Civil Rights Activist Dr. Fuller and MET School’s Littky Talk Need to Transform Education
Friday, March 15, 2019
Civil rights leader Dr. Howard Fuller and Dennis Littky, who heads Providence's MET School and College Unbound, joined GoLocal LIVE to discuss the critical need to transform -- and vary -- education models.
Both Fuller and Littky in the interview at GoLocal LIVE's studio in downtown Providence stressed that one-size education does not work for all learners. Littky said the MET School-model is now running under the leadership of The Big Picture at 75 locations across the U.S. and more than 100 around the world.
In addition, Littky is one of the founders of College Unbound, whose mission is to reinvent higher education for underrepresented returning adult learners, using a model that is individualized, interest-based, project-driven, workplace-enhanced, cohort-supported, flexible, supportive, and affordable.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“If we have learned anything from recent history, it is that those who have access to more and higher quality education succeed—personally, financially, and professionally, while those without access or opportunity to get or complete their college degree simply fall behind. The difference between the have- and have-nots is cavernous and it’s growing,” said Fuller. “College Unbound has been working to ‘level that playing field,’ so older adults, minority, and disadvantaged people can complete their degree and improve their lives and opportunities.”
Fuller, a former Senior Fellow at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, spoke about his transformation from civil rights activist to education reformer -- and that the lessons he learned as a result of his activism underscored the disparity in education, earning, and opportunity for lower-income and minority students.
The Founding Director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and former Milwaukee Superintendent of Schools, Fuller was in Providence for multiple events and he gave a call to action to all colleges and universities to make higher education relevant to the real-life interests of students and the challenges that face our society today.