The Privileged Poor

Anthony Abraham Jack

Related Links

• Listen to a New Yorker Radio Hour feature, inspired and informed by The Privileged Poor, that takes an in-depth look at why a full-ride college scholarship may not meet the needs of a student from a poor or working-class family
• Read a Radcliffe Institute News feature on Tony Jack’s When Campus Closed project, which explores how COVID-19 shutdowns not only wreaked havoc on those from lower-income backgrounds, but also exacerbated existing racial inequalities at colleges and universities
• Read Inside Higher Ed’s coverage of inequality issues, informed by The Privileged Poor and Anthony Jack’s research: Steven Mintz on why diversity isn’t inclusion; Joshua Kim on how to get from access to inclusion; and Melissa Ezarik on the vital importance of mentoring relationships and strategies for expanding opportunities for student–teacher connection
• Read an Atlantic feature, informed by Jack’s research, on how elite private schools silo opportunities for students
• On WAMU (Washington, DC)’s 1A, listen to Jack discuss how COVID-19 mitigation measures (such as a pivot to online learning) exacerbate existing inequalities as college students head back to campus in September 2020
• Read a New Yorker feature, informed by discussion with Jack, on what colleges owe their most vulnerable students—and how the pandemic has caused existing inequity to be thrown under harsher light
• Watch Jack and other experts discuss issues facing American education—and what the post-pandemic “new normal” will look like—at “Education Is Not up for Debate,” a September 2020 online event hosted by Verizon
• Listen to a WGBH News (Boston, MA) story, featuring comment from Jack, on whether colleges should prioritize testing athletes over the general student body
• On the Yahoo!Finance series “2020: A Time for Change,” watch Jack explain why, for colleges considering how to promote equity, “access is not inclusion”
• On the BBC World Service program World Business Report, listen to Jack explain why tackling racism in the boardroom starts in the classroom
• Read a National Geographic feature, informed by discussion with Jack, on how existing inequalities facing new college graduates entering the workforce will be exacerbated by COVID-19
• Read a Hechinger Report feature on how, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, colleges are promising to “do better for Black students”
• Listen to a Center for Ethics and Education interview with Jack on how students can navigate “non-ideal institutions” (and download related classroom materials: study guide | student handouts | transcript)
• Read an Inside Higher Ed feature, informed by discussion with Jack, on how faculty can maintain empathy for students whose personal experiences (within higher education and out) mirror their own less and less
• Read the Chronicle of Higher Education’s “10 Tips to Support Students in a Stressful Shift to Online Learning,” informed by discussion with Jack and other experts
• On the WBUR (Boston, MA) series Edify, listen to Jack discuss the difficulties of COVID-19–prompted extended remote learning as a substitute for the on-campus experience—especially for those from less economically privileged backgrounds
• On WAMU’s 1A, listen to Jack discuss American universities’ response to COVID-19, and what spring 2020 campus closures mean for lower-income students
• Read a Chronicle of Higher Education feature, informed by Jack, on the students who lose “hot meals, health care, and a place to sleep” when campuses close
• Read an Inside Higher Ed feature on campus COVID-19 closures and their effects on students at the edges
• Read Jack’s conversation with The Nation’s Edwin Aponte
• As part of the New York Times Magazine’s 2019 Education Issue, read Jack’s essay on the hardships he faced as a low-income college student, how those experiences paved the way for The Privileged Poor, and how to change the inequitable systems still facing students today
• Read a New Yorker feature, including comment by Jack, on the way in which programs like Prep for Prep, which helps low-income New York City students get into selective private schools, obscure deeper inequalities in the system
• Read Jack’s thoughts on “How to Make College a Better Bet for More People” in a Chronicle of Higher Education interview (and related video segment)
• Read an excerpt from The Privileged Poor at Quillette
• On TYT’s The Damage Report, watch Jack discuss the difference between access and inclusion—and what colleges can do today to rectify inequities
• Listen to an All Things Considered (NPR) feature on professorial office hours, and the socioeconomic class knowledge that underlies their successful use
• Watch a University of Arizona informational video that uses humor to skewer—but also sincerely respond to—the common problem of student anxiety about professorial office hours
• On KERA (Dallas–Fort Worth, TX)’s Think, listen to Jack discuss the upper education challenges of students who are “book smart” but who may lack the socioeconomic class background to succeed on campus
• On the WBUR (Boston, MA)’s Edify, listen to Jack discuss how small colleges, such as Pine Manor College in Brookline, MA, are beginning to cater to first-generation students—but are still lacking in their response to many of the socioeconomic hardships faced by such students
• Read a Bloomberg Business report, informed by discussion with Jack, on Princeton University’s decision to move away from work requirements (“making a contribution”) for scholarship students
• At The Root, watch Jack lay out what students of color and low-income students need to feel truly included at their institutions of higher learning, what the college admissions cheating scandal earlier this year reveals about America’s hypocritical school processes, and why education may not be the great equalizer
• On NPR’s All Things Considered, listen to Tony Jack decry the minimally harsh sentencing of actress Felicity Huffman in the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal: “money talks and privilege walks”
• Read more about Jack’s response to the Varsity Blues sentencing at WGBH News (Boston, MA)
• Read a Vox interview with Jack on who is still being left behind by well-meaning university-led efforts to support diversity in the student body
• Read a Boston Globe report, informed by discussion with Jack, on the increasingly recognized phenomenon of financially disadvantaged students skipping meals at college
• On WNET (New York, NY)’s MetroFocus, watch Jack explain how and why disadvantaged students are struggling at elite colleges—and what those schools can do differently to help those students thrive
• On WGN-TV (Chicago, IL)’s Morning News, watch Jack discuss the “hidden rules” (and opaque terms) that first-generation college students may never have learned
• On Black Enterprise, watch Jack explore the complexities that lower-income students face in the world of academia
• Listen to Jack’s discussion with The Majority Report’s Sam Seder
• Listen to interviews with Jack on KJZZ (Phoenix, AZ)’s The Show and on WFAE (Charlotte, NC)’s Southbound
• On WHYY’s Radio Times, listen to Jack explain how the college admissions system favors students with privilege—and disadvantages their peers
• At the Atlantic, read Jack’s thoughts on the new SAT “disadvantage” score
• On CBC Radio’s The Current, listen to Jack explain how the U.S. college admissions scam reveals pervasive inequality in society
• At the Washington Post, read Jack on how the college admissions scandal “reopens old wounds” for students like him—targets of vitriol by those suspicious of affirmative action
• Read a New York Times feature story looking back on 50 years of affirmative action, including its unintended effects on “privileged poor” students of color
• On Wisconsin Public Radio’s Central Time, listen to Jack explicate how university and policy cultures do not impact all students equally—background markedly affects students’ chances of success
• Read an Atlantic feature on the “unwritten rules” that smooth the higher education path for the rich (and a follow-up featuring responses to the article)
• Read a profile of Jack by Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews
• On the WGBH News series “On Campus,” listen to Jack (who was himself recruited to play football at Amherst College) urge schools to stop giving so much admissions weight to athletic talent
• Read a MarketWatch interview with Jack
• On WAMU’s 1A, listen to an in-depth discussion with Jack on the disconnect at elite institutions of higher learning between students with private jets and vacation homes and students who must choose between food and books because they can’t afford both
• Read Jack’s thoughts on the college admissions scandal in discussions with CBC News, CNN, the Huffington Post, Politico, and Vice
• Read an NPR interview with Jack on the difference between access and inclusion and how to improve outcomes for economically disadvantaged students who have gained the former but, once on campus, chronically struggle with the latter
• Watch Jack make the case for “economic affirmative action” on PBS’s The Open Mind
• Listen to an interview with Jack on the podcast The Ebony Tower
• Read a Chronicle of Higher Education profile of Jack
• At Times Higher Education, read Jack’s call for American universities to work harder to integrate poor students into the campus community
• Read a Boston Globe Q&A with Jack
• Via C-SPAN’s BookTV, watch Jack present The Privileged Poor at Washington, DC’s KramerBooks
• Read Jack’s conversation with AAMC News, the blog of the Association of American Medical Colleges
• On the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s EdCast, listen to Jack describe the existence of a poor student on a rich campus
• Read a profile of Jack in the Bay State Banner
• On the WBUR series Edify, listen to Jack explain his path to self-advocacy and self-pride despite being pressured from middle school onwards to downplay his accomplishments
• Read Jack’s response to the Harvard Gazette poser, “If you were to write a letter to your students, what would you want them to know?”
• Read a Harvard Gazette Q&A with Jack
• Read more about Jack’s research in Harvard Magazine

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