activity and quite rewarding.

In a ramble through a book store in Oberlin, Ohio I happened upon what I thought might be good. Better – A surgeon’s notes on performance turned out to be one of the more delightful reads of the spring. I share with you the comments of its author Dr. Atul Gwande and look forward to your comments.

“My…suggestion: Write something. I do not mean this to be an intimidating suggestion. It makes no difference whether you write five paragraphs for a blog, a paper for a professional journal or a poem for a reading group. Just write. What you write need not achieve perfection. It need only add some small observations about your world.

You should not underestimate the effect of your writing contribution, however modest. As Lewis Thomas once pointed out, quoting the physicist John Zitman, ‘the invention of a mechanism for the systematic publication of fragments of scientific work may well have been the key event in the history of modern science.’ By soliciting modest contributions from the many, we have produced a store of collective know-how with far greater power than any individual could have achieved. And this is as true outside science as inside.

You should also not underestimate the power of the act of writing itself. …writing lets you step back and think through a problem. Even the angriest rant forces the writer to achieve a degree of thoughtfulness.

Most of all, by offering your reflections to an audience, even a small one, you make yourself part of a larger world. Put a few thoughts on a topic in just a newsletter, and you find yourself wondering nervously: Will people notice it? What will they think? Did I say something dumb? An audience is a community. The published word is a declaration of membership in that community and also a willingness to contribute something meaningful to it.

So choose your audience. Write something.

From: Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance, Atul Gawande, Metropolitan books Henry Holt and Company LLC, New York. 2007