Marshall Islanders, like Latino immigrants, are largely a young, working population that will contribute to future population and workforce growth. “It’s no surprise to me that they’ve come to the United States and Arkansas seeking opportunities for employment and a better life,” said state Chamber of Commerce CEO Randy Zook. “That’s something they have in common with all immigrant groups.”
Dana Edmund
ton County, with the vast majority living in Springdale. “Technically, the Marshallese are not immigrants, but for all intents and purposes they may as well be,” says Rafael Jimeno, the University of Arkansas researcher who conducted the study. “Under an agreement with the United States, Marshall Islanders can travel and work without visas but they must apply to become legal permanent residents on the same terms as other nationalities.” Their special status is the result of a deal struck between the island nation and the United States in 1986 when the island achieved full sovereignty. Under that agreement, the Compact of Free Association, the United State provides defense, social services and other benefits to the Marshallese in exchange for the right to operate military bases on the islands. “Employment, educational opportunities and migration networks that started in the 1980s drew the Marshallese to Arkansas,” says Jimeno. “The Springdale poultry industry is the largest employer of Marshallese, with Tyson Foods, George’s and Butterball employing three-quarters of the islanders.” The report shows that the Marshallese community faces similar employment prospects, neighborhood conditions, living standards, needs for health-care and other services as those experienced by the Latino immigrant population.
Employment, educational opportunities and migration networks drew the Marshallese to Arkansas.
to improve outcomes for students by improving their ability to: • Successfully complete the courses they take • Advance from remedial to creditbearing courses • Enroll in and successfully complete gatekeeper courses • Enroll from one semester to the next and earn degrees and certificates Faculty and administrators work together to help students Achieve the Dream of graduation.
online: achievingthedream.org
No dreams deferred Many community college students across Arkansas bring more than books to school. Often they also carry the weight of their upbringing in low-wealth, rural households and of general unfamiliarity with higher education processes. These barriers sometimes hamper the students’ success and block their path to graduation. Four Arkansas community colleges, with the help of Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation in partnership with the Lumina Foundation, are working to bring down these barriers through an initiative called Achieving the Dream. The initiative’s goal is to enable colleges
Two of the colleges, Phillips County Community College of the University of Arkansas and Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock, have been honored as national leaders in efforts to provide more effective developmental education. The schools are officially designated “leader colleges” within the national Achieving the Dream initiative. They are among only 52 colleges nationally to be so recognized. Chancellor Steve Murray of the Phillips County Community College of the University of Arkansas (PCCUA) says the program has helped change the school’s culture. Where once the college may have focused on boosting enrollment, it now focuses on student success, he said. “The purpose of this initiative is
to achieve success, especially with students of color and with economically disadvantaged students. Almost all of our students fit into that category,” he said. The five rural Delta counties that PCCUA serves are among the nation’s 100 poorest. And at PCCUA, the results have been dramatic. “We more than doubled our graduation rate since 2005,” said Deborah King, PCCUA’s vice chancellor for instruction. Both colleges have gone through a sea change—evaluating previous successes and failures, setting goals for improving rates of retention and graduation, establishing new standards, improving data collection, rethinking academic advising, revising curricula, and developing new student orientation procedures. Dan Baake, the Pulaski Tech president, echoed Murray’s remarks. “We have really geared up all across the college for the Achieving the Dream initiative” Baake said. “It’s helped us form an entirely new culture—how we think, how we do things, how we operate.” Pulaski Tech, he said, concentrates on helping Achieve the Dream students get
past gatekeeper courses, on remedial math, English and writing. “Once you get them through those remedial courses, they can go on to get their associate degree or transfer to a university,” he said.” If you don’t get them out of remediation, there’s no way they can succeed.” The other participating Arkansas colleges are the College of the Ouachitas in Malvern and National Park Community College in Hot Springs. PCCUA has three campuses in Helena-West Helena, Stuttgart and DeWitt. Murray said PCCUA’s work requires administrative innovation and a reexamination of instruction methods. The effort requires active participation from administrators and faculty. It also requires a frank examination of race, class, gender, and poverty in relation to student performance. “We take ownership of the barriers to success and no longer just see them as nonacademic issues that aren’t our responsibility, “ said Murray. “It’s changed the way we see ourselves.”
wrfoundation.org - a special supplement from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation | A PROFILE OF IMMIGRANTS IN ARKANSAS - 2013 — 7