Breakaway Learners: Strategies for Post-Secondary Success with At-Risk Students

by Karen Gross

Overview

This powerful book explores how institutions of higher education can successfully serve “breakaway” students—first-generation, low-income students who are trying to break away from the past in order to create a more secure future. The gap between low-SES and high-SES students persists as efforts to close it have not met with great success. In this provocative book, Gross offers a new approach to addressing inequities by focusing on students who have succeeded despite struggling with the impacts of poverty and trauma. Gross draws on her experience as a college president to outline practical steps that postsecondary institutions can take to create structures of support and opportunity that build reciprocal trust. Students must trust their institutions and professors, professors must trust their students, and eventually students must learn to trust themselves.

“A must-read for academics, policymakers, teachers, social service providers, police chiefs, and government officials.”
—Martha Kanter, former under secretary, U.S. Department of Education

“We need to pay attention to what Karen Gross says. Read this book, then share it.”
—Mark Huddleston, president, University of New Hampshire

“Karen Gross offers practical ideas based on her research and, more importantly, on her substantial leadership in assisting our nation’s colleges and universities serving at-risk students.”
—Marybeth Gasman, University of Pennsylvania

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807775776
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	05/19/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Karen Gross is a Washington, DC–based advisor and consultant to non-profit schools, organizations, and governments. She was president of Southern Vermont College and senior policy advisor to the United States Department of Education. She is the author of a children’s book series, Lady Lucy’s Quest.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The book underscores the critical need for a high-quality college education; the significance of adequate and necessary postsecondary preparation; and the imperative for greater, deeper collaboration among higher education and K–12 partners, community support services leaders, and government officials. This book is a must-read for academics, policymakers, teachers, social service providers, police chiefs, and government officials.”
—Martha Kanter, former under secretary, U.S. Department of Education

“We need to pay attention to what Karen Gross says; the challenges are real, the need urgent. In a policy landscape as contentious as that of education reform, many of Gross’s observations and recommendations will be controversial, as she readily acknowledges. But however sharply one might dissent from one point or another, no one will come away from this book without a deep sense of reward. Read this book, then share it.”
—Mark Huddleston, president, University of New Hampshire

"Karen Gross offers practical ideas based on her research and, more importantly, on her substantial leadership in assisting our nation’s colleges and universities serving at-risk students. Gross’s dedication to low-income students was clear when she was college president, and now she urges other leaders to commit to these students as well."
—Marybeth Gasman, University of Pennsylvania

“Karen Gross's new concept of lasticity fundamentally challenges the norms of our education system and seeks to create an authentic K–16 pipeline. She renames vulnerable students “breakaway students” and recognizes that the key to teaching these young people is by honoring that the act of learning requires trust. Her bold vision for education, grounded in real in-the-trenches experience, turns the current deficiency model into an interactive one, where trust is paramount and the educator is as much a learner as the student.”
—Mary Frances Bisselle, head of school at Hathaway Brown

“Karen Gross asks schools, teachers, and administrators to change, because without change we cannot improve education or compete with other countries during the 21st century. It takes courage and tremendous effort to offer both a new paradigm and a new educational concept: "lasticity." The author deserves enormous credit for rocking the proverbial boat.”
—Irwin Adler, public school principal

“This book should be a must-read for the educational establishment. Too much educational policy and methodology is driven by barnacle-encrusted thinking. Karen Gross lays the groundwork for some new and refreshing thinking that is long overdue.”
—Wallace Altes, Altes Executive Consulting, LLC

“This book lays out a holistic set of solutions to a whole set of problems. Karen shows how to construct bridges for learning.”
—Iván Figueroa, director of Mountaineer Scholars Program & Diversity Initiatives, Southern Vermont College

Editorial Reviews

"More than a student-centered learning approach to education, Gross suggests that the educational system as a whole should assist students in developing lasticity, a term she uses to describe the quality necessary to enable breakaway students not only to complete their degrees, but also to succeed as adults in the working environment."

—Reflective Teaching

"Breakaway Learners is a timely edition to the ongoing yet critical discussion about post-secondary student success. Gross's work offers practical insights and examples for educators to tap into ‘at-risk’ students’ academic potential rather than solely focusing on their deficits."

—Journal of Children and Poverty

"...provides helpful strategies for faculty and administrators to reconsider how we are serving students who are rarely written about in the literature..."

—Journal of Political Science Education

From the Publisher