East Stroudsburg
University
Full and Distinguished Professor
+1 (570) 422-3383
Committee:
A
Call
to
Arms
for
Transformative
Research
for the
New
Millennium"
I am very happy to join the Executive Board of the Association for Tutoring Professionals (ATP), while also serving as the Chair of the Diversity Committee. It is extremely important for this organization to strategically position itself with this important issue as it will dominate American higher education for the foreseeable future. As enumerated in the U.S. 2000 Census, the future growth of the U.S. colleges and universities lies with the untapped, underserved, and under prepared low-income students who are likely students of color. Thus, ATP is well positioned to serve these students as they enter the higher education institutions.
As the Chair of this important Committee, I would like to invite educators, researchers, and tutoring professionals to join me in developing an alternative paradigm that is transformative in dealing with such issues as persistence, retention, and graduation for students of color in higher education. For a century, we have been studying and researching the so-called “achievement gap” by utilizing and interpreting the data using a paradigm ill-equipped to account for centuries of racism, discrimination, and cultural alienation of black people and other people of color in the U.S., in general, and globally in particular.
I would like to urge those of us who work with students to start looking at their strengths rather than their weaknesses. In an effort to help students develop their self-regulation, we need to understand what skills they possess, using their personal experiences to enhance their self-esteem, self-efficacy, and self-concept.
Thus, if you agree with this brief description of the purpose of the Diversity Committee, please forward your names and e-mail addresses to gfrancois@po-box.esu.edu.
