Q & A: Carnegie Foundation president shares how changes in education could benefit rural students and places

Tim Knowles wants to shift American education in ways that
could help rural communities. (Courtesy photo via the Yonder)

Every president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is asked to cast themselves into the future and make decisions about what will happen in five or even 10 years. For Tim Knowles, the foundation's 10th president, that means rethinking our educational systems and creating ways to develop rural talent and smaller-community success. An edited version of Knowles Q & A with Nick Fourienzos of The Daily Yonder is shared below.

Fouriezos: How do our current systems often miss rural students?
Knowles: Communities consistently prioritize the same core skills: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, curiosity, civic engagement, creativity, and hard work.

Think about a student in rural Iowa who wakes up at 4 a.m., works on the family farm, gets to school on time every day, does their homework, maintains good grades, and holds a weekend job. Those activities aggregated up, are clear signals of persistence. We need to figure out both how to capture that and then make it legible to employers and the post-secondary sector.

Fouriezos: How is Carnegie rethinking its classifications for post-secondary institutions?
Knowles: We’re introducing a new universal classification focused on economic opportunity. For every institution that receives federal money — about 4,000 of them — we’ll look at two main factors: access and earnings outcomes eight years after graduation.

Fouriezos: How will rural education and students be affected?
Knowles: This could particularly benefit rural institutions that serve disproportionate numbers of low-income families. About 25 states already have laws or regulations connected to the Carnegie classifications, and federal departments like NSF, NIH, and NASA use them to direct resources.

This is about making the post-secondary sector a much more vital engine for social and economic mobility. And in rural areas particularly, we need to better recognize and support the unique ways that schools and colleges contribute to their communities.

Fouriezos: Why do you feel like there is more of an appetite for actually changing higher education now, compared to in the past?
Knowles: The cost of higher education is out of reach for millions of Americans. Confidence in higher education is at an all-time low. And there are fewer college-age students in general. . . . You’re also seeing a massive lean toward Career Technical Education, with many conservative states making it more available to more students.

We need to ensure our systems are valuing and measuring the right things. By focusing on [educational] outcomes that matter, and directing public policy and public capital to the places that create genuine opportunity — even if they’re doing it in ways that don’t fit traditional models — the nation can accelerate economic opportunity for everyone.