Families: The Key to Ending 'College Mismatch'

By Eileen Gale Kugler

“We all have dreams for our children, but we don’t know how to help our children reach them.” The grandmother in the impoverished township in South Africa spoke for all the families who had come to the school to be part of a family-engagement project I organized in August. Not unlike families in the United States who are poor or uneducated, these families had largely been written off by educators who felt they had little to offer. But when given a voice, they made it clear that they were committed to the success of their children, and once provided information and resources, they became...