The Chronicle of Higher Education Review February 15, 2019 He Beat the Odds. His Research Focuses on Those Who Don't. Can Anthony Abraham Jack change the way elite colleges treat low-income students? Some days, it still doesn't feel real. Last week, Anthony Abraham Jack was at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to celebrate the release of a new book - his own, published by Harvard University Press. It's a case study of how elite institutions like the one where he teaches, Harvard, fail low-income students. The subject matter is intimately familiar to him. Jack is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Education and at 6-foot-5 is unmistakable in its narrow hallways. He knits as he talks in his office in Cambridge, the place he has called home now for the past decade. The biting cold, the historic buildings, and the old money are almost a perfect foil to Jack's upbringing in the sweltering heat of Miami. At Harvard, he's surrounded by people whose family backgrounds, attendance at elite prep schools, college tutors, and social networks led them to this paragon of American higher education. Many of their parents passed through a similar set of doors. Jack was a first-generation college student. His mother is a security guard. His brother works as a janitor at a Miami elementary school. Jack attended under-resourced public schools for most of his primary education. He played high-school football for one of those schools, but a blown shoulder benched him. That led to an argument with his coach, so Jack sought out something better, and wound up with a full scholarship at a Florida private school called Gulliver. It was only a year, but Jack says it was enough to acquaint him with the ways of the wealthy, their $1,000 coats, their vacations that cost more than his family made in a year. More importantly, he says, it taught him how to seize the academic advantages offered to those students. Elite colleges not only fail to admit enough low-income students; they also fail to care for the ones they let in. That led him to Amherst College, which led to graduate school at Harvard, which led to the deal for his book, The Privileged Poor. On the wall behind him hang his framed graduate degrees and an op-ed<https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/opinion/sunday/what-the-privileged-poor-can-teach-us.html>, also framed, that he wrote for The New York Times about poor students at elite colleges. It's easy to focus solely on where Jack started and how high he has ascended. It's an inspiring story that gives him an almost unassailable authority to write and do research about the experiences of poor students. But his narrative also presents a challenge to his work, by suggesting that all low-income students who make it to elite colleges thrive. Many do not. Jack wants people to see beyond his personal success to his research findings: Elite colleges not only fail to admit enough low-income students; they also fail to care for the ones they let in. "It's one thing to graduate with a degree from an elite institution and another thing to graduate with the social capital to activate that degree," Jack says. In fact, in many cases, elite colleges widen rather than narrow the gulf between the wealthy and the poor, he argues, by making low-income students feel like outsiders who don't actually belong on campus. His research comes at a time when these institutions are trying to increase the percentage of students from impoverished backgrounds, through need-blind applications, greater outreach, and scholarship programs. As Jack notes in his book, "Changes in financial aid have ushered in significant demographic shifts, bringing the rich and the poor together in ways that are happening nowhere else in this country." His findings suggest entrenched class distinctions that manifest themselves not just in the clothes students wear and the vacations they take, but in what they understand about college, expect of their professors, and imagine for themselves. In Cambridge, it feels like everyone is wearing one of those Canada Goose jackets. It's cold in New England - some Arctic researchers turn to this type of coat to handle subzero temperatures - and the logo, a red circle with an outline of Antarctica, is instantly recognizable. Where some people see a coat that's a little bit of overkill, Jack sees inequality. At a shop in Cambridge that sells the jackets, Jack finds none below $650. When people tell Jack his coat looks like Canada Goose, he has to laugh. They're not in his price range, and besides, they don't come in his size. Many of the low-income students Jack interviewed for his research questioned the sanity of anyone spending so much on a coat. (All the students quoted in the book go by pseudonyms. Jack calls their institution Renowned University, "an elite college in the northeast United States with a long history of educating academically gifted youth.") Other distinctions between wealthy and poor students are less visible. Closing the dining hall during academic breaks might make sense if the assumption is that all students travel on holiday. But students who can't afford to travel find their main source of food suddenly unavailable. Some told Jack that spring break is like a literal version of The Hunger Games. One told him she fainted because she didn't have enough food. Among institutions that promised financial-aid packages that wouldn't burden disadvantaged students with loans, Jack found only one in four kept their dining halls open during spring break. Research into the struggles of poor students on campuses has surged in recent years, much of it focused on the role their family backgrounds play in their success. Jack's work is distinctive in examining the differences between poor students who graduated from distressed public high schools and those who attended resource-rich private schools. Enter the "privileged poor" - students who, like Jack, through grit and luck managed to attend private schools despite their family's low income. They had the benefit of being steeped in the world of the rich early. That helped prevent culture shock and gave them tools to navigate college. The "doubly disadvantaged," in contrast, had gone to high schools that weren't able to prepare them for the exclusive world of elite institutions. The privileged poor whom Jack interviewed were better equipped to take advantage of all the resources the university had to offer. They sought out their professors to help them when they were struggling in class. Their counterparts often failed to do so. An administrator at another college told Jack she realized that some of her low-income students thought "office hours" meant hours that belonged to her, during which she shouldn't be disturbed. That reveals more than a mere miscommunication, Jack argues; it represents the "gaps in expectations between faculty and students about what is required to succeed in college." The privileged poor also knew it was important to join clubs and network with people who could be vital connections in the future. The doubly disadvantaged not only didn't share that attitude, but actually considered it "sucking up." One student who worked hard to get good grades in high school described learning quickly that it wouldn't be enough just to study hard in college. But he couldn't bring himself to change. "These kids who go to professors after class and just talk to them," the student told Jack. "I have no idea what they're talking about. I don't have any questions beyond what they're teaching. They're kiss-asses! These people want recommendations, a spot in this guy's research team. I never wanted to grovel." Jack understands that hesitation. His mother "couldn't have told me that navigating college requires a huge amount of self-promotion," he says. "She always wants the best for me, but she wasn't equipped to navigate these mainstream institutions." SANDRA M. PHOENIX HBCU Library Alliance Executive Director Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library 111 James P. Brawley Drive SW Atlanta, GA 30314 404-978-2118 (office) 404-702-5854 (cell) http://www.hbculibraries.org/ sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org%3cmailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org>> Honor the ancestors, honor the children. Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hbculibraryalliance1/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/HBCULibAlliance Check out "PULSE!" The HBCU Library Alliance's News Source! - https://hbculibraryalliance.wordpress.com/