Class Dismissed: When Colleges Ignore Inequality and Students Pay the Price

by Anthony Abraham Jack

Class Dismissed reveals the entrenched inequities that harm our most vulnerable students and what colleges can do to help them excel

Elite colleges are boasting unprecedented numbers with respect to diversity, with some schools admitting their first majority-minority classes. But when the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racial unrest gripped the world, schools scrambled to figure out what to do with the diversity they so fervently recruited. And disadvantaged students suffered. Class Dismissed exposes how woefully unprepared colleges were to support these students and shares their stories of how they were left to weather the storm alone and unprotected.

Drawing on the firsthand experiences of students from all walks of life at elite colleges, Anthony Abraham Jack reveals the out-of-sight and unequal worlds students navigated before and during the pandemic closures and upon their return to campus. He shows how COVID-19 exacerbated the very inequalities that universities ignored or failed to address long before campus closures. Jack examines how students dealt with the disruptions caused by the pandemic, how they navigated social unrest, and how they grappled with problems of race both on campus and off.

A provocative and much-needed book, Class Dismissed paints an intimate and unflinchingly candid portrait of the challenges of undergraduate life for disadvantaged students even in the elite schools that invest millions to diversify their student body. Moreover, Jack offers guidance on how to make students’ path to graduation less treacherous—guidance colleges would be wise to follow.

This audiobook narrated by Anthony Abraham Jack reveals the entrenched inequities that harm our most vulnerable students and what colleges can do to help them excel.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Sociology, Science

Audible Audio

Published August 13, 2024

About the author

Anthony Abraham Jack is Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Shutzer Assistant Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. He has written for the New York Times and the Washington Post, and his research has been featured on The Open Mind, All Things Considered, and CNN. The Privileged Poor was named an NPR Books Best Book of 2019.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important book about the inequities faced by disadvantaged students (e.g., low income, students of color, students with both those identities) at college, with Harvard as the site for this specific study. Anthony Abraham Jack details the disparities between these students especially in the context of COVID-19, for example how wealthy students could afford to take lavish vacations whereas low-income students were often forced to go back to difficult home situations and struggle for financial security. There were interesting points too about the performativity of social justice, like how White students could post on social media about being anti-racist even while literally perpetuating racism in their day-to-day lives.

There were times while reading this book that I felt like I was reading anecdote after anecdote. They were important anecdotes but it seemed a bit repetitive stylistically, almost like I was reading a long results section of a qualitative peer-reviewed publication in book form. Still, the content is important so if you’re interested in education and equity issues, you may want to check this one out.

[Trish Swanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Staff book club discussion group. College life during Covid. Insightful yet still a lot of questions about how this study was conducted, as it is repetitive and it lacks some information regarding socioeconomic background.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't just an important read for everyone about the inequities for students in colleges, it is also really readable and personal. The author conducted meticulous interviews with over a 100 college students, starting in March 2020, during the height of the Covid pandemic. The students were so open about housing and food insecurities as well as the privilege that wealth and race bring into the equation. And how unpaid labor is treated differently (both professionally and personally) depending on resources. It was really hard to read this in the late spring of 2025, where the current administration is attacking people of color and colleges, with a special focus on Harvard, where most of the interviewees attended. And I hope, more people read this book and understand that admitting students from marginalized backgrounds, is only the first step in supporting them but that a multi pronged approach is necessary to help them truly succeed (and I don't mean academically, but a multi disciplinary approach for the entire faculty, staff and student population in colleges).

[Elena Barrera-Waters · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read this bc i was going to an event with the author but then the event was canceled so i’m sad now

it was a little dry (but also what was i expecting? clearly a research project) but the content was relevant to my work and i still learned some stuff! i also rly liked that the author gave actual (FEASIBLE) suggestions and action items for school admin, i feel like that’s rare w books/research like this

[Seung · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the get go, I felt this book in my soul. I used to joke that staying at my college over break was the wild west with the dining halls being closed. A lot of doemstic FGLI students even pointed out the fact that a lot of us couldn't even work during breaks as jobs went to international students first. I remember my junior and senior year was especially rough. There was a time senior year when at home, I had to use my phone as a mobile hotspot and use a box as a table in the bathroom to write a paper. Food wasn't guranteed and neither was safety or the space to think about the complex emergent systems of ants. The hood and going back to poverty and dealing with the compounding traumatic incidents were complex enough. Yet, I graduated somehow. Did I enjoy my 4 years? Looking back I can say I appreciated it, but it wasn't particularily enjoyable. So hearing how these issues still remains and were exacerbated by COVID, wasn't a surprise. However, I'm writiing all of this from reading just the first chapter. I'm sure my thoughts about this book will only improve. Feel very valdiated but also learn something new about how I can improve the experience of the FLGI kids that will come after me.

[Joy Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an audible automatic suggestion, as I had read "The privileged poor" a few years back. Quite honestly, I was not 'into' the first text, but decided to read this anyway. I am so glad I did.

Anthony's work as a story teller, a scholar, and a social justice advocate in this book shows his own development and fine-tuning of skills that were used to poetically and powerfully tell the stories we need to know. I hope that those in power, those who hold the status of inequity in their control, read these pages and hear these experiences and find discomfort enough to make changes that matter.

To the participants: thank you for sharing our stories through your stories

Dr. Jack: if you read this review, may you know your work is good. I hope you find satisfaction in the toil of your journey and work.

[Stephanie Gardiner-Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an audible automatic suggestion, as I had read "The privileged poor" a few years back. Quite honestly, I was not 'into' the first text, but decided to read this anyway. I am so glad I did.

Anthony's work as a story teller, a scholar, and a social justice advocate in this book shows his own development and fine-tuning of skills that were used to poetically and powerfully tell the stories we need to know. I hope that those in power, those who hold the status of inequity in their control, read these pages and hear these experiences and find discomfort enough to make changes that matter.

To the participants: thank you for sharing our stories through your stories

Dr. Jack: if you read this review, may you know your work is good. I hope you find satisfaction in the toil of your journey and work.

[Claude Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I felt as though this book did an excellent job at shedding light on various problems that were further illuminated when COVID came about, those dealing with income inequality as well as racism. I’m really glad he included info about Native peoples because I have never learned much about their discrimination before. I would’ve given it 5 stars but there were several parts about the writing style that I didn’t like. Don’t get me wrong I liked the anecdotes but sometimes there were too many back-to-back. Lastly, I was getting annoyed at the overuse of the words affluent and animus. In the first section of the book especially, he would use “affluent” sometimes 5 times on one page like pleaseee pick a different synonym.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for a well-written, well-researched look at how COVID and the racial unrest of 2020 disproportionately impacted students along racial and economic lines.

This book is mostly a series of qualitative interviews with Harvard students, written in book form. Some findings are genuinely interesting and sparked new ideas for me. Other findings seem incredibly obvious, even if you haven’t worked with college students before. At times I found the writing to get a bit repetitive.

Nevertheless, this book was well done and will likely be of interest to anyone curious about race relations, higher education, or even just qualitative research as a discipline.

[David Smedley · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book that argues that colleges and universities must take stronger consideration of place from which their students come for their needs during their enrollment, and to address services to attend to such needs, using the impact of the COVID outbreak and campus closures as example. An argument that, as a professional higher education administrator mostly out of student aid administration, I endorse. Place is a concept not strongly understood in terms of impact on the need to provide student services (and this would include student aid, in my opinion).

[Star Wickett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a great insight on how both sides of college life made it through the chaos of COVID. Jack provides so many stories and insights on what minority students go through during the semester and how COVID highlighted those issues.

[Sophie Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthony Abraham Jack writes in such an evocative way. This book is moving, powerful, and much needed. I'll be using excerpts in my dissertation but also returning to it because of the compelling writing.

[Cordelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This got a bit repetitive just given the structure and academic method, but a book filled with important insights

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not particularly compelling. Some interesting points and ideas here and there, though...

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Post-Covid recap | Used Harvard as the setting | But goes beyond that

[Linda Ann]

Too descriptive and emotional in its writing, less scientific. I can't finish it.

[Kara Kristine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is real, thought-provoking, eye-opening. I think for those of us in education, it is an essential read/listen.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read! Written in an understandable, beautiful way to bring a problem to light - everyone has seen it and talks about inequality in every campus and Dr Anthony Abraham Jack shows the problem in a way we desperately need to see it on campuses. Honest, true and a must read

[Kayli · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Unless we get a handle on how these durable inequalities—from poverty to joblessness to segregation—affect the transition to college, and the experience of college—and adulthood for that matter—universities will fail the students who they spend millions to recruit.”

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