When we remove the notion that, for many, obtaining higher education is more about job attainment and less about the social good, we are forced to look in the mirror and ask whether or not the work of higher education institutions as we currently conceive it functions for all students who are enrolling with the hope of a brighter future. Cottom’s disdain for these practices is evident as she proclaims, “the idea that higher education is a moral good is allowable only insofar as higher education serves market interests.” Her experience provides insight into practices of enrolling students in programs that, more often than not, do not meet the expectations outlined and can often leave students in financial distress. Tressie McMillan Cottom via Wikimedia CommonsĬurrently an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, Cottom hails from a professional background of working at both for-profit and not-for-profit institutions of higher education. Championed as the great equalizer, higher education has been dangled like a carrot to lower- and lower-middle-class people as a way to climb the socioeconomic ladder to a better life. Cottom not only addresses attainment, but also the types of educational opportunities that are available to students as well as how the systems in place can both discourage their participation and take advantage of their desire for participation. Cottom’s (2017) book, Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy, provides readers insight on how students’ socioeconomic status plays a role in higher education. Many have viewed education as a way to change the trajectory of an entire family for generations to come (Song, 2016). The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy. LOWER ED: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy (Review)Ĭottom, T.M.

If you’re looking for a quarantine read that can shed light on educational precarity and access issues, this book should be on your list. Given the distance between the books’ publication and the changing realities of higher education in the current political landscape, this text remains relevant to all who seek to serve and support students on campus. The following review was created by first-year doctoral student Kimberley Turner-Rush. Brittany Williams, was developed to help students explore academic writing forms beyond the traditional paper format and to give students an opportunity to interweave a book review with other assigned course readings. In our Spring 2020 HiEd820: The College Student course, doctoral students had the opportunity to choose between writing a book review and participating in a course discussion.

Lower ed by tressie mcmillan cottom