Native Son Propels Alternatives for Kentucky College students

In April, Dr. Aaron Thompson, president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Schooling (CPE), participated within the Attaining School Excellence and Fairness Summit put collectively by the U.S. Division of Schooling and the Institute for Larger Schooling Coverage. On the panel, “Choosing Proof-Based mostly Advising Methods to Enhance Scholar Outcomes,” Thompson spoke about fairness being a high precedence, noting that, if increased schooling doesn’t serve its most disenfranchised populations, then it’s failing.

Dr. Aaron ThompsonThe primary African-American individual and first native-born Kentuckian to carry the CPE presidency, Thompson is aware of how difficult the trail to and thru increased schooling may be. As the primary individual in his household to go to highschool and school, he was largely left to fend for himself rising up in under-resourced and ill-equipped colleges that served the Black neighborhood in rural Clay County, Kentucky.

“As an African American from Appalachia, whose father was illiterate and mom had an eighth grade schooling, I knew the worth of school, and if I had an opportunity to precise that with coverage, course of and procedures to assist different individuals reside out that generational dream, then I needed to make the most of that,” says Thompson. “My historical past as a complete instructed me that I wanted to be in a state of affairs the place, if I’ve the chance…to assist different individuals notice their goals with out having to undergo all that I went via to get there, then I wanted to do this.”

As indicated by a number of key metrics, over the previous decade underrepresented minority (URM) college students have made appreciable progress in retention, commencement, and persistence charges. CPE’s 2024 Larger Schooling Issues Progress Report reveals the commencement price for URM within the Kentucky Neighborhood & Technical School System (KCTCS) elevated 15 share factors from the 2016-17 educational 12 months to the 2022-23 educational 12 months. The commencement price for URM at four-year public establishments (4YP) elevated 9 share factors from 2016-17 to 2022-23, and the commencement price for low-income college students elevated 10 share factors in that point interval.

Constructing pipelines

After attending undergraduate and graduate faculty, Thompson constructed a profession as a professor, administrator, and researcher/author earlier than becoming a member of the CPE in 2009 as senior vp for educational affairs. He turned govt vp in 2013 and assumed the presidency in 2018.

CPE is a coordinating board that oversees Kentucky’s public universities, neighborhood schools, and technical schools. It additionally licenses nonprofit and for-profit increased schooling establishments within the state. A part of the CPE’s position is to convey a couple of optimistic return on the funding of public funds in increased schooling. It units an academic attainment objective for Kentucky and serves as a coverage advisor to the state. It collects, analyzes, and stories complete efficiency knowledge. The info present that attainment gaps are narrowing.