ACT shares the disappointment of many in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina cases, which strike down the use of race as a factor in college admissions. In our joint amicus brief submitted to the Court, ACT reiterated our long-held belief that individualized holistic review of individual students’ applications in the higher education admission process does not involve “racial categorization” or “stereotyping,” as SFFA maintains, but rather is reflective of a process in which all relevant factors, considered in combination, shape applicant-specific judgments about their ability to succeed, and their ability to contribute to, and benefit from, their learning environment, peers, and community.
Also noted in ACT’s brief:
“Academic judgments inherent in higher-education admissions involve considerations of numerous factors regarding student applicants, which, in combination, are essential to the formation of classes in which students will expand their horizons, have their world views sharpened and challenged by exposure to other viewpoints and experiences, and prepare for productive and engaging lives. In a society where race still matters, an applicant’s life experiences directly associated with their race and ethnicity constitute one part — and often an inextricable and influential part — of their self-identity and context.”
America’s higher education institutions have long recognized and cultivated the educational benefits of diversity, and ACT stands at the ready to work alongside higher education to address the implications of the Court’s decision as we work to preserve learning diversity in support of the students we all serve.
Lisa Hawk, director of corporate training and business development at Forsyth Technical Community College, joined us last fall at the ACT Workforce Summit. We asked her to share how digital badging helps individual job seekers and the workforce at large in the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, community succeed.
“We utilize digital badging to recognize that individuals come into us already with skills that are appropriate for the workforce. And, we utilize digital badging to assist them in gaining employment immediately, while they are working on earning additional skills that will enhance their income so that they have a sustainable wage for themselves and their families.”
Lisa goes on to say that Forsyth Technical Community College aligns their training, the ACT WorkKeys assessment, and employer needs to ensure their learners have the technology-based skills their employer partners demand.
Learn more about what’s working in the Forsyth Technical Community College service area by watching Lisa’s interview.
ACT is delighted to feature student voices from SAAB, a dynamic organization dedicated to ensuring men of color have the support needed to excel academically, socially, and professionally through the strong bonds of brotherhood and mentorship. As a national leader pursuing equity in education, SAAB provides the blueprint for institutions striving to create more equitable communities for men of color. ACT’s Center for Equity in Learning has collaborated with SAAB for many years, including as a sponsor at its 2023 National Conference.
What are your education and career aspirations?
Anthony Lakin, double major in IT cyber security and IT application development, Missouri State University class of 2025: One of my education goals is to make the dean’s list every semester of my undergraduate years. The streak is still alive as of this semester. One of my career aspirations is to have an internship at least every summer in college. This summer, I will intern for ConocoPhillips in their IT division. My big goal after college is to work for a Fortune 25 company like Google, Apple, or Microsoft. One step at a time, I will get there.
Patrick Booker, psychology major, Missouri State University class of 2026
I originally came into college with aspirations to take the pre-med route and go to medical school to become a psychiatrist. After having personal discussions with well-established psychiatrists and finding out all the options I have as a psychology major, my plans have slightly changed. I now plan on pursuing a doctoral degree in psychology and continue to higher education.
Talon Mitchell, cell and molecular biology major, Missouri State class of 2025: I plan on graduating from Missouri State University with my bachelor's degree in Cell and Molecular Biology, then attending medical school to become a neurosurgeon.
Tyler Burt, marketing/advertising & promotion major, Missouri State class of 2026: I keep myself to high standards and I have found that has kept me going where I want to go. I want to maintain a 3.7 GPA or higher throughout my academic career here at Missouri State University. Then I will go into advertising and promotion with hopes of earning a job at a digital advertising agency. I also know that getting there in my career isn’t something that can just be done by going to the interview, but by building networking connections right now. That is what one of my short-term goals for my career – then, landing an internship at a company in the marketing or advertising department.
What sorts of educational and cultural activities have you found most effective in helping you take full advantage of your high school and/or college years?
Anthony: International fellowship is one of several activities that have helped me take full advantage of college. It is a college ministry that has given me a different perspective on my faith. The members are predominantly international from all different countries, cultures, and religions. The great thing is that we put all those labels aside and break bread with each other. That organization symbolizes what the world can be.
Patrick: I was not involved in much in high school, and this is only my second semester in college, but SAAB has easily been the most effective outlet for my experience so far. I have met people I never would have seen myself meeting and I have gotten opportunities already that I thought would take years to acquire.
Talon: The most important and effective educational activities are clubs and organizations that align with your major and interests! They have an abundance of helpful information. Also, there are probably older students who can be your guide and help you be successful and more efficient when trying to reach your goals. In terms of cultural activities, when there are events, speakers, or celebrations on or off campus, take advantage and attend, especially if the culture is different from yours. Sometimes it's just difficult to understand the importance of others' cultures when you’ve never experienced them for yourself. But regardless of whether you can relate, a culturally conscious experience helps us create a more collaborative community. Without learning about other cultures, we would neither encounter nor recognize the benefits each culture adds to our world.
Tyler: The most effective activities are the many events that I wouldn’t have typically gone to because they were outside of my own culture. Attending events that you normally wouldn’t gives you more appreciation for different cultural groups. I started out by going to numerous Hispanic Heritage Month events. I found I became more appreciative of and educated about the many cultures that are celebrated that month.
Is there any advice you would give to education and equity advocates who seek to ensure that students of color, and Black men in particular, are able to succeed academically, socially, and professionally?
Anthony: My advice to anyone who is or wants to be a mentor is this: Just be there. All it takes is you being there when it feels like everyone has left. This is true especially with Black men, many of whom don’t have a male figure to look up to. Being a mentor is a commitment, but very worthwhile. Having one has changed my life, and I am sure it can change others. All it takes is a few people who believe in you. Once that happens, you start to believe in yourself; it just takes someone else seeing it first.
Patrick: I personally believe a focus on cultivating a culture of success for these students is the most effective way to ensure they do well throughout college. College is more than education. The social and professional experiences available to those who know about them during college are immensely important to developing one’s career. If there is a culture based on these aspects, specifically targeted at underrepresented groups on campus, the students who take part will find their own inspirations to succeed. Personal drive, I believe, is the key to long-term success.
Talon: The biggest education issue as a Black male is that it's hard to imagine yourself in a job or position when the only people you see representing that job are people who don't look anything like you. I think that’s why SAAB is an excellent organization for minority men, because we have speakers who look like us and have found success in jobs and aspirations we want for ourselves. When education and equity advocates have the chance to suggest mentors, they should consider the students' diversity and which mentor represents that diversity most accurately. That mentor can provide the student with the most effective guidance. It’s also important to remember that teaching students about various cultural and social groups has a direct correlation with preparing students to become better citizens within their own communities.
Tyler: The best advice I can give is to listen to what we’re saying. A lot of the time Black men don’t feel heard in what they are saying or needing, and it can take just that one advocate to truly listen to change his life entirely.
By: Dr. M. Leona Godin, writer, performer, and educator
Dr. Leona Godin, the celebrated writer of “There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness,” recently presented to hundreds of ACT team members from across the organization as well as external colleagues and educators as part of the ACT Equity Speakers Series. Dr. Godin spoke about her unique experience with blindness and how to become a more supportive ally, advocate, and champion for inclusive design. Watch the recording at the bottom of this page.
Because of a degenerative eye disease, I’ve lived on just about every notch of the sight-blindness spectrum. When I first began going blind, I was alone. Now, thanks in no small part to social media, I have a huge blind network. Like me, a number of these friends lost the ability to read standard print early on, and only one of them is fluent in Braille.
Braille is the only way a blind or deafblind person can read silently or aloud, with one’s own voice, and at one’s own pace. Unfortunately, there is a tendency to insist visually impaired students use their eyes for as long as possible, even if doing so slows down their reading and their education generally.
The preference for doing things as close to the way sighted people do them is detrimental to learning, and it’s part of a systemic problem: ocularcentrism.
Ocularcentrism is the unconscious bias that ranks sight as the most important sense — often far above the rest. It privileges sight, sighted people, and sighted ways of doing things. It is a form of ableism and leads to discrimination.
Ocularcentrism also affects blind teachers. I have a friend who is working in the public school district of a major U.S. city, and she is facing so much discrimination that she may not be able to continue doing what she loves to do, and what she is very good at.
We all know the importance of role models — those who share our identities and those who do not. If blind teachers are discriminated against then all the accommodations we offer students ring hollow: They can learn, but when they pursue careers, they have only disappointment to look forward to. This speaks to a shameful statistic: 70% of blind people are unemployed or underemployed.
I believe the only way to dismantle ocularcentrism is to embrace blindness as a facet of sensory diversity. Here in New York City, where I live and write, we have a vibrant blind community. One of the centers of blind culture is the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library in Chelsea. Although it caters to blind and low-vision patrons, it’s part of the New York Public Library and is open to everyone.
The library offers a diverse range of classes and boasts a stunning array of technology — including 3-D printers — in the Dimensions Lab, which is headed by blind-tech guru Chancey Fleet. I volunteer in the Saturday morning Braille group, where I sometimes work with two sighted Pratt Institute design students, who are excited to learn Braille as part of their sensory literacy. Their enthusiasm in coming back week after week suggests that Braille could be taught in schools as part of a sensory literacy curriculum, in which multisensory learning experiences help students understand and interpret information coming through various senses.
If more people were introduced to Braille at a young age, we might get more teachers of the visually impaired to teach it instead of being afraid of it. Also, we may find that just because a student has functioning eyes, they may not be a visual learner. I was interviewed by a radio host, who confessed that he is not a very visual person although his eyes work perfectly well. Hence, he’s in radio.
Blind writer and scholar Georgina Kleege is the author of many books including “More Than Meets the Eye: What Blindness Brings to Art.” At an academic conference I attended, she began her keynote like this: “If I were speaking to a room full of blind and visually impaired people, I would not need this PowerPoint presentation. PowerPoint is an accommodation for sighted people or, more precisely, sight-dependent people.”
In other words, PowerPoint is accessibility. Accessibility is everywhere for humans who live and work in the built environment. A quick example: computer screens. Computers don’t need screens to function any more or less than they need Braille displays. These are points of access to the inner workings of zeroes and ones.
Blind children and adults should never feel bad about demanding accessibility and accommodations. Accessibility and accommodations are what humans do. And it’s not always obvious what points of access will be useful to whom. Something might begin as disability related and get co-opted by other groups.
Dictation technology is an example of how disability drives innovation. When I was learning how to use text-to-speech software way back in the ’90s, there were dyslexic students in the computer lab who were using speech-to-text software. Dictation software is now used by so many people every day — from doctors and nurses to anyone who struggles with the tiny flat keys of their smart phones.
Inclusive design can only be empowered when it is understood to move in at least two directions, but more is even better. When mainstream culture thinks in terms of letting blind people in, instead of having blind people let the sighted in, we will never be able to achieve anything even approaching equality in school or after.
Access and inclusive design don’t have to be boring boxes that you check. They can be exciting sites for creativity in the classroom and out of it. For example, image description can be educational and fun. Visit Alt Text as Poetry for tips.
To be truly powerful, inclusivity cannot be just a one-way street. It needs to sparkle with the desire to share ideas, experience, and knowledge. Disability drives innovation, but it also enriches the store of human intelligence and culture.
Watch Dr. Godin's ACT Equity Speakers Series presentation:
Students from low-income families were most likely to be affected; students faced financial difficulties and uncovered new interests and passions
High school seniors say that the COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected their postsecondary plans and their perceptions about being prepared for college, according to a new report from ACT, the nonprofit organization that administers the college readiness exam.
“The students who began high school at the start of the pandemic are now graduating. These are the same students who faced numerous new challenges, including decreased access to school counselors, canceled extracurricular activities, and an overnight pivot to remote learning,” ACT CEO Janet Godwin said. “It’s important to recognize their unique journeys and how the pandemic’s disruption has affected them — emotionally, academically, and financially — as they make important decisions about the first steps of their lives beyond high school.”
The report provides recommendations for higher education institutions to help students as they transition into and through college. These include connecting students with financial opportunities, providing reliable assessments and courses for unfinished learning, addressing mental health resources, and encouraging exploratory activities in the first year of college (e.g., internships, career planning programs).
Of the high school seniors surveyed, more than four in 10 (42%) reported that the pandemic affected their thoughts on at least one college- or career-related choice, and one-third (33%) of students changed their thoughts on two or more college- or career-related choices.
Students in certain income and racial/ethnic groups were more likely to be affected by the pandemic than students in other groups, and students from lower-income families faced more challenges than other students. Roughly four in 10 (42%) students in the low-income group reported that the pandemic influenced their thoughts about a future career. This was closely followed by changing thoughts about which school to attend and which program of study or major to pursue (40% and 39%, respectively). Additionally, while two in 10 white students (22%) reported that the pandemic changed their thoughts about which school to attend, about one-third of Black, Asian, and Latinx students (30%, 33%, and 36%, respectively) adjusted their thoughts on this choice.
“Before the pandemic I always looked towards college and furthering my academics, but once the pandemic hit it altered the way I looked at college. It made me struggle in my high school years and made me doubt whether or not college was the best choice down the road,” one Latino student said.
The top pandemic-related challenge that influenced students’ thoughts on their choices was greater financial difficulties. Some students questioned whether they could afford to pay for college after experiencing financial struggles during the pandemic. These financial difficulties, which stemmed from family job loss and the increased cost of living, led these students to reevaluate their schooling options. There were also students who weighed the possibility of going to certain colleges in certain locations against the cost. A lack of finances, including an inability to self-finance a college education, made it impossible for some to afford certain schools. Amid financial constraints and ongoing concerns about how to pay for their postsecondary education, other students considered less expensive college alternatives and funding options such as scholarships and financial aid.
The top pandemic-related opportunity influencing students’ thoughts was expanded interests and being able to discover new passions. Students who experienced a shift in their activities due to the pandemic were able to learn more about themselves and what they liked. Some students were inspired to consider new career fields as they became aware of more options uncovered during this time.
Key findings:
Forty-two percent of surveyed high school seniors reported the pandemic affected their thoughts on at least one college- or career-related choice, and one-third (33%) of these students changed their thoughts on two or more choices.
When it came to college and career perceptions, students in certain income and racial/ethnic groups were more likely to be affected by the pandemic than students in other groups.
Roughly four in 10 (42%) students in the low-income group reported that the pandemic influenced their thoughts about a future career.
Two in 10 white students (22%) said the pandemic changed their thoughts about which school to attend, while about one-third of Black, Asian, and Latinx students (30%, 33%, and 36%, respectively) adjusted their thoughts on this choice.
Students identified greater financial difficulties as the top pandemic-related challenge, while the top pandemic-related opportunity was discovering new interests and passions.
About the Data
ACT researchers surveyed a random sample of 1,549 12th grade students in September 2022. The surveys asked students to indicate which, if any, of the thoughts they had about college and career choices were affected by the pandemic. As a follow-up, an open-ended question asked for more details on how the pandemic affected these thoughts.
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About ACT ACT is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people achieve education and workplace success. Grounded in more than 60 years of research, ACT is a trusted leader in college and career readiness solutions. Each year, ACT serves millions of students, job seekers, schools, government agencies, and employers in the U.S. and around the world with learning resources, assessments, research, and credentials designed to help them succeed from elementary school through career. Visit us at www.act.org.
