Excellent book. I agree with Mr. Tough. I have spent the last, maybe 20 years encouraging kids to consider trade schools as I no longer think college is worth the price of admission. For most people,college is only going to lead their parents did WITHOUT college, little money, few jobs, and loads of debt! I attended college and thought it prepared me nothing I do on my job that I couldn't have done without the waste of time in trivia my colleges taught! If to make money to escape poverty or even just break even on the lower middle class is your goal, trade school will likely do the job better, or as well, as going to college. Society will always need mechanics, plumbers, electricians, etc... Everyone should read this book before committing to college. Kudos Mr. Tough.

First up, this isn’t a guide on how to get into college. Nor is it reassurance that it doesn’t matter which college you get into. Instead, it’s an examination of the college playing field, and not only will you better understand just how tilted it is but also how, even when where attempts are made to make it more level, the inequalities can persist. At the same time, Tough highlights signals of hope and bright spots where dedicated people are invested in helping more students succeed in and benefit from the college system. This is an insightful and thought-provoking read.

A really thought provoking book that made me reexamine everything I thought I knew about college admissions. It will change how I help students, including my own son, navigate the process. It will also affect how I teach my students. Mostly, Paul Tough, changed tug he context through which I view higher education and what it means to be successful.

THE YEARS THAT MATTER MOST by Paul Tough has been generating quite a bit news lately. Please NOTE that Paul Tough will be a FAN (Family Action Network) speaker at 7:00pm on Monday, Sept. 16 at the Cornog Auditorium on New Trier High School's Northfield campus; more details at link below.

Tough is known for his earlier best-selling work, How Children Succeed, and he contributes regularly to The New York Times, such as with this recent and very popular article: "What College Admissions Offices Really Want" which itself is adapted from this new book where Tough writes about "How College Makes or Breaks Us," compiling anecdotes and statistics. He begins the book with a student waiting to hear admissions decisions from Princeton and University of Pennsylvania who says, "It feels like everything is depending on this. Which sounds dramatic, I know. But it's true." That emotion is certainly consistent with attitudes from our students and some parents, too. Tough empathizes and goes on to argue that "in sharp contrast to other ages and other cultures, mobility in the United States today depends, in large part, on what happens to individuals during a relatively brief period in late adolescence and early adulthood." He outlines the studies which Raj Chetty has conducted about social mobility and the role of college. One point I found particularly interesting was Tough's summary that "in prewar [WWII] America, it may have taken pluck and elbow grease [i.e., entrepreneurship] to rise above your birth, but in postwar America, what it usually took was a college degree." What about the future? Is this situation changing yet again in the 21st century?

Tough also offers an entire chapter on fitting in, describing the experiences of first generation students at Princeton, Amherst and elsewhere. He later addresses the Graduation Gap, plus feelings of belonging and inclusion in a chapter titled "Staying In." Tough describes a variety of higher education programs and approaches in a very engaging and thought-provoking manner. He moves between individual stories to a societal lens, looking, for example, at the role of the federal government and contrasting proposals from FDR and the Obama White House. I have already been recommending this new book to teachers, parents, and administrators, including our Post-High School Counselors. It is fascinating. Student researchers will appreciate the over 30 pages of notes and useful index. THE YEARS THAT MATTER MOST received starred reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly.

Here is a video of his interview (aired Sept. 13 and lasting about 10 minutes) on PBS NewsHour:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/admissions-scandal-highlights-disconnect-between-colleges-message-and-action

Other links in live post:
https://www.familyactionnetwork.net/events/1672/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/10/magazine/college-admissions-paul-tough.html

absolutely outstanding. breaks down some important information about our higher education system and features some truly incredible anecdotes. I teared up towards the end. My higher ed friends MUST read this book, especially because a lot of it is taking a look our class- many of the interviewees in this book were in college from 2013-2017. It is relevant information for those of us taking on various roles in higher education.