Innovation for equity: A conversation with McGraw Prize winner Estela Mara Bensimon

Throughout her career, 2020 McGraw Prize in Education winner Estela Mara Bensimon has worked to create more equitable environments for everyone in college communities. Through her work as the Founding Director of the Center for Urban Education at the USC Rossier School of Education, Bensimon gave faculty and administrators across the country tools to make their curricula more equitable and inclusive. 

In recent years, she has published Whiteness Rules: Racial Exclusion in Becoming an American College President as part of a collaboration with the College Futures Foundation. She also serves as a consultant on racial equity to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s postsecondary group. 

The progress toward a more equitable higher education landscape has not been linear, and some equity programs have been challenged or pared back. But Bensimon remains optimistic that a better system is within reach. We spoke with her about the possibilities for innovation in higher education and what advice she would offer a new college student. 

Q: What opportunities for innovation in higher education are you most excited about now?

A: Inequality is an enduring feature of our system of higher education.  Inequality is evident in the distribution of students by race and income in elite vs. non-elite institutions; in wealthy vs. underresourced institutions, and so on. The major challenge, hence the opportunity for innovation, is the elimination of organizational structures and policies that contribute to inequality. For example, we need innovative policies to fix transfer pathways from community colleges to four-year colleges. We need to reform pedagogical practices to increase access into STEM fields for racially minoritized students.

I am most excited about the progressive policies that have been adopted in California to eliminate remedial non-credit English and math courses in community colleges and the creation of the Transfer Associate Degree which makes BA attainment for community college students more achievable.  Finally, the elimination of affirmative action in college admissions requires innovative admissions practices to sustain and continue advancing racial diversity.

Q: There isn't a shared understanding of the return on investment of a postsecondary education. What is your pitch for why higher education matters now more than ever? 

Show the lifetime income differences for college educated and non-college educated; the link between democracy and education. The national outlook for democracy is dismal. We are becoming a narrow-minded and intolerant country and one way out is through education. The policy changes around abortion, immigration, affirmative action, voting rights, and the partisan divisiveness are frightening. We have to demonstrate, factually, the democratic benefits of higher education as Howard Bowen did 50 years ago.

Q: What’s one myth or misconception about higher education you wish you could correct?

A: That it is meritocratic.

Q: What’s one piece of advice you would offer a student about to enter college or university?

A: My fictitious student is a Latina first-generation student at a public broad access institution.  Here is what I would say: 1) Learn the strategies for participating in class discussions. This can be scary and you might be concerned that peers will be judgmental and make assumptions based on your accent if you have one; 2) connect with other Latinx students and organized groups to establish a community and learn from their experiences; 3) find mentors, e.g., an instructor who appears to care and rely on them for guidance; 4) take advantage of the resources and opportunities the institution offers; 5) get a job on campus; 6) read the newspaper every day and listen to NPR to know what is going on in politics, economy, and culturally; 7) make plans for internships.