How Mass. wants to boost college diversity in 2025

• Gov. Maura Healey's administration has vowed to find ways to reverse that trend starting next year. 

Catch up quick: Education secretary Patrick Tutwiler and higher education commissioner Noe Ortega authored the 34-page report with help from an advisory council the state formed in 2023. 

• Wednesday's report follows college admissions guidance released by Healey and Attorney General Andrea Campbell released last year. 

The latest: The report outlines recommendations for private and public colleges to make admissions processes more "holistic." 

• It also calls for boosting college prep resources and helping ensure underrepresented students finish college and find jobs with their degrees. 

Some of the recs include:

💸 Increasing access to SAT/ACT prep, including help with registration fees and providing access to local testing sites. 

📚 Increasing access to Advanced Placement courses and expanding early college and career technical education programs, especially in underserved communities.

🧑🏽‍💻 More help for students applying for state or federal financial aid, as well as adding more need-based grants over merit-based grants.

📚  Holding college and career events at middle schools so students learn about different opportunities. 

👩🏼‍🏫 Encouraging colleges to voluntarily implement "equity-centered, creative and targeted recruitment efforts" to attract a diverse applicant pool.

• That would mean admissions officers consider income level, disadvantages overcome by an applicant, cultural competencies, whether an applicant is a first-generation college student and other personal experiences.

🔎 Conduct a statewide assessment of admissions processes and criteria, including legacy admissions and binding early decision offers, to determine whether they create barriers for some students.

🍽 Offering mental health services, emergency financial aid and help with food, housing, transportation and child care — any major barrier that could prevent historically underserved students from completing their studies. 

The report also delves into how to help adults enroll in or return to college, such as:

🗣 Allocating resources to offer college and career advising to underemployed and unemployed residents. 

🧪 Expanding degree programs to fill jobs in manufacturing, clean tech, health care, biosciences and other high-demand industries.

• It also recommends expanding training and certification programs to help students gain industry skills.

🌎  Identifying ways to award college credits to adults with work experience and industry credentials, including degrees from other countries. 

💸 Making paid apprenticeships, internships, co-ops and other programs more available. 

What they're saying: "This report shows that significant, intentional work is required to reverse historic inequities in higher education for students of color and all students underrepresented on college campuses," Ortega, the commissioner, said in a statement.  

Reality check: These recommendations would be voluntary when it comes to colleges, especially private institutions.

• Colleges that adopt them would need to train college admissions officers, faculty members, advisers and others to take a more holistic, equity-centered approach with their students if they don't already, per the report.

What's next: State offices will submit implementation plans to Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll by January. 

• The state will also start quarterly assessments across agencies in December to see how the recommendations are implemented.
• But the report is just the beginning, the authors note. They predict the next school year will reveal more gaps the state will want to address to increase diversity.