By Richard Ekman

For years, champions of small colleges and universities have pointed to evidence that documents the effectiveness of small colleges in providing a successful college experience for students who embody characteristics that, in other types of educational settings, would be predictors of lack of success in college. Especially of interest has been the role played by medium-selective private colleges in educating students who are the first members of their families to attend college. While stereotypes often lead observers to assume that these students will thrive in large, public universities near their homes, statistics show that the chances of timely graduation are far greater in smaller, residential, private colleges. First-generation students graduate at a rate of 61 percent in six years at private institutions versus 44 percent at public universities. (Among all students who graduate from college, 79 percent do so in four years at private colleges compared with just 49 percent who graduate in four years at public institutions.)

A report released last month by the Brookings Institution, Getting Ahead or Losing Ground: Mobility in America, which is being cited as the most comprehensive effort yet to examine inter-generational economic mobility in the nation, showed that mobility will be lower in the future than it is today because of the growing difference in education levels among income and racial groups. Ron Haskins, who wrote the education section of the report, says “Without a college degree, 45 percent of adult children with parents in the lowest income quintile remained at the bottom…. By contrast, only 16 percent of adult children with a college degree remained in the bottom quintile.” Further, Haskins shows that an individual born into a family in the bottom fifth of earners who graduates from college has almost a one in five chance of joining the highest income quintile and a more than three in five chance of joining the middle class or better. While this news is good, the report cautions that only 11 percent of children born into families in the bottom income quintile earn college degrees compared with 53 percent of children from the wealthiest families.

Smaller, private colleges and universities can have a large impact on the education of first-generation students. As the college-going population in America becomes more heavily weighted toward first-time college-goers, the track record of small colleges will have increasingly important public policy implications. Many of the states with the largest recent and projected increases in first-generation college students have small numbers of private colleges within their borders and less well-established traditions in private higher education in comparison with the role played by often venerable state universities. Ironically, these are the regions of the U.S. where the demand for effective colleges for first-generation students is greatest.

If small private institutions work best, why not disassemble and reconceive large state universities as a larger number of smaller institutions? Clearly, this approach would be prohibitively expensive and unwieldy. Another visionary solution would be for state governments to pay for first-generation students to travel to the educational institutions that will serve them best, even outside the state. This solution is also not likely to be pursued in many states because of the potential “brain drain” it would cause. An additional option is to subsidize first-generation students’ enrollment in private colleges within state borders at least as generously as those students would be supported by the state if they attended a public university. This option is worth much more serious consideration than it has received (even though capacity may not be adequate to meet demand). A fourth solution is for state governments to create financial incentives for out-of-state private colleges with proven records in educating first-generation students to establish branch campuses. This approach, too, is worth more consideration than it has received. I’m aware of only one RFP, issued by a municipality in Arizona that decided that a private college was needed in this booming region, to seek bids from established colleges in other regions.

Many private colleges have come to recognize their effectiveness in educating first-generation students and now emphasize it as a kind of marketing niche. Berea College (KY) has long focused on educational opportunity for students in rural Appalachia. Southern Vermont College has a student body that is more than 50 percent first-generation students and has had particular success in recruiting and graduating inner-city African-American first-generation students. Many other colleges have strong programs that reach out to first-generation students, including Alverno College’s (MI) College Readiness 21, Regis College’s (MA) College Awareness Program, Morehouse College’s (GA) Project Identity, and Drew University’s (NJ) Kean Scholarships.

CIC is delighted that the role played by small colleges in the education of first-generation students is being given increased recognition. Most recently, the Wal-Mart Foundation funded the “Wal-Mart College Success Awards,” to be administered by CIC. This program will provide $100,000 awards to up to 20 colleges that have made a deep institutional commitment to the education of first-generation students. The grant, in excess of $2 million, is CIC’s largest ever. In order to receive one of the awards a college will need to demonstrate first that its commitment is genuine, ingrained in the institution, and of proven effectiveness; then the institution must propose to use the funds in ways that will build on, deepen, or extend the successful program. We estimate that most CIC member institutions have programs for first-generation students and that more than half of CIC’s 580 members enroll entering classes that include one-third or more first-generation students.

Applications for the Wal-Mart College Success Awards are due by May 2, 2008. Successful applicants will begin their programs in August 2008. The Wal-Mart grant also includes plans for a book to be published that will document the most effective practices, and it is our hope that familiarity with these “best practices” will be useful in strengthening programs at hundreds of other institutions.