Chalkbeat

A new Colorado report is unlikely to quiet renewed national debate about test-optional admissions

2026-08-28T22:00:52+00:00

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Making standardized test scores optional for college admissions in Colorado hasn’t hurt students and may have helped increase applications and admissions, according to a new state report.

In 2020, Colorado lawmakers temporarily allowed four-year institutions to stop using national assessments such as the SAT or ACT to determine eligibility for high school seniors graduating in 2021. A year later, lawmakers made that policy permanent.

The July analysis comes during a renewed national debate over test-optional admissions policies, which became widespread during the pandemic. About 90% of universities nationwide for fall 2027 will maintain a test-optional approach like the policy in Colorado, according to FairTest, a national nonprofit that advocates against the use of tests in admissions.

The report says many of the findings remain inconclusive due to the influence of COVID on students’ college decisions. Some students chose to defer college or skip altogether.

Despite the reliability of the pandemic-era data, the report points to some possible benefits, such as clearing barriers to enrollment, said Carl Einhaus, Colorado Department of Higher Education chief student success and academic affairs officer. First‑time freshman acceptances increased from 101,208 in 2019 to 124,617 in 2021.

And the policy certainly hasn’t harmed students, he said.

“We don’t see anything alarming in terms of a negative impact on retention, enrollment, and so forth,” Einhaus said. “So I think that that is a potential positive.”

Since tests became optional in 2021, freshman acceptance rates increased across racial groups, including among Black and Hispanic students, according to the report.

The report also found that more students returned during their second year among those who did and did not submit test scores. The rate jumped to 72.6% in 2021, up from 45.5% in 2019. Students who submitted scores still had higher retention rates, which increased from 74.8% in 2019 to 78.6% in 2021.

Several universities reported that test-optional policies have prompted a greater reliance on high school grades to determine student college readiness — a point that is central to the national debate about rolling back test-optional admissions policies.

Some Colorado university officials said the test-optional policy didn’t impact their admissions operations. Total applications to Colorado schools increased from 134,748 to 153,441, driven mostly by a 469.4% increase in students who didn’t submit a test. More than 98,482 students didn’t submit.

The University of Colorado Boulder, for example, has maintained a holistic admissions approach, and students can choose whether to submit test scores. The school looks at “the full picture of each applicant and a range of academic and other factors that can help us assess their potential to succeed in our academic environment,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

Colorado Mesa University President John Marshall said that while he agrees that tests don’t determine success, the reliance on grades has created more work for his university as it determines what academic support students need.

“We have some academic preparation holes that often have nothing to do with kids, it’s just where they grew up,” he said. “For whatever shortcomings these tests have, one of the things they do a good job is shining a light on some of those holes.”

Marshall said he’s seen more incoming freshmen who aren’t ready for college since the switch to test-optional admissions. Those students must take a pre-college assessment to determine whether they are prepared for certain courses, he said.

This is a similar argument to faculty in the University of California system, who have said restoring testing requirements would help determine academic readiness and could help identify students who might need additional support.

Some elite institutions reverted to requiring tests after the pandemic, citing research that said test scores can help predict student success in college.

Akil Bello, FairTest’s admissions testing policy expert, said in a Wednesday news release that other studies show “high school GPA is still the best indicator of college success except perhaps at a handful of unique institutions.”

Correction: Aug. 28, 2026: This story has been corrected to clarify that applications and admissions may have increased since Colorado colleges went test optional, not enrollment.

Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

The most advantaged students attend the best-funded colleges. Does it have to be this way?

2026-08-18T14:28:17+00:00

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The prevailing philosophy of American higher education is simple enough: The best-funded universities ought to be reserved for the best-qualified students, who are largely from advantaged backgrounds.

Such is the reality described in a new study set to be released through the National Bureau of Economic Research in the coming weeks. The paper documents the all-encompassing stratification of American higher education. It is not simply that top students go to more selective colleges; it’s that those colleges spend far more on their students’ education. This is not just true of elite private universities; it applies to public colleges as well.

In practice, higher education’s pyramid-like structure means that the rich — both academically and financially — get richer through a well-funded college education. At the moment, higher education is under fire for what critics describe as equity and DEI efforts run amok. Yet its intensely unequal structure remains solidly in place.

The basic facts described in this new study — by Princeton’s Zachary Bleemer and UC Berkeley’s Jesse Rothstein — are not terribly surprising, but they are rarely laid out so starkly from top to bottom.

At hyper-elite private colleges, there are more students from the top 1% of family income than from the bottom 40%. At public flagship universities, students from the top 20% outnumber those from the bottom 80%. “The more selective the college, the higher-income are its students,” the study says. Those schools also, of course, enroll students with much higher test scores.

Young adults who don’t enroll in college at all tend to come from the least-advantaged families.

This income and academic stratification correlates neatly with the money spent on students’ education, Bleemer and Rothstein show. Elite private schools spend by far the most — often well over $50,000 per student on instruction — but the public system is also highly unequal. Selective public four-year colleges spend more than twice as much per student as community colleges.

This resource gap was not always so extreme; it grew substantially between 1980 and 2010.

The study relies on detailed data to connect students’ family income to their college about a decade and a half ago; there is little evidence this relationship has weakened in the intervening years.

Bleemer and Rothstein say this current arrangement reflects a “meritocratic consensus” — the belief that the quality of students’ college education should depend on their success in high school. This is strangely uncontroversial. In K-12 schools, educators and policymakers often make efforts to drive more support and resources to struggling students. In higher education, the prevailing, albeit usually unstated, belief is that such students deserve less support.

The result is that American higher education widens the inequality of opportunity that begins in childhood. This system is not simply the result of free choices in a free market; it is supported, subsidized, and, in the case of public universities, created by the government.

The study is descriptive in nature, but Bleemer and Rothstein eventually acknowledge their own thinking. “There is little economic evidence justifying the status quo on efficiency grounds, and substantial room for skepticism,” they conclude.

Rothstein tells me that he would like to see more funding for community colleges. Bleemer notes that selective schools can exist without such massive resource differences.

Some adherents to higher ed’s “meritocratic consensus” have insisted that less academically prepared students do not benefit from the better-funded education that more selective colleges have to offer. Yet research suggests this is simply not the case, and it would be rather strange if it were.

When choosing a school, “the one number that you want to look up is what is being spent on a student in the college or university,” Stanford economist Caroline Hoxby recently advised. This is a key reason why equity advocates in higher education have been desperate to get more low-income students into elite schools, albeit with limited success.

The result of the current system is not simply that some students don’t get to attend their dream colleges. It’s that their fallback options often provide a worse-quality education.

Yet efforts to break the “meritocratic consensus” have drawn fierce pushback. At the University of California system, faculty have complained about underprepared students slipping through the admissions sieve since standardized tests were dropped from consideration. The response, faculty and others insist, should be to keep such students out. Little attention is paid to where they would go instead.

Matt Barnum is Chalkbeat’s ideas editor. Reach him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.

144,000 Coloradans are in student loan default as repayment struggles increase nationwide

2026-08-12T15:30:00+00:00

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Violet Knowles said her $3,678.69 in student loan debt is haunting her like a specter.

Violet and her husband Stellan Knowles, both 24, said they’ve tried to pay off the debt, which was borrowed by her mom. But they were stymied by technical difficulties in setting up their account with the debt servicer.

“We’d be on hold for hours,” Violet said, “and then eventually the phone line would just click.”

In April, the notice of default came.

Nationwide since 2024, there’s been a surge of borrowers like Violet who have missed nine months of payments, with many more borrowers at risk of ending up in the same spot. The consequences of falling behind can disrupt lives, ruin credit ratings, and mean the debt could be sent to collections.

The number of borrowers whose loans are in default jumped by more than 4.2 million to around 9.5 million from April 2025 to March 2026, according to an Associated Press analysis. The increase includes many borrowers who got off track in 2024, when loan payments started coming due again after a pandemic-era freeze.

In Colorado, the analysis shows 58,000 more Coloradans defaulted on their loans during the same time period, a 67% increase that brought the total number of residents in default to 144,000.

“I am seeing despair and outrage and despondency and just a very wide mix of pretty extreme emotions the likes of which I have not seen before,” said Alan Collinge, the founder of Student Loan Justice, a student loan borrower advocacy organization, and the author of “The Student Loan Scam.”

As a pandemic relief measure, the federal government allowed borrowers to suspend student loan payments until 2023, and President Joe Biden’s administration provided a one-year grace period after that. That ended in fall 2024, allowing loans to enter into default after nine months of missed payments.

Today more than 1 in 5 borrowers are in default, including those whose loans were well past due before the pandemic, according to the AP analysis. The previous record for borrowers in default was 8 million in December 2019.

Federal data shows that many borrowers are struggling to pay their loans but aren’t yet in default. About 870,000 borrowers have loans between 181 and 270 days late — on the edge of default — according to the AP analysis.

For Violet and Stellan Knowles, the debt has added another layer of stress.

The Knowleses moved from Memphis, Tennessee, to Aurora, Colorado, in August 2024. With the shuffle, Violet lost track of when the notices for payment started coming in from attending college in Illinois, which she never finished. Stellan said he believes the letters came just after the pandemic-era freeze on payments.

The Knowleses said that financial challenges have made it difficult to get a handle on the debt.

Stellan said the cost of living is far more expensive in Colorado than in Memphis, and only he can work. Violet, who said she has a disability, needed to take time off from a job. The two have used Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits to help them get by.

“The cost of living has been brutal,” Stellan said. “Everything goes to rent, and there’s pennies to spare to go to all the other expenses.”

Stellan said the lack of access to the student loan account has been the biggest issue. The monthly payment was $250 a month at first. Then the monthly ask started to rise.

“And even though we’ve always had limited income, that was definitely doable, and I was willing to pay that,” he said.

Stellan and Violet said they’re lucky the federal government isn’t garnishing wages right now. They want to consolidate the debt, which will allow them to start payments. Violet will also start a job with AmeriCorps this week, and she plans to use an education stipend to help pay her loans and finish college.

For now, the student loan debt will haunt Violet and Stellan for a while longer.

“I want to pay it off,” she said, “because I want it gone.”

Colorado will select training programs for new Pell initiative. But data shows a ‘mixed bag’ in outcomes.

2026-07-31T21:40:59+00:00

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Low-income students in Colorado will soon be eligible for short-term job training through an expansion of Pell Grants, the federal program that provides need-based aid for higher education.

But it’s unclear whether the new Workforce Pell program will deliver quick access to high-wage, high-demand careers, as its supporters envision.

Explore The HEA Group and Open Campus data

An analysis by research firm The HEA Group and Open Campus Media found that earnings outcomes vary dramatically across Colorado’s job certificate programs, with about one-third failing to produce higher wages than a high school diploma alone four years after graduation.

Colorado officials soon will decide which certificate programs will be eligible for Workforce Pell. To be included, programs must be accredited, have a documented history in the state, and students must make a higher income than the basic cost of living plus the tuition they paid.

Michael Itzkowitz of The HEA Group said the data his organization compiled should help state leaders understand that helping students get what they need from these types of programs will require plenty of evaluation.

The data shows most graduates from Colorado’s certificate programs earn more than their peers with just a high school degree. But the geographic region, program size, and school students attend factor into the wages they earn, Itzkowitz said.

“I think it’s a pretty good starting point for folks as the state policymakers are wondering what programs do we make eligible for this new program,” Itzkowitz said.

The state will take applications for eligible state Workforce Pell training programs through Aug. 15. Once programs are selected, Workforce Pell is expected to grant students about $2,200 a year for their education.

Already, Colorado leaders have expressed concerns about different program outcomes for students. A Colorado Department of Higher Education spokesperson said state leaders want programs that “ensure Workforce Pell investments actually provide value for learners and employers.”

The HEA data shows numerous examples of what Itzkowitz described as a “mixed bag” in Colorado, with results varying drastically for students.

In the case of a dental support services certificate, a student graduating from Pueblo Community College in the southern part of the state can earn a median salary of $64,622. Meanwhile, someone with that same certificate from Concorde Career College in Aurora, a private for-profit school in metro Denver, earns a median salary of $36,010.

President of Concorde Colleges Kevin Prehn didn’t address the lower pay of some of the schools’ programs, but said in a statement “an incredible amount of research” goes into selecting its programs, and college leaders seek to prop up programs with high growth and wage potential.

In another example of variability within the state, Pima Medical Institute’s graduates have some of the highest wage potential among all nursing certificate programs. The data shows median earnings of about $73,000 a year. The same program at different schools can show annual median wage disparity as high as $20,000. And it’s unclear why these differences exist.

Itzkowitz said the state can also use this data to articulate what it doesn’t want to see.

Programs like cosmetology are popular with students, but the HEA data shows it’s one of the most likely programs to leave students worse off financially.

Itzkowitz said “some institutions will often offer credentials where there aren’t available jobs or enough available jobs within the geographic region that they’re offering, so they’re just pumping out credentials.”

Colorado Mesa University President John Marshall agreed that the issues Itzkowitz flagged are problems that schools should evaluate.

CMU Tech, a division of the college that offers certificates and associate degrees, has several programs that have done a better job of helping graduates earn some of the highest average earnings in the state, the data shows.

Part of the school’s success has been eliminating programs where there is no longer a need, such as an oil field services certificate program the school stopped offering in recent years, Marshall said.

Marshall said finding dedicated professionals to teach these classes also has to be paramount but can be difficult and will affect program quality.

And Colorado Mesa leaders work to market to students about professions they never knew existed instead of funneling them into programs that don’t improve earnings.

Marshall said some of his top programs for earnings might be harder to explain, like machining, but the school is committed to “helping our kids see what the possibilities are, and how that is translating into marketable skills for them.”

Itzkowitz said the challenges schools face with the programs is why he shares a reserved optimism about what’s possible in training more students through Workforce Pell.

“This isn’t the silver bullet,” he said. “As nothing ever is.”

This college rodeo team is mostly women. Here’s why that matters for rural men.

2026-07-09T22:52:53+00:00

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On the way back from the College National Finals Rodeo, graduate student Justise Jones and her assistant coach discussed a pertinent question: Where have all the cowboys gone?

Of about 30 athletes on the Colorado Mesa University rodeo team, only four are men, even though they have traditionally dominated the sport. The team’s ratio is an extreme example of an underexamined trend: fewer rural men are attending four-year colleges.

Even when men join the team, Jones said, “it’s really tough to get boys to stick around.”

While experts say rural men often don’t need a college degree to make a living in their communities, they also worry the men will miss out on opportunities for increased economic mobility, greater civic engagement, and access to healthcare. Researchers also worry that fewer rural men in college might weaken the health of rural communities by reducing the skilled workforce and decreasing the tax base.

National college data shows rural residents are less likely than urban and suburban residents to earn a bachelor’s degree, and men attend college at lower rates than women.

At Colorado Mesa in Grand Junction, about 54% of students are women. The school tracks the counties and regions students come from but doesn’t specifically classify students as rural. However, many students come from rural areas of Colorado. Nationally, there is a significant lack of data on rural students.

Some Colorado Mesa academic programs are drawing more interest from rural men. They include CMU Tech, the college’s two-year, open-admission school that offers vocational programs such as welding and electric line work.

Research has shown a sense of belonging on campus also helps attract students to college. The rodeo team helps embody that idea. The team was established at CMU as a club in the 1970s before becoming a varsity sport in 2018.

The annual school rodeo has become one of the university’s largest events. The event also features a barbecue competition called the Maverick Meat Up where President John Marshall smokes free food for students and community members.

“Rodeo week is probably the most stressful week,” said Wylee Mitchell, a female rodeo athlete who recently graduated from Colorado Mesa. “But it is the best experience that I had while in college.”

But rodeo coach Branden Edwards said some of the roadblocks to attracting rural men have been financial, and he wants more scholarships to help offset the costs of attending college. He also said he often has to negotiate with rural men about what college can offer them, while recruiting women tends to be easier.

“A lot more of the women that we’re recruiting are wanting to go into business, education, accounting, or nursing,” he said. “So Mesa is the dream come true for them.”

University of Kentucky professor Ty McNamee, who studies rural colleges and students, said the rodeo team’s experience mirrors what he’s seen across the country. McNamee and several colleagues are studying why gender in rural areas factors into the likelihood of going to college.

His research shows that men often feel more pressure to provide for their families, place less value on a college degree, and are less likely to enroll if they come from lower-income households.

The women on Colorado Mesa’s rodeo team back up what Edwards and McNamee have seen in how expectations and culture can shape whether a student goes to college.

For Jones, who is from Canada, college was an expectation. That’s not always the case in families where men are expected to work or help on a farm or ranch.

“That’s just kind of like the way it goes,” Jones said.

For McKenzie Betts, a 20-year-old senior from rural Alaska, going to college wasn’t necessarily about whether she could make a living in a rural area. She saw college as a gateway to create options for herself, no matter where she lives.

“The value of higher education is that it sets you apart when it comes to looking for your job in your career field, and it gives you a head start,” she said.

Edwards, who is from rural Colorado and graduated from CMU, said many rural men can make a living by working hard and having an entrepreneurial mindset.

But he also tries to communicate to prospective student athletes that he’s been afforded many opportunities because of his college education, even if he’s no longer working in the field he studied.

“College is just a great doorway into giving you options and how you want to make a living,” he said. “How you want to affect people and how you want to meet change.”

Colorado receives funding to bring back the FAFSA completion tracker

2026-07-01T20:18:03+00:00

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Six months after state budget cuts left Colorado high school counselors without access to a financial aid application tracking tool, the state is poised to get it back.

Colorado has received a two-year, $177,350 grant from the Statewide Internet Portal Authority to reactivate the Colorado Financial Aid Portal. The tool helps counselors track individual student progress on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The form opens up free college aid and scholarships to students.

“We saw a need to really address this important step in the process of Colorado students accessing higher education,” said Noah Kaplan, director of the Colorado SIPA GovGrants program.

Lawmakers cut funding for the administrator who oversaw the portal as part of efforts to close a $1.2 billion shortfall in the 2025-26 budget year. The Colorado Department of Higher Education said counselors would lose access to the tool in December due to the cut.

College advisors said losing the portal would quadruple their workload because they would have to return to asking students one by one about their FAFSA progress instead of using data to identify those who needed help.

In the SIPA grant application, groups such as the Denver Scholarship Foundation said losing the tool left educators “scrambling to gather information through time-consuming investigating.”

National College Attainment Network experts, who track and advocate for FAFSA progress and policies, said the statewide tool’s demise was unheard of during a time when states, including Colorado, want to increase financial aid application completion.

The NCAN FAFSA tracker shows a record 58.6% of students completed the form this year. Experts attribute the increase in part to a simplified federal application.

Colorado’s FAFSA completion rate also increased, but the state once again ranked near the bottom of the nation, with only 46.3% of high school seniors filling out the form.

What it means when a Colorado college is designated a Basic Needs Campus or a Thriving Institution

2026-06-30T21:21:01+00:00

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Earlier this month, the Colorado Department of Higher Education announced a newly revamped Basic Needs Campus designation recognizing 17 colleges and universities for supporting students facing challenges such as food insecurity and mental health needs.

The designation is one of four state recognition programs aimed at encouraging public and private colleges and universities to better support students. While the designations don’t come with additional funding, they establish statewide standards for how colleges and universities provide services that help students stay enrolled, graduate, and prepare for careers.

CDHE Chief Educational Equity Officer Gillian McKnight-Tutein said the designations have helped hold schools accountable even without funding. She added they have fostered collaboration among campuses and created a sense of pride as schools share strategies to help students succeed.

“Schools want to send a signal to their students, ‘We got you, we have your back, and we will take care of you when you’re here,’” said McKnight-Tutein, who oversees the state’s designation programs.

The revamped Basic Needs Campus designation combines the former Healthy Minds Campus and Hunger Free Campus recognitions. Here’s a rundown of all of the higher education designations and what they mean.

What are the designations?

Colorado’s higher education designations fall into three broad categories: student success, career preparation, and student well-being. The state has plans to create other designations, McKnight-Tutein said.

The first category, which includes designations created by the state legislature, focuses on student success.

In 2024, Colorado lawmakers created the First-Generation Serving Institution designation to measure how well colleges and universities support students who are the first in their families to attend college. To earn the designation, schools must enroll first-generation students at rates above the statewide average. Twenty-one schools have earned the designation.

Lawmakers also created the Thriving Institutions designation this year. The state expects to begin recognizing campuses this fall and honor colleges and universities based on measures including student retention and graduation rates.

The second type of designation focuses on how well colleges and universities prepare students for jobs.

The Career Connected Campus designation recognizes schools that provide students with work-based learning experiences and prepare them for in-demand, high-wage careers. Twelve schools have earned the designation.

The state also recognizes colleges and universities that participate in a network of schools seeking to expand work-based learning opportunities.

The third category centers on students’ social well-being. That includes the revamped Basic Needs Campus designation, which awards schools “cornerstone” or “comprehensive” status based on the mental health and food support services available to students.

McKnight-Tutein said the designations help signal to students that certain supports should be available no matter where they attend college in Colorado. The department also encourages campuses to test new approaches and share successful practices with one another.

How Western Colorado met the designation’s expectations

Western Colorado University has earned three designations: Basic Needs Campus, First-Generation Serving Institute, and Career Connected Campus.

Holly Hunter, the school’s assistant director of community wellness, said earning those designations requires offering services students might need, such as food pantries, advisors to connect students to government assistance, and on-campus mental health counseling.

Meeting the designation standards also means making sure every staff member knows what resources are available and can connect students with them. Students don’t just get food, Hunter said. They interact with staff who are trained to ask questions and build relationships.

Hunter recalled conversations with a student that revealed a family member had been diagnosed with cancer.

Hunter and other staff quickly connected the student with community groups that helped arrange transportation home. They also worked to make sure the student’s academic needs were addressed, asking questions such as, “How are we making sure that your academics are managed? Who’s the person talking with all of your professors?”

“And I think that’s one of those things where everybody is involved in that student’s success,” Hunter said.

Which campuses have designations

First-Generation Serving campuses

Aims Community College
Arapahoe Community College
Colorado Northwestern Community College
Community College of Aurora
Community College of Denver
Front Range Community College
Lamar Community College
Morgan Community College
Northeastern Junior College
Otero College
Pikes Peak State College
Pueblo Community College
Red Rocks Community College
Trinidad State College
Adams State University
Colorado Mesa University
Colorado State University Pueblo
Fort Lewis College
Metropolitan State University of Denver
University of Colorado Denver
University of Northern Colorado

Six other public and private colleges get recognition for participating in the FirstGen Forward Network. They are:

Colorado State University
Regis University
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
University of Denver
Western Colorado University

Career Connected campuses

Colorado College
Colorado School of Mines
Colorado State University Fort Collins
Colorado State University Global
Metropolitan State University of Denver
Regis University
University of Colorado Denver
University of Denver
University of Northern Colorado
Western Colorado University
Community College of Aurora
Pueblo Community College

Basic Needs campuses

Colorado School of Mines
Colorado State University Fort Collins
Colorado State University Pueblo
Fort Lewis College
Metropolitan State University of Denver
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
University of Colorado Denver
University of Northern Colorado
Western Colorado University
Aims Community College
Arapahoe Community College
Colorado Mountain College
Community College of Aurora
Front Range Community College
Pikes Peak State College
Red Rocks Community College

Find out how much Colorado college tuition and fees have increased over the years

2026-06-25T19:58:22+00:00

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The cost of tuition and fees at a Colorado public university has increased nearly 125% since the Great Recession, a rate far outpacing inflation since 2009. At the state’s two-year colleges, these prices have almost doubled.

The increases stem from declining federal and state investment in higher education, said University of Denver researcher Cecilia Orphan. And costs will likely continue to rise. Instead of boosting funding for public colleges and universities, Colorado lawmakers have allowed schools to raise tuition, primarily due to budgetary constraints. This fall, four-year universities can increase tuition by 3.5%, and two-year colleges can raise it by 5%.

But Colorado experts say students shouldn’t avoid college because of the rising cost. Families rarely pay the full sticker price, they said, because scholarships and federal and state financial aid help offset tuition costs.

Going to college provides long-term benefits, Orphan said, including better health outcomes, greater civic engagement, and the potential to earn higher wages.

“That’s why it’s important for families to look at their options, because it’s up to the college to make a strong offer in order to really be considered by the student and family,” said Angelica Lopez-Rodriguez, a Denver Scholarship Foundation college advisor who helps students at Bruce Randolph School.

Some low-income students also qualify for federal Pell Grants to pay for college. These federal grants provide free money to students based on financial need. Although the grants have remained fairly stagnant over the years, a Pell can still provide up to $7,395 annually toward tuition, said Denver Scholarship Foundation Chief Impact Officer Nate Cadena.

Colorado also has the Colorado Opportunity Fund, or COF, which has helped lower tuition costs for more than three decades. Last year, COF provided $116 per credit hour to undergraduate students enrolled at a state institution who completed a COF application. Students without legal documentation can qualify by applying for the state’s ASSET program.

For a full-time student at a four-year public university, the state fund saves students about $3,500 per year.

The state also offers a tax credit program that reimburses up to two years of tuition for students from households earning $90,000 or less per year. Colorado also invests in local community programs that help students and families pay for and navigate college.

Families and students interested in understanding how much they might pay at some Colorado colleges can use a school’s price calculator, such as the University of Colorado’s Cost of Education Estimator and Colorado State University’s Net Price Calculator. And experts say parents and families should speak with their school advisers.

10 years and 16,800 students short: What went wrong with Colorado’s youth apprenticeship program?

2026-05-27T21:57:25+00:00

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Treyvon Greenwood thought he would go into the trades after graduation. A senior at Aurora’s Smoky Hill High School, he was interested in becoming a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning technician.

His trajectory changed when his English teacher heard Greenwood talk about his passion for tutoring other students. The teacher told his school counselor, who suggested Greenwood try a teaching apprenticeship instead.

At first he was reluctant, but Greenwood has grown to love splitting his time between his classes at Smoky Hill High and apprenticing in a fifth grade classroom at nearby Sunrise Elementary School. The 18-year-old works much like a student teacher would and earns more than $18 an hour.

Fifth grade students at Sunrise Elementary School work with Treyvon Greenwood, a first-year Future Educator Pathway apprentice, on Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025.

“I help them with their writing, and I just feel like they trust me,” Greenwood said of the fifth graders. “I think they know that if ‘I’m struggling with something, I can come straight to Mr. Trey.’”

Greenwood’s experience is what state and business leaders had in mind when they launched the CareerWise Colorado youth apprenticeship program in 2016. But it’s also rare: Only 1,200 students statewide have taken part in CareerWise programs, according to its founder, who had envisioned 20,000 students participating in its first decade.

The organization also takes credit for about 2,000 more apprentices who have participated in programs originally started by or inspired by CareerWise. Even including those students, that means CareerWise fell short by about 16,800 apprentices.

There are myriad reasons why: Some businesses have found they’re not well-equipped to work with teenagers and left the program. School officials across the state say they’ve struggled to convince families of the value of apprenticeships, which require students to commit to two to three years of balancing school and work. Apprenticeships also compete for students with an increasing variety of other educational options, from college preparation to internships to less time-intensive career education programs.

Noel Ginsburg, a Colorado businessperson who founded CareerWise, described his original goals for program participation as “well-intentioned and ill-informed.”

Ten years in, CareerWise offers an important case study in the challenges of offering robust on-the-job training for high school students, an idea that has widespread bipartisan support and increasing investment from the public and private sectors but can be difficult to execute on a large scale.

First-year Future Educator Pathway apprentice Amyah Santiago hangs up words inspired by "The Gift of Words" by Peter Reynolds at Sunrise Elementary School. The book was part of a read-aloud project and activity for the school in December.

Youth apprenticeships viewed as an idea that could create its “own natural momentum”

Backed by $9.5 million from JP Morgan Chase and Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ginsburg envisioned students being trained in such fields as healthcare, banking, finance, and the trades. (Bloomberg Philanthropies is a supporter of Chalkbeat.)

Juniors and seniors would earn their high school diploma and job training, plus valuable industry certifications or time spent working toward a two-year college degree. A post-graduation year would be spent getting more work experience and could include college enrollment. CareerWise would help build a trained workforce in Colorado while offering some students a cheaper alternative to a two- or four-year degree. Others, like Greenwood, might spark an interest in a different-than-expected career path that still requires a college degree.

The idea for CareerWise came from Switzerland. There, youth apprenticeships are embedded in the culture. About two out of every three young people participate, and businesses line up to recruit those students into nearly 250 different occupations.

Ginsburg visited Switzerland in 2015 to see this model in action. At the time, he headed Intertech Plastics, a Denver-based plastics manufacturer he founded, and he was struggling to hire skilled mid-level workers.

Ginsburg was so impressed with what he saw that he led a delegation of 50 Colorado business and civic leaders, including then-Gov. John Hickenlooper, to Switzerland the following year. The globe-trot laid the groundwork for the creation of CareerWise.

Youth apprenticeships weren’t new in the United States; Wisconsin’s pioneering program was established in 1991. But by the end of the trip, Hickenlooper said he was convinced that Colorado could take the lead, mainly because of Ginsburg’s dedication and vision.

“If we do this properly, in three years there should be as deep a foundation and rooting of this that it will have its own natural momentum,” Hickenlooper said in a video documenting the trip.

Ginsburg didn’t want CareerWise Colorado, the nonprofit he eventually created, to run the programs. Instead he wanted to connect schools and employers with the know-how to prop up two- to three-year apprenticeship programs and ensure they received crucial but difficult-to-earn federal recognition for program quality.

Students in four school districts — Denver Public Schools, Cherry Creek School District, Jeffco Public Schools, and Mesa County Valley School District 51 — began apprenticing in 2017.

Today, only three of the four districts are still involved with CareerWise, and their success rate varies. District 51 continues to offer youth apprenticeship programs through a partnership with its local chamber but without CareerWise’s support in the last two years. About 65 apprentices have completed Jeffco’s program. Denver has had 272 students complete apprenticeships but is reworking its agreement with CareerWise.

Cherry Creek offers some of the most robust CareerWise options, including in information technology, advanced manufacturing, hospitality, and teaching.

Graham Thatcher worked in Cherry Creek School District's SalesForce apprentice program. After learning on the job for almost three years, she was hired full time in 2025. Thatcher works on her computer on Dec. 16, 2025 at Cherry Creek School District's Instructional Support Facility in Aurora, Colorado.

But getting students interested in apprenticeships is hard, even for a district as successful as Cherry Creek, school counselors said.

“I do think that parents sometimes have reservations, just because they’ve grown up in this: They should go to college,” said Cady Hobbs, a counseling coordinator at Grandview High School.

Some apprenticeships can lead to college, as it has for Greenwood, who plans to attend Metropolitan State University of Denver and participate in a program for Black educators. But that type of path might not be as easily understood by parents.

Meanwhile, districts like Denver and Cherry Creek offer so many career-related opportunities, from career exploration classes to summer internships, that it creates competition with their own apprenticeship programs.

“This landscape is a lot broader than I think anyone may have realized in 2016 or 2017,” said Theress Pidick, the Denver district’s youth career development director.

CareerWise’s revolving door of businesses

Another big hurdle to growing apprenticeships has been the revolving door of businesses that are willing and able to host and train a high schooler.

Ginsburg said in an April roundtable event that getting and keeping businesses engaged has been one of the hardest challenges for CareerWise.

“What we don’t have are the companies that see this as not just an imperative to do the right thing for their community but how important this is to their bottom line,” he said.

CareerWise launched with about 45 employers. By the second year, about 25 returned. The number of employers has ebbed and flowed over the years, with 29 actively working with apprentices. The reasons why they’ve stopped participating vary.

Some, like Mikron Denver, now run their own programs, separate from CareerWise.

Eagle County Paramedic Services tried CareerWise for a year before realizing students needed to have certain certifications that could be only earned when they turned 18. Insurance also wouldn’t cover student ambulance drivers.

“I think we really did go into it with the best intentions, but there’s no way to know everything it’s going to take,” said Katie Coakley, the organization’s marketing and communications specialist.

John Halloran, a regional manager with construction business RA Nelson, said his Eagle County company loved having an apprentice. The student worked full time over the summer, but once the school year got underway it became difficult to balance schoolwork with the constantly evolving schedules of construction.

“The hours and the pace didn’t really align,” Halloran said. “But I’d love to try it again and see if we can make it work.”

Vinz Koller, vice president of the Center for Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning at Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit focused on expanding economic opportunities, agrees not enough businesses see the importance, unlike in Switzerland.

“The chicken and egg challenge we have is until you have enough opportunities, it’s going to be very hard for the youth and for parents to feel like this is an option,” Koller said.

Amyah Santiago, a first-year apprentice in the Future Educator Pathway, facilitates a lesson on inspiring words based on the book "The Gift of Words" by Peter Reynolds on Thursday, Dec. 18. 2026, at Sunrise Elementary School.

Some places have made it work. In Eagle County, which has participated since 2017, the dedication of a single employee — a former teacher who coordinates business participation through the local chamber of commerce — has made a difference. CareerWise Eagle County and the school district have shortened its program from three years to two so students aren’t choosing between college and an apprenticeship.

Warren Barker, a manager of supply chain logistics at Vail Health Hospital, said he believes his company’s participation in CareerWise represents an investment in Eagle County. Vail Health has employed 27 apprentices to date, though not every student ends up staying.

“The best thing I get to do in my job, by far, is seeing the caliber of students who go through the program,” he said. “And then being able to help get them focused into whatever is next for them, be it with Vail Health, hopefully, or anything else that they want to do.”

CareerWise has changed its apprenticeship programs

In response to the challenges it’s experienced — and in a bid to meet the current demand for more workforce training programs — CareerWise has pivoted.

Instead of focusing just on 16- to 18-year-olds, CareerWise has started pre-apprenticeships that help younger students prepare for an apprenticeship. And it’s also helping grow post-high school apprenticeships for young adults up to age 24, similar to the Switzerland program, Ginsburg said.

Andrew Sutliff hopes to someday get hired on permanently at CoorsTek, but feels his apprenticeship has taught him valuable skills that will transfer elsewhere. Sutliff works on a CNC machine on Dec. 4, 2025 at the factory in Golden, Colorado.

One example is its partnership with CoorsTek, a manufacturing company in Golden that makes ceramic parts used in computers, tanks and armor, and wind turbines, among others. With the help of CareerWise and a $4.58 million state grant, the company is using its CoorsTek Academy, an in-house training program launched in 2021 as a regional training hub, to teach apprentices ages 18-24. The first cohort of five started last year to learn skills to become mid-level Computer Numerical Control, or CNC, operators.

They will graduate able to troubleshoot complex issues, fix the machine when necessary, and program it, which will help them earn higher pay.

Andrew Sutliff, a 19-year-old CoorsTek apprentice who graduated from Cherry Creek’s school district last year, said he’s learning a lot in a short time.

“It feels like they’re cramming a lot that some people who have been here for four years don’t even begin to learn,” he said.

Even if he doesn’t get hired by CoorsTek full time, Sutliff said it’s a good opportunity to make himself more valuable to other companies.

CareerWise has also shifted from trying to grow a big program in Colorado to sprouting a host of smaller programs in other states. Ginsburg has helped prop up apprenticeship programs in New York and Elkhart County, Indiana. And more locations are likely.

With a $12.5 million federal grant, CareerWise launched the Future Ready Apprenticeship Center in 2025. The center provides $200,000 grants to connect other states with the lessons learned here and elsewhere, including program design, policy expertise, and funding.

First-year Future Educator Pathway apprentice Treyvon Greenwood hugs a student on their way back to class on Thursday, Dec. 18. 2025, at Sunrise Elementary School.

In addition to government grants, CareerWise itself is receiving more philanthropic support than ever, including $7 million from MacKenzie Scott’s YieldGiving foundation in 2023.

Even if he didn’t meet his original participation goals, Ginsburg still believes in the potential of widespread apprenticeship offerings for youth in Colorado. He believes the next decade won’t be just about tough lessons but opportunities to grow youth apprenticeships.

However, his expectations about how fast the program can grow have changed.

“We have a long way to go,” he said.

Colorado colleges have made progress re-enrolling students who left without finishing

2026-05-21T15:00:00+00:00

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Fewer Colorado students dropped out of college during the 2023-24 school year and more re-enrolled than in the year before, according to recent statistics. But that bit of good news wasn’t enough to put a dent in the overall number of working-age Coloradans who have some college education but no credential.

More than 623,000 people were in that category in the 2023-24 school year. That’s an increase of 9,300 Coloradans from the prior year, because more students left college without finishing than the number who returned.

The data compiled by the Associated Press from the National Student Clearinghouse provides an important view of these former students, often referred to in the higher education community as “stopouts,” during a time when Colorado universities want to entice more of them to return.

Some Colorado colleges and universities have increased efforts to help attract returning students who typically make less money than their peers who have completed a college education, while also often paying off student loans.

Michael Galchinsky, Colorado State University’s vice provost and dean for undergraduate affairs, said it’s difficult to reconnect with students once they leave college. Students don’t finish college because of numerous reasons, including running out of financial aid.

“Once they leave, they go out and they get immersed in jobs and families and other things that might make it hard for them to return,” he said.

Nationwide, the number of students who never completed college grew to 38 million in the 2023-24 year. However, the national data analysis by The Associated Press also shows an uptick in the number of residents returning.

In Colorado, university leaders partly credit Finish What You Started, a grant program that was propped up with pandemic relief funds and ended this school year, in helping former students return to college.

The $49 million program provided students with financial assistance, scholarships, grants, and other aid to get them back to college. Students also received academic and career advising. From 2022 to 2025, the program helped enroll about 5,000 former students, with about half earning their degree.

Finish What You Started has been more successful in getting students back to college than another ongoing program created at the same time called Colorado Re-Engaged. That program allows universities to grant an associate degree to former students who earned at least 70 college credits before dropping out. Those associate degrees also likely helped slow the growth in the number of Coloradans with some college but no credential.

Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Vaughn Toland, the executive director of admissions and outreach, said financial assistance was effective in getting former students to reenroll. The school has prioritized some scholarship money for returning students now that Finish What You Started has ended.

“Even $1,000 a semester can make a huge difference in terms of a student being able to come back to school or not,” Toland said.

Toland’s office also has been sending out emails to former students who haven’t enrolled for at least a year to encourage them to reapply.

And the school has other longstanding programs it uses to help Coloradans return, including waiving applications if they previously enrolled and helping returning students piece together credits into an individualized degree.

At CSU Fort Collins, Galchinsky said the end of the Finish What You Started program is “a loss of resources, but not a loss in mission.” The university has a new scholarship program called the Green and Gold Completion Award to help students who got close to graduating but dropped out, he said.

“We’re looking to make a home for every kind of Colorado resident here at Colorado State, no matter what your background is,” he said. “We’re going to meet them where they are and try to help elevate their lives.”

MSU Denver leaders hope former Gov. Roy Romer donation connects more of its students to policy and research

2026-05-19T22:34:19+00:00

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Former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer has donated his gubernatorial archives to Metropolitan State University and $2 million to a research institute he has supported that will now be affiliated with the university.

MSU Denver officials expect the move by the 97-year-old former lawmaker will open up research opportunities, as well as public policy and leadership lessons for students from lower-income backgrounds who are less likely to have grown up civically and politically engaged. The commuter campus of about 18,000 students also educates many students of color and is one of the most diverse universities in the state.

Romer has a personal tie to the university. Romer was a state lawmaker from 1958 to 1966 and sponsored legislation in the 1960s to establish MSU Denver. Romer, a Democrat, later served as Colorado governor from 1987 to 1999.

Romer said the papers he’s donating include some of his notable accomplishments such as championing Denver International Airport and vetoeing a ban on same-sex marriage. Romer also intends to donate additional papers from his tenure as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District from 2000 to 2006, according to a spokesperson.

“I hope in the case studies, they [students] can look at the history that unfolded in that period of time and figure out what made it happen,” Romer said in an interview. “What were the ingredients of leadership?”

The newly renamed Romer Institute of Evidence-based Policy, formerly the Institute of Evidence-based Policy, will operate independently of the school and help bring speakers and ballot measure forums to the campus. The nonprofit says it has a commitment to evidence-based research that helps inform public policy decisions.

MSU Denver’s Matthew Makley, a provost and executive vice president of academic affairs, said the archives will help create internship opportunities for students to digitize the papers and help them write senior papers. And he’s especially excited that the donation will allow students to do more research. The school isn’t a designated research university, even though it does offer some opportunities to master’s and bachelor’s degree-seeking students.

The archives and the partnership with the institute will help students see themselves as the future policymakers, policy advisers, and leaders of Denver and the state, he said.

“This will be an opportunity for us to help students think about carving space in a domain they may not have ever imagined themselves moving in,” Makley said. “And that’s really the beauty of the institution that Governor Romer dreamed of.”

She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.

2026-05-05T21:00:14+00:00

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Cecilia Lopez Alvarado was scrolling through Reddit one evening in her dorm room when she came across a thread about students at the University of California San Diego who struggled with basic math.

A report had warned of an alarming decline in students’ math skills at UCSD, a highly selective university. It drew international headlines because of what it seemed to say about the state of American education. Commentators blamed high school grade inflation, test-free college admissions, and even the students themselves.

Alvarado read these headlines with a growing sense of frustration. People didn’t understand the full story here, she thought. And she would know: Alvarado is a UCSD student who had to take remedial math at the school. She read Reddit comments about how students should have mastered these topics in high school. She wrote back in the comments that some schools — like hers, a high-poverty public high school in San Bernardino, California — don’t even offer calculus.

The consequences of Alvarado’s challenges in math have been significant. After taking the remedial course, she still fell short on a math exam, which covers high school topics like trigonometry and precalculus. Alvarado therefore couldn’t move on to calculus, which was required for her initial major, business economics. Because of this, she recently decided to pursue a degree in communications instead. She aspires to be an accountant and is minoring in accounting.

Students like Alvarado are at the center of a debate in American education. How do high schools ensure students graduate with sufficient math skills? Who should get access to the resources of an elite college education? What role do universities themselves have in helping students who are underprepared?

High school graduation photo of UCSD sophomore Cecilia Lopez Alvarado

The perspectives of these students have gotten strikingly little attention. That’s why I wanted to speak to Alvarado, a 19-year-old sophomore. Her story does not offer entirely simple answers, but it’s worth hearing. She looks back in frustration at her high school education, where she believes teachers were too lenient. But she’s also convinced she’s benefited from the education she’s received and the peers she’s met at UCSD.

Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What was your high school math experience like? How did you do in math classes?

I usually passed with A’s and B’s, but I feel like a lot of the information never really stuck with me, just because we were granted so many opportunities to redo exams and homework. It felt like as long as you retake the exam and get 100% it doesn’t matter if you really know what you’re doing or not.

Do you know why you were given so many opportunities?

I’m sure it’s because they wanted us to not have F’s and D’s on our transcripts. It was just wanting us to be able to move on to the next grade. It never really was to hold us accountable. Instead of being like, hey, you only get one retake, it was just, you can retake it as many times as you like, to get a grade that you’re comfortable with.

Did you feel like it would have been better if they held you accountable more?

I think so, because then you have to face the reality of not just your grades, but what you really know and what you’re really learning. You have to discipline yourself more to be like, hey, I need to start studying instead of doing not so well in class and then just retaking it at a later time.

What did you think about the big national backlash and all these articles about UCSD students like yourself?

I’m very involved on the UCSD social media communities like Reddit, Instagram, and when people are sharing the articles, a lot of it was very negative. A lot of people are saying these students shouldn’t be at the school, their spots should have gone to someone more qualified. It was kind of making me feel bad, like, hey, is something wrong with me because I can’t pass the exam?

I don’t think it’s necessarily an issue with the student. I feel like there’s a lot of things that go deeper than that, like the level of math they took in high school. I think there’s just so many factors that people miss.

What do you mean by the factors that so many people miss?

The culture here is that everyone kind of assumes everyone who’s enrolled comes from a very prestigious background — you know, perfect scores, they have easy access to tutoring. I don’t think a lot of people realize that some students here may have come from low-income communities, low-income schools, where they don’t have resources easily accessible.

I wouldn’t say it makes me envious, but I do wish I had that kind of abundance of resources when I was in high school. I was top of my class in high school, but that’s nothing compared to some of the other students here.

Do you think you’ve benefited from going to a school like UCSD?

I think so. It’s definitely exposed me to a lot of different cultures, a lot of different people. I think I’ve learned more soft skills here through a lot of the classes I’ve been taking. I’m more willing to try things and take courses that I would not have been interested in high school.

Do you feel like being surrounded by peers who maybe went to better high schools pushes you to do better at UCSD?

I think so. I’ve kind of noticed they have more independence. They feel more secure in their academics and what they’re doing, and I feel like I always second guess myself. Seeing how they operate, it makes me want to do better, work harder, especially after my first year. I wanted to make my own self-improvements.

One of the recommendations from the report that caused this whole blowup was that UCSD should reduce the number of students from high-poverty high schools. What do you think of that?

I do not think that should be an option. If they don’t go through the trial and error here, they’re just going to go through it somewhere else. College is a place where you learn new things. Sometimes you’ll fail and you just take the L and learn from it.

Matt Barnum is Chalkbeat’s ideas editor. Reach him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.

Lawmakers extend teacher preparation program amid pleas from parents and students

2026-04-28T21:32:05+00:00

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Colorado lawmakers plan to allow a last batch of high school seniors to take part in a statewide teacher preparation program before it’s eliminated.

The Teacher Recruitment Education and Preparation program, or TREP, allows students to stay enrolled in high school after graduation for up to two years while their school district pays for college classes. Colorado lawmakers on the budget committee decided to eliminate TREP to help balance a 2026-27 state budget that could have a shortfall reaching $1.5 billion.

But amid pleas from parents and students, lawmakers amended House Bill 1357 to allow high school seniors who were set to begin the program this spring to enroll for one year instead of two. The program will end in July 2027.

Parent Stephanie Christian, who rallied a small coalition of parents and students to save the program, thanked state Sens. Janice Marchman, a Loveland Democrat, and Byron Pelton, a Sterling Republican, for the amendment to extend the program.

“While we had hoped for a full pathway allowing these students to complete the program, the one-year extension provides a critical bridge,” Christian said in a text message. “Because of this effort, hundreds of future teachers will still have the opportunity to begin their journey into education, and that impact will be felt in classrooms across Colorado.”

The amendment cleared the House and Senate this week, and the powerful Joint Budget Committee agreed to the plan last week. The bill will now head to the governor’s desk.

The state created TREP in 2021 to help grow the educator workforce. It has a statewide cap of 250 students a year. The program’s elimination will save the state about $3 million a year.

Parents argued that some high school seniors had based many of their financial aid decisions on using the program, which doesn’t allow students to use federal aid. Students also don’t qualify for most scholarships because they’re still considered high school students.

Colorado’s higher education funding formula rewrite takes another shot at putting a focus on students

2026-04-27T23:57:02+00:00

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Five years ago, Colorado lawmakers changed the way the state funds public colleges and universities. Instead of sending money based mostly on enrollment, the plan was to dole out money based on eight metrics that include how well institutions help students stay in school and get to graduation.

But some college leaders say that formula hasn’t worked as intended and instead valued year-over-year funding stability rather than changes that direct money to schools helping more students.

Now, as part of a regular five-year review, state lawmakers are making incremental updates they say will help drive more money to colleges based on how well they educate students. The changes would expand metrics to include whether schools educate more students who enroll part-time or have a greater number of transfers.

Colorado enacted its current iteration of a performance-based funding formula model in the 2021-22 school year. The formula is a set of metrics to direct increases in state funding based on specific, measurable outcomes, including whether a student graduates on time and schools enroll a higher percentage of certain students.

Colorado Commission on Higher Education Chair Jennifer Walmer, whose board crafted recommended updates in House Bill 1345, said she heard many complaints from schools that the formula doesn’t truly reward schools for their student outcomes. But she also said the commission didn’t want to completely reimagine the formula when the state faces budget challenges and the federal government has cut higher education spending.

“I do think that there are mechanisms and flexibilities in the new formula that, with additional resources, could help drive more performance,” Walmer said.

The bill would keep parts of the 2021-22 funding formula intact, including metrics that help determine how much more money schools get for student enrollment, retention, and graduation.

But the proposal would make key additions to the formula in the 2027-28 school year that would better reflect the myriad of ways students interact with schools that weren’t considered in the current funding model.

These include new definitions that better account for transfer students, as well as a provision to ensure part-time students get counted toward funding. Walmer said part-time students make up about half of higher education enrollment statewide.

The proposed formula also creates other levers that lawmakers can use to funnel even more state funding to schools based on their performance on the metrics of student enrollment, retention, and graduation. This means lawmakers would have the ability to reward excellent performance to drive bigger funding changes, Walmer said.

The bill would also alter the name of the formula to “results-informed funding.”

“I do believe that the mechanism changes that we’re making will better serve and better reflect Colorado students,” Walmer said.

The bill has been met with reserved optimism from several higher education leaders.

Colorado Mesa University President John Marshall said he believes the new formula could help solve some of his biggest concerns about how the state distributes money, including how much some schools get in state funding versus others.

Metropolitan State University of Denver President Janine Davidson said the proposed formula updates better account for different types of students, including those that enroll part-time. She said she’s supportive of the changes and hopes lawmakers place a focus on institutions that have been hurt by previous iterations of the funding formula.

She added the state also must boost state funding for higher education institutions. She said a lack of investment in colleges and universities has led to challenges, such as having a group of student advisors at her school that are far smaller than many peer institutions in other states.

“Colorado is not funding higher education,” she said. “And we remain at the bottom.”

House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat sponsoring the bill, said during a committee hearing on the bill last week that she believes the proposed funding formula update will better help the state reward schools for helping students.

But she also agrees lawmakers must adequately fund higher education if the formula is to work as intended.

“I do think that we continue to fall short,” she said.

The bill passed its first hearing in a House Education Committee last week and will next be heard on the House floor. If passed, the Senate would need to approve the bill before sending it to Gov. Jared Polis.

Other sponsors include state Senate President James Coleman, Republican Sen. Cleave Simpson of Alamosa, and Democratic Rep. Eliza Hamrick of Centennial.

Colorado’s promising universal FAFSA completion policies

2026-04-15T22:07:43+00:00

Colorado lawmakers used a portion of the state’s pandemic relief funds to pilot federal student aid form completion programs in 11 high schools in six districts. Fund My Future, which has federal funding through June, requires students to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid before graduation with districts’ support.

These pilot programs were designed to inform Colorado policymakers about how well a statewide universal FAFSA completion policy could work, especially because students leave tens of millions of federal money on the table each year to pay for college.

The grants have shown promise, and national advocacy groups have taken notice.

Read the rest of this month’s Beyond High School edition.

Colorado parents and students rally to save teacher preparation program from proposed budget cuts

2026-04-08T00:20:32+00:00

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When Joana Baldermann learned state lawmakers might phase out the statewide Teacher Recruitment Education and Preparation program, the news prompted a scramble.

Baldermann and her daughter Cailyn Baldermann were banking on the TREP program, as it is known, to pay Cailyn’s tuition at Metropolitan State University of Denver next year. Now, the Baldermanns need to figure out new financial aid options after lawmakers placed the program for aspiring educators on the chopping block because of a massive budget shortfall.

Cailyn Baldermann hoped to use the TREP program next year to help pay for college.

“Since my freshman year, I have been planning extensively around the TREP program as a foundational step toward my future as an elementary teacher,” Cailyn, an Eaglecrest High School senior, wrote in a letter to lawmakers on the state’s House Appropriations Committee. “Much of my college planning was built around the understanding that TREP would provide a strong pathway to pursuing my education.”

Lawmakers on the state’s Joint Budget Committee have tried to preserve core K-12 funding, but described the potential end of TREP as part of the painful cuts needed to address a budget shortfall that could be as high as $1.5 billion.

The proposal has left some families in a similar situation as the Baldermanns, having to consider new ways to pay for college near the end of the school year when some scholarship deadlines have already passed.

Lawmakers created TREP in 2021 to help grow the teaching workforce. The initiative, capped at 250 participants statewide, allows students to stay enrolled in high school after graduation for up to two years while their school district pays for them to take college classes. Eligible students must have completed one year of specialized education coursework in high school to be considered for the program.

TREP participants also aren’t eligible for college financial aid or most scholarships, since they’re still considered high school students.

State lawmakers have filed House Bill 1357 to eliminate the TREP program. Doing so would save the state about $1.6 million next year, according to a legislative analysis. The 220 students currently enrolled in TREP would be allowed to finish out their education through the program. The following year, the state would save about $3 million.

The bill also reduces how much the state pays to districts for a student’s college education per year from $10,721 to $7,104.

State Rep. Emily Sirota, chair of the powerful Joint Budget Committee and a Denver Democrat, said on Tuesday during a House Appropriations Committee hearing that the cut relieves pressure on the state’s education savings, leaving more money available to fund core services.

Some school districts want to figure out how to continue a similar program if TREP ends.

CTE Director Madison Tortessi with Cañon City High School said she wishes lawmakers would let a last round of seniors enroll in TREP, because some of her students don’t know what to do next. The district has sought permission from the state to prop up a P-TECH elementary education pathway, but it will be too late for this year’s seniors.

About 22 schools participate in P-TECH across the state. The program allows schools to partner with businesses and colleges to prepare Colorado students for jobs.

“We’re really hoping that we get approved for this,” Tortessi said. “And then we don’t have to tell kids, ‘No, you can’t do TREP.’ We can say, ‘You can do this instead.’”

Parent Stephanie Christian said the statewide change leaves many high school seniors like her daughter without an option. Christian has led the charge to advocate for the program, and her daughter Abby plans to attend the University of Northern Colorado in the fall.

House and Senate lawmakers will spend the next week debating the recently introduced budget proposal and its companion bills, including the one to eliminate TREP. Some lawmakers might file amendments that would alter the proposal.

Christian hopes lawmakers will allow high school seniors who want to use the program a chance to do so.

“None of those kids have any money to go to college now without this,” she said. “You have hundreds of kids that are six weeks away from graduating.”

America is turning against higher education. Students are still signing up.

2026-03-24T13:44:25+00:00

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The narrative is by now familiar.

Americans’ confidence in higher education has fallen precipitously. More commentators are wondering aloud whether a degree is worth the cost. High school graduates and their families fret about taking on student debt. The Trump administration has aggressively attacked — rhetorically and legally — higher education. Artificial intelligence could threaten the university business model.

And yet, hard data show seemingly positive trends for higher education.

After a dip during the pandemic, enrollment has risen for three straight years. Elite universities continue to have vastly more applicants than seats. College-educated workers still far out-earn those without a degree, on average. College has actually become somewhat more affordable in recent years.

At Chalkbeat Ideas, we recently held an event trying to understand and untangle these confusing facts. The recording is here; the slides featuring my presentation of data are here.

“A lot of discouragement of students around higher education has very little to do with education or economic outcomes,” Zachary Bleemer, an economist at Princeton University, said during the event.

The discussion helped clarify my own thinking about the paradoxical state of American higher education — and what the prevailing discourse gets wrong. Here are some key takeaways.

The higher education backlash hasn’t stopped enrollment from growing.

In 2023 and 2024, headlines about Americans giving up on the value of college dominated. Ivy League presidents were filleted before Congress over antisemitism on campus. Trump campaigned on reining in elite schools. Support in polls dropped to record lows.

But a funny thing also happened during this time, although it was less noticed: Actual student enrollment started to trend upward again. Now, overall college and university enrollment is above pre-pandemic levels. The negative sentiment around higher education may have deterred at least some students from pursuing a degree, but in recent years there have apparently been other factors pulling them in.

The backlash has been strongest against elite schools — but they’re still thriving.

It’s hard to know for sure why confidence in American education has fallen so sharply. But I suspect that a lot of it has to do with attention to the country’s most elite schools, the Ivy League and a handful of others. Those universities, which educate a tiny share of American students, have drawn incredible amounts of attention, largely negative: about their purportedly close-minded liberal culture, their remarkably high tuition rates, and their exclusive admissions practices.

Yet demand to attend these colleges remains strikingly high — they still reject the vast majority of students who apply. In recent years, enrollment has only grown at selective colleges, which remain dominated by students from high-income neighborhoods.

Shavar Jeffries, CEO of the KIPP Foundation, noted archly during the Chalkbeat event that there is little indication of declining interest in college among affluent families, despite suggestions that young people are pivoting to blue-collar work.

“When you look at the wealthiest people in this country … they’re not having conversations about construction trades. They’re not having conversations about HVAC [work] when it comes to their kids,” said Jeffries. KIPP, the country’s largest nonprofit charter network, serving mostly students from low-income families, continues to prioritize access to college, he said.

The fundamental economics of higher education have not changed much — and are fairly strong.

What drives many people to pursue a degree is economic opportunity. In recent years, a narrative has emerged that pursuing a bachelor’s degree is no longer worth it, due to some combination of higher costs and lower returns. Neither claim is well supported by the data.

Real college tuition — what people actually pay, rather than the sticker price — has been flat or even falling for nearly two decades, according to tracking from the College Board. Meanwhile, the wage advantage for college graduates has remained at very high levels.

Rigorous research has typically found that students on the margin of attending college benefit economically from doing so. “Unambiguously, you see large returns to college-going,” said Bleemer. He pointed to studies in Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Texas. That doesn’t mean everyone benefits, just that the typical student considering college does, at least where it’s been studied.

The persistent economic value of college may help explain why enrollment at four-year colleges has not responded strongly to the backlash.

Two-year colleges have also seen enrollment rise recently, though this followed years of declines. Between 2010 and 2023, student counts dropped precipitously at places like Wayne County Community College and Central New Mexico Community College, to name a couple. There were also steep declines at for-profit schools like the University of Phoenix Online Campus.

These were hardly the schools at the center of the recent higher education backlash, but they bore the brunt of enrollment declines.

This again may reflect economic fundamentals in which students see less value from certain schools. Rising unemployment rates, which typically make additional education more appealing, have corresponded with the recent uptick in enrollment.

Politics, shrinking student pools, and AI mean a new era of uncertainty for higher ed.

So if enrollment is growing and the economic case for a degree remains strong, are colleges in a secure spot? Well, no. They face many pressures at the moment. The first is the shrinking pool of potential students. For the foreseeable future, just about every graduating high school class will be smaller than the last, according to projections. Higher education still faces intense political opposition, which could result in less public funding for colleges and universities. Wealthy elite colleges are in many ways best positioned to weather this storm, while lesser-known schools may again be the hardest hit.

The other variable is artificial intelligence. For multiple generations, universities have benefitted from the fact that more-educated workers can often better take advantage of new innovations. This is sometimes called the race between education and technology — in other words, the country has long been racing to get more educated to keep up with evolving tech.

What’s not clear yet is whether this race will continue. It’s possible that AI could lead to even more demand for higher education, but it could also reduce interest by replacing white-collar work. At the moment, it’s too soon to say how this will play out.

Matt Barnum is Chalkbeat’s ideas editor. Reach him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado’s FAFSA completion rates are up, but advisers worry about who’s getting left behind

2026-03-10T23:40:16+00:00

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Record numbers of students in Colorado and nationwide are filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid after a revamp of the form made it easier, data shows.

But for immigrant families where one or more members is undocumented, whether students complete the FAFSA depends on if they are willing to take the risk at a time of heightened immigration enforcement, college advocates said. Many worry the government will use their information to track them or their family and deport them.

Jesse Ramirez, founder and executive director of a Colorado nonprofit called INSPiRE, recalled a recent conversation with a mom from the Fort Lupton area who was scared to have her daughter complete the form.

“She said, ‘I came here from Venezuela to escape political violence. So why put myself at risk now? They might send me back or worse,’” said Ramirez, whose nonprofit organization helps advise over 2,000 students in the Denver area on how to get to college.

So far this year, about 46% of high school students nationwide have completed the FAFSA form, according to the National College Attainment Network’s FAFSA tracker.

Bill DeBaun, the organization’s senior director of data and strategic initiatives, said in a news conference last month that the nation might exceed 56% of students completing the form — an “all-time high” since tracking began in 2017. This matters because students who fill out the form are more likely to pursue education opportunities after high school.

In Colorado, just over 37% of seniors completed the form by the end of February, or 28,597 students, according to NCAN. That’s about 5,000 more students than last year during the same time period.

That progress so far places Colorado 42nd this year in how well states get seniors to fill out the form.

Ramirez and others report the rates remain lower because students who have the most challenges still aren’t getting the help they need to complete the form.

At the end of February, only 11% of seniors at Colorado schools with 40% or more Hispanic or Black students had completed the form, NCAN’s FAFSA data shows. And 37% of seniors at schools where at least half of their population comes from lower-income backgrounds have completed the form, compared to 45% at schools whose students come from higher income families.

Studies from 2017 show Colorado had about 130,000 students who have a family member without legal documentation. These students have the option to fill out the FAFSA or the state’s Colorado Application for State Financial Aid. The state created the form for undocumented students and those from mixed-status families who don’t want to share their data to the federal government.

Ramirez said FAFSA opens up the possibility for more grant or scholarship aid than the state’s form, and he frequently explains to students and families why filling out the form can be beneficial. He’s worked with families for years, but the current political environment has made families fearful.

He advises families not to wait out the Trump administration and to continue allowing their kids to pursue their dreams, especially because many undocumented individuals already fill out tax forms. He says in some cases it’s better to send kids to college than “sitting around waiting to see if some policy changes or a new administration comes along and then wasting four or five years.”

These one-on-one conversations take time, he said. And the loss of the statewide data tool that showed individual student progress on the form has made working with students more difficult.

Lawmakers cut the tool within this year’s budget to help fill a more than $1.2 billion budget hole. The loss has hamstrung others across the state. Without the tool, college advisors must connect with each student to check their FAFSA progress, said Tam Doane, Colorado Springs’ Peak Education college and financial aid advisor. The nonprofit works with students to help them pursue college or a career. Doane spends two days a week at Harrison High School and Sierra High School helping students prepare for college.

The loss of the tool, Doane said, is “just slowing everything down because I’m calling students multiple times to say, ‘Show me where you are at.’”

Oftentimes, students will think they’ve completed the FAFSA when the federal government might require an extra step, said Jasmine Rainey, Peak Education’s director of access and success.

“Not having that tool that just creates another obstacle for us in order to help students complete the FAFSA and get to college, or whatever their postsecondary plan might be,” Rainey said.

Ramirez said the challenges are a shame during a year where the application is easier and more user friendly. Students still want to chase their dreams, he said, but many need more support to talk through their options.

He takes the wins where he can.

After a long conversation with the Fort Lupton mom, she made a decision about her daughter’s future. She came to the United States for safety and to create a better life for her family, Ramirez said.

While no one can guarantee she won’t get detained, she made the decision to take a “leap of faith” and fill out the FAFSA to help her child follow her dreams.

Michigan high school graduation rate reaches new high. Check your school’s rate.

2026-02-20T22:17:49+00:00

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Michigan’s four-year high school graduation rate is at a new high, according to data released by the state Friday.

The high school graduation rate for 2025 was just above 84%, up from 82.83% the previous year. Michigan’s high school dropout rate is 7.13%, slightly slower than 7.68% the previous year.

The numbers don’t add up to 100% because they don’t account for students who had been in high school for four years but had not yet graduated, those who earned a GED certificate rather than a high school diploma or those who had aged out of special education.

“Michigan’s historically high graduation rate is a reflection of the efforts of Michigan students, educators, families and communities as well as state leaders,” said State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko in a statement.

“It takes all of us collaborating to put Students First and support them so they can graduate, be successful in postsecondary endeavors, and realize their dreams. There’s more work to do because we want all students to graduate, but we know we can make further progress while also improving other student outcomes such as literacy.”

The state uses a model that measures the time it takes for ninth grade students to earn a high school diploma. It has done so since the 2007-08 school year.

High school students can stay in school to complete their diploma even if they do not complete it in four years. The state also keeps track of students who graduate with both a high school diploma and associate degree from an early middle college. These programs typically take five years.

Statewide, graduation rates are also up for economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities. Students experiencing homelessness had a 64% four-year graduation rate, compared with nearly 60% the year before.

Improvement strategies are working for many students

The more than 83% graduation rate for the state’s largest district, Detroit Public Schools Community District, was its highest since the state began using the current formula.

“Our teachers, counselors, principals, and staff knew we could do better and put in the work every day to get us here,” said Superintendent Nikolai Vitti in a statement Friday.

The district’s rate is less than a percentage point below the statewide average, Vitti noted, and 7.3 points higher than it was in 2018-19, the last school year before the pandemic. At that time, DPSCD was 5.5 percentage points behind the state’s average.

The school system improved its rate by expanding ways for students to make up course credit, additional counselors, improved tracking of students’ academic progress and putting mental health intervention programs at neighborhood high schools, according to the superintendent.

Still, SAT scores show many DPSCD high schoolers are not meeting college readiness benchmarks. In 2024-25, 85% of students in the district scored below benchmarks in math and 63.9% scored below benchmarks in reading and writing.

According to the College Board, students who meet the SAT benchmarks have a 75% chance of earning a passing grade or better in first-semester college courses.

“We still haven’t completely arrived where students need us to be as a district but we are certainly making historic strides,” he said.

At Lansing School District, the improved 94% graduation rate and 2% dropout rate for 2025 are the result of deliberate efforts by the district" The graduation rate is significantly higher than four years ago, when it stood at 62.1%.

Graduation specialists and high school counselors from throughout the district meet monthly to review data on students who are on track to graduate, and those who are off-track or have dropped out, said Anna DiPonio, director of data and accountability for the district. Staff also discuss ways to support students and try to reconnect with those who have left school.

“We’re super happy about the improvement that we’re making because we know what that means for kids,” said Interim Superintendent Jessica Benavides.

She said the diploma means more college and career opportunities. Recent high school graduates are eligible for a host of college grants and scholarships. The state’s signature Michigan Achievement Scholarship provides up to $5,500 annually for a state public university or independent nonprofit college. The program also covers up to full tuition for community college.

Despite the improved graduation rates, 94.9% of Lansing students are testing below college readiness benchmarks for math and 72.9% for reading and writing.

Venessa Keesler, president and CEO of Launch Michigan, a bipartisan group working to change high school graduation standards, called the increased statewide graduation rates “great news.”

“What we need to do now is increase the rigor of what that diploma means and what students are prepared to do with that diploma.”

Keesler is urging the state to adopt graduation standards that combine academics, college and career exposure and “durable skills” like teamwork and communication.

Statewide, only about 27% of high schoolers are college-ready, as determined by student performance on the SAT.

Making high school more meaningful for students helps

The graduation rate for Kentwood Public Schools was 84.35%, up more than 2.5 percentage points above the rate in 2024. Superintendent Kevin Polston, said “We’re not where we want to be,” but that he is proud of the work that has been done in the district. Like other districts, far fewer of the district’s high school students are considered college-ready based on the SAT benchmarks.

“We really rolled up our sleeves to make learning relevant and more meaningful for students,” Polston said.

They’ve done that by offering more career and technical education options and giving students more access to work-based learning. The goal is to make learning more connected to the interests of students and their potential careers.

At Crossroads High, the district’s alternative high school, students spend two days a week in the community in a work setting. The district is in the third year of that effort, and Polston said it helps connect students to jobs or career training after high school, and they’ve seen attendance and graduation rates increase.

The district has worked to add new career and technical education programs that students desire, including a culinary arts program he said has had a waiting list of 400 students. The district has also added more career classes that allow students to explore careers without committing to a lengthier CTE program.

“When we talk to students, they want learning to make sense. They want it to be something they’re interested in and passionate about,” Polston said.

The decline in the dropout rate, as well as the improved graduation rates for some of the most vulnerable students in the state, including those experiencing homelessness, is heartening, said Bob Kefgen, the associate director of government relations at the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals.

“Those are big wins,” he said. “Principals reviewing their graduation and dropout rate data don’t just see numbers. “These numbers represent relationships, they represent interventions … on behalf of students.”

Getting a student across the stage to graduate starts in ninth grade and includes constant monitoring, making sure the student is on track to graduate and intervening when necessary, Kefgen said. Sometimes those interventions are academic, making sure the students get the support they need to improve in their classes. But it can also include addressing barriers to getting to school, building relationships with families, and building relationships in the community.

“Really, we throw everything in the kitchen sink behind getting kids across the stage.”

Look up your local district’s graduation rate in the tool below.

This story was completed through a partnership between Bridge Michigan, Chalkbeat Detroit, BridgeDetroit and the Detroit Free Press.

Lori Higgins from Chalkbeat Detroit contributed to this story.

Isabel Lohman is a reporter for Bridge Michigan. You can reach her at ilohman@bridgemi.com

Kristi Tanner is a reporter for the Detroit Free Press. You can reach her at ktanner@freepress.com.

Hannah Dellinger is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Some Kensington students see open-air drug use every day. They’re making it to graduation anyway.

2026-02-03T11:00:01+00:00

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Jeán Ruiz remembers their high school years in Kensington as a period of stress and survival — both at home and at school.

They lived in affordable housing with their single mom. The time they might have used for homework or tutoring was often spent doing odd jobs to help pay the rent.

Those worries made it tough to prioritize school, they said.

They recalled trying to focus on 12th grade calculus: “I was so lost and confused.”

Ruiz wasn’t alone. Family and financial stress, on top of daily exposure to poverty and drug use, make it harder for many Kensington students to make it to graduation, according to experts and educators.

Kensington’s median income is among the lowest of all Philadelphia neighborhoods, and it has twice the number of adults without diplomas as the city on average, according to a 2025 report from Pew Research.

“It’s not like we don’t want to get diplomas,” said Ruiz, who is now 24. “It’s just that it’s inaccessible for us.”

Experts say a high school diploma is a crucial foundation for stable employment later in life. Research shows people with diplomas earn bigger salaries, are qualified for a wider variety of jobs, and even have stronger health outcomes. That’s why high schools are building up support for students like Ruiz through strategies like embedding college prep organizations, mentorship, and career counseling. And graduation rates are trending upward for some schools in the neighborhood, creating a new wave of Kensington kids who make it past the finish line.

“Graduating from high school is a life or death issue,” School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Tony Watlington said in his State of the Schools address this month. “When children graduate college and career ready, it has a major impact on the economy of any city.”

Amiyah Acosta-Peterson, a 10th grader at Kensington Creative and Performing Arts High School, known as KCAPA, said her family and extra school support have helped keep her on the path toward college.

“My family, they motivate me to get good grades,” she said. “They tell me the benefits of it. The teachers also do it. So that’s what makes me want to keep going.”

She holds tight to her dream of becoming a doctor, despite the hopelessness she says many students feel when they walk past open-air drug use on the way to school each day. That kind of environment leads them not to take school as seriously as they could, she said.

For Ruiz, the key to graduating high school was supportive teachers as well as mentors at Taller Puertoriqueño, a Puerto Rican cultural center in Kensington. They now lead an after-school STEAM program there for neighborhood kids.

“Everyone is trying their best to become their dream,” Ruiz said. “And sustain not only themselves but their village as well.”

Showing Kensington kids their potential

Graduation rates at several high schools in Kensington are on the rise.

According to district data, the share of students who graduated from Kensington High School, or KHS, within four years rose from 63% in 2017 to 72% in 2023. Kensington Health Sciences Academy, or KHSA, had a four-year graduation rate of 83% in 2023, up from 71% in 2017, although KCAPA’s graduation rate has declined from 76% in 2017 to 72% in 2023.

Rising graduation rates haven’t taken place in a vacuum. There have also been major statewide changes to graduation criteria recently that aim to create more options for all Pennsylvania students to earn diplomas.

But getting diplomas into student hands largely comes down to staff supporting students on the ground, said Kensington High School Principal Jose Lebron. Some of the work is handled by non-profit organizations like 12+, a program that stations advisers inside schools to help keep students on track to graduation and postsecondary opportunities. The non-profit launched at KHSA in 2012.

The group has an open door policy: KHS seniors averaged 32 check-ins with their 12+ advisers in 2024 — far beyond the capacity of the school’s regular guidance counselors, each of whom is assigned over 200 students.

KHS guidance counselor Liz Winter helps students figure out what they need to graduate. But when they deviate from the plan and start missing too much school, Winter may connect them to 12+. Many of those students aren’t considering higher education and say they want a job, but don’t know what kind.

Once students understand what a high school degree unlocks, “going to school all of a sudden becomes way more incentivized,” said Frank Wang, the chief of staff for 12+. Across all the schools that 12+ works in, he added, “We’re seeing convincingly that our students want to be in school more, and attendance is a strong correlation to graduation rates.”

Advisers with 12+ show students what is available to them beyond graduation, whether it’s college, a trade apprenticeship, a workforce development certificate, and help them with incremental steps towards those options, like completing the FAFSA, working on resumes, or helping them get a merit scholarship.

“12+ is the missing link,” Winter said.

Advisers meeting with students inside the 12+ space at Kensington High School. Every senior has their photo on the wall, and can place stickers alongside to celebrate their accomplishments.

Another program, Heights Philadelphia, pairs students with career counselors or college advisers who can support them with interview preparation, class selection and financial aid. Chief program officer Annie Soler said 100% of students in the Heights program graduate high school and 90% enroll in college.

“We’re seeking out students who might not be on the trajectory for college or for entering into the workforce,” she said. “We’re recruiting 10th graders and supporting them through 12th.”

That kind of one-on-one help is especially important for students who come from communities where knowledge about getting a college education is limited, said Laura Perna with the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.

“Students in Kensington may have strong family support and be able to persist through adversity, and at the same time they may not have networks and sources for how to navigate through these systems — college applications, financial support, which middle and high school courses to take,” she said.

Making these efforts successful requires forming trust and relationships, said Joyce Li, a supervisor with 12+. Advisers ask students about their lives and find out what immediate concerns are hurting their attendance. Sometimes it’s relationship drama, or it’s fear of a teacher after a low grade. It’s a holistic approach to mentorship, troubleshooting whatever obstacles are in students’ way, strategizing steps forward.

Often they’ll start talking about the future after the stressful situation has passed.

“They need to know there’s life after high school,” Li said. “That there’s hope, that there are good things in store for them.”

Trusted adults can be key to motivating students

While 12+ and other groups focus more on career-readiness, school staff might deal with more personal and academic issues.

Lebron said KHS throws out a safety net for students by ensuring teachers accommodate them, providing check-ins at report-card periods, and offering informational town halls about graduation requirements. They also offer credit recovery and summer school, if all else fails.

Lebron referenced lack of support at home as a contributing factor for a student not making it across the finish line. When they don’t have parents’ encouragement, the onus falls on the school.

That’s all the more reason to have pipelines to alternative workforce programs and mentorship, said Kensington Health Sciences Academy Principal Dr. Nemet Eren.

“Sometimes it feels like we are squeezing blood from a stone, because there’s just so much that needs to happen, and we need support from outside programs,” Eren said.

The students at risk of not graduating are often identified early, most likely because of low attendance. Winter said combatting absenteeism starts with parents.

“We need parent involvement,” she said. “We have a lot of kids right now facing mental health [challenges] … because their parents are checked out,” she said.

Much of her job is dedicated to meeting with parents, to better understand what’s going on behind the scenes and help coach them on how to motivate their kids.

For Nasir Davis, a Kensington High School junior, the support of his family, teachers, and basketball team — the Kensington Tigers, a team made up of KHS, KCAPA, and KHSA students — keeps him on track.

“I could go to different people if I got problems with the work,” Davis said.

Ethan Feuer, head coach of Kensington Tigers boys basketball, speaks with the team at half time during a game against Northeast High School on Jan. 19, 2026.

To be on the Tigers, who had a successful season and landed third in their division, the players have to sign a contract agreeing to maintain average grades of C or above, a standard set by coach Ethan Feuer.

If they can’t keep their grades up, they’re benched. It means “they don’t have time for basketball,” said Feuer, who teaches ninth grade English at KHSA. Players on the team look up to Feuer, have built tight relationships with the coach, and appreciate his high standards.

After a victory over Philadelphia Academy Charter in early January, Feuer said everyone on the team will graduate: “I’ll have kids during practice sitting on the sideline doing their homework and working together before they can step foot onto the court.”

Whether it’s a coach, a parent, a teacher or an adviser, it all comes down to having at least one caring adult, said Li, the supervisor with 12+.

“There are all these opportunities and resources,” she said. “But if you don’t feel like the person who’s telling you this stuff cares about you and genuinely follows up with you consistently, then they’re not going to do it.”

Sammy Caiola covers solutions to gun violence in and around Philadelphia schools. Have ideas for her? Get in touch at scaiola@chalkbeat.org.

Report: A college degree is most ‘promising path’ to a good job in Illinois

2025-12-16T19:45:00+00:00

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A bachelor’s degree is the best pathway to a good job in Illinois — and while alternative pathways can lead to good jobs, they are more inequitable, according to a new report from the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative and the UChicago Consortium on School Research.

Some non-college pathways also led to good jobs, such as construction and agriculture, but they heavily favored white and Latino men.

“I know there’s a lot of questions about: Is the college degree worth it?” said Meg Bates, director of I-WERC. “Here we’re seeing that, really, it’s the only degree that consistently leads to that upward mobility.”

What’s more, Bates said, is people from low-income families are much more likely to have some college education, but no degree.

“They’re in what we call, like, the worst of both worlds,” she said. “They’ve gone, they’ve taken on debt, they’ve spent money, but they’re not getting the payoff of the degree.”

The researchers analyzed data from the Illinois High School 2 Career dataset, which includes information kept by the Illinois Department of Employment Security, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, and the Illinois State Board of Education. The report looked at outcomes for a cohort of students from the classes of 2008 through 2012 who are now in the workforce.

But college enrollment rates have dipped in the years since that time. Last year, about 65% of Illinois high school graduates enrolled in college within a year, Illinois state report card data shows. That’s down from a high of around 75% in 2018.

The report, which is a follow-up to one released over the summer, found that 54% of students from low-income families ended up in a good job compared to 69% of students from higher-earning families. The report defined the income threshold for a so-called good job as $25,879 annually in 2017 dollars, worth approximately $34,375 in 2025, which the report authors acknowledged is low and does not meet the national living wage even though it exceeds Illinois’ minimum wage.

The authors identified five industries in Illinois where certificates or associate level degrees still led to good jobs: construction trades, agriculture and veterinary science, engineering, health professions, and mechanic and repair jobs. All of these pathways paid off primarily for men, and in particular, white men.

Health professions were the exception. They were also a promising pathway for women, in particular Latinas.

Disparities shrank as higher education rose, further solidifying the authors’ conclusion that college is the best pathway to economic mobility. This mirrors the findings of national research out of Stanford and Georgetown Universities.

“The data make it clear that higher education remains one of the most effective ways for students to move into higher income brackets,” State Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders said in a press release. “What’s powerful about this report is that it shows students which pathways — degrees, industries and credentials — truly pay off. That knowledge helps students make confident, informed choices about their futures.”

Bates said it’s important to share this research with school staff, especially counselors, who can help students make decisions about their futures beyond high school.

In Chicago, students are required to have a postsecondary plan in order to graduate and last year, about 63% of CPS graduates enrolled in college within a year, according to state data. A little over half finish within six years, according to ongoing longitudinal research from the To&Through Project at the University of Chicago.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wants merger of higher education and labor departments

2025-12-10T21:41:43+00:00

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A plan from Colorado’s governor would end Colorado’s higher education department in its current form and create a new agency that would merge the functions of the state’s higher education, labor, and other departments in a bid to strengthen workforce development.

A report commissioned by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and released Wednesday recommends that Colorado create a new Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development. The department would take over certain programs and responsibilities from seven different state departments with the goal to boost economic development and education beyond high school.

The merger is similar to what several Republican governors have done in their states. The new department would include the higher education department, the state’s workforce development council, the state apprenticeship agency, and adult education. At the federal level, President Donald Trump has moved some functions of the U.S. Department of Education dealing with career and technical education and K-12 to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The announcement, marked by a press event at the Colorado State University Spur, comes a week after Colorado Department of Higher Education Executive Director Angie Paccione said she was leaving her post after seven years. Paccione, who attended the event, said family matters contributed to her decision to leave the position in January.

Polis, whose term as governor will end next year, said he wants lawmakers to file a bill in the upcoming legislative session to begin a process that he said will likely finish with the state’s next governor in 2027. Lawmakers will need to approve moving programs under the consolidated department’s purview.

“This kind of consolidation drives better efficiency, better results, and is more consumer friendly to learners,” Polis said Wednesday.

Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat, said lawmakers will focus on how to build this new department.

“We want to make sure the folks that are the experts in running these programs and services, and certainly the leaders of these departments, have an opportunity to weigh in and how we move different pieces to a brand new department,” McCluskie said.

Polis signed an executive order in May tasking various state agencies, including the higher education, education, labor, and economic development departments, with producing the report that analyzes the current system of talent development and to find ways to improve Coloradans’ access to employment, education, and training opportunities.

Polis has pushed to improve workforce education years, and state lawmakers have commissioned other reports that say the state can do more to help residents get an education and then into the workforce.

Polis said the proposal crosses political boundaries and would help propel Colorado to the top in terms of economic competitiveness.

“I think that it’s an idea that good governors from either side of the aisle can get behind working with their legislature,” he said. “It’s fundamentally about streamlining. It’s about more efficiency. It’s about driving better results for learners.”

Several other states have taken similar approaches.

For example, South Carolina passed a state law in 2023 to develop a statewide plan to get industry and education partners working under one set of standards to improve the educational and workforce connections in the state.

And Virginia created an Office of Education Economics in 2021 that seeks to use data to help improve educational programming, policy, and workforce partnerships.

However, the Colorado report’s recommendations are very similar to what’s been done in Missouri, which began to merge its higher education and workforce development offices in 2018 into a Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development.

The Missouri department’s Commissioner Bennett Boggs said the change helped employers and colleges and universities work together in a more comprehensive way. But it also came with challenges, he said. State leaders have needed to think through how to adjust traditional structures, like semester schedules, to be more flexible to employers’ demands, he said.

“It’s a healthier conversation in terms of economic development, workforce development, and helping Missourians,” said Boggs, who previously worked as the higher education department’s deputy executive director in Colorado. “Our mission is putting Missourians on a pathway to learn, work, and prosper.”

The report Polis released Wednesday says too few Coloradans are getting the education they need to get higher-paying jobs.

Currently, only half of all Colorado high school graduates make it to college, the report says. Even fewer graduate college or get the training they need for higher skilled jobs. Older adults also have needed more help navigating training or retraining options.

The report says automation and artificial intelligence has driven the need for employees to gain new skills, and the state’s workforce has started to age. These realities mean Colorado will need even more trained workers to fill key jobs. Over 73% of jobs require education after high school, and the report says Colorado is highly educated due to in-migration, but “can no longer rely on importing talent from other states.”

The report says Colorado’s education and workforce system lacks coordination, shared data, and clear accountability. State agencies also have varying grants and inconsistent policies and procedures, the report says, which can create inefficiencies and confusion for administrators.

Educational options beyond just a high school diploma are plentiful across the state, the report says. Coloradans can choose between over 300 apprenticeships and 4,500 training programs, as well as over 10,000 degree options.

However, residents have difficulty understanding which programs might fit their goals because of the complexity of the system. Business leaders run into similar issues when trying to navigate the system, the report says.

Polis said the confusing system was created over numerous years as the result of “inertia” as economic development offices, state agencies, universities, and colleges have reacted to workforce trends. The new department would unify programs to also make the system easier for residents to understand, he said.

Correction: Dec. 10, 2025: Colorado’s higher education department will end in its current form, not close.

What the internet backlash over remedial math at UC San Diego misses

2025-12-09T12:00:00+00:00

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An obscure university report has unleashed a cascade of criticism over high school grade inflation and university admissions standards.

Last month, a committee at the University of California San Diego described a sharp increase in the number of college students there who need remedial math, in some cases even below middle school levels. The report pointed to California’s decision to drop standardized tests from admissions and the increasing number of students from the state’s high-poverty public schools.

“Admitting large numbers of students who are profoundly underprepared risks harming the very students we hope to support, by setting them up for failure,” warned the 13-person committee of faculty and administrators. This report caught fire across the internet because to critics it represents something bigger: an example of lower standards in education and equity efforts run amok.

The learning declines in American schools are indeed alarming and present new challenges for colleges. I want to focus, though, on a specific claim in the report and many associated commentaries: that students with weak math scores are harmed by being admitted into UCSD.

In reality there is a significant body of research that suggests precisely the opposite, says Zachary Bleemer, a Princeton University economist who has studied University of California admissions extensively. “There’s no advantage to the student to being pushed into a less selective university,” says Bleemer. “Instead, you’re just taking away the advantages that a school like UC San Diego offers them.”

This suggests that selective universities like UCSD aren’t helping underprepared students by rejecting them, even though that might be the easier option for professors and administrators.

In one paper, Bleemer examined a policy from the early 2000s that automatically admitted students to certain UC schools, including UCSD, based on their high school class rank, without regard to their SAT scores.

At first glance, these good-GPA, low-SAT students, who were typically from high-poverty high schools, struggled in college. They had lower grades and were less likely to graduate than their UC peers.

But that’s not the right point of comparison, says Bleemer. The better question is what would have happened to those students had they not been admitted to a UC school. He was able to disentangle this by comparing them to an essentially identical group of students who just missed getting in.

Here the results flipped on their head: Attending a UC school increased students’ chances of graduating college on time by several percentage points and their early career wages rose by several thousand dollars annually.

This undermines the notion that students suffer if they are admitted to selective schools where they may have weaker preparation than their peers. In the context of affirmative action, this is often referred to as a potential “mismatch.” In another paper, Bleemer examined this directly. He found that banning race-based affirmative action in California hurt underrepresented students’ chances of earning a college degree as well as their income later in life. Again no evidence of mismatch — just the opposite.

A separate study of Bleemer’s looked at a more narrow access question. In 2008, UC Santa Cruz’s economics department set a GPA threshold for majors of 2.8. The likely logic here was understandable: Students who couldn’t manage even a B average in introductory economics weren’t well equipped to major in the subject. Yet Bleemer found that students who were just short of the GPA cutoff earned substantially less money in their early 20s as a result.

I’ve focused on Bleemer’s work because it’s on the UC system. Other research generally finds similar results.

Jack Mountjoy, an economist at the University of Chicago, studied students in Texas who were denied admissions to certain public colleges because their test scores were too low. Several years later, he found, those students were less likely to hold a degree and made less money compared to all-but identical students who barely reached the admissions threshold.

The students who did get in were typical high school graduates, not academic superstars. Some didn’t graduate or struggled in college. Yet overall their “outcomes are significant improvements over the typical trajectories these marginal students would have experienced had they been rejected instead,” writes Mountjoy.

Although there remains some debate about the mismatch theory, an overview from the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, acknowledged that in the undergraduate context “students are at least as likely to graduate if they attend more elite schools—indeed, often more so.”

The takeaway from these papers is the same: Limiting students’ access to colleges or courses because they are deemed underprepared does not seem to do them any favors. It actually just holds them back, at least in many contexts where this has been studied.

This makes sense. Selective colleges tend to have more resources, so may be better equipped to help students who need remediation. Students themselves are opting into these schools, so they apparently think it’s the best choice.

All of this is relevant to the current discussion over the admissions standards at UCSD and other selective schools. Obviously we want high schools to better prepare students academically. (I spend much of my time writing about how K-12 schools can improve.) But when students graduate lacking specific skills, as inevitably will be the case for some, colleges have to decide how to respond.

The UCSD committee recommends more aggressively screening out students who struggle in math. It also proposes scaling back the number of students from high-needs public schools. This figure has increased particularly sharply at UCSD recently and accounts for some of the rise in remediation.

The report emphasizes the university’s “limited instructional resources.” Yet less-selective public universities in the state tend to have even less funding than UC schools.

A spokesperson for UCSD did not make someone from the committee available for an interview and declined to respond to written questions.

For his part, Bleemer understands the preferences of faculty for fewer students who need extra help or who attended higher-needs high schools. “There’s nothing easier than teaching a class where everyone gets an A,” he says. (“I’m at a university that passes the buck. I should emphasize my own hypocrisy here,” acknowledges Bleemer, who teaches at Princeton.)

In competitive college admissions, there are many potential objectives for a school. Some applicants will always lose out. Faculty and staff at UCSD are free to make the case for whatever admissions standards they like. But we should be skeptical of the suggestion that students are being rejected for their own good.

Correction: A prior version of this story imprecisely described a study’s conclusion about the effect of attending a UC college. The study found that attending such a school increased students’ chances of graduating on time, not their chances of ever graduating college.

Matt Barnum is Chalkbeat’s ideas editor. Reach him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.

Recent high school graduates and older students are enrolling at Colorado’s community colleges at higher rates

2025-11-26T16:00:00+00:00

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Colorado’s community college total enrollment ticked up this year by about 6.3% over last fall, continuing a state and national trend of two-year public colleges recording strong enrollment gains since pandemic lows.

This year, the Colorado Community College System reported a total enrollment of 94,303 students, up 5,555 students over last fall. About 24,000 students are enrolled full-time, defined as a student taking at least 12 credit hours.

While the state’s community college rebound has been marked by more high school students taking college-level courses, this fall’s increases show gains with older students and recent high school grads. Those students have been less likely to enroll in community college since the pandemic.

The bulk of Colorado community college enrollment growth still continues to be concentrated among students under the age of 17 who attend high school and dual enroll in college-level courses. The state’s community colleges added another 3,400 students 17 and under this fall, up to 40,321 students.

Community colleges also added 2,214 more students aged 18 to 49. Students 50 and older dipped slightly, by 31 students. The changes bring the total enrollment of students 18 and older to 53,978.

Among all students, campuses enrolled 1,658 more students who are the first in their family to attend college, or an increase of 4.72% over last year’s 38,833 students. First-time college student enrollment also grew by 701 students, up to 11,924.

Of the state’s 13 community colleges, only Colorado Northwestern Community College and Trinidad State Community College reported enrollment decreases.

Community colleges were some of the hardest hit by enrollment dips following COVID shutdowns, and national numbers show two-year college enrollment hasn’t fully bounced back.

However, Colorado’s two-year colleges have fared much better than some in other states.

Sarah Heath, Colorado Community College System vice chancellor for academic and student affairs, says the state’s two-year public college system is focusing more on connecting students to the workforce, and that has led to an increase in older students.

Shorter-term industry credentials and programs that connect to employability have taken off in recent years.

“What I’ve seen is that the more aligned industry and workforce-driven things are what’s growing in a lot of community college spaces here,” Heath said.

Colleges have worked to create workforce opportunities while students are enrolled, including apprenticeship and internship programs. Colorado higher education leaders want to increase work-based learning opportunities, especially in rural areas.

More colleges also want employers to help connect programs to jobs, Heath said. And the state increased marketing toward students who want to get a short-term certificate or credential, she said.

Donations help Colorado rural colleges expand student access to work-based learning

2025-11-21T23:23:39+00:00

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Thanks to $5.6 million in donations, Colorado will launch a new initiative to help rural college students get an education that connects to the workforce, according to a Friday news release.

State officials will use the money to create a statewide consortium focused on expanding rural work-based learning opportunities, such as internships, apprenticeships, clinical experiences, or project-based learning. The state will also use the money to help cover credit-bearing work experiences and address disparities in internship access. Additionally, the state plans to measure the impact of this type of education.

Lawmakers approved the three-year pilot program within House Bill 1186 during this year’s legislative session to help rural colleges, but did not provide state funding. Instead, lawmakers asked state officials to collect at least $2 million in grants, gifts, or donations. The move helped make the bill more palatable in a year when lawmakers needed to wrangle a $1.2 billion budget shortfall.

“This significant investment represents a major step forward in ensuring that every Colorado student has access to quality educational opportunities,” said Gov. Jared Polis in a Friday news release. “This legislation recognizes that our rural communities and the institutions that serve them are vital to Colorado’s future, and this funding helps us turn that vision into reality.”

Colorado Department of Higher Education Executive Director Angie Paccione said during legislative testimony in March that the bill would ensure more rural students can apply their college education to the real-world workforce. About 76% of degree programs in the state require some form of work-based learning opportunity, she said.

Yet there’s a larger gap in the work-based learning opportunities rural colleges can offer, said bill sponsor state Rep. Matthew Martinez, a Democrat who represents rural Monte Vista and previously worked in higher education.

“I want to narrow the gap between a student getting to graduation and getting in the job field,” he said in March.

Democratic state Rep. Meghan Lukens, Republican state Sen. Janice Rich, and Democratic Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet also sponsored the bill.

The state received $5.5 million over three years from Ascendium Education Group, a nonprofit whose mission includes helping students from low-income backgrounds connect to education and career training. Nonprofit Strada Education Foundation, which focuses on making it easier for students to get from college to a career, also donated $100,000.

The grants will be managed by the higher education department’s Office of Educational Equity, Workforce, and Social Mobility, according to the news release.

“This funding will support talented students statewide in pursuing their education and career goals side by side — because they shouldn’t have to choose one over the other,” said Gillian McKnight-Tutein, the higher education department’s chief educational impact officer, in the release.

Colorado faculty councils call on university leaders to oppose Trump on higher education

2025-11-21T02:19:37+00:00

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A growing number of Colorado university faculty bodies have adopted resolutions asking school leaders to consider pooling resources to oppose the Trump administration’s unprecedented push to reshape colleges nationwide.

On Thursday, the University of Colorado System Faculty Council became the latest in Colorado to pass such a resolution, known as a “mutual academic defense compact.” Sixty-one percent of faculty voted in favor.

The defense compacts, which are also being considered by other faculty assemblies nationally and have been modified slightly by each school, urge Colorado university leaders to work together to defend against what they say are Trump administration attacks on academic freedom, free speech, independent governance, and research in higher education. Any compact would likely need to be approved by university leaders and boards.

American Association of University Professors Colorado Conference co-president Aaron Schneider said although the resolutions are mostly symbolic, they bring together faculty voices to hopefully “provide some backbone to our administrations.”

“It’s a call for solidarity,” he said. “It’s based on the idea that universities understand each other, that we share a mission of knowledge, of teaching, of creating an autonomous civic space for debate and democracy, and that that needs to be preserved.”

In response to the Trump administration’s actions, some Colorado university leaders have changed website wording, revised free speech policies, and dismantled campus initiatives, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

Universities have lost research grants under administration changes. The Trump administration also asked universities to sign a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” that would commit schools to align with its agenda. Trump’s compact outlines provisions schools must agree to, including changes to campus free speech policies, transgender student and athlete policies, and admissions requirements.

University of Colorado System President Todd Saliman said in a Thursday statement after the faculty passed the resolution that university leadership at every level are committed to academic freedom as a foundational tenets.

A university spokesperson said CU is already part of a collective of 23 public institutions in Colorado who are represented by the Colorado Attorney General Office. CU provides funding as part of the collaboration.

“To protect academic freedom and our ability to carry out our mission, we have been laser focused on engaging in ways that are the most effective in advancing our mission,” Saliman said. “That emphasis will continue.”

The defense compact resolutions originated in March at New Jersey’s Rutgers University, where faculty encouraged Big Ten Conference school leaders to present a united front against the Trump administration.

Along with the CU System, faculty bodies approving such a resolution or something similar include Fort Lewis College; Colorado State University Fort Collins; the University of Denver; Western Colorado University; and the University of Colorado Boulder, Schneider said.

Faculty at Front Range Community College, the University of Northern Colorado, and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs also could consider a resolution, he said.

Colorado State University professor and faculty council member Mary Van Buren, whose council was one of the first to pass the resolution in May, said she understands school leaders are trying to preserve the institution amid threats against federal financial support.

“But where do you draw the line if you’re constantly being encroached on?” Van Buren said. “If you’re constantly making small capitulations to the administration, at what point are you just hollowing out the very core of university values?”

A Western Colorado spokesperson said the school “will not waver in upholding our commitment to academic freedom, integrity of research, and freedom of inquiry, with or without a declared compact.” A University of Denver spokesperson said “the administration is reviewing the resolution and determining the appropriate next steps.” Fort Lewis and CSU Fort Collins representatives had not issued a statement by deadline Thursday.

Faculty want universities to ‘fight against’ Trump policies

University of Colorado Boulder education school professor Deb Palmer, a Boulder Faculty Assembly member and Boulder AAUP co-president, said it’s important that university presidents know how faculty members feel about changes they’ve seen on campus in reaction to the Trump administration’s guidelines. Some are small, like a change to CU Boulder signage from all-gender restrooms to just toilets, she said.

“The main message here is that faculty would like to see the universities fight against the White House’s push to destroy our institutions, rather than just negotiate with the attackers,” she said.

Other changes have been much bigger, such as at the University of Denver. University officials ended policies aimed at helping students of color, as well as LGBTQ and low-income students, after a U.S. Department of Justice memo in July. University leaders feared that the private school could lose federal funding.

“I hope it [the resolution] communicates our deep concern for and resistance to federal interference with the autonomy of higher education institutions, and our continued investment in effective support for all students, staff, and faculty, particularly those who are most impacted by the current federal and sociopolitical landscape” said psychology professor Sarah Enos Watamura, DU’s Faculty Senate president.

These resolutions ask school leaders to go further than past statements and actions. Faculty have also said they want school leaders to not rely solely on the state Attorney General Phil Weiser to defend Colorado higher education.

In April, several Colorado school leaders signed on to an American Association of Colleges & Universities letter calling for constructive engagement with the administration. The AAC&U is a membership organization dedicated to advancing the democratic purposes of higher education.

The letter — which gained almost 500 school leaders’ signatures — said administrators are open to constructive reform from the administration, but “must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses.”

School leaders that signed the letter include officials at DU, MSU Denver, CSU Fort Collins, and Colorado College.

A similar group of Colorado school leaders also signed onto an AAC&U letter against the Trump compact. The letter said the Trump administration’s compact represents coercion, not constructive engagement.

Van Buren said she’s seen school leadership be more receptive to the concerns of students and faculty since the faculty passed the defense compact in May. However, students and faculty have still needed to resist changes enacted by leaders in response to Trump, she said.

In August, CSU leaders revised free speech policies on campus and limited chalking, or writing messages in chalk on sidewalks. After student and faculty pushback, the administration rescinded the policy revisions, she said.

“I think that faculty councils, AAUP chapters, and student organizations across the state are going to continue to act in concert to communicate and oppose these changes,” Van Buren said. “But it’s up to the [university] administrations to really make this effective.”

Colorado counselors set to lose valuable FAFSA student data after state budget cuts

2025-11-18T19:46:57+00:00

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At a time when Colorado lawmakers want to boost the number of students filling out college financial aid forms, high school counselors are set to lose access to a state data tool that experts say is key to accomplishing that goal.

The tool shows counselors each student’s progress toward completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Counselors use it to figure out if students are running into issues during the process so they can then get those students help.

The Colorado Department of Higher Education hired a temporary, full-time coordinator to manage the tool in 2023 as part of a push to increase FAFSA outreach. But state lawmakers cut the $61,000 position this past spring due to a budget shortfall. State budget writers thought it wouldn’t be needed because there’s already federal and state support for students to fill out the revamped FAFSA.

Although the so-called Better FAFSA has improved the process after a rocky rollout, national experts say state-run data tools such as this one remain one of the more effective ways to raise FAFSA completion rates — short of mandating that high school students complete the FAFSA to graduate, a policy Colorado has not adopted.

The loss of the coordinator means the state will stop providing student-level data starting in 2026.

Gabriel Guindon, Denver Scholarship Foundation’s director of college access, said his team was shocked when they heard about the cut in September. Guindon said it will be more difficult for his organization, which focuses on supporting Denver students going to college, to pinpoint students who haven’t completed a financial aid form.

“It is the one reliable, accurate source that summarizes where all students in a school building stand in terms of financial aid completion,” he said. “It will remove any ability for us to have an accurate list.”

The FAFSA opens up the possibility of federal money and other grants and scholarships to pay for college. State lawmakers have wanted to increase FAFSA support because students who complete it are more likely to immediately enroll in college. Many of Colorado’s highest paying jobs with opportunity for growth require schooling beyond high school.

Colorado has also ranked near the bottom in FAFSA completion for years. This last year, Colorado ranked 44th in the nation in getting 2025 high school seniors to complete the FAFSA. About 49% of its seniors finished the form. Data for the 2026 school year hasn’t been released yet.

In 2022, a state working group released a report commissioned by lawmakers that outlined ideas to help move Colorado into the top 10% of FAFSA completion by 2026 or get 80% of seniors filling out the form.

The report included recommendations to increase staff to help students, improve data resources, and create a statewide FAFSA requirement. Lawmakers have provided some money for the work, and the state has added multiple positions to its outreach team.

Lawmakers also haven’t fully funded recommendations in part due to budget concerns and to give the federal government time to fix problems with the new FAFSA application, which launched in late 2023. Lawmakers have also expressed concerns that a graduation requirement would place more work on schools.

Without the data tool, Guindon said his staff at the Denver Scholarship Foundation will have to reach out directly to every student to understand their progress.

“This is probably going to quadruple the amount of time, and probably even more, that (my) team members will have to focus on reaching out to students about their financial aid progress,” said Guindon.

The Colorado Department of Higher Education asked lawmakers in its budget request to continue funding the position. Joint Budget Committee staff recommended in March its elimination because “significant federal and local systems and structures provide robust support for FAFSA application completion to both individuals, families, and schools.”

Budget lawmakers did provide permanent funding at the request of the department for a Colorado Application for State Financial Aid coordinator, which the department created at about the same time as the coordinator who managed FAFSA data.

CASFA helps determine financial need for students who can’t fill out the FAFSA, such as students without legal documentation. Budget writers included $88,000 a year for the CASFA coordinator because they determined there’s less support for these students.

Without the FAFSA coordinator, the department will only be able to show district-level FAFSA completion data through the tool.

“I don’t know if we made a strong enough case, because I was surprised that they [the Joint Budget Committee] would cut it,” Colorado Higher Education Department Executive Director Angie Paccione said. “I’ll take that. I’ll own it.”

Bill DeBaun, senior director of data and strategic initiatives with the National College Attainment Network, said he’s never heard of a state removing access to a data tool due to how important the information can be to educators.

“There’s nothing I’m aware of inherent in the new FAFSA that would obviate the need for the kinds of state to local data sharing that have been successful across the country,” he said.

In 2019, Colorado had 15 FAFSA coordinators funded by a grant who worked in regions across the state, Paccione said. Since the grant expired, the team has gotten smaller, she said.

After the most recent cut, Colorado has eight staff members who work on FAFSA outreach but that’s only a very small portion of their job, a spokesperson said. The team has fewer staff members than in smaller states like Kentucky, North Carolina, and Georgia, DeBaun said.

The data coordinator potentially had the most widespread impact, DeBaun said.

“If you told me that I could have a coordinator who was either doing statewide programming or who could focus on the data sharing,” he said, “I would want to keep that data sharing piece because that is something that potentially touches every single school and school counselor in a state.”

CU Denver and Aurora partnership highlights growing statewide trend to make admissions easier

2025-10-10T23:31:59+00:00

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Surrounded by a half-circle of 20 students from Aurora Central High School, Becky Palacios Romero fielded questions on Thursday afternoon about her time at the University of Colorado Denver.

The sophomore, an international business major, focused on her experience rather than convincing the students at her former high school that they should apply during the week’s final statewide free application day. That’s because every Aurora Public Schools student is now guaranteed acceptance and application fees waived if they meet certain GPA requirements.

Palacios Romero, knowing the group has the option to attend if they want, touched on a few of the more important campus issues: “The food in the dining hall is so good. Last semester, they even had sushi.”

The stress of the college application and financial aid process can dash college dreams, but CU Denver school leaders said they want the agreement signed on Thursday to show Aurora students the university has a place for them — and university officials are willing to help them get to campus. Only about half of Colorado high school graduates go to college and many question the overall cost and whether college is right for them.

This pact highlights a growing Colorado trend in recent months and in the last few years to simplify the four-year university application process. University leaders hope easier admissions policies will help students see themselves on campus and focus conversations on financial aid.

CU Denver announced a similar agreement in September with Denver Public Schools to take the guesswork out of whether students get accepted. Colorado State University Pueblo expanded its direct admissions program on Oct. 3 to include Denver. DPS students will get a letter notifying them they’re accepted before they apply.

Schools such as Metropolitan State University of Denver and the Colorado School of Mines established similar admissions guarantees as CU Denver in recent years. School leaders at Adams State University started the first direct admissions program in 2024. They also send acceptance letters to San Luis Valley students before they apply.

Senior Kimberly Villalobos, 17, didn’t initially have CU Denver in her list of top schools. The guaranteed admissions announcement, coupled with Palacios Romero’s visit, helped her see CU Denver as a campus that might be for her.

Villalobos was one of the first to raise her hand to ask Palacios Romero a question. She wanted to know whether the school would help her even if she’s unsure of her major.

Palacios Romero told her it’s OK to explore her options and try different classes.

“You can mix it up a bit,” Palacios Romero said. “Those credits will help lead on to the major you choose.”

Palacios Romero said after she talked to students that she wished the admission guarantee existed when she attended Aurora Central. She recalled opening her first admission letter and for a moment believed her dreams would be crushed.

The guarantee ensures college dreams stay alive, she said, and might even create a similar dream in others.

“I feel so much joy for them,” Palacios Romero said.

Easier admissions don’t just benefit the students. The agreements help districts create opportunities for students.

Aurora Public Schools Superintendent Michael Giles, Jr. and University of Colorado Denver Chancellor Ken Christensen sign a guaranteed admissions agreement at Aurora Central High School on Thurs., Oct. 09, 2025 in Aurora, Colorado.

Aurora Public Schools’ Zach Rahn said the district has tried to make the college application season simpler by using a system that tracks college, financial aid, and scholarship applications.

About 900 district seniors this year meet the CU Denver guaranteed admissions criteria of having a weighted or unweighted GPA of 3.0, Rahn said.

District officials want students to have a greater understanding and voice in the college-going process, said Rahn, who is the district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction. School leaders also want to reduce student stress.

“And at least in this one circumstance, that barrier has been taken down,” Rahn said. “Students know, ‘There’s a place that I can go to continue my education.’ ”

Easier admissions policies also benefit universities, which compete for students. High school student populations are expected to decline, meaning a smaller student population from which to recruit.

Crysta Diaz, director of undergraduate recruitment and admissions systems operations at CU Denver, hopes the guaranteed admissions agreement can help even more Aurora students see themselves on campus. About 500 Aurora schools alumni attend CU Denver, said school officials.

She’s excited to focus more on the financial aid aspect of admissions — an issue that often creates stress for students. Aurora students will also be eligible for merit-based scholarships and financial aid advising, she said.

“A partnership like this just shows them college is for them, and we’re here to help them, support them and open doors for them,” Diaz said. “It’s a huge access win for both us and the students.”

The afternoon gave Villalobos a lot to think about. She said she’s felt anxious about applying to schools, the financial aid process, and not knowing her major yet.

She liked what she heard from Romero Palacios. She now sees CU Denver as a community that understands her culturally, has attentive professors, and will help her figure out the financial aid process.

Plus, she knows she will get in if she wants to go.

“It makes me feel more at home,” she said.

As Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars program grows, there are new higher education challenges

2025-10-07T11:00:00+00:00

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Before she became a career coach at Vincennes University or graduated from the University of Southern Indiana, Raychel Geiser got crucial help from a state program that’s over three decades old: 21st Century Scholars.

Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars program allows students who meet eligibility requirements to receive a two- or four-year scholarship that pays up to 100% tuition at a public Indiana college or university and partial tuition at private colleges.

Geiser, 28, whose family struggled with finances and substance abuse, said that not only has she benefited from the program, but so have her six siblings. All of their lives, she said, “have been changed drastically because of that opportunity.”

“I wouldn’t have been able to go to college” without the scholarship, Geiser said. “That’s how I got my degree and then landed my current job.”

Since it began in 1990, the 21st Century Scholars program has helped more than 50,000 Hoosiers earn a college degree, according to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

Recent changes to the program have allowed it to dramatically increase the number of students it serves in high school. At the same time, there are significant challenges for the program and those who oversee it.

The state’s college-going rate is dropping after several years of being stagnant. Policymakers are placing more emphasis and career and technical education, which might lead more students away from traditional higher education. And high school attendance can affect coordinators’ ability to keep in touch with students and make sure they’re on track to meet program requirements.

All that means state officials, K-12 educators, and others are keeping a close eye on how the program and institutions of higher education can adapt to the changing environment and students’ needs.

Officials applaud college scholarship program’s results for students

Seventh and eighth graders who are Indiana residents, U.S. citizens, and meet certain income eligibility requirements can start participating in 21st Century Scholars. For a household of four, for example, the maximum annual income is $59,478.

According to the commission, there are currently 150,000 enrolled scholars in high school and 15,000 active scholars in college across Indiana.

Since 2011, students have had to complete 12 steps as part of the Scholar Success Program during high school to earn scholarships. Requirements include participating in an extracurricular or service activity, getting workplace experience, and filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

Students must also meet terms outlined in a Scholar Pledge, such as achieving a cumulative GPA of at least 2.5 in high school and complete at least 30 credit hours each academic year in higher education.

“As long as students hit all of those benchmarks, then they will be eligible for a life-changing amount of financial aid,” said Zachary Cullum, assistant director for K-12 outreach at the commission.

However, one of the most recent and significant changes to 21st Century Scholars was a 2023 law that enabled the commission to automatically enroll all financially eligible students into the program.

Since implementing automatic enrollment, outgoing Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Chris Lowery said the cohort numbers have doubled.

Lowery touts the college-going rate of 21st Century Scholars as one of the program’s successes. Around 80% of scholars go to college, compared with nearly 52% of all Indiana high school graduates. Lowery also said scholars complete college at a higher rate than their peers from low-income backgrounds.

“The requirements to stay a 21st Century Scholar give that extra motivation,” said Carter Jones, a senior math major at Indiana University.

Vincent Isom, director of the 21st Century Scholars Program at Indiana University, believes that despite the statewide college-going rate dropping from about 60% pre-COVID, the college-bound rate for 21st Century Scholars will remain strong.

“The percentage of 21st Century Scholars going to college now is higher than any other group in the state," Isom said. “On the horizon, it’s a matter of making sure that students are educated so they can make a choice for themselves.”

Jakahi Freeman, a media advertising major at Indiana University, said the experience has inspired him to pay it forward.

“With the skills that I built with this [21st Century Scholars] internship, as well as my schooling program, media advertising, I’m hoping to get into the education field and continue the work that I’m doing,” said Freeman, a senior.

Automatic enrollment in scholarship program ‘a huge blessing’

Automatic enrollment into the 21st Century Scholars Program not only put more students on the college path, but it also relieved the commission from one of its greatest challenges: tracking down and enrolling eligible students.

“[Automatic enrollment has] allowed us to focus our efforts on helping the students who are enrolled in the program with our Scholar Success Program activities that we have and doing financial aid nights,” said Cullum. “It’s been a huge blessing to us.”

However, Cullum said one of the current challenges for regional outreach coordinators is getting scholars to meet in person. Chronic absenteeism rates remain high in grades 9-12, and nearly 1 in 3 Hoosier students was chronically absent during their senior year, according to the 2024-2025 state data.

“Once they get in front of us, it’s easy to guide those students through the process and make sure that they’re eligible,” Cullum said.

Ensuring students meet each deadline in the Scholar Success Program, such as filing the FAFSA, is another struggle.

The commission announced in August that the state reached the 60% FAFSA filing goal set for high school seniors in the class of 2025, including more than 72% of 21st Century Scholars.

Even if students get a job right after high school, it’s still important to ensure “that they’re still meeting all their steps just in case that higher education is going to be an opportunity for them and leaving themselves open to not shutting the door on themselves,” Cullum said.

Lowery believes that the push for work-based learning opportunities in Indiana is another important piece of the education puzzle that can be blended with higher education and the 21st Century Scholar experience.

In July, the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation awarded nearly $13 million to eight Indiana organizations for apprenticeship programs. And the Indiana Department of Workforce Development secured $6.25 million in federal funding to grow Registered Apprenticeship Programs across the state.

“The reality is that most research firms, think tanks, and others say that by around 2030 to early 2030s, 70 to 80% of our population is going to need something beyond a high school diploma. And all of those things fit in concert. It’s not one or the other,” Lowery said.

Though Lowery’s last day as commissioner is Oct. 10, and Secretary of Education Katie Jenner will be the new commissioner of higher education, Lowery remains excited to see how automatic enrollment into the 21st Century Scholars Program will impact more students, particularly in 2027.

That’s when the first group of students who were automatically enrolled will graduate, so it’s the first year “we have made certain with the automatic enrollment and other shifts that we’ve done everything to make sure we don’t miss students and to make sure that students are getting to do the Scholar Success Program,” Lowery said.

Colleges and universities must also prepare for how automatic enrollment will lead to more students on campuses, Isom said.

He said it’s important that “a program or universities like mine are prepared with the human resources and the financial resources, that universities are conscious of the needs of this population.”

Reach Chalkbeat Indiana at in.tips@chalkbeat.org

Two Colorado students want to make it easier to get admitted to a state university

2025-09-24T22:27:49+00:00

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Cherry Creek High School seniors Kiran Herz and Jaiden Hwang have spent hundreds of hours filling out college applications and writing admissions essays.

Hwang estimates he wrote 30 essays just over the summer. Herz, seeing the stress that fellow students face when applying to college, wanted to find a solution to make college admissions easier.

His research led to a 1997 Texas law that guarantees in-state students who graduate in the top 10% of their high school class receive automatic admission to every public state university. The two Colorado friends hope they can get voters to pass a similar law here during the November 2026 election.

“It’s so incredibly difficult to get into some of these universities,” Hwang said. “There’s so much ambiguity and stress involved.”

In proposing the ballot measure, the two teenagers could initiate a broader statewide discussion about how to get more students to college and alleviate admissions process stress.

National advocates for easier admissions say statewide initiatives take the guesswork out of applying to a university. They say these policies reduce stress, encourage students to stay in state, and help students who come from low-income families or would be the first in their family to attend college see higher education as an option.

The students’ proposal would ask voters to require state-funded universities guarantee admissions to students with a GPA in the top 10% of their high school’s graduating class. Eligible students would need to apply for admittance within two years of graduating. The proposal would limit the number of students admitted to 75% of the school’s freshman enrollment.

To get their proposal on the November 2026 ballot, the students need over 124,000 voter signatures by December. They want voters to know that the stress of applying to college can be unbearable, and they’ve seen peers decide against college altogether.

“The admissions process is incredibly more complicated than it needs to be,” said the Lumina Foundation’s Melanie Heath, who advocates for and has studied easier admissions policies nationally. “And we’ve seen a movement across many states to do some type of simplified admissions process.”

The Lumina Foundation is a nonprofit philanthropy that supports greater access to opportunities beyond high school. (Lumina is a Chalkbeat funder. See our funders here, and read our ethics policy here.)

Nationwide, about a dozen states have guaranteed admissions policies that set a bar at state universities. All students who meet that criteria are admitted. Guaranteed admissions are seen as a way to attract higher-achieving groups of students to apply to state schools.

Another dozen states have direct admissions policies, wherein state colleges notify high school seniors that they’ve been accepted without the students ever needing to apply. Direct admissions programs primarily help students who might not think college is for them.

So far, Colorado state leaders and higher education officials haven’t coalesced around a single strategy. Instead, universities have taken different approaches.

Metropolitan State University of Denver and the Colorado School of Mines have guaranteed admission for students from select school districts. CU Denver recently announced a new program for Denver Public Schools students.

Five Colorado colleges, including Colorado State University Pueblo and Adams State University, have direct admissions.

Colorado doesn’t have cascading admissions, which is when university systems notify students they’ve been accepted at other schools if they’re not admitted to their first choice.

“Maybe even more than the complexity, these policies take the stress out of applying,” Heath said.

In 2022, David Tandberg, during his first year as Adams State University’s president, asked school administrators to create a direct admissions system for San Luis Valley students.

The idea was new to Colorado, but not Tandberg, who previously worked at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. There, he was involved in helping other states replicate Idaho’s pioneering Idaho Campus Choice, a statewide direct admissions program.

“We in the Valley have the lowest educational attainment rates in the state,” Tandberg said, referring to Alamosa and the San Luis Valley. “And for most students, if they have a high school diploma or GED, we admit them. So why not do direct admissions here?”

Heath said direct admissions policies don’t cost much, and Idaho spends about $30,000 a year sending out letters. The small investment has yielded a big return, she said, with an increase in enrollment by 4% to 8% at open-access institutions. The program has also kept about 8% to 15% more Idaho students in state.

Adams State officials found they only needed to invest time in creating the first direct admission program in the state. University officials drafted letters for families and students and created a system to share student information between school districts and the university.

“I’ve had parents and grandparents stop me in the street and say, ‘You have no idea how much that meant to our kid and to us,’” Tandberg said. “The real delta is with those students that check themselves out, that thought higher ed didn’t want them.”

Fewer Colorado students are graduating with debt, new report shows

2025-08-15T22:36:38+00:00

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A new report shows fewer Colorado college students are graduating with debt — and the debt they do have on average is thousands less than 10 years ago.

The numbers compiled within the state’s seventh Return on Investment report released on Thursday also highlights that a college education continues to help residents stay employed and get jobs with higher wages.

Overall, the report provides a data trove that seeks to show college is worth the time and money. The report breaks down numerous facts and figures that include college enrollment, how many years it takes students to complete a postsecondary education, college costs, and debt figures.

In a letter included within the report, Colorado Department of Higher Education Executive Director Angie Paccione said residents face a big decision in going to college, but it’s worth the investment.

“Postsecondary education continues to help people earn more money and support families and communities across the state,” Pacciones writes in the letter.

The report, compiled with the most recent data from the 2022-23 school year, is released annually to help lawmakers and families understand the value of a college education. In recent years, public skepticism over whether college is necessary has persisted despite data showing there’s a clear return.

This year’s report shows that about 43% of undergraduates, or students earning an associate or bachelor’s degree, left college with debt in the 2022-23 school year. That’s down from 61% of graduates in the 2013-14 school year.

On average, those students with debt who earned a bachelor’s degree graduated with about $24,700 in loans. Meanwhile, students who completed an associate degree left with about $13,100 in loans.

The total debt that graduates statewide hold has also decreased to $241.6 million, compared to $434.4 million in the 2013-14 year.

Still, the report highlights there’s room for improvement, with students taking too much time to complete a degree or leaving with more credits than what’s needed to graduate.

The report also backs up federal data that shows a bachelor’s degree provides higher wages. Bachelor’s degree holders also have the most financial growth over a 10-year span, or a 50% increase in earnings from graduation.

And residents with a four-year degree are also less likely to be unemployed. Just 2.8% of residents with a bachelor’s degree were unemployed in 2024, compared to 7.9% for those without a diploma.

More out-of-state CSU Pueblo students will pay the same as Colorado graduates starting this fall

2025-08-14T21:20:09+00:00

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This fall, students from 10 neighboring states will pay in-state tuition rates at Colorado State University Pueblo.

The decision made late last year to extend in-state tuition rates to more students is part of a broader strategy to attract students as the number of high school graduates nationwide declines. At the same time, more Colorado students are heading out of state.

The school joins a growing number of regional universities wanting to become more competitive in enrolling out-of-state students through so-called tuition reciprocity agreements.

CSU Pueblo’s Kristyn White Davis, who helps oversee enrollment, said many students find Colorado to be a desirable place to attend college, and school officials want Pueblo to become a destination. The school has lower tuition and fees on average than larger universities such as CSU Fort Collins and the University of Colorado Boulder.

“Tuition continues to increase,” said White Davis, who is CSU Pueblo’s vice president for enrollment management and extended studies. “This is a way to sort of reach out to students who might not be able to afford higher priced institutions and sort of meet them where they are — create a reason for them to be able to come here.”

Reports show high school enrollment is expected to decline by about half a million students by 2041, including several thousand Colorado graduates a year starting in 2025. The share of Colorado high school graduates heading to other states for college has also increased in recent years to almost a third.

Like many regional universities, CSU Pueblo relies mainly on enrolling local students — a group that represents a limited pool. About 50% of the nearly 4,000 students attending CSU Pueblo come from the southern Colorado region.

By offering a tuition discount to students in other states through the school’s Regional In-State Equivalent, or RISE, Tuition Program, school officials hope out-of-state students take notice.

The school previously offered in-state equivalent tuition discounts to a limited number of New Mexico students. Now, the school will expand that to 10 states: Arizona, California, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. The program also allows in-state tuition for international students from China, Italy, Mexico, Slovenia, and South Korea.

On average, out-of-state students pay $23,099 to attend CSU Pueblo full time. The RISE tuition discount drops tuition by over $7,000, to $15,940.

The idea to offer these types of so-called tuition reciprocity agreements has been around for years. For example, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, or WICHE, has several programs that help out-of-state students in western states secure lower tuition rates.

One such WICHE program started in 1988 and has grown to over 170 schools, including CSU Pueblo, that offer out-of-state students 150% of the base in-state tuition rate.

Colorado also has 17 tuition programs for certain out-of-state students built into statute, according to Colorado Department of Higher Education officials. Those laws include a tuition reciprocity agreement with New Mexico and in-state tuition for students returning from the Peace Corps, regardless of where they previously lived.

About 17% of CSU Pueblo’s students are from out of state, and White Davis said the school chose the 10 states based on where the majority of out-of-state students come from. In the first year, White Davis said the goal is to increase out-of-state enrollment by a modest 25 students.

She hopes the RISE program will grow as more out-of-state students see the value of a CSU Pueblo education, she said. Graduates have high economic and social mobility and are competitive in the job market, she said.

“The idea is to really highlight opportunities for students,” she said. “CSU Pueblo is a great place to go to college and have a really wonderful experience.”

Colorado created two programs to get adults back to college. One worked far better than the other.

2025-08-11T18:52:45+00:00

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One of the highlights of Lisa Johnson’s life came when she walked across the stage at Metropolitan State University of Denver last year after earning an associate degree.

The 60-year-old was the first of her siblings to earn a college degree, an achievement she feared would never happen.

“I was over the moon,” Johnson said.

But a busy life filled with a job and kids, a reluctance to amass debt, and health issues have kept Johnson from taking the next step: reenrolling in college to complete her bachelor’s degree.

Going on to get a bachelor’s degree was a goal state lawmakers had in mind in 2021 when they launched a $1 million program, called Colorado Re-Engaged, which allowed Johnson to get an Associate of General Studies. The program gave universities the ability to grant the degree to about 25,000 adults who had previously dropped out of college after having earned enough credits for an associate. They hoped those adults would then be positioned to complete a four-year program for a bachelor’s degree, a credential that leads to far greater financial growth than a high school diploma or associate degree.

While the program has given former students recognition for their time and money, students aren’t returning to finish a four-year degree. That’s partly because the program doesn’t help students with their second attempt — unlike a similar program called Finish What You Started, which was launched by lawmakers at the same time and has had greater success at attracting former students back to college.

Of the more than 1,500 Coloradans who have been awarded an associate degree through Re-Engaged, only about 40, or 3%, have reenrolled to finish their bachelor’s degree, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat Colorado through open records requests.

Meanwhile, a recent state report shows Finish What You Started, created through the same legislation, prompted about 4,700 Colorado adults with some college credits but no degree to reenroll to finish either their associate or bachelor’s degree. Of that number, about 2,000 returned to four-year universities, and about 600 students have successfully completed a four-year program so far, according to a state report.

The biggest difference between the two programs has been funding.

Finish What You Started was created with $49 million in federal pandemic relief dollars to provide direct and indirect support for students, such as financial aid and career and academic advising. That’s compared to Colorado Re-Engaged, launched with $1 million in federal pandemic money but without that type of support.

Making matters more complicated, students who received a Re-Engaged associate degree couldn’t get financial aid through Finish What You Started support because the law excluded students who already held a degree from the more supportive program.

“The legislation even in its name — the Re-Engaged initiative — is an assumption that people as individual operators in the world are going to want to reengage with higher education,” said Shaun Schafer, associate vice president of curriculum, academic effectiveness, and policy development at Metropolitan State University of Denver. “Surely, you don’t need anything to make that happen. They’ll just want it.”

“And that’s a wonderful theory, but I think we’ve got proof that’s not exactly how people act.”

A goal to get more former college students back on track

Dropping out of college is a common experience.

According to National Student Clearinghouse numbers, 757,000 Coloradans, including 620,000 residents under the age of 65 in Colorado, or about 13% of the state’s population, have some college but no degree.

Lawmakers hoped federal pandemic relief money could help lower that percentage and also prop up colleges and universities, improve education outcomes, and strengthen the workforce. They wanted the Re-Engaged program to reach about 25,000 adults who had earned at least 70 college credits, or the equivalent of an associate degree, before dropping out.

Finish What You Started was intended to serve adults who might have fewer college credits — at least 36 — and leverage federal, state, and local resources to help them reenroll to get either an associate or a bachelor’s degree.

Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers show having an associate degree only yields about $70 more per week in wages when compared to having some college and no degree. Associate degree holders are also slightly less likely to be unemployed.

A bachelor’s degree provides a big benefit. Someone with a bachelor’s degree earns almost $450 more a week on average than someone with an associate degree, according to Labor Statistics numbers.

Peter Fritz, who oversees the Re-Engaged program at the Colorado Department of Higher Education, said earning an associate degree has provided Re-Engaged recipients with a sense of personal accomplishment. The program also helped the state receive national recognition for getting associate degrees into the hands of those students.

“It’s not a huge advantage economically for them to have an associate degree,” Fritz said. “But I hear a lot of stuff about personal satisfaction and personal accomplishment.”

However, getting adults reenrolled for their bachelor’s degree through the Re-Engaged program has been a major challenge.

“It’s the ‘re’ in Re-Engaged, in getting those students to feel comfortable and like it’s worthwhile for them to reenroll and finish out the bachelor’s degree, that’s the next big challenge,” he said.

National Student Clearinghouse numbers show just 2.3% of Colorado students who previously dropped out of college returned last year, even as the Re-Engaged and Finish What You Started programs have started to boost those numbers. That’s lower than the national average of 2.7%.

The challenges and successes of Colorado Re-Engaged

The MSU Denver ceremony where Johnson received her associate degree might have been a highlight of her life, but she still holds greater aspirations. When she thinks about reenrolling in college, she said the process feels overwhelming.

Many students share Johnson’s experience, university officials said. The main reason most don’t return is financial, they said.

These adults have households and families to support, jobs and other responsibilities like kids to juggle, and many also need help to afford tuition or books. Without it, going back to college is difficult — a reality reflected in the different success rates of Colorado Re-Engaged and Finish What You Started.

The eight universities participating in Colorado Re-Engaged were given $40,000 each to start the program at their campuses. Schools could use the money for marketing and outreach materials.

Collectively, university records show they have reached out to over 7,500 former students through letters, emails, and phone calls.

But although state lawmakers set aside $1 million for the program, only about half of that was spent, according to a state report. For example, Fort Lewis College sent back $16,625 of the $40,000 because the school needed far less to start the program and begin outreach to students. Other schools reported the same.

Meanwhile, the 30 universities participating in Finish What You Started were given several hundred thousands or even millions of dollars to support students. In addition to marketing and personnel, colleges and universities could use the money to help returning students pay their tuition and advise them on which courses to take to advance their careers.

A state report shows of the $49 million set aside for the program, schools spent about $27 million from 2022 to 2024.

The legislation creating Finish What You Started says students who already have a degree or certificate with 30 or more credits are not eligible for those resources.

Universities advised some adults to opt out of getting their associate degree so they could reenroll as a Finish What You Started student, Fritz said.

Despite the financial challenges, Re-Engaged has helped university leaders better understand what older adults need and new ways to serve this population.

For example, MSU Denver has started to provide general studies evening classes from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in a bid to help adults work around their schedules and make it easier for them to return, he said. The change is a direct result of learning from Re-Engaged, Schafer said. The school will also keep its financial aid offices open later to help students who work.

The lessons learned are important because of the two programs, Colorado Re-Engaged is the one that will last, with the participating universities planning to continue to award associate degrees. The more expensive program, Finish What You Started, will end in May 2026 because the federal pandemic money has expired.

Lisa Johnson wants to continue her education and become a lawyer.

Johnson said when she thinks about how she got her associate degree, she feels motivated. She wants the same feeling of joy and accomplishment as when she walked across the stage at MSU Denver.

Her goal is to get her bachelor’s degree then go to law school to become a lawyer.

Last month, Johnson said she’d hesitated to reenroll because of recent health complications and worries about college costs. She wished university officials would have reached out to see if she needed help with the process.

But last week, when Chalkbeat asked if she enrolled, she said she felt inspired. She registered on Wednesday at the University of Denver and plans to attend school there in the fall. She said she told herself, “Just go for it.

“And that’s exactly what I am going to do.”

Jared Polis and governors association release plan to improve education and workforce outcomes

2025-07-30T20:05:21+00:00

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Governors should expand their approach to education by preparing students not just for work, but civic life and personal well-being too. And they should track and publish people’s progress towards key education-related goals.

These are a few of the recommendations identified by Gov. Jared Polis and the National Governors Association to help state leaders strengthen education, student learning, and the economy. The recommendations are part of Polis’ time as the NGA’s 2024-25 chair — each chair focuses on solutions to a nationwide problem. Polis’ term concluded earlier this month.

After a year of studying the topic, Polis’ and the NGA’s Let’s Get Ready Initiative says that for too long, states have focused on only math and reading proficiency, but it takes more than just those skills to succeed in the workforce.

Polis said in a letter about the initiative that there’s a mismatch between the skills states are tracking and the preparation students need to succeed once they leave school. He added that states don’t have a clear way to monitor how or whether students succeed over the long term while building resilience and competitiveness for social and economic change.

“The Let’s Get Ready! Initiative is a call for governors to demand better,” Polis said. “We have a responsibility to drive innovation within our systems, bolster our capacity to measure what works and what doesn’t, and most importantly, to prepare our students for workforce readiness, civic engagement, and well-being.”

The organization’s news release about the blueprint, published this week, said it worked to get feedback from educators, parents and families, students, researchers, and community and business leaders about the topic.

Here are the five recommendations from Polis and the NGA:

Governors should set clear goals for education, including early childhood to career outcomes, as well as short-term and long-term goals for residents participating in the economy. State leaders should then develop strategies to meet those goals and track progress.
Governors should also find ways for state agencies, which often work in silos, to communicate and coordinate in an effort to improve educational and career outcomes.
States can keep track of outcomes and goals by building a long-term outlook, or longitudinal data systems, that tracks the progress of students from early childhood to the workforce.
Governors then can display the data they’ve collected for public consumption in a user-friendly format. This data can help researchers and the public evaluate progress and recommend when to make adjustments.
Despite federal uncertainty, state leaders should continue to advocate for federal partnerships, or create state consortiums, that assess student performance, identify the students who need the most help and direct funding toward them, and contribute to national research.

Broken car? Late rent? Community College of Aurora gives students help with life emergencies

2025-07-01T22:01:11+00:00

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A broken down car. Medical bills. Or not enough money for rent.

Many of the Community College of Aurora’s 8,500 students routinely face these types of emergencies.

The challenges are often big enough to cause them to drop out.

To prevent that, the Community College of Aurora is part of the growing number of colleges and universities that provide students with a small amount of emergency financial assistance to help keep them in school.

Last school year, CCA gave over 30 students one-time grants of up to $500 each.

“It is a low amount, right?” said Reyna Anaya, CCA vice president of student success. “But the impact may prevent a student from stopping out.”

In total, CCA spent $16,000 on the emergency-aid program in the 2024-25 school year. The college will increase that amount by more than a third next year thanks to a $10,000 grant from national nonprofit NASPA - Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. CCA was one of five colleges out of a nationwide pool of 300 applicants to receive the $10,000 grant to support students.

Still, CCA administrators worry the funding won’t be enough to keep up with the need, especially if the Trump administration follows through on threatened cuts to federal safety net programs.

“The need is very high,” Anaya said. “And as we are seeing funding cuts and resources being pulled back, we recognize the need is going to be higher and we’ll be serving more students.”

The CCA aid program is a sign of how more colleges and universities, in Colorado and across the country, are following the lead of K-12 schools in offering students support with basic needs.

CCA school leaders have long known that students needed help with more than just academics, but saw the demand for this help grow during the pandemic. Many Aurora community college students are from lower-income backgrounds and face more personal and financial challenges in finishing school.

Most students are also enrolled part-time, meaning they have less financial aid and are likely working to support themselves through college.

CCA first surveyed students in 2023 about what they needed to succeed, and based on the feedback, it invested heavily in food resources. Since then, it has also slowly built out its emergency-aid program to help students when life issues arise.

CCA students don’t have to ask for the money themselves; they can be referred by a professor or an administrator, said Andrea Rascón, CCA project coordinator for student success.

The $10,000 NASPA grant will help the school invest more in the program. The grant is part of the organization’s national effort to strengthen college retention by addressing non-academic barriers that disproportionately affect students who are from low-income backgrounds and those who are the first to go college in their family.

However, giving students money alone hasn’t correlated to students completing college, according to a Temple University HOPE Center study. Other studies, including one that reviewed Georgia State University’s pioneering program, show emergency grants can help students graduate.

CCA leaders said they aim to increase the effectiveness of the grants by providing coaches who work one on one with students facing an emergency. Coaches then can understand the challenges the student is facing and connect them to other community resources or academic services.

The program has grown in popularity in the last year, and many students spread information by word of mouth, Rascón said. School officials plan to begin tracking how many students stay in school next year to make a stronger case for expanding the program.

Colorado students, education leaders try to help TRIO college-access program avoid Trump cuts

2025-06-26T19:19:23+00:00

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At one time, Bailee Hernandez didn’t even know how to enroll in college. No one in her family had attended.

She did know that college was expensive.

All that meant she used to think she would go straight from high school into the workforce. But thanks to the staff at Colorado State University Pueblo’s TRIO office, Hernandez enrolled at Colorado Mesa University during the pandemic. Then she dropped out.

CSU Pueblo TRIO staff once again stepped up to help. Hernandez took a year off from college to work before the staff helped her to return to college. This time, she enrolled at CSU Pueblo in her hometown, where she now wants to earn a degree in social work.

The federal TRIO initiative is a set of programs that helps people like Hernandez who face the highest odds of never getting to or finishing college. Across the nation, 870,000 high school and college students and older adults from low-income backgrounds, students with disabilities, and first-generation students are a part of the program. About 17,500 students benefit from the program in Colorado.

But President Donald Trump apparently takes a very dim view of TRIO’s value.

The Trump administration’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 would strip all funding from the six-decade old program, leaving college students who have the hardest time getting to college in every part of the country without what advocates, program administrators, and some lawmakers call a vital service.

“For communities like Pueblo, a lot of students don’t know about college because their parents have never gone. They don’t even toy with the idea of going to college because they feel it’s not possible,” Hernandez said. “Programs like these open doors. Taking that away will really increase barriers for those that are already struggling.”

In its budget proposal, the Trump administration has taken the position that the program doesn’t include enough accountability. Trump’s budget says that “TRIO has not met its performance measures for a number of years” and will leave how to support students up to state, college, and local officials.

The federal government provided $1.2 billion for the program in its most recent budget. Almost every Colorado college and university offers the program. TRIO funding is awarded through competitive, multi-year grants.

Congress often disregards many specific proposals in presidential budget blueprints, and TRIO has long enjoyed bipartisan support. But Colorado isn’t the only state where people involved in TRIO have defended it in light of Trump’s budget.

CSU Pueblo Executive Director of TRIO Programs Brenda Trujillo-Aranda said such a move would hurt not just Hernandez and Pueblo, but the entire southeastern Colorado community.

“This isn’t just a budget decision,” she said. “It’s a decision about whose future matters.”

Communities would struggle to support students without TRIO

The TRIO program received its name from its original three programs, but has grown into eight distinct programs — seven of which provide services directly to students. They include the Student Support Services, Educational Opportunity Centers, Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement, Talent Search, and Upward Bound programs.

That suite of programs includes college awareness programs for middle and high school students, college advising support, and connections to get back to or into college for older adults. TRIO staff teach students not just about traditional two- and four-year degrees, but options like industry credentials and certificates.

A national group of advocates and program administrators argue that it would be a mistake to defund a program that has a proven track record of success.

Data from the Council for Opportunity in Education show students participating in these programs are much more likely to go to school, stay in school, and graduate. The nonprofit has advocated for Congress to keep funding TRIO despite Trump’s budget request, especially because of the impact defunding would have on schools with the fewest resources.

“TRIO is particularly prevalent among institutions that serve high numbers of low-income, first-generation students,” said Kimberly Jones, the president of COE, in an email. “Given the high levels of need of those student populations, these institutions simply do not have the resources to make up for the millions of dollars TRIO brings to their campuses.”

The school has received about $2.2 million annually to offer TRIO programs, which serves about 2,500 students, including 150 veterans and students as old as 72.

CSU Pueblo Interim President Rico Munn said there would be no way to replace the money in the short term. Program administrators at the school also are wondering whether they can even offer the program next fall because several grants are eligible for renewal in the fall.

Fliers describing the various TRIO offerings at Colorado State University sit outside the program's office on Monday, June 23, 2025.

CSU Pueblo student Rhyli Aranda has attended three different colleges so far, but CSU Pueblo TRIO staff have helped her through all the challenges, including an undiagnosed learning disability. She now works as a student employee in the TRIO office, which includes planning events and mentoring other students through TRIO.

“Without TRIO, I would be lost,” Aranda said.

TRIO supporters lobby Congress to preserve funding

Historically, the TRIO program has received widespread and bipartisan support in Congress. For example, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, recently criticized Trump’s budget blueprint specifically for cutting TRIO.

The Council for Opportunity in Education has gathered over 10,000 alumni in a petition to Congress in the hopes that Congress will preserve the program. And Colorado school leaders and community groups across Colorado hope that lawmakers will preserve TRIO.

Nate Easley, a TRIO advocate and Colorado State University System trustee, said about 5,700 within the CSU System, which includes the Fort Collins campus, use the TRIO program.

He said the return that the nation gets on spending the money on TRIO is exponential.

“There are kids who are going to graduate college,” he said. “They become taxpayers and contributing citizens.”

Other schools, such as the University of Northern Colorado, have a history of using the funding to innovate.

For instance, the school’s University 101 class was originally funded with TRIO before the school made the program mandatory, said Stephanie Torrez, University of Northern Colorado’s assistant vice president for student academic success. The class teaches first-time and transfer students about what to expect in college and helps with study skills.

“There’s so much that TRIO offers for our campus,” she said. “We learn so much from it.”

But the program isn’t isolated just to schools. Community foundations such as the Denver Scholarship Foundation have used TRIO funding to prepare high school students for college.

Nathan Cadena, DSF’s chief impact officer, said most programs have enough to spend just $600 to $1,500 per student. But he said it’s that “little extra investment that really uplifts.”

Colorado’s residents hold more degrees with value than most other states

2025-06-12T19:27:26+00:00

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Not every college education holds the same value. But a new report released earlier this year shows that college degrees hold more value than just a high school diploma for Colorado’s residents.

The newly revamped Stronger Nation report ranks Colorado’s workforce among the top five with a high share of college-educated individuals who earn a typical wage 15% higher than those who hold just a high school diploma.

In the past, the report published by the Lumina Foundation tracked whether Americans have a college education, but not how that affected their earnings. The foundation focuses on opportunities for all Americans to get an education beyond high school. (Lumina is a funder of Chalkbeat. See our funders here, and read our ethics policy here.)

Now, the nonprofit foundation has new goals to understand whether a college degree, credential, or certificate delivers value to residents. The foundation aims to equip 75% of adults in the U.S. labor force with a college education that leads to economic prosperity.

“It is really important to attain a credential, but we want to make sure that it’s a credential of value,” said Courtney Brown, Lumina Foundation, vice president of impact and planning. “We want to make sure nobody’s wasting their time or their resources to get a credential that doesn’t provide labor market value.”

The new report uses U.S. Census Bureau data to tally how many residents have a degree and their reported earnings.

While Lumina has ranked Colorado the most-educated state, also evaluating the credential value has dropped the state behind Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and Minnesota.

The report shows about 51% of the 2.7 million Coloradans actively participating in the labor force make at least $140 more per week than their peers with just a high school diploma. On average, the typical high school graduate nationally makes $930 a week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The report confirms holding a higher-level degree, including short-term credentials and associate degrees, increases the likelihood residents will increase their earnings. About three-quarters of all residents who hold a bachelor’s degree earned 15% more than their peers with only a high school degree.

While the report doesn’t detail the other benefits of getting a college education, studies have shown college graduates also have better access to health care and are more likely to be civically engaged.

The Stronger Nation report also doesn’t detail which certificates, degrees, or credentials nationally hold the most value. Instead, Brown said the foundation hopes the report brings awareness about gaps specific to each state. The foundation wants officials to use local data to determine whether programs meet the needs of their communities and provide economic value to residents.

Colorado higher education officials have already started to take on this work. In 2023, the state reworked its higher education goals to focus on advancing the economic mobility of residents. The state has outlined strategies to do this, such as subsidizing the cost of higher education or detailing how certain education paths can lead to higher pay.

Brown said Colorado and other states’ leadership in showing how college can benefit residents has demonstrated to the foundation the importance of measuring a degree’s value, not just educational attainment.

“I would encourage Colorado to continue to be a leader and make sure that the state is providing these credentials of value,” Brown said.

Many states picked diploma pathways over high school exit exams. Did students benefit?

2025-05-27T21:10:05+00:00

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When 18-year-old Edgar Brito thinks about what he’ll do in the future, mechanical engineering is high on the list.

The senior at Washington state’s Toppenish High School first considered the career after he joined a STEM group in middle school. In a ninth grade class, he researched the earning potential for a STEM degree (“so much more money”) and the demand for mechanical engineers (“exploding”).

So Brito took some engineering classes at his high school, became president of his state’s Technology Student Association, and is starting at the University of Washington this fall on a pre-science track.

Brito’s experience is what state education leaders hoped for when they replaced the high school exit exam with multiple pathways to graduation. When he graduates in June, Brito will have completed several diploma pathways, including ones aimed at preparing for college and building career skills.

But his experience isn’t necessarily typical. He has friends who have no idea what pathway they’re on — or if they’re on one at all. The requirements could be clearer and advisers could spend more time talking about them with students, he said.

“Making sure that we know exactly what our pathway is and what it means to be on a pathway would have definitely helped out a lot more students,” Brito said.

Five years after Washington rolled out its pathways, they appear to have helped more students who aren’t college-bound to graduate, which was part of the goal. But the system has also created new issues and replicated some old ones.

For the Class of 2023 — the most recent year with available data — around 1 in 5 seniors didn’t have a pathway. That meant they weren’t on track to graduate within four years and at risk of dropping out. Some students relied on pandemic-era waivers that don’t exist anymore. That’s similar to the share of students who didn’t graduate on time in 2019, the final year of the exit exam.

Asian and white students are much more likely to complete one of the math and English pathways, considered the college-prep route, while Native students, English learners, and students with disabilities are more likely to have no graduation pathway.

“The implementation of graduation pathways has reinforced that the student groups who are the furthest from educational justice are completing the requirement at lower rates,” state education officials wrote in a 2023 report.

Across the state, students don’t have equal access to the pathways. Many schools, especially smaller and rural ones, struggle to offer more than a handful of career and technical education classes. Some career pathways train students for low-paying jobs with little opportunity for advancement. Some students get funneled to the military pathway, despite having no aspirations to serve, because the aptitude test is easier to pass. Many teens, like Brito’s friends, find the pathways confusing.

Washington is not alone. Nearly half of states offer multiple diploma options or graduation pathways. And some, like Indiana, have already taken a second pass at their pathways. Many have struggled to address the same big questions, including what exactly high school is for, and what students should need to do to earn a diploma.

Now the state board of education is poised to overhaul its graduation requirements again.

Piling on more ways for students to graduate is not the answer, said Brian Jeffries, the policy director at the Partnership for Learning, an education foundation affiliated with the Washington Roundtable, which is made up of executives from across the state.

“Let’s better prepare our students to meet the pathways, [rather] than keep creating a smorgasbord or a cafeteria of options, which too often turn into trapdoors,” said Jeffries, who sits on the state task force that’s looking at graduation requirements. Until disadvantaged kids have access to better instruction and more support, he said, “we’re going to keep spinning this wheel.”

The path to 100 high school graduation pathways

Back in the early 2000s, many states raised the bar to graduate from high school with the hope it would get more kids to college. As a result, by 2012, half of all states required an exit exam, including Washington state.

But as student debt soared and some questioned the value of higher education, schools abandoned that college-for-all mentality. Critics of exit exams argued that they blocked too many disadvantaged students from graduating.

In Washington state’s final year of the exit exam, around 1 in 10 high school seniors didn’t pass the English language arts portion, and 1 in 5 didn’t pass the math test, the Seattle Times reported. The law that nixed the exit exam had broad support from the Washington teachers union, state education officials, and parents. Lawmakers passed it unanimously.

Just six states require an exit exam now, with New York and Massachusetts dropping their tests this school year.

But absent an exit exam, states haven’t really reached a consensus on what students should have to do to prove they’re ready to graduate.

Nationwide, there are now more than 100 ways to graduate from high school, according to a recent report from the Education Strategy Group, a K-12 consulting firm. The myriad options provide flexibility, but “also contribute to the lack of clarity about what it means to earn a diploma,” the report found.

When the nation’s main K-12 education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, passed 10 years ago, it tasked schools with getting students ready for college and career. But many states and schools are still trying to figure out how to do the career part well.

“Part of the challenge, frankly, is that schools are going through a bit of a post-high-stakes-test-based accountability identity crisis,” said Shaun Dougherty, a professor of education and policy at Boston College.

Michael Petrilli, the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank, says that’s partly because for all the talk about changing high schools, graduation policies are still fairly restrictive. One reason Washington is revisiting its policies now is because some educators worry the state’s 24-credit requirement fills up students’ schedules, leaving little time for apprenticeships and other hands-on learning.

Many kids are still “sleepwalking through six or seven class periods a day, mostly through college-prep courses,” Petrilli said, with “maybe a few career-tech electives on the side.”

“We haven’t really unleashed high schools to do things very differently,” Petrilli said. “If we actually think that career tech is valuable, if we think that college-for-all was a mistake, then we need to be willing to act on it.”

Diploma pathways can bolster teens’ interest in school

What’s happening in the Toppenish School District illustrates the potential of the pathways model.

The district, which serves around 3,700 students in south-central Washington, is able to offer a wide range of career and technical courses, including in growing industries, like health care and agriculture. The career-oriented pathway has helped increase some students’ interest in school.

Toppenish High School students learn about human body systems in an introductory class that's part of the Washington school's health and medical science career pathway.

“It is very hands-on, and so it’s definitely more engaging,” said Monica Saldivar, Toppenish’s director of career and technical education. The old one-size-fits-all approach had “a negative impact for our students with diverse learning needs, academic challenges, and also language barriers.”

Just before the state overhauled its graduation requirements, over 81% of Toppenish students graduated within four years. Now over 89% do.

The improvements have been especially pronounced for English learners and Native students, many of whom live on the Yakama Nation. Since the state introduced pathways, Native student graduation rates have risen from 67% to 88%.

Since pathways launched, the district has added several career-technical education courses, including advanced welding and classes that prepare students to work as medical transcriptionists or home health care aides. That can require some careful career counseling with students, as those jobs are in high demand but don’t pay well unless students get additional training or schooling and move up the career ladder.

Still, the expanded offerings have helped some students tailor their post-high school plans.

Frances Tilley, a Toppenish senior who’s headed to Gonzaga University in the fall, will graduate in June after completing both college-prep and career-oriented pathways.

The 18-year-old took two of the new sports medicine classes and liked learning about what to do if you have a concussion. (Don’t try to stay awake. “We learned that’s not true,” Tilley said.)

Toppenish students practiced hands-on skills like casting, kinesio taping, and suturing at a sports medicine event in December 2024. The class is one of several the Washington district added after the state introduced diploma pathways.

She followed that up with another health care class that touched on different disciplines. She gravitated toward psychology and now plans to get a master’s in counseling and become a mental health worker.

Pathways can also help schools expose students to career options earlier.

Three years ago, Toppenish started offering middle schoolers two-week labs to test drive careers such as marketing, nursing, or culinary arts. By the end of eighth grade, they’ve learned about 10 different careers. Now school counselors use students’ interests to help plot their high school schedules.

Kaylee Celestino, 16, had long considered becoming a teacher. The Toppenish sophomore often gets “education” as an answer when she takes career quizzes. But the career-exploration labs also piqued her interest in science, and now she could also envision becoming a pediatric nurse. So her course schedule reflects that with advanced biology and college-level chemistry.

“I just want to help people out,” she said, “like my teachers have helped out me.”

Staffing, standards, data gaps make pathways challenging

Staffing career and technical classes is one of the biggest hurdles to doing pathways well.

Washington makes it easier than other states for professionals to put their work experience toward a teaching license. But many schools still struggle to attract and retain teachers for attractive fields like health services and welding when the private sector beckons.

“These are lucrative fields,” said Dougherty, who has researched career education programs in several states, including Washington. “It’s hard to convince people to give up that salary to become full-time educators.”

Toppenish students learn skills like welding and metal cutting in an upper-level career and technical education class. Some Washington schools struggle to find teachers for skilled trades classes because they are in high demand in the private sector.

That creates extra work for schools. Saldivar, for example, meets regularly with regional employers to learn about their workforce needs. That helps inform whether Toppenish should drop or add certain classes, and which teachers to recruit. Saldivar is constantly networking and following up on “so and so may know someone” tips.

Figuring out how to hold all students to a high standard when they are meeting different criteria to graduate is a challenge, too. Some worry Washington’s pathways are too flexible.

The state rolled out a new pathway this year that allows students to graduate by completing a project, work-related experience, or community service. Lawmakers wanted to give students a way to show what they know besides taking a class or a test. But students don’t have to work with a teacher at their school, and if they choose to work with an outside mentor, there’s no clear rules for how they should be vetted.

“Where are they finding these people?” said Jeffries of the Partnership for Learning. “Is their opinion an expert opinion that we could trust, or is this based on vibes?”

Experts say it’s also important for students to understand what their likely earnings and other outcomes will be depending on which career pathway they follow.

“We should not be talking about CTE in a very generic way,” said Dan Goldhaber, a professor at the University of Washington who has researched career and technical education teacher preparation in the state. “What the concentration is matters.”

But Washington state doesn’t yet know how students’ outcomes may vary depending on which career and technical education concentration they chose, Katie Hannig, a spokesperson for Washington’s state education agency, wrote in an email. This is a common problem nationwide.

The state also doesn’t yet know whether the pathway, or pathways, students completed were connected to their post-high school plan, which they must create to graduate. That hasn’t assuaged concerns that students are completing pathways disconnected from their college and career goals.

The state expects to get that data in the future, Hannig wrote. Analyzing how diploma pathways affect graduation trends and postsecondary outcomes could help schools target resources and support.

“Any new policy is a work in progress, but the fundamental core value of this policy is preparing students for their next step after high school graduation,” Hannig wrote. “Washington is proud to be one of those states that have established and continue to refine those pathways.”

For now, districts like Toppenish are scrambling to coordinate weekly college presentations, field trips to work sites, and military recruiter visits — “a little of everything,” Saldivar said — to hedge their bets.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Funder axes Queens College diversity initiative amid Trump DEI purge

2025-03-18T20:26:41+00:00

This story was originally published on March 18 by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning. The CITY partners with Open Campus on coverage of the City University of New York.

The country’s largest private funder of biomedical research has cut its funding for a program at Queens College that had focused on making science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education more inclusive and engaging for students of diverse backgrounds, the college confirmed to THE CITY.

The Inclusive Excellence initiative, launched at the Flushing-based CUNY college in 2022 with funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), ended abruptly last month when the Institute cut short what was supposed to be a $505,000, six-year grant running through 2028.

“I was pissed. I called them cowards,” said Desiree Byrd, a psychology professor at Queens College and a member of the initiative’s advisory board, referring to HHMI. “It felt like an abandonment. It’s as if the work was disposable.”

Until HHMI decided to pull the plug, Byrd said, the Queens College initiative had been focused on creating professional development programs to help STEM faculty members better accommodate the needs of immigrant students, students of color and students with disabilities. In the past, for example, the initiative has offered fellowships to support neurodivergent graduate students and hosted workshops for faculty to improve student interest and engagement in STEM courses.

The grant was cut short days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to identify large foundations and corporations for potential investigations into their diversity, equity and inclusion and accessibility programs, writing that they “deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.”

While that executive order was initially blocked in federal court last month, an appeals court last week lifted the injunction and allowed the Trump administration to enforce the order while a lawsuit challenging it proceeds.

HHMI spokesperson Alyssa Tomlinson wouldn’t say whether it had slashed funding for institutions in the program because of the executive order. She also declined to provide an explanation for the cut, saying only that the institute “remains dedicated to supporting outstanding scientists and talented students training to become scientists.”

Byrd, for her part, said she had been hopeful that the privately funded initiative at Queens College would continue on despite cuts to DEI programs across federal agencies and cuts to research funding from the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation.

“I remember thinking, ‘Okay, well, HHMI is not the government. Right? It’s independent, so at least we’ll still have that,” she recalled. “But what’s the justification? Nobody’s forcing you to take all this preemptive complicity. I was mad and I’m still mad. Like, who is gonna stand up for us? Can someone stand up and say ‘No, this is not right,’ or at least fight till the end?”

HHMI funding will continue to support the initiative for the rest of the school year, said Queens College spokesperson Maria Matteo.

But after THE CITY first inquired about the program, Queens College updated the initiative’s page on its website to say it “ended in February 2025” and removed a page listing its staff.

“We are assessing the priorities and identifying alternative funding sources for the planned work,” Matteo said, citing projects to address areas “where students identified additional support needs in teaching” and the development of tools, resources and training for faculty to improve classroom outcomes.

In a Dear Colleague guidance issued last month, the federal Department of Education ordered universities to forgo DEI programs and activities to continue to receive federal funding.

CUNY’s central office — which oversees the system’s 25 colleges — did not respond to THE CITY’s question about whether it plans to make pre-emptive cuts to DEI programs to avoid funding cuts.

But in a Board of Trustee meeting last month, CUNY chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez said the university is “assessing the implications of this guidance.”

He added: “We are not going to panic with every single action that comes out of Washington.”

University spokesperson Noah Gardy also told THE CITY: “CUNY remains deeply concerned about the potential impact of federal cuts to research and will continue to work with our partners in government to advocate for funding and continue CUNY’s tremendous growth as a preeminent research institution.”

The hits keep coming

To Sara López Amézquita, an assistant professor of English at Queens College and a member of the initiative’s advisory board, the HHMI program was a place where she was able to meet colleagues outside her department who are equally dedicated to making the classroom a welcoming space for students from all walks of life.

“It’s very rare that we have this place where we can come together and really brainstorm and dream big and ambitiously because we can test things out and hopefully it can stick,” López Amézquita said, noting how she had been encouraging her colleagues in first-year writing to bring forward their own suggestions for making STEM education more inclusive given their expertise in working with new students.

“I was like, ‘Oh, here’s this space where you could possibly talk about equity,’ and unfortunately, that’s something that has also been rolled back now,” López Amézquita added. “This political climate is creating so much distraction for spaces like CUNY, where things were already very difficult to advance and to happen, they now then become even harder to carry out.”

Workers in STEM typically earn more than those in other professions, and the growth in STEM employment is projected to outpace those in most other fields in the coming years.

But even as the number of STEM graduates has dramatically increased since 2010, Black and Hispanic adults remain underrepresented among STEM graduates and workers relative to their share of the overall population, according to the Pew Research Center.

The Inclusive Excellence initiative was intended to help close those gaps. But now any effort to try and close those demographic gaps would potentially violate the Trump executive order that lambastes any efforts to track such information as “illegal, pernicious discrimination that has prioritized how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing.”

In the past, the Inclusive Excellence initiative at Queens College has hosted educational workshops for faculty and staff to support awareness, teaching and learning for neurodivergent students — and López Amézquita, for one, noted how she’s seen progress in improving student experiences on campus.

“Just last semester, for the first time, I had three students in my classroom who not only self identify as neurodivergent, but they made sure that I knew that they needed certain kinds of accommodations,” López Amézquita said. “And that was the first time in all my seven years at Queen’s College where I was like, ‘Oh, the school actually had the correct assessment for what they need and they have the support system.’ And that’s not to say that it was easy for them to navigate Queens College, but it was certainly easier for them to have that kind of support.”

Byrd, for her part, said the initiative was not only instructive to her classroom practices but also supportive to her own career advancement as an African American professor in STEM.

“I’m someone who recently went through the tenure and promotion process and I struggled to figure out how and where to reflect my service,” said Byrd, who has volunteered to host events on disability rights and language justice. “HHMI was helpful, and it was nice to be able to come and sit at a table where other people got it and offered ideas.”

In her six years at Queens College, Byrd has also observed how class curricula and class-assigned readings often do not reflect the identities of many Black, brown and immigrant students, and how some students are sometimes unable to access expensive textbooks — and had hoped that the HHMI initiative would help address those common frustrations.

But the funding cut has made that work increasingly challenging.

“I don’t live with anxiety like that generally and I’ve never had to experience it professionally,” Byrd said. “But now there’s all this breath-holding, and I’m just bracing myself: Like, what’s the next hit? What’s the next hit that’s going to come? Because they just seem to keep coming.”

She continued: “But I always close class by saying, ‘But we’re still here. Let’s think of one piece of gratitude.’”

CUNY board unveils ‘master plan’ projecting enrollment bump

2025-01-30T17:14:08+00:00

This story was originally published on Jan. 30 by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning. The CITY partners with Open Campus on coverage of the City University of New York.

The City University of New York Board of Trustees Committee on Education Policy this week approved a “Master Plan” for 2026 to 2034 that projects an 13% increase in enrollment by 2030 and outlines a set of strategies to accomplish that goal.

The document signals CUNY’s leadership intends to step up efforts to attract adult New Yorkers who already have some college experience. The university plans to emphasize continuing education and workforce development programs, boost its online course offerings and target more New York City-area students who are not enrolled in public schools.

The plan notes demographic and educational trends that influenced its undergraduate projections, including a steady decline in New York City public school enrollment, difficulty assessing college readiness following waivers granted for high school graduation Regents exams during the pandemic, and the long-term value students and families place on higher education.

CUNY plans to reach a total enrollment of 264,000 students by 2030, including non-degree enrollments — up from 233,352 in 2023. “While additional analysis is needed to more accurately project enrollment through 2034, we expect to, at minimum, sustain the 2030 achieved target,” reads the report.

“It sounds ambitious but in line with the direction that CUNY has been going,” Ayinde Bennett, a postsecondary readiness manager with Urban Assembly, which works with high school students across the city to prepare them for college, told THE CITY about the enrollment targets.

“I think they are really investing in ‘How do we make CUNY the university for New Yorkers, for New York?’ The idea that you can go to Columbia and NYU but CUNY is a far more affordable option,” he added, noting the university’s reputation as a driver of social and economic mobility.

At a state of the university presentation in November, CUNY chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez celebrated the system’s second straight year of increased enrollment, reversing a downward trend exacerbated by the pandemic. Approximately 3% more students matriculated compared to the previous year, including 6% more at the community colleges. Enrollment of graduate students also increased for the first time in four years.

But enrollment is still down 10% compared to pre-pandemic levels — and matriculation of Hispanic students has been particularly slow to recover.

Emmanuel Moses, director of guidance and transition for the Opportunity Network, a nonprofit organization that helps students from underrepresented communities access college and professional opportunities, told THE CITY that CUNY’s enrollment projections “will definitely be possible if they expand what, not just college, but what post secondary success looks like,” and if they continue to address affordability.

“I can see it happening, but I think it’s gonna take a lot of them sort of saying, ‘Hey, let’s do more certificate programs, or let’s connect with more workforce,’” said Moses. “I think it’s a space where they’re realizing it can’t just be ‘Let me go to high schools.’”

In the report, CUNY said it will redouble its efforts to recruit and serve the nearly 700,000 New Yorkers with college credits and no degree among working-age adults, noting it will increase its “emphasis on building workforce-aligned programs and pathways including certificate and workforce skills programs for in-demand careers.” Approximately 30% of CUNY undergraduate students withdraw from educational programs each year.

CUNY initiatives like Accelerated Studies Associate Program (ASAP) and Accelerate, Create, and Engage (ACE), which offer students comprehensive support through advisement, career development, and tuition and transportation assistance, will go a long way toward attracting and holding on to those potential students, added Moses.

“If you’re going to retain and support returning students, adult learners, you need to acknowledge the things that are going on really in their life, whether it’s child care, whether it’s transportation,” he said, noting of ASAP that it “gives book stipends. It provides free transportation. You know how clutch that is for a parent or somebody who has to work?”

CUNY Reconnect, which helps working-age adults who once attended CUNY return to the university, is one program that the institution plans to expand to support that demographic. It will target “individuals impacted by the criminal justice system (including their family members), students educated outside the United States and veterans.” Supported with initial funding from the City Council, the program has re-enrolled 40,000 students since its creation in 2022, the chancellor said during his state of the university speech.

CUNY noted it would seek to expand its college readiness programs for public school students as a way to get more to enroll at its campuses. More than 80% of the university’s freshmen are graduates of the city’s public high schools.

To add about 5,100 graduate students by 2030, the university plans to strengthen its undergraduate-to-graduate pipeline by enhancing mentoring and expanding accelerated dual bachelor’s and master’s programs.

As part of a statewide plan for higher education, the master plan from CUNY is mandated by the New York State Board of Regents, which determines education policy for the state, by April 29.

The plan was reviewed by CUNY leadership, faculty, staff, students and administrators across the university’s campuses this past fall, according to the document. The full board will vote on the plan on Feb. 18.

Las amenazas de deportación de Trump pesan sobre los grupos que ofrecen ayuda con la FAFSA

2025-01-10T17:57:26+00:00

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Este artículo sobre ayuda financiera fue producido por The Hechinger Report, una organización de noticias independiente sin fines de lucro centrada en la desigualdad y la innovación en la educación. Suscríbete a su boletín.

Una gran parte del trabajo de Elizabeth House es alentar a los estudiantes a completar la Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes, o FAFSA, por sus siglas en inglés.

La FAFSA es clave para obtener ayuda financiera como las Becas Pell y los préstamos respaldados por el gobierno federal, pero los padres deben proporcionar sus números de Seguro Social o colocar nueve ceros si no tienen uno.

Para los estudiantes que tienen familiares sin los documentos de inmigración adecuados, completar el formulario se ha visto durante mucho tiempo como una forma riesgosa de llamar la atención sobre el estatus de su familia. Sin embargo, House insta a los estudiantes a dar ese paso y completar la FAFSA de todos modos.

“Los alentamos a que no detengan sus planes futuros por tener miedo de ser indocumentados”, dijo House, quien es la directora de servicios de asesoramiento escolar en las Escuelas del Condado de Greenville en Carolina del Sur.

Pero algunos grupos de asesoramiento universitario están adoptando a regañadientes una postura diferente. El presidente electo Donald Trump ha dicho que quiere deportar a millones de inmigrantes que se encuentran en el país ilegalmente y poner fin a la ciudadanía por derecho de nacimiento, y están advirtiendo a los estudiantes que llenan el formulario por primera vez que lo piensen dos veces antes de hacerlo si tienen familiares que no tienen la documentación adecuada.

En noviembre, la Red Nacional de Logros Universitarios (NCAN, por sus siglas en inglés) compartió una guía sin precedentes que advierte a los estudiantes con familiares cuyo estatus migratorio es cuestionable sobre la necesidad de llenar la solicitud de ayuda financiera federal. La declaración decía que no podía garantizar que los datos que los estudiantes y los padres envían en la FAFSA siguieran estando protegidos a la luz de las declaraciones públicas y las prioridades de la administración entrante.

“Aunque la Ley de Educación Superior prohíbe el uso de datos para cualquier propósito que no sea determinar y otorgar asistencia financiera federal, en este momento la NCAN no puede asegurar a los estudiantes y familias de estatus mixto que los datos enviados al Departamento de Educación de los EE.UU. —como parte del proceso de la FAFSA— seguirán estando protegidos”, dijo la organización en su guía.

A los consejeros como House les preocupa que estos mensajes socaven la confianza que las escuelas han construido con las familias inmigrantes para que los estudiantes ingresen a la universidad.

“Incluso un solo estudiante que no lo complete es un impacto negativo”, dijo.

Los estudiantes que no están autorizados a estar en el país no son elegibles para la ayuda federal, pero la FAFSA se usa ampliamente como una vía para otros tipos de becas. Los consejeros de la escuela secundaria y los asesores universitarios han alentado a estos estudiantes a completar el formulario porque algunas universidades ofrecen becas independientemente del estado de ciudadanía.

Los datos de la FAFSA están protegidos por la Ley de Educación Superior y la Ley de Privacidad de 1974. No existe ningún acuerdo que permita que los datos recopilados en el formulario de ayuda financiera se utilicen para la aplicación de la ley de inmigración. En una llamada de prensa el otoño pasado para responder preguntas sobre el lanzamiento de la FAFSA en línea, los funcionarios de la administración del Departamento de Educación dijeron que el presidente Joe Biden ha priorizado la protección de la privacidad de los estudiantes y las familias.

“No podemos hablar por los futuros responsables de las políticas, y los estudiantes y las familias deben considerar esta información y tomar las decisiones que sean adecuadas para ellos”, dijo un alto funcionario del Departamento de Educación.

Algunos grupos como Matriculate, una organización con sede en Nueva York que junta a alumnos de alto rendimiento y de bajos ingresos con mentores universitarios para guiarlos en su camino hacia la universidad, están compartiendo el mensaje de NCAN con los consejeros o directamente con los estudiantes.

“Es información a la que creemos que nuestros estudiantes necesitan tener acceso”, dijo Bryan Contreras, director gerente de programas, asociaciones y crecimiento en Matriculate.

Otros están ofreciendo consejos diferentes. ImmSchools, una organización sin fines de lucro con sede en Dallas que trabaja con escuelas para mejorar los resultados de los estudiantes inmigrantes, está alentando a los estudiantes a completar la versión en papel del formulario FAFSA en lugar de la solicitud en línea. En la versión en papel, los estudiantes no tienen que responder directamente si tienen o no un número de Seguro Social, aunque aún tienen que poner algo en el espacio para el número real.

“Los temores se intensifican y con razón”, dijo Astou Thiane, director de políticas en ImmSchools. “Tenemos una administración que ha dicho públicamente que aplicará una política de deportaciones masivas contra las comunidades indocumentadas e inmigrantes. Creo que eso tendrá efectos de largo alcance sobre los inmigrantes, punto”.

Trump ha sido coherente en su intención de llevar a cabo deportaciones masivas, pero ha enviado mensajes contradictorios sobre lo que implican esos planes. Ha dicho que trabajaría con los demócratas en una solución que permita a los “Dreamers” —estudiantes traídos a los Estados Unidos ilegalmente cuando eran jóvenes— permanecer en el país. Pero funcionarios de la administración entrante también han dicho que una opción para evitar la separación de familias con una mezcla de ciudadanos y personas no autorizadas a estar en el país es deportar a todos “juntos”.

La Asociación Nacional para la Asesoría de Admisión Universitaria, o NACAC por sus siglas en inglés —cuyos 28.000 miembros incluyen consejeros de escuelas secundarias y asesores universitarios— está sopesando los riesgos. Las preocupaciones sobre completar la FAFSA no son nuevas para los estudiantes y las familias con un estatus migratorio cuestionable, dijo David Hawkins, director de educación y políticas de NACAC, pero las amenazas de deportación masiva han intensificado los temores de que la aplicación de la ley de inmigración encuentre una manera de usar los datos de la FAFSA, aunque se supone que están protegidos.

“No podemos garantizar que la futura administración pueda o no usar esta información, pero no queremos avivar los temores cuando todavía no hay nada sobre la mesa que sugiera que esta información se usará para algo más que la ayuda financiera”, dijo Hawkins.

En definitiva, House cree que advertir a los estudiantes que no completen la FAFSA hará más daño que bien. Los consejeros escolares de Greenville seguirán recomendando a los estudiantes que la completen, independientemente de su estatus de ciudadanía, y los conectarán con escuelas que ofrezcan becas para las que puedan calificar.

“Nos encantaría que cada organización fuera alentadora y solidaria —en ayudarnos a encontrar recursos para todos nuestros estudiantes”, dijo House.

Traducción por César Segovia.

Contacta con Ariel Gilreath al 212-678-3639 o gilreath@hechingerreport.org.

Muchos jóvenes inmigrantes persiguen un sueño universitario inalcanzable

2024-12-19T19:28:30+00:00

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Durante su niñez en Washington, D.C., Maria Ayala-Flores no tenía en claro cuál era su situación legal. Sabía que había nacido en El Salvador y que, junto con sus padres, debía renovar sus papeles cada 18 meses. Sin embargo, nunca dudó que Estados Unidos era su hogar desde que llegó de pequeña.

Su sueño era asistir a la universidad, no solo para lograr sus propias metas, sino también para aprovechar las oportunidades que sus padres no pudieron tener. “Quería que mis padres se sintieran orgullosos de mí”, confesó.

Lo que no imaginaba era lo precaria que era en realidad su vida en los Estados Unidos, ni cómo su estatus legal pondría obstáculos en su camino hacia la universidad.

Según datos del Instituto de Políticas Migratorias (Migration Policy Institute), se calcula que el 11% de los estudiantes en las universidades e instituciones superiores de Estados Unidos son inmigrantes. En cuanto al total de estos 1.9 millones de estudiantes, cerca de la mitad son ciudadanos naturalizados, mientras que la otra mitad posee diferentes tipos de estatus migratorio. Aproximadamente 400,000 son indocumentados y más de 500,000 cuentan con algún tipo de estatus legal. Algunos son residentes permanentes, otros son refugiados o solicitantes de asilo, y también hay quienes son beneficiarios de permisos humanitarios. Además, algunos de ellos tienen Estatus de Protección Temporal (TPS, por sus siglas en inglés) debido al peligro que representa regresar a sus países de origen.

El sistema de educación superior en los Estados Unidos es, para muchos estudiantes inmigrantes, una luz de esperanza, una oportunidad que desean aprovechar para acceder a una carrera profesional y conseguir estabilidad y seguridad. Sin embargo, enfrentan diversas barreras para acceder a la educación superior, que abarcan desde el proceso de admisión y de inscripción, hasta la obtención de ayuda financiera. Como consecuencia, aunque muchos están autorizados a vivir y trabajar aquí, se les impide el acceso a muchas profesiones y luchan por alcanzar su máximo potencial.

María Ayala-Flores no pensaba mucho en su estatus migratorio durante su niñez. Eso cambió de repente cuando comenzó a planificar su ingreso a la universidad.

A medida que aumenta el número de inmigrantes con este tipo de estatus, algunos estados están implementando políticas que facilitan el acceso de los estudiantes. En contraste, otros estados mantienen las puertas cerradas al restringir la matrícula estatal exclusivamente a ciudadanos y estudiantes que tienen la residencia permanente (green card). Con Donald Trump preparándose para iniciar su segundo mandato presidencial, la incertidumbre para los estudiantes inmigrantes se intensifica. Trump se comprometió a eliminar el Estatus de Protección Temporal (TPS), algo que ya hizo durante su primer mandato. Para beneficiarios del TPS, como por ejemplo Ayala-Flores, que han dependido del programa por años, estas amenazas generan una gran inestabilidad.

“Comencé a defender el TPS en 2017, cuando supe que Trump tenía la intención de eliminarlo por completo”, explicó Ayala-Flores. Junto con su familia, participaron de una demanda que bloqueó los intentos de eliminar el programa en la primera administración de Trump. Aunque le llenaba de orgullo defender a su comunidad, su activismo afectó profundamente su desempeño académico. Se graduó del high school en 2016, un poco antes del primer mandato de Trump, con el deseo de vivir una experiencia universitaria como cualquier otro estudiante.

“Me invadía un sentimiento de culpa porque sé que tengo una voz y puedo usarla. Pero al mismo tiempo deseaba centrarme en mi vida, en mi educación y en mi desarrollo profesional”, comentó Ayala-Flores.

El impacto del estatus migratorio en la ayuda financiera

Ayala-Flores, quien ahora tiene 26 años, y sus padres han sido beneficiarios del TPS desde 2001, tras un terremoto que impidió que regresaran a El Salvador. Gracias al programa de TPS, su familia ha podido quedarse y trabajar de manera legal en los Estados Unidos.

Durante la mayor parte de su vida, Ayala-Flores no pensó demasiado en su situación. Sin embargo, eso cambió en 2015, cuando tenía 17 años y comenzó a solicitar admisión a la universidad. En las conversaciones con la consejera universitaria de su high school, quedó claro rápidamente que ni ella ni sus padres, ni siquiera la propia consejera, sabían mucho sobre las complejidades del TPS, ni si ella podría acceder a ayuda financiera.

Muchos inmigrantes se encuentran en posesión de diversos estatus migratorios temporales, los cuales les impiden solicitar la residencia permanente legal, conocida como green card, o la ciudadanía estadounidense. Dicho estatus les permite residir, y en muchos casos trabajar, legalmente en los Estados Unidos por un tiempo predeterminado. En ciertos casos, existe la posibilidad de renovarlos, aunque no les ofrecen un camino hacia la permanencia. El TPS es uno de esos estatus legales. Según la normativa federal, los beneficiarios de TPS no son considerados “residentes con derecho a recibir ayuda” y, por lo tanto, no tienen acceso a los beneficios financieros federales.

Aunque Ayala-Flores aún podía solicitar el ingreso a distintas universidades, tendría que depender de becas privadas, de sus ahorros y préstamos para poder pagar sus estudios. A pesar de recibir una pequeña beca, Ayala-Flores y su familia no lograron reunir lo suficiente para ingresar a una universidad de cuatro años. En lugar de eso, tras graduarse del high school, se inscribió en Montgomery College, un community college cerca de su hogar.

María Ayala-Flores mira fotografías de 2019 cuando defendía a las personas con Estatus de Protección Temporal. Ayala-Flores encontró su voz al trabajar en la defensa, pero desearía haber tenido una experiencia universitaria más típica.

Le tomaría siete años a Ayala-Flores superar los obstáculos que se le presentaron. Cuando finalmente consiguió su título de asociado en 2023, ya no era una adolescente, sino una joven adulta, con el sueño de obtener una licenciatura aún fuera de su alcance. Como estudiante universitaria de primera generación, Ayala-Flores siempre creyó que una licenciatura era clave para alcanzar el éxito. Quería estudiar matemáticas y pensaba en ser profesora, pero no sabía qué lo podría hacer con solo un título de asociado.

Las barreras burocráticas que enfrentan los inmigrantes que huyen de la crisis política

En agosto de 2021, con 19 años, Farahnaz Ibrahimi huyó de Afganistán cuando las fuerzas estadounidenses se retiraron y el Talibán asumió el control. Ibrahimi era una atleta destacada por ser campeona en artes marciales y una montañista experimentada. Una organización estadounidense, Ascend, le había enseñado a escalar, y temía que su relación con los estadounidenses la pusiera en riesgo.

Farahnaz Ibrahimi huyó de Afganistán cuando los talibanes tomaron el control. Esperaba tener más libertad para perseguir sus objetivos en los Estados Unidos.

No tenía idea de cómo sería su vida bajo el régimen talibán, pero sabía que las niñas probablemente perderían su derecho a participar en deportes y a estudiar. Cuando Ascend le ofreció ayuda para irse de Afganistán, Ibrahimi no dudó en aceptarla, confiada en que su nueva vida en los Estados Unidos le permitiría tener más libertad para dedicarse a sus pasiones.

Ibrahimi llegó a Raleigh, Carolina del Norte, con un tipo de visa llamada permiso humanitario(humanitarian parole en inglés). Esta visa le permitió vivir y trabajar legalmente en los EE. UU. mientras solicitaba asilo, pero, al igual que el TPS, el permiso no le aseguraba un camino hacia la residencia permanente. Los voluntarios de Ascend habían formado un “círculo de patrocinadores”, un grupo de familias dispuestas a acoger a afganos beneficiarios del permiso humanitario. Anne McLaughlin, organizadora de este círculo y profesora en la Universidad Estatal de Carolina del Norte, apoyó a Ibrahimi, quien poco después de llegar a Raleigh comenzó a trabajar en su solicitud universitaria. Su mirada estaba puesta en la Universidad Estatal de Carolina del Norte. Sin embargo, su solicitud se vio detenida cuando la universidad le pidió una copia de sus expedientes académicos del high school.

Este requerimiento, que era común para los postulantes, era imposible para Ibrahimi. Aunque hubiera tenido acceso a una conexión de internet confiable, los talibanes habían cerrado por completo su escuela en Kabul, lo que hacía imposible acceder a su expediente académico. Ibrahimi pensó que si explicaba la situación a la oficina de admisiones de la Universidad Estatal de Carolina del Norte, entenderían por qué no podía presentar su expediente académico. Sin embargo, asegura que no mostraron disposición a realizar una excepción a la norma.

Jon Westover, el vicerrector asociado y director de admisiones de la universidad, confirmó que la Oficina de Admisiones de Pregrado exige que todos los postulantes de primer año entreguen sus expedientes académicos oficiales de su high school. No obstante, señaló que suelen dirigir a los solicitantes refugiados y desplazados a recursos como el Programa de acceso de Servicios de Educación Mundial (WES, por sus siglas en inglés), que asiste a los postulantes en la creación de registros educativos cuando no se dispone de los expedientes académicos oficiales.

Lamentablemente, los servicios de WES no ayudaron a Ibrahimi. Cuando dejó Afganistán, no se llevó nada: ni registros, ni diplomas, ni documentos. Tuvo que tomar una decisión en un abrir y cerrar de ojos, marchándose solo con la ropa que llevaba puesta.

Sin embargo, Ibrahimi comenzó a explorar universidades privadas, con la esperanza de que instituciones más pequeñas pudieran tomar decisiones más personalizadas. Fue exactamente lo que encontró en Bard College en Simon’s Rock, en Massachusetts. Ibrahimi comentó que la universidad ya había trabajado con estudiantes desplazados, incluidos otros afganos, y con menos de 2,000 estudiantes de pregrado, sintió que recibió más ayuda y atención en su solicitud. La universidad le otorgó una beca privada, y logró que Ibrahimi se sintiera emocionada y feliz.

Detalle de un boceto que hizo Ibrahimi.

Sin embargo, mudarse a Massachusetts fue un desafío. Su comunidad en Estados Unidos estaba en Carolina del Norte y, al enfrentar problemas de salud, se dio cuenta de que no podía quedarse allí. Decidió volver a Raleigh para replantearse su futuro.

La Universidad Estatal de Carolina del Norte no le permitió hacer excepciones, por lo que después de un semestre en Bard, Ibrahimi decidió ir a un community college, tal como hizo Ayala-Flores. Se matriculó en Wake Tech Community College en la primavera de 2023 sin poder presentar el expediente académico de su high school. Al no poder comprobar que había cursado clases, tuvo que empezar desde el principio, tomando materias de matemáticas y ciencias que ya había estudiado en Afganistán. Para ella, era una gran pérdida de tiempo… y de dinero.

Ibrahimi, al igual que Ayala-Flores, enfrentó dificultades con la ayuda financiera. Como beneficiaria del permiso humanitario, no tenía acceso a la matrícula estatal en Carolina del Norte, pero sí a la ayuda federal. Sin embargo, para acceder a esa ayuda, FAFSA (Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes) exigía los datos bancarios y las firmas de sus padres.

Eso era una misión imposible. Los padres de Ibrahimi nunca habían tenido una cuenta bancaria, su madre no sabe leer ni escribir, y con la inestabilidad del internet en Afganistán, Ibrahimi apenas podía comunicarse con su familia una vez al mes. No sabía cómo lograr que firmaran los formularios sobre sus finanzas. “Aquí todo es cuestión de papeles”, comentó Ibrahimi. “No confían en ti si no les enseñas un papel.”

Muchos inmigrantes no cualifican para la matrícula estatal

La Alianza de Presidentes de la Educación Superior y la Inmigración, formada por dirigentes de universidades e instituciones terciarias, trabaja para aumentar la comprensión sobre el impacto de la política migratoria en los estudiantes a través de su proyecto digital, el Portal de Inmigración en la Educación Superior (Higher Ed Immigration Portal). Miriam Feldblum, directora ejecutiva de la Alianza, destacó que las dificultades que Ayala-Flores e Ibrahimi han enfrentado son comunes entre los estudiantes desplazados y refugiados. Ya que, a menudo, encuentran dificultades para obtener información clara sobre cómo su estatus afecta a sus solicitudes universitarias.

El informe más reciente de la Alianza concluye que “brindar capacitación completa a los consejeros que trabajan con estudiantes indocumentados, refugiados, solicitantes de asilo y otras poblaciones no inmigrantes podría influir en las tasas de inscripción en programas de educación superior en todo el país”. Los consejeros de high school y las oficinas de admisiones universitarias a menudo no están preparados para enfrentar casos únicos, lo que complica que los estudiantes encuentren a quién acudir para recibir ayuda.

Para Ayala-Flores e Ibrahimi, la falta de acceso a ayuda financiera representó la principal barrera. Cada estado tiene la potestad de determinar qué “estatus de no ciudadanos que califican para la residencia” son reconocidos en términos de residencia, lo que influye en el acceso a becas y ayudas estatales, así como en el costo de la universidad. En Carolina del Norte, donde vive Ibrahimi, no importa cuánto tiempo lleve allí, mientras tenga permiso humanitario, no puede optar por la matrícula estatal y debe pagar la tarifa mucho más alta de matrícula fuera del estado. En Washington D.C., el estatus de Ayala-Flores la excluye de la Beca de Asistencia para Matrícula del Distrito de Columbia (D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant).

De acuerdo con la Alianza, 25 estados en EE. UU. ofrecen matrícula estatal a todos los estudiantes residentes, sin importar su estatus migratorio, inclusive personas indocumentadas. Aunque muchos estados siguen limitando el acceso a los estudiantes indocumentados, algunos han encontrado formas de incluir a quienes tienen permisos temporales, como el TPS y el permiso humanitario. Kentucky implementó un nuevo programa de becas para apoyar a los estudiantes inmigrantes. Ahora, aquellos con TPS y permiso humanitario, junto con otros permisos temporales, pueden acceder a financiamiento adicional para cubrir el costo de la matrícula.

María Ayala-Flores planea su boda. Todavía espera asistir a una universidad y cree que una licenciatura la ayudará a encontrar mejor trabajo.

Sin embargo, los estudiantes inmigrantes también enfrentan barreras indirectas, indicó Feldblum. Algunos estados permiten que las personas con diversos estatus migratorios obtengan licencias de conducir y licencias profesionales u ocupacionales, mientras que otros limitan el acceso, lo que afecta las oportunidades educativas y laborales de los estudiantes inmigrantes.

Por último, saber cuántos estudiantes enfrentan estas situaciones complejas sería de gran ayuda para que educadores, consejeros y defensores puedan tomar decisiones informadas sobre la mejor manera de ayudar a sus estudiantes. Sin embargo, actualmente no se recopila información detallada sobre cuántos estudiantes con cada tipo de visa están intentando ingresar a la educación superior. Existen estimaciones sobre cuántos estudiantes están inscritos, pero los datos no reflejan cuántos lo intentan sin lograrlo.

Los títulos universitarios permanecen fuera del alcance de muchos

El paso de Ayala-Flores por el community college estuvo lleno de retos. Tras inscribirse como estudiante de tiempo completo, comenzó a cuestionarse qué estaba haciendo allí exactamente. También se preguntaba cómo esa experiencia académica la acercaría a sus metas. Las inquietudes relacionadas con la posible eliminación del Estatus de Protección Temporal(TPS) para salvadoreños durante el primer mandato de Trump hicieron que concentrarse en sus estudios fuera aún más complicado. En medio de la demanda judicial y las protestas en defensa del TPS, decidió interrumpir sus estudios antes de obtener su título de asociado.

Su esperanza es que este no sea el cierre de su vida académica. Sus hermanos menores, nacidos en los Estados Unidos, asisten a universidades de cuatro años para estudiar ingeniería mecánica. Le parece inevitable sentir celos de las oportunidades que ellos tuvieron solo por haber nacido allí, oportunidades que ella siempre deseó, pero no pudo alcanzar.

Ayala-Flores procura no pensar demasiado en lo que pudo haber sucedido. En cambio, se enfoca en el futuro: está solicitando ingreso a universidades de cuatro años, enfocándose en sus aplicaciones y considerando qué tipo de apoyo financiero podría recibir. Ha sido complicado encontrar empleo solo con el título de asociado, señaló. Además, está convencida de que obtener una licenciatura le abrirá puertas hacia un trabajo más significativo, posiblemente como docente.

Con los zapatos de su madre y un vestido que las dos hicieron juntas en Afganistán, Farahnaz Ibrahimi posa para un retrato en su habitación en Raleigh, Carolina del Norte. Dejó la mayoría de sus documentos cuando huyó de Afganistán, lo que dificultó la inscripción en la universidad.

Ibrahimi considera que su experiencia en el community college ha sido útil, pero también frustrante. Como no pudo cumplir con los requisitos para la solicitud de ayuda financiera, ha estado pagando sus clases con préstamos. Sin embargo, recientemente consiguió demostrar su independencia de sus padres, lo que facilitará el acceso a ayuda financiera. Espera terminar su título de asociado para el otoño de 2025. Después, intentará nuevamente transferirse a la Universidad Estatal de Carolina del Norte en busca de su licenciatura.

Al principio, al llegar a Estados Unidos, Ibrahimi no tenía definido qué quería estudiar, aunque sabía que quería crear y construir cosas. Hoy, está decidida a estudiar ingeniería y trabaja en la Universidad Estatal de Carolina del Norte analizando cómo la distracción afecta el aprendizaje de los estudiantes. A pesar de su empleo en la universidad, todavía no puede matricularse como estudiante.

La aprobación de su solicitud de asilo ha sido el mayor cambio en su vida. Este nuevo estatus le da la posibilidad de ser reconocida como residente estatal en Carolina del Norte y, con suerte, de transferirse en el futuro a la Universidad Estatal de Carolina del Norte. A pesar de las dificultades, continuará su búsqueda para obtener el título.

“Quería conocer la sensación de estudiar en paz”, declaró Ibrahimi, y continuó: “asistir a clases sin pensar en si saldré del aula con vida”.

Traducido por Flavia Melisa Franco

Lauren DeLaunay Miller es reportera independiente y becaria local de noticias en California, especializada en inmigración, salud y medio ambiente. Puedes contactarla en lauren_d_miller@berkeley.edu.

For some immigrant students, the dream of college lies just out of reach

2024-12-19T19:27:01+00:00

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Growing up in Washington, D.C., Maria Ayala-Flores didn’t know much about her legal status. She knew she was born in El Salvador and that she and her parents had to renew their paperwork every 18 months. She also knew the United States was her home and had been since she came here as an infant.

She dreamed of going to college to pursue her own goals and to pursue opportunities her parents didn’t have. “I wanted to make my parents proud,” she said.

What she didn’t know was how tenuous her life in the U.S. was — or how her legal status would stand directly in the way of her college plans.

An estimated 11% of all students in American colleges and universities are immigrants, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute. About half of these 1.9 million students are naturalized citizens, while the other half hold a variety of non-citizen statuses. About 400,000 are undocumented, and more than 500,000 have legal status of some sort. Some are legal permanent residents. Others are refugees, asylum-seekers, and recipients of humanitarian parole. Some have temporary protected status because their countries of origin are too dangerous to return to.

For many immigrant students, the American higher education system is a beacon of hope, one they hope will open the doors to a career and provide a sense of safety and stability. But these students face numerous barriers to accessing higher education, from the application process through enrollment and securing financial aid. These barriers mean these young people, many of whom are authorized to live and work here, find themselves shut out of many professions and struggling to meet their full potential.

Maria Ayala-Flores didn't think much about her immigration status as she was growing up. That changed dramatically when she started planning for college.

With the number of immigrants holding these statuses steadily growing, some states are taking steps to open doors for these students. But others are keeping doors shut by restricting in-state tuition to citizens and green card holders. Now, with Donald Trump about to start a second term as president, immigrant students face even more uncertainty. Trump has vowed to end Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, something he attempted to do during his first term. For TPS holders like Ayala-Flores who have relied on the program for decades, these threats to the program are deeply unstabilizing.

“I started advocating for TPS since 2017, when I first heard that Trump was planning on terminating it completely,” said Ayala-Flores. She and her family became plaintiffs in a lawsuit that ultimately blocked the first Trump administration’s efforts to end the program. While she was proud to use her voice to advocate for her community, it also had a huge effect on her studies. She graduated from high school in 2016, shortly before Trump’s first term, and she wanted to feel like a normal college student.

“I felt bad because I have a voice and I can use it, but at the same time, I really wanted to focus on my personal life and what I want to do with school and what I want to do with my career,” Ayala-Flores said.

Immigration status can affect financial aid options

Ayala-Flores, now 26, and her parents have had TPS since 2001, when an earthquake made it unsafe for them to return to El Salvador. TPS has allowed her family to stay and work legally in the U.S.

For most of her life, Ayala-Flores didn’t think much of it. That changed in 2015, when she was 17 and started applying to college. In conversations with her high school’s college counselor, it quickly became apparent that neither Ayala-Flores, nor her parents, nor her counselor knew much about the intricacies of TPS, including whether or not she would qualify for financial aid.

Many immigrants hold a variety of non-resident statuses, meaning that they cannot apply for legal permanent residency, more commonly referred to as a green card, or U.S. citizenship. These statuses allow them to stay, and often work, in the U.S. legally for a predetermined amount of time, sometimes with the possibility to extend, but they do not not put the holder on a pathway to permanence. TPS is one of these legal statuses. In the eyes of the federal government, holders of TPS status are not “eligible non-citizens” and cannot apply for federal financial aid.

So while Ayala-Flores could still apply to colleges, she would need to rely on private scholarships, savings, and loans to pay for school. Despite getting a small scholarship, Ayala-Flores and her family couldn’t cobble together enough to attend a four-year university. Instead, after graduating from high school, she enrolled in nearby Montgomery College, a community college close to home.

Maria Ayala-Flores looks at old photos from 2019 when she was engaged in advocacy for people with Temporary Protected Status. Advocacy helped Ayala-Flores find her voice, but she wishes she could have had a more typical college experience.

It would take Ayala-Flores seven years to cross some of the hurdles. By the time she finally earned her associate degree in 2023, she was no longer a teenager but a young adult with the dreams of a bachelor’s degree still just out of reach. As a first-generation college student, Ayala-Flores always believed that a bachelor’s degree was the key to future success. She wanted to study math and considered being a teacher, but she wasn’t sure what she could do with just an associate degree.

Immigrants fleeing political upheaval struggle with paperwork requirements

In August 2021, at the age of 19, Farahnaz Ibrahimi escaped from Afghanistan as American forces withdrew and the Taliban took control. Ibrahami was an athlete: a champion martial artist, and an accomplished mountain climber. An American organization called Ascend had taught her how to climb, and Ibrahimi feared that her affiliation with Americans would put her in danger.

Farahnaz Ibrahimi fled Afghanistan as the Taliban took control. She hoped she would have more freedom to pursue her goals in the United States.

She wasn’t sure what life would look like under Taliban rule, but she knew that girls’ participation in sports and school would likely come to an end. When Ascend offered help to leave Afghanistan, Ibrahimi took it, hopeful that her life in the U.S. would mean more freedom to follow her passions.

Ibrahimi landed in Raleigh, North Carolina, with a type of visa called humanitarian parole. It allowed her to live and work legally in the U.S. while she applied for asylum, but, much like TPS, parole itself would not put her on a pathway to permanent residency. Ascend volunteers had organized a “sponsor circle,” or a group of families that offered to host Afghan parolees. The organizer of that circle, Anne McLaughlin, is a professor at North Carolina State University, and soon after arriving in Raleigh, Ibrahimi began working on her college application. Her eyes set on one school: NC State. But Ibrahimi’s application ground to a halt when the school required a copy of her high school transcript.

This standard request was impossible for Ibrahimi. Even if there was reliable internet, the Taliban had completely shut down her high school back in Kabul, and there was no way to access her transcript. Ibrahimi thought that if she could just explain the situation to the admissions office at NC State, they would see why she couldn’t provide her transcripts. But, she says, they would not budge.

Jon Westover, associate vice provost and director of admissions at NC State, confirmed that the Office of Undergraduate Admissions does require all first-year applicants to provide official high school transcripts. But, he added, they often point refugee and displaced applicants to resources such as the World Education Services (WES) Gateway Program, which helps applicants create records of their education when official transcripts aren’t available.

Unfortunately, WES services didn’t help Ibrahimi. When she left Afghanistan, she took nothing with her: no records, no diplomas, no documents. She had to make a split-second decision, leaving with just the clothes on her back.

Instead, Ibrahimi started looking at private colleges, hoping smaller universities would be able to make more individualized decisions. That’s exactly what she found at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Massachusetts. Ibrahimi said the school had worked with displaced students, including other Afghans, before, and with fewer than 2,000 undergraduate students, she felt that she received more help and attention on her application. The college awarded her a private scholarship, and Ibrahimi was thrilled.

Detail of one of Ibrahimi's sketches.

But moving to Massachusetts was hard. The community she’d established in the United States was all in North Carolina, and when she developed health problems, she knew she couldn’t stay there. She moved back to Raleigh to figure out her next step.

NC State still wouldn’t grant her any exceptions, so after a semester at Bard, Ibrahimi turned to community college, as Ayala-Flores had done. She enrolled at Wake Tech Community College in the spring of 2023 without her high school transcripts, but because she couldn’t prove she had taken any classes, she needed to start over, taking math and science classes that she had already taken in Afghanistan. It felt like a big waste of time – and money.

Ibrahimi, like Ayala-Flores, also struggled with financial aid. As a humanitarian parolee, she was not eligible for in-state tuition in North Carolina, but she was eligible for federal aid. However, to receive that aid, FAFSA required her parents’ bank account information and their signatures.

That was impossible. Ibrahimi’s parents have never had a bank account, her mother is illiterate, and with the unreliability of the internet across Afghanistan, Ibrahimi was barely in touch with her family once a month. She had no idea how she could get them to sign forms about their finances. “Here everything is about paper,” Ibahimi said. “They don’t trust you if you don’t show them a paper.”

Many immigrants don’t qualify for in-state tuition

The Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a group of college and university leaders, is working to increase understanding of how immigration policy affects students through its digital project, the Higher Ed Immigration Portal. Miriam Feldblum, executive director of the Alliance, said the barriers Ayala-Flores and Ibrahimi have faced are common among displaced and refugee students who often struggle to access reliable information about how their status affects their college applications.

The latest report from the Alliance concludes that “providing comprehensive training to counselors working with undocumented, refugee, asylee and other non-immigrant student populations could affect the rates at which they enroll in higher education programs across states.” High school counselors and college admissions offices are often unprepared for unique cases, making it difficult for students to know who to turn to for help.

For both Ayala-Flores and Ibrahimi, their inability to access financial assistance was the biggest barrier. Every state can determine for itself which statuses are “eligible non-citizen statuses” in terms of residency, which can affect access to state grants and scholarships but also the cost of college. In North Carolina, where Ibrahimi has been living, no matter how long she’s lived there, as long as she has humanitarian parole, she cannot be considered for in-state tuition and has to pay the much more expensive out-of-state rate. For Ayala-Flores in Washington, D.C., her status means she is ineligible for the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant.

According to the Alliance, 25 states in the U.S. provide in-state tuition for all students who reside in that state regardless of their status, including those who are undocumented. And while many states continue to limit access for undocumented students, some are finding ways to include students on temporary statuses, such as TPS and humanitarian parole. Kentucky created a new scholarship program to support immigrant students. Students with TPS and humanitarian parole, in addition to other temporary statuses, can now access separate funding to help offset the cost of their tuition.

Maria Ayala-Flores plans for her wedding. She still hopes to attend a four-year university and believes a bachelor's degree will help her find more meaningful work.

But immigrant students must also overcome indirect barriers, Feldblum said. Some states allow people with a range of immigration statuses to get driver’s licenses and obtain occupational and professional licenses. Others limit access — and with it, the educational and professional opportunities of immigrant students.

Finally, knowing just how many students are in these complicated situations would help educators, counselors, and advocates make informed decisions about the best ways to help their students. Currently, however, no data is collected on exactly how many students with each type of visa are trying to enroll in higher education. There are estimates for how many are enrolled, but the data doesn’t account for how many are trying, but failing, to get there.

Step by painful step, students try to finish bachelor’s degrees

Ayala-Flores’ experience with community college was difficult. After first enrolling as a full-time student, she soon felt confused about what, exactly, she was doing there and how community college would help her reach her goals. Concerns about whether the first Trump administration would eliminate Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans made it difficult to focus on her studies. Amid the lawsuit and protesting on behalf of TPS recipients, she took a break before finishing her associate degree.

She hopes that isn’t the end of her educational journey. Her younger siblings were born in the U.S., and as she watched them go off to four-year universities to study mechanical engineering, it was hard not to feel jealous of the opportunities afforded to them by the location of their birth — opportunities Ayala-Flores had dreamed of, but could not have.

Still, Ayala-Flores doesn’t like to dwell on what could have been. Instead, she’s looking ahead, applying to four-year universities, focusing on her applications, and figuring out what financial aid might be available. It’s been difficult to find work with just her associate degree, she said, and she believes a bachelor’s degree will help her find more meaningful work, perhaps as a teacher.

Wearing her mother's shoes and a dress that the two of them made together in Afghanistan, Farahnaz Ibrahimi poses for a portrait in her room in Raleigh, North Carolina. She left most of her documents behind when she fled Afghanistan, which has made enrolling in college difficult.

For Ibrahimi, community college has been both helpful and frustrating. Because she couldn’t complete the financial aid application requirements, she’s been taking out loans to pay for her classes. Recently, she’s been able to prove her independence from her parents, which will help her access financial aid. She hopes to finish her associate degree in the fall of 2025 and then try, again, to transfer to NC State in pursuit of her bachelor’s degree.

When she first arrived in the U.S., Ibrahimi wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted to study, but she knew she wanted to build things. Now, she’s eager to study engineering, and she’s working as an employee at NC State studying the impacts of distraction on students’ learning. But even as an NC State employee, she still cannot enroll as a student.

The biggest change has been the approval of her asylum application. Being an asylee means that she can become an in-state resident in the eyes of North Carolina and hopefully, eventually transfer to North Carolina State University. She’s determined to get her degree, despite all the setbacks.

“I wanted to see how it feels to study in peace,” Ibrahimi said, “to go without thinking if I will be alive after class.”

Lauren DeLaunay Miller is a freelance reporter and California Local News Fellow covering immigration, health, and the environment. You can reach her at lauren_d_miller@berkeley.edu.

‘The kids everyone forgot’: The faltering post-pandemic push to reengage teens and young adults not in school, college, or the workforce

2024-12-19T12:54:29+00:00

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Lucian O’Donnell sat curled up in the lower bunk in a friend’s house, a two-story clapboard in a neighborhood crowded with other faded homes in Southwest Detroit.

Spring was sprucing up the trees lining the narrow one-way street. But on that day in March 2023, in the bedroom where Lucian was crashing, the blinds were drawn, draining the color from the pale blue walls.

In the previous years, he had hustled at long shifts in two restaurants and taken night classes after dropping out of high school. He had brainstormed life goals with his “success coach” at a neighborhood nonprofit working with teens and tried to better manage the diabetic kidney disease that had claimed his mom during the pandemic. He had seen a therapist.

Now, the 18-year-old had surrendered to the screens.

He toggled between “Minecraft” on his laptop — endlessly stacking blocks on a virtual grid — and social media on his phone. He knew the algorithms steered him toward negativity and conspiracy theories. He went along anyway.

The moment felt like a flashback to COVID-era isolation, except even lonelier: America had moved on from the pandemic. A resurgent Detroit was getting its swagger back, its population and median income inching up a decade after a bruising bankruptcy. But Lucian felt shut out from that sense of possibility.

At one point, he told his success coach that he thought of harming himself. They made a plan: He’d get in touch immediately if these thoughts escalated. They put together a list of good reasons to be alive.

That day, he glanced at the list. It was short: High school friends. Music. His goal of managing a restaurant.

He sank back into stacking blocks.

Youth advocates call young people like Lucian — 16- to 24-year-olds who are not in school, college, or the workforce — “opportunity youth,” focusing on untapped potential, not failure. Many are high school dropouts. As many as half earn a diploma or GED but flounder after graduation.

If the 4.2 million opportunity youth in the U.S. all lived in one city, it would be the second largest in the country.

They have long been “the kids everyone forgot,” as one nonprofit leader put it. But roughly a decade ago, with youth employment ravaged by the Great Recession, the Obama White House made reconnecting these young people a signature issue. Experts decried the lasting toll of even relatively brief stints of disconnection: lower incomes, but also poorer health and personal relationships. Congress passed the Workforce Opportunity and Innovation Act in 2014, tapping hundreds of millions for youth employment efforts.

But the programs that sprang up were often small-scale and insular, with modest, short-lived results. After COVID emerged in early 2020, advocates worried its upheaval could turn Lucian’s generation into the most deeply disconnected yet. So they pushed to rethink reengagement programs. They argued these efforts had focused too much on quickly steering youth toward a job — any job — often low-skill, unstable work vulnerable to economic downturns. Meanwhile, trauma and mental health issues kept young people from gaining a foothold in the workforce.

In Detroit, the city’s Employment Solutions Corporation, an agency reporting to the mayor’s workforce development board, enlisted six nonprofits that vowed to bring a more holistic approach to connecting with youth. It’s a crucial mission. As Detroit clamors for skilled young workers to power its growth, more than a quarter of Detroiters age 16 to 24 are not going to school or working, the country’s second-highest youth disconnection rate, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data released last month.

Among the nonprofits that signed contracts worth a collective $3.4 million in federal money to tackle the issue were two groups with different backgrounds.

One, Urban Neighborhood Initiatives, known as UNI, had offered programs to steer students to high school graduation and college for years. But amid the pandemic, it ramped up efforts to help teens who had dropped out of school or had graduated with no clue what to do next. A UNI success coach set out to triage Lucian’s complex needs through a turmoil-filled stretch.

Lucian O'Donnell, right, and a colleague walk toward UNI's headquarters from the nonprofit's community garden.

Another nonprofit, SER Metro Detroit, has long been the largest local player in working with disengaged youth, offering job training programs and an alternative high school. Here, GED teacher Anthony Tejada — who brought his own backstory of youth disconnection — set out to help a homeless teen named Seth get back on track.

Studies have suggested the empathetic approach is showing some promise. But efforts are running up against perennial hurdles: fragmented programs, fickle funding — and the lack of opportunities in ZIP codes with long histories of disinvestment where many opportunity youth live.

In a highly polarized country preoccupied with the economy, reengaging these young people and forging non-college pathways to good jobs has drawn some bipartisan agreement. After years of deadlock, a lame-duck Congress is on the verge of reauthorizing the sprawling Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, potentially beefing up funding for youth programs.

But in a moment ripe with uncertainty, will Detroit and other cities around the country be able to help young people like Lucian and Seth forge a path to stability? Or will they remain the kids everyone forgot?

In the spring of 2021, Lucian walked from the home where he was staying at the time to a community garden in Southwest Detroit run by Urban Neighborhood Initiatives.

A group of teens wearing facemasks stood in a circle in the middle of a grassy expanse with just a few raised boxes with tomatoes. Lucian resisted the urge to turn and flee.

UNI had long worked with middle and high school students in the Springwells neighborhood: a 1.3-square-mile, densely populated, and predominantly Latino area. But during the pandemic, Los HQ, the nonprofit’s hangar-like space down the street from the garden, welcomed more youth like Lucian — members of the COVID shutdown generation, who bore the brunt of the pandemic’s learning disruption and mental health toll.

Lucian O'Donnell poses for a portrait outside of UNI.

The nonprofit set out to help them with funding cobbled together from philanthropy, the Workplace Innovation and Opportunity Act, and federal COVID relief. It started offering short-term counseling and referrals to therapists with normally yearslong waits for new patients. It kicked off the gardening and cooking program to expose youth to culinary and green careers — and bring them back together outside.

A friend told Lucian about the culinary program, and he’d come to interview for the last spot left. The teen, who’d dreamt of designing video games, had never considered working with food. But the small stipend the program offered was a big draw.

Lucian had tuned out of high school during remote learning, which dragged on his entire sophomore year at Western High. He returned in 2021 when school buildings reopened, only to find he’d fallen too far behind. So he stopped going.

For most of his childhood, his single mom had been sick and rarely held on to a job or an apartment. Then, around the time COVID hit, her kidneys failed and other ailments reared up, confining her to the hospital for most of 2020. She died in early 2021. Lucian decided he wouldn’t let himself mourn her. He was on his own; he couldn’t afford to fall apart emotionally.

As he approached the group in the garden, his social anxiety spiked. He had forgotten how to talk to people in person.

Lucian, left, and a colleague help secure a plant in the garden at UNI.

Danielle Dillard, the program lead and a trained social worker, stepped aside to talk with Lucian, who stared at his beat-up sneakers and dribbled one-word answers. He felt he was blowing the interview.

Dillard offered the last open spot to Lucian.

SER Metro’s Youth Reengagement Center sits on a treeless commercial stretch in southwest Detroit, with a shuttered strip club and boarded-up adult bookstore across the street. The building was unveiled in 2023, remodeled and expanded with $4 million in state and philanthropic dollars.

Earlier that year, Anthony Tejada started working with 19-year-old Seth in the center’s GED classroom. The teen — who Chalkbeat is not identifying by his full name to protect his privacy — was coming off a rough couple of years. After dropping out of high school, he faltered in night school and another reconnection program in Flint, where a staffer urged him to give finishing high school one more try at SER. He was jobless and staying with his brother.

Tejada met Seth at a time when efforts to reconnect youth like him were in a new spotlight.

Anthony Tejada, a GED teacher at SER Metro Detroit, poses for a portrait in his classroom in Detroit.

In the years leading up to COVID, youth disconnection rates across the country had been steadily declining. Some advocates and practitioners saw it as evidence that their efforts were paying off.

But experts credited a recovering economy, noting that most of the relatively few reengagement programs studied rigorously have shown modest gains — a single-digit increase in high school completion, say, or several hundred dollars more in annual earnings. And even as the overall rate improved, the disconnection rate for Native American youth such as Lucian and Black youth such as Seth remained double or even triple that for Asian American and white youth.

Meanwhile, scientists had been rethinking the very definition of adolescence. The prefrontal cortex is developing well into the mid-20s, they noted, offering a make-or-break window to do the social-emotional repair many young people need to navigate the workplace — and life.

Then COVID hit. The national disconnection rate rose from 10.7% to 12.6%, or about 716,200 more youth, bringing new urgency to building better reconnection programs.

At SER Metro, staff embraced trauma-informed case management and got restorative practices and “healing-centered” training, rooted in the idea that trauma and disconnection feed each other in a vicious cycle.

Tejada wants the young people he works with to take the lead. He lets students, who increasingly come in reading at an early elementary level, do the GED prep class at their own pace and tackle the tests in their chosen order.

In late 2023, Tejada felt Seth had momentum. He’d been coming to class consistently and had passed the science exam. He’d found a social circle in the GED classroom, even dating another student, his first real relationship.

It was easy for Tejada to root for Seth. In high school, Tejada — like Seth — had struggled with ADHD. Tejada graduated and went to college, but in his freshman year, crippling depression set in. He stopped going to classes and dropped out.

But Tejada was a middle-class kid from the Detroit suburbs whose close-knit family rallied around him. Society is much harder on kids like Seth — poor, family scattered — when they take the same detours.

As Seth geared up to take the social studies exam, Tejada told him about his years pulling shifts in his family’s Mexican restaurant. Eventually, he made his way back to college. Look at his life now, he told Seth: a home, a family, a job he loved. Stability.

Tejada told Seth he didn’t need to stay in lockstep with an arbitrary timeline or a predetermined path: “A lot of us have many twists and turns along the way.”

For Lucian, the two years after he turned up at UNI’s community garden were full of twists and turns. He slept on a series of couches and beds, then rented a small apartment — only to get evicted a few months later. He worked several jobs, sometimes with pay under the table, which he often spent on expensive gifts for his friends in a bid to cobble together the family he never had.

There was one constant: Danielle Dillard, Lucian’s UNI supervisor and “success coach.” Dillard sat him down to make a “success plan” with goals for the year and beyond. She pushed him to go back to school — a top goal on his list, but one for which he didn’t feel ready. She pushed him to see UNI’s new in-house therapist and to address health issues.

After Lucian completed UNI’s culinary program in 2021, the nonprofit helped him find a job as a server’s assistant at a high-end Detroit restaurant. The shifts were long and fast-paced, but he was learning a lot.

Family Treat in the Springwells neighborhood of Detroit is closed for the season.

Then the restaurant closed abruptly, a pandemic casualty. He eventually found a job at Family Treat, a Springwells neighborhood fast food fixture. But it was only open in the warmer months. It was after the restaurant closed for the season that Lucian found himself isolated — and sliding downward — in that friend’s bedroom in the spring of 2023.

When Family Treat reopened a month later, for a brief moment Lucian felt freed from his entrapment. He loved the bustle and camaraderie of restaurant kitchens. He just wanted a restaurant job with more stability, benefits, room to grow.

For now, he picked up all the shifts he could, working up to 60 hours a week.

After work, his mind descended to the same dark place it had staked out during his jobless stretch. Exhaustion made things worse.

The grief over his mom’s death that he’d suppressed two years earlier reared up. By May 2023, that despondency turned to despair.

On Mother’s Day, in a park not far from the cemetery where his mom was buried, Lucian slashed his wrists.

Tejada’s work day was drawing to a close at the SER Metro reengagement center when a distraught Seth burst through the door. A few weeks earlier, the teen had failed the social studies GED test by just a few points. He had righted himself for a bit, turning his attention to the language arts exam.

For almost a year, he had chipped away at the GED at his own pace as Tejada, his instructor, had urged. But his momentum was fizzling out. He had been wondering if it might be time to get a job — any job.

Anthony Tejada, a GED teacher at SER Metro Detroit, poses for a portrait in his classroom.

What sent him pushing through the door minutes after he’d left the center was dropping his phone and cracking it while he was running to catch a bus. Suddenly, Seth found himself beset by all the complications in his life. His girlfriend, a classmate at SER, was pregnant. He was panicking that his baby would have two jobless parents slogging through a GED class.

“Nothing good’s ever coming to me,” he railed as Tejada and two other staffers sought to calm him down in the lobby. “Every little good thing I get is taken away.”

As Seth tried to slam his phone against the floor, Tejada enveloped him in a hug that was part comfort, part restraint.

“You’ve been through worse things than breaking a phone and missing a bus,” he reminded him.

Recent studies suggest that adding social-emotional support to reconnection programs can work. A 2021 report of the Opportunity Reboot model in Minnesota, which layers mentoring and social-emotional guidance onto existing reengagement programs, found it increased the odds of youth getting and keeping jobs. A study of One Summer Chicago Plus, a summer jobs program that paired minimum-wage jobs with cognitive behavioral therapy and mentorship, showed it significantly reduced teens’ involvement in violent crime — a goal that has often fueled efforts to reengage disconnected youth in that city and others.

The results so far in Detroit illustrate the challenges that persist. Ericka Page, point person for youth programs at the Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation, the agency contracting with the six nonprofits running programs, said data on these programs’ outcomes shows many young people bouncing in and out of reengagement programs and from job to job. Often, these are minimum-wage, part-time, or gig jobs.

The programs are connecting with youth and getting some of them employed. But sustaining their momentum over the extended time it takes to remake their lives is hard, Page said.

“The biggest challenge with opportunity youth is retention,” says Ann Leen, who heads the SER Metro center. “It could be a $15 an hour job. It could be the streets calling. It could be, ‘Mom needs help.’ It could be, ‘It’s just too hard.’ We have to be louder than those other voices.”

On the afternoon Seth burst into the SER lobby, the staff helped him calm down. But after that day, he started showing up less and less. By last spring, he had stopped coming. By fall, he returned, on and off. By winter, Tejada worried he was losing him again.

Lucian was not alone at the park when he harmed himself on Mother’s Day 2023. A friend who was with him called an ambulance that rushed him to the emergency room. He spent a week at a psychiatric hospital.

When he left, staffers from Urban Neighborhood Initiatives kicked into high gear. They set him up with an outside therapist and gave him rides to appointments. When he stopped going, they pushed him to go back. They found him a bed at a small shelter all the way across the city.

Lucian was eager to get back to work. He needed the money, but he also missed the steadying rhythms of working full-time. He walked the drab commercial stretch with boarded-up storefronts near the shelter and found the few businesses left were not hiring. For occasional shifts at a fried chicken place in his old neighborhood, he sometimes commuted as much as two-and-half hours one way.

Then in early 2024, a friend invited Lucian to move in with him, his mom, and his eight siblings in a house not far from Los HQ. The move back to the Springwells neighborhood was a game-changer, bringing him closer to jobs and friends.

A mural in the Springwells neighborhood in Southwest Detroit near Family Treat.

By this spring, he was on full-time grill duty at Family Treat. He had picked up more shifts at the fried chicken place. And UNI brought him on to help out with the culinary program two evenings a week and soon promoted him to program lead. At that rate, he felt, he might be able to afford to rent his own place with a friend by summer’s end.

Across the country, young people like Lucian had been getting back to work, pushing post-pandemic disconnection rates down as the labor market ramped up. But some experts and advocates worry there’s a catch to that good news.

Kristen Lewis, director of the think tank Measure of America, says she worries that many young people are choosing unstable jobs that can breed more disconnection in the longer run over opportunities to finish high school and get training that could actually open up a path out of poverty. The post-pandemic data has reaffirmed something experts knew before COVID: The fates of vulnerable young people like Lucian are chained to their ZIP codes and the whims of the economy.

“We’ve been searching for silver bullets: Summer jobs will solve everything! Mental health care will solve everything!” she said. “But look at the deep structural problems and profound inequities some neighborhoods face. It’s the story of what’s wrong with America.”

Lucian, too, felt keenly the precariousness of his situation last spring. His worries came to a head when a diabetic seizure struck near the end of his shift at Family Treat one April afternoon.

He had just started on an order of five footlongs in the narrow kitchen when a buzzing in his ears muffled the sizzle of the fryers and his vision faded to white. As he convulsed on the floor, his manager kneeling beside him, one thought cut through Lucian’s brain fog: He had to get back to making hot dogs.

He couldn’t lose that $11.50-an-hour job — and the fragile stability he’d just started regaining.

Lucian staggered up to his feet. His vision still swam, and arms stung as though jabbed by needles. But he dashed back to his work station, where the hot dogs he had set on the grill still rotated.

“You still need five of these, right?” Lucian called to the young woman working the front register.

This November, with Family Treat closed for the season, Lucian, now almost 20, walked into a GED prep classroom in Southwest Detroit.

UNI had referred him to the program, which would pay him $200 a week and introduce him to a career in carpentry. Lucian felt it would be good insurance against the fickleness of restaurant work — and a chance to finally tackle his longtime goal of getting a high school credential.

Lucian O'Donnell works on building a shelving unit at the nonprofit MiSide's GED prep and carpentry training program on Thurs., Dec. 5, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan.

But uncertainty still plagued Lucian. He and his roommate were both unemployed, and the bills kept coming. The staff at UNI collected almost $400 for Lucian’s November rent and got him a free Thanksgiving turkey. He was quickly learning that it was tough to find a job while tied up in a carpentry and GED program for most of the day.

Some advocates worry that the COVID-era sense of urgency around opportunity youth might be fading even as many young people like Seth and Lucian haven’t yet regained their footing. But boosting funding for re-engaging and training disconnected youth has been a key area of bipartisan consensus in the federal push to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which expired in 2020.

Lawmakers launched a bipartisan Opportunity Youth caucus this summer. And a bipartisan agreement on the law earlier this year would have steered more money to youth programs, including a new $65 million apprenticeship program. But in late December the bill was shelved amid a congressional standoff over funding the federal government, leaving uncertain the fate of the law and the programs it powers.

On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance at times appeared to speak directly to young men like Lucian and Seth, promising a return to an era of robust manufacturing and access to good jobs that don’t require college. But practitioners worry about what the incoming administration’s appetite for federal spending cuts might mean.

In Detroit, the Ballmer Group, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s foundation, has been pushing the city for a big-picture vision for attacking youth disconnection. Here and nationally, the focus is shifting back to the training and credentials young people need to access high-demand jobs employers are trying to fill.

It’s impossible to know where Lucian and Seth would be now if their lives had not intersected with the agencies and people helping them. But their experiences these last few years affirm that young people who become disconnected from school and work need more than jobs that pay the bills. They need social-emotional backing – and also a way to see a clear path to more stable, fulfilling lives.

Their stories show that rebuilding after a stint of disconnection takes time. And programs often aren’t set up to serve young people in the long run, so the years ahead could bring more uncertainty.

Lucian helps a classmate out with fractions during a math GED session at MiSide on Thurs., Dec. 5, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan.

It’s easy, Lucian realizes, to miss the growth he’d made amid the rollercoaster of the last three years. He is taking better care of his physical and mental health. Time spent “jotting and rambling” in his journal about his long-term goals grounds him.

Dillard moved to the West Coast earlier this year, but they’ve stayed in touch, catching up on Zoom. She told him she was proud of him. He told her he was anxious, but also determined.

“I think a lot about the future,” Lucian said this month. “I am always thinking about when I am going to reach my goals — not if.”

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org. This article was reported with support from the Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan.

Trump deportation threats weigh on groups offering FAFSA help

2024-12-18T16:26:34+00:00

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This story about FAFSA help was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger K-12 newsletter.

A big part of Elizabeth House’s job is encouraging students to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The FAFSA is the key to support for financial aid such as Pell Grants and federally backed loans, but parents must provide their Social Security numbers or fill out nine zeros if they do not have one.

For students who have family members without the proper immigration documents, filling out the form has long been seen as a risky way to draw attention to their family’s status. House, however, urges students to take that step and fill out the FAFSA anyway.

“We encourage them to not stop your future plans because you have a fear due to being undocumented,” said House, who is the director of school counseling services with Greenville County Schools in South Carolina.

But this fall, some college advising groups are reluctantly taking a different stance. With President-elect Donald Trump saying he wants to deport millions of immigrants in the country illegally and end birthright citizenship, they’re cautioning students filling out the form for the first time to think twice before doing so if they have family members who don’t have proper documentation.

In November, the National College Attainment Network, or NCAN, shared unprecedented guidance cautioning students with family members whose immigration status is questionable about filling out the federal financial aid application. The statement said it could not guarantee the data students and parents submit on the FAFSA would continue to be protected in light of the incoming administration’s public statements and priorities.

“Although the Higher Education Act prohibits the use of data for any purpose other than determining and awarding federal financial assistance, at this time NCAN cannot assure mixed-status students and families that data submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, as part of the FAFSA process, will continue to be protected,” the organization said in its guidance.

Counselors like House are worried these messages will undermine the trust schools have built with immigrant families to get students into college.

“Even one student not filling it out is a negative impact,” she said.

Students who are U.S. citizens are eligible for federal financial aid, regardless of their parents’ immigration status, but they may worry about sharing their parents’ information on the FAFSA.

Students who are not authorized to be in the country are not eligible for federal aid, but the FAFSA is widely used as a pathway for other types of scholarships. High school counselors and college advisers have encouraged these students to fill out the form because some colleges offer scholarships regardless of citizenship status.

FAFSA data is protected under the Higher Education Act and the Privacy Act of 1974. There is no agreement allowing data collected on the financial aid form to be used for immigration enforcement. In a press call this month to answer questions about the rollout of this year’s online FAFSA, administration officials with the Education Department said President Joe Biden has prioritized protecting student and family privacy.

“We can’t speak for future policymakers, and students and families should consider this information and make the decisions that are right for them,” a senior Education Department official said.

Related: Four cities of FAFSA chaos: Students tell how they grappled with the mess, stress

Some groups are sharing NCAN’s message with counselors or directly with students, such as Matriculate, an organization based in New York that pairs high achieving and low-income students with undergraduate mentors to help guide them to college.

“It’s information that we believe our students need to have access to,” said Bryan Contreras, managing director of program, partnerships and growth at Matriculate.

Others are offering different advice. ImmSchools, a Dallas-based nonprofit that works with schools to improve outcomes for immigrant students, is encouraging students to fill out the paper version of the FAFSA form instead of the online application. In the paper version, students do not have to directly answer a yes or no question on whether they have a Social Security number, though they do still have to put something in the space for the actual number.

“Fears are heightened and with good reason,” said Astou Thiane, director of policy at ImmSchools. “You have an administration that has been on the record saying they will pursue a policy of mass deportations against undocumented and immigrant communities. I think that will have far-reaching effects on immigrant people, period.”

Trump has been consistent in his intent to carry out mass deportations, but he’s sent mixed messages on what those plans entail. He has said he would work with Democrats on a solution allowing “Dreamers” — students brought to the United States illegally when they were young — to stay in the country. But incoming administration officials have also said one option to avoid breaking up families with a mix of citizens and people not authorized to be in the country is to deport everyone “together.”

Related: Will making the FAFSA more ‘fun’ help get Pell grants into students’ pockets?

The National Association for College Admission Counseling, or NACAC, whose 28,000 members include high school counselors and college advisers, is weighing the risks. Concerns over filling out the FAFSA are not new to students and families with questionable immigration status, said David Hawkins, chief education and policy officer with NACAC, but the mass deportation threats have intensified fears that immigration enforcement will find a way to use FAFSA data, even though it is supposed to be protected.

“We can’t guarantee that the future administration might or might not use this information, but we don’t want to stoke fears when there isn’t anything yet on the table that would suggest that this information will be used for anything other than financial aid,” Hawkins said.

Ultimately, House believes warning students against filling out the FAFSA will do more harm than good. The school counselors in Greenville are going to continue advising students to fill it out, regardless of their citizenship status, and connect them to schools with scholarships they may qualify for.

“We would love for every organization to be encouraging and helpful — to help us find resources for all of our students,” House said.

Contact Hechinger staff writer Ariel Gilreath at 212-678-3639 or gilreath@hechingerreport.org.

Las universidades de Colorado planean brindar apoyo a los estudiantes inmigrantes después de la elección de Trump

2024-12-16T23:27:10+00:00

Chalkbeat Colorado es un noticiero local sin fines de lucro que informa sobre las escuelas públicas en Denver y otros distritos. Suscríbete a nuestro boletín gratis por email en español para recibir lo último en noticias sobre educación dos veces al mes.

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Los líderes de las universidades públicas de Colorado dicen que están más preparados ahora para apoyar a los estudiantes inmigrantes en sus campus de lo que estaban durante el primer mandato del presidente electo Donald Trump.

Los administradores de las universidades dijeron que muchas de ellas seguirán un plan similar al que crearon en 2016, y que han mantenido desde entonces. Pero el próximo mandato de Trump –con sus llamados a deportaciones masivas– trae consigo una nueva necesidad para las universidades y los colegios de Colorado de recordarles a los estudiantes inmigrantes indocumentados que no solo son bienvenidos en sus campuses, sino que los apoyarán para ayudarlos a hacer realidad sus sueños.

También los administradores de las universidades señalaron que eso es especialmente cierto cuando escuchan que más estudiantes indocumentados se sienten agotados por la constante amenaza de deportaciones.

“A pesar de que existe mucho apoyo para esta población, siento que definitivamente tenemos que hacer más”, dijo Rodolfo Vargas, director del Centro Cultural César Chávez de la Universidad del Norte de Colorado. “Y en eso estamos trabajando ahora mismo”.

Las universidades y los colegios públicos de Colorado educan anualmente a un grupo diverso de estudiantes que incluye estudiantes internacionales y migrantes. Los estudiantes inmigrantes puede que tengan protección legal para permanecer en el país, o no tener documentación alguna, o pueden que estén aquí legalmente pero preocupados por los miembros de sus familias indocumentados. Aproximadamente 156.000 inmigrantes indocumentados viven en el estado.

En los últimos cuatro años, en Colorado un promedio de 2.300 estudiantes indocumentados al año han solicitado la Solicitud de Ayuda Financiera Estatal. Esta solicitud es muy parecida a la Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes (FASFA), y tiene como objetivo ayudar a los estudiantes indocumentados a calificar para obtener dinero para pagar la matrícula y hacer realidad sus sueños de ir a la universidad. Los estudiantes también pueden calificar para la matrícula estatal a través del programa ASSET de Colorado.

Colorado restringe la mayoría de las formas de cooperación con las autoridades federales de inmigración cuando se trata de deportaciones, sin embargo mucho puede depender del condado o de las ciudades en las que vivan los residentes.

Vargas también se refirió a que los estudiantes están en constante temor de que las leyes puedan cambiar, como por ejemplo que el gobierno federal ponga fin al programa de Acción Diferida para los Llegados en la Infancia (DACA). En Colorado, alrededor de 12.000 personas tienen DACA, o protecciones para inmigrantes que fueron traídos a los Еstados Unidos cuando eran niños y viven en los Estados Unidos sin la documentación adecuada.

Las prioridades de Trump son muy similares a las de 2016, cuando sus llamados a las deportaciones motivaron a los funcionarios de la Universidad Estatal Metropolitana de Denver a aumentar los recursos para los estudiantes indocumentados, dijo Gregor Mieder, director de servicios para inmigrantes de MSU Denver.

En 2016, los funcionarios de MSU Denver organizaron seminarios con abogados de inmigración para que los estudiantes pudieran entender lo que significaría para ellos la administración Trump, y también trajeron personal de apoyo para navegar por ciertos formularios legales y DACA, e incluso trajeron organizaciones comunitarias para ayudar.

“Se movilizó un apoyo comunitario que fue realmente solidario y maravilloso de ver”, dijo Mieder. “Creo que eso también informa un poco sobre cómo estamos pensando ahora sobre esta próxima administración”.

Las universidades y los líderes universitarios dijeron que las leyes en torno a las deportaciones son una cuestión de política federal.

Pero ellos están dedicados a hacer que los estudiantes se sientan bienvenidos como en MSU Denver y Northern Colorado.

Una portavoz de la Universidad de Colorado en Boulder dijo en una declaración que los estudiantes y académicos internacionales y no ciudadanos enriquecen el campus y la comunidad, y los líderes de la escuela continuarán apoyando su empleo y matriculación, independientemente de quién esté en el cargo.

“Los estudiantes indocumentados pertenecen a CU Boulder y su éxito es una prioridad”, dice la declaración.

La escuela seguirá brindando recursos como La Clínica de Defensa de Inmigración de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Colorado, que brinda servicios directos a estudiantes, personal y miembros de la comunidad. La escuela también tiene un UndocuNetwork (un repertorio de recursos en línea), que incluye formas de ponerse en contacto con profesores y personal de todo el campus para abordar las preocupaciones de los estudiantes indocumentados y ponerse en contacto con los servicios de apoyo.

Del mismo modo, el director de la Oficina Ejecutiva de Equidad de la Universidad Estatal Adams, Florencio Urías Aranda III, dijo en una declaración que la escuela se compromete a ofrecer una comunidad segura y acogedora a estudiantes de todas procedencias.

“Nuestro compromiso y prioridad máxima es ayudar a los estudiantes a prosperar y a construir su propio futuro, ofreciéndoles servicios de apoyo y recursos adecuados, especialmente a los más vulnerables y menos representados” dijo Urías Aranda III.

Ni MSU Denver o la Northern Colorado University vieron un descenso significativo en el número de estudiantes indocumentados que se matricularon en sus campuses durante el primer mandato de Trump, dijeron los funcionarios.

Vargas también se refirió a que a los estudiantes les resulta más difícil terminar sus estudios porque pueden verse en la necesidad de trabajar para mantener a sus familias o sentirse agotados por la constante amenaza de deportación o cambios en las leyes. Muchos deben hacer frente a un estrés y una presión constantes que para la mayoría sería demasiado.

Sin embargo, una y otra vez los estudiantes siguen adelante. Mieder y Vargas comentan que ellos están constantemente recordando a los estudiantes cuán poderosa puede ser la educación para sus vidas.

Los estudiantes quieren devolver algo a sus comunidades, dijo Mieder. Y la educación es una de las cosas que ningún político puede quitarles.

Depende de los administradores de la universidad hacer que los estudiantes se sientan cómodos, y Mieder dijo que la escuela seguirá encontrando nuevas formas de abordar los problemas a medida que surjan. Los estudiantes hacen el resto con su dedicación y resiliencia.

“En general, los estudiantes aquí en MSU Denver superan casi cualquier cosa, con mucho esfuerzo y dedicación”, dijo Mieder. “Es verdaderamente asombroso ver eso”.

Traducido por Rocky Mountain Language Co-op

Jason Gonzales es un reportero que cubre la educación superior y la legislatura de Colorado. Chalkbeat Colorado se asocia con Open Campus para cubrir la educación superior. Comunícate con Jason por correo electrónico enviando un mensaje a jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

CUNY Chancellor boasts enrollment growth in ‘state of the university’ address

2024-11-21T16:30:05+00:00

This story was originally published on Nov. 20 by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning.

CUNY chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez on Wednesday laid out a roadmap for expanding the university in the year ahead while reflecting on the enrollment growth at the 25-school system over the last year.

At a state of the university address at the City College of Technology Wednesday, Matos Rodríguez pointed out that university-wide enrollment is up for the second year in a row, with 3% more students matriculating this year than last — contributing to a 15,000-student gain over the past two years.

The spike was particularly pronounced at community colleges, which saw a 6% increase. The number of graduate students also increased for the first time in four years, by 4%, or roughly a thousand students.

“This is uplifting, but there’s still more work to be done,” the chancellor said, noting how enrollment is still down by more than 10% compared to pre-pandemic levels, as THE CITY previously reported. “This was a sector that was hardest hit by pandemic declines, and it’s been a high priority … Our path to a future of robust enrollment starts with this multi-pronged approach to aggressively recruit students wherever they are in their lives.”

CUNY’s four-week fee-waived application period, which ended last week, drew in 60,000 freshman applications, Matos Rodríguez said — up 13% from the previous run last fall.

He credited the enrollment rebounds so far to CUNY’s partnership with the city’s public schools and the CUNY Reconnect program, which pairs prospective students who had previously departed from the CUNY system with advisors who help them navigate the re-entry process. Matos Rodríguez said the program has re-enrolled more than 40,000 students over the past two years.

Meanwhile, as “New Yorkers of all ages come to CUNY with the future on their minds,” the former Hunter College history professor also vowed to strengthen the university’s career development efforts — first and foremost by “ramping up our engagement and partnership with employers of every size in every field.”

More than 31,000 employers are now actively recruiting from CUNY schools, said Matos Rodríguez, while the university’s Spring Forward program has so far this year connected nearly 1,000 students — many of whom are in community colleges and early in their college careers — with internship opportunities, up 60% from last year.

Overall, he said, CUNY has directly connected more than 20,000 students to paid internships over the last five years.

CUNY will also be transitioning its School of Medicine — established in 2016 as the first new medical school in the city since 1860 — out of City College and into the Graduate Center so it can stand alone as an independent college, he said.

Today, nearly 70% of students entering CUNY’s medical school identify as Black or Latino — far higher than the state’s average of 21%, according to Matos Rodríguez. And graduates tend to stay in New York; about 75% of CUNY medical school alumni practice in the city, including nearly 40% who work in “underserved areas.”

Matos Rodriguez also announced Wednesday that the university will be convening a “freedom of expression working group” to develop a set of university-wide policies to be submitted to the Board of Trustees to “consider the appropriate balance between the interest recognized by the First Amendment and the principles of academic freedom.”

The working group comes as the faculty union has pushed back on the university’s “harrassment and disciplinary threats” over pro-Palestinian speech, while law students have also brought a lawsuit against the university alleging it cancelled student commencement speakers to punish and chill speech in support of Palestinians.

“This affirmation of the primacy of free expression at our university is something that many members of our community, including the leadership of the university faculty senate, have wanted to see for some time,” Matos Rodríguez said. “I look forward to our collaborative work ahead as we seek to continue creating a safer and more inclusive student, faculty and staff member.”

Matos Rodríguez, however, said little Wednesday to address faculty concerns about budget cuts and a prolonged contract fight. Members of CUNY’s faculty union, Professional Staff Congress, have been without a contract since February 2023, and negotiations have been ongoing since June of last year.

Just last month, more than 30 faculty members were arrested for blockading a CUNY Board of Trustees meeting in an attempt to demand salary raises that are more than what CUNY has offered.

In response to Wednesday’s address, union president James Davis called on the city and the state to increase its support for CUNY and to “agree to a fair contract” for its 30,000 faculty and staff members — especially in light of “threats to public higher education coming from president-elect Trump.”

“The governor, legislature and City Council have prioritized enrollment support and made targeted investments in CUNY, now they must reverse the mayor’s deep cuts to community colleges, pass strong city and state budgets that fully fund CUNY, and do all they can to protect CUNY students,” Davis told THE CITY.

Additional reporting by Jonathan Custodio.

THE CITY partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Remote learning hurt high school grad rates. Ditching exit exams helped, new research finds

2024-11-19T11:01:00+00:00

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Until now, the story of how COVID affected who got their high school diploma went something like this: Graduation rates dipped a little for the class of 2021, but recovered the following year. The pandemic contributed to a small, but notable departure from a decade of upward progress.

But a new report paints a more complicated picture. Where a student lived and what policies their school followed during the pandemic affected how likely they were to graduate from high school.

When states that normally required a high school exit exam waived that requirement, graduation rates went up. When students spent a greater share of time learning remotely or in a hybrid setup, graduation rates fell. And the longer a district kept school buildings closed in 2021 and 2022, the less likely their students were to graduate on time.

Those are among the findings of a report released Tuesday by a team of researchers from The GRAD Partnership, an initiative led by nine education organizations including the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University and the nonprofit American Institutes for Research.

The report also cautions that the pandemic’s full effects on high school graduation likely haven’t been felt yet, as the children who struggled in middle and elementary school are still working their way toward a diploma. High rates of absenteeism that have persisted since the pandemic represent another “wild card” that could affect future high school graduation rates, researchers write.

“Through the class of ‘28, I think we’ll still be seeing these impacts on kids who were in fifth to eighth grade during the pandemic,” said Bob Balfanz, a Johns Hopkins education professor and an author of the new report. Members of the class of 2028 were in fourth grade in March 2020 and are currently high school freshmen.

Balfanz worries about this year’s senior class, who spent much of middle school learning remotely, and then “crashed” on a key national math test in eighth grade.

Taken together, Balfanz said, that points to the need for high schools to step up progress monitoring over the next few years, both for academic coursework and work-based learning.

Balfanz said schools need to be asking: “Who has a pathway, who doesn’t?”

More time in remote learning lowered grad rates

Graduation rate trends varied a lot across the U.S. and within the same state.

The nearly 7,000 school districts included in the analysis represent more than half of the 13,000 school districts in the country. Of those, around a third ended up with graduation rates that were worse in 2022 than in 2019, while around a third ended up with better ones. Just over a third of districts didn’t see much change.

Balfanz said that is likely a reflection of how the pandemic affected communities in very different ways. Some students lost loved ones or lived in a community where many parents lost their jobs. Some high schoolers took on jobs or cared for siblings, while others did not.

Other factors may have pushed graduation rates up, the report notes. Some states and districts waived certain high school graduation requirements, while some schools adopted more lenient grading policies and were flexible on deadlines.

That means the kinds of support kids need now will vary a lot by place, too.

“There’s not going to be some sweeping national solution,” Balfanz said.

Still, there are some steps schools can take based on the report. The data showed that the last few months of ninth grade and of senior year can be very important for students to stay on track with credits and graduate on time, though those tend to be times when schools ease up on advising. Schools could try layering on extra support in the final quarter of the year.

Another suggestion, Balfanz said, is to try some of the strategies that have been effective in raising graduation rates in the past, such as creating small groups of freshmen who meet regularly with a caring adult to get guidance and support, sometimes known as a ninth grade academy. Schools could consider launching 10th grade academies, too.

And while the policies that affected high school graduation rates stemmed from the emergency response to the pandemic, Balfanz says there are still lessons that can be learned from how they played out.

When districts only taught remotely during the 2020-21 school year, they saw a 0.8 percentage point dip in their graduation rate, compared with districts that taught fully in person, researchers found. Districts that used a hybrid model had a high school graduation rate that was 0.4 percentage points lower than districts that taught fully in person. Researchers estimate that nearly 12,000 fewer students graduated on time in 2021 due to remote and hybrid instruction — around 3% of all students who didn’t graduate on time that year.

Balfanz sees this as yet another piece of evidence that while virtual learning can work for some high schoolers, it’s not a mass solution and should be deployed with caution, especially for struggling students, like those who’ve been suspended from school.

Earlier research found that districts that stayed remote during the 2020-21 school year had lower test scores, especially in elementary and middle school math.

Higher rates of hybrid teaching in 2021 continued to depress high school graduation rates in 2022, but graduation rates actually went up in 2022 among districts that taught fully remotely the year before.

This finding deserves additional research, the report states, but it’s possible that districts that taught mostly remotely during the 2020-21 school year invested more the following year in supporting students and helping them catch up on missed credits. It’s also possible, researchers wrote, that students who were later to shift away from fully remote instruction experienced a surge of engagement when they were finally back in person.

Waiving exit exams raised graduation rates

When a dozen states waived high school exit exams during the pandemic, district graduation rates were about 0.7 percentage points higher than they otherwise would have been. Researchers estimated that removing the exit exam requirement helped an additional 21,000 students graduate from high school from 2020 to 2022.

The findings come as several states are reevaluating what should be required of students to get a high school diploma and as several states are getting rid of the exit exam requirement.

New York state, for example, recently announced it would no longer require students to pass the Regents exam to graduate, starting with the 2027-28 school year, while Massachusetts voters decided earlier this month that high schoolers should no longer have to pass a standardized test to get a diploma.

Balfanz says the exit exam data point is another indicator that high schools need better information about what skills and knowledge will be most helpful to students later in life. Some states track how students do after graduation, and those data systems could provide valuable information to change what high schools require of students.

“Let’s use those more to see what about the high school experience really matters,” he said, “and use that to shape what we’re asking of kids.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana students encouraged to set up Federal Student Aid accounts ASAP after FAFSA debacle

2024-11-11T12:00:00+00:00

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When Lisa Noble recalls trying to help students get financial aid packages last school year, many of her memories aren’t so great.

Due to the botched and delayed rollout of the 2024-25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid, Noble, a counselor at Tell City Jr.-Sr. High School in the Tell City-Troy Township School Corporation, often struggled to explain these delayed packages to students during the spring, right as they had to make decisions about going to college.

“There were very few financial aid award letters that I saw that I was able to help students go through and interpret to help them understand,” she said.

This year, the federal government has once again delayed the FAFSA’s availability. The U.S. Department of Education was supposed to release the 2025-26 FAFSA on Oct. 1, but now the final form might not be available until Dec. 1; right now, people are testing it in small groups.

In the interim, Indiana education organizations are encouraging families to set up Federal Student Aid accounts, which are a required first step to receiving aid, as soon as possible.

Doing so will help more families be ready to go when the new FAFSA becomes available, and will make it easier for students to understand their financial aid options. Even with the form’s recent woes, state higher education officials say Indiana’s push last year for families to set up these IDs relatively early was successful.

In fact, while FAFSA completion rates for the Class of 2024 nationwide fell nearly 9% so far compared with a year ago, Indiana’s had fallen just 1.6% as of Oct. 25, the smallest decline of any state.

The strategy of focusing on setting up those student aid IDs is something Indiana’s higher education community wants to replicate this year with events for students and families, said Michelle Ashcraft, chief program officer at the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

“While federal delays in processing the FAFSA are not within the control of the states, encouraging students and families to create their FSA IDs as early as possible is one way to be proactive in the process from causing a preventable delay on an already delayed process,” she said.

School events planned about Federal Student Aid IDs

As of Oct. 25, Indiana ranked 27th among the 50 states for the percentage of the Class of 2024 that had completed the FAFSA — 50% of students had done so, according to the National College Attainment Network.

Indiana ranked 38th among the 50 states for the percentage of students in the Class of 2023 that completed the FAFSA, and 26th in year-over-year change, with an increase of 1.8%.

This past summer, colleges continued to have difficulty getting financial aid correct and sending the information to families, said William Wozniak, vice president of communications and student services at INvestEd, which provides free FAFSA help in-person and via phone.

However, he and Ashcraft believe their organizations made the best of the 2024-25 FAFSA filing situation under the circumstances.

“Despite all of the challenges last year, we feel like all of our outreach efforts, in combination with having the new requirement for seniors to file, mitigated some of those challenges,” said Ashcraft. “We are going into this cycle feeling pretty positive.”

In the weeks before the 2025-26 FAFSA release, the state Commission for Higher Education is reaching out to stakeholders and partners across the state to get the message out about creating Federal Student Aid IDs.

INvestEd is working with schools to turn previously scheduled events focused on completing the FAFSA into FSA ID creation events.

“At those events, we also sit and have time to talk with the families about questions they have about the FAFSA that’s going to launch in a month or two,” Wozniak said. “Getting their ducks in a row, getting other things set, questions that they have about how to fund education with the least debt.”

Noble, the Tell City counselor, sends an INvestEd document to seniors and their families every year to get them started on the FAFSA.

“It has a place where you can put in the student FSA ID and then the parent FSA ID usernames and passwords. So it’s all in one spot,” she said. “And it has a lot of useful information on, here’s what you need when you go to file the FAFSA, these are all the documents you need to have on hand.”

INvestEd is also scheduling new events at schools after Dec. 1 to help families fill out the 2025-26 FAFSA once it’s released.

Tina McCloud, a counselor at Mt. Vernon High School in the Metropolitan School District of Mt. Vernon, said she’s also focused on helping students and parents create FSA IDs now and planning events after the form goes live later.

“We will also host a parent session in January or February where parents can come in, and we will have staff available to help them complete the application. Students can receive help with the application process throughout the school day,” she said.

Ashcraft, who previously worked at Purdue University, believes the timing of the form’s availability on or before Dec. 1 might actually be beneficial, even though it represents a delay for the 2025-26 FAFSA.

“We used to see, at least for the current college students who were filing, large numbers of students who would wait until the holidays or winter recess to file,” she said. “So [Dec. 1] being the kickoff may play in our favor, not just as a state, but as a country, just because people will be close to their families.”

Officials share hopes for this year’s FAFSA

Besides promoting FSA ID creation and reminding people that April 15 is Indiana’s priority deadline, Ashcraft stresses that despite hesitancy about filing the FAFSA, “more students than ever before are qualifying for aid. And for all of those who are qualifying, more students are qualifying for maximum financial aid.”

Wozniak, meanwhile, said he’s pleased the U.S. Department of Education is testing the 2025-26 FAFSA ahead of public release to ensure it works properly for families, Indiana, and colleges: “We’re going to have amazing filing numbers this year. And no Hoosier is going to be left alone or have to pay for help.”

For Noble, financial aid packages coming out on schedule this time around would be a great benefit.

“We just want to be able to help students the best that we can and understand what that financial aid means. And it’s all timing, being able to do that. The earlier the form can be completed, the sooner the schools are able to do their part and then they can keep up with their deadlines, too,” she said.

Contact Chalkbeat Indiana at in.tips@chalkbeat.org

Tennessee’s high school graduation rate sets another record high

2024-11-01T00:26:31+00:00

Tennessee has set a state record for high school graduations for a second straight year.

About 92.1% of public school students in the Class of 2024 graduated on time this spring, surpassing the previous year’s record by 1.5 percentage points, according to data released Wednesday.

The latest milestone comes two years after Tennessee’s graduation rate returned to pre-pandemic levels after a three-year slide amid COVID-related disruptions to schooling and mirroring national trends.

Before that, Tennessee had logged a decade of incremental increases in the graduation rate totaling more than 4 percentage points under a workforce and economic development initiative prioritized by former Gov. Bill Haslam.

“The achievement reflects the dedication of our district leaders, educators, and families working together,” said Lizzette Reynolds, education commissioner under Gov. Bill Lee.

In all, 78 out of the state’s 147 districts improved their graduation rates, including all four large urban school systems.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools, the state’s largest district, increased its rate to 83.4%, up 1.9 percentage points. Among Hispanic students there, the rate surged 7.5 percentage points to 80.2%.

Nashville’s rate jumped by 4.5 percentage points to 85.7%, while Hamilton County’s went up 3.7 points to 93.2%. The rate for Knox County Schools was 93%, up by 1.1 points.

English learners saw a 12-point increase in their graduation rates statewide, from 67% to 79%.

On Thursday, state Democratic leaders pointed out that the record-high rates came after a $4.5 billion federal emergency investment in Tennessee’s K-12 schools amid the pandemic, plus targeted state increases for student funding.

“Together, these resources helped our schools deliver on their promise to educate every child, regardless of background or zip code,” said Sen. London Lamar of Memphis, who chairs her chamber’s Democratic caucus.

“However, with the end of this emergency federal support, Tennessee will again rank among the bottom ten states in per-pupil funding," Lamar warned. “As a result, we risk losing the momentum we’ve worked so hard to build.”

Earning a high school diploma has long been an important marker of student achievement. High school graduates not only generally earn more money during their lifetime than those who drop out, but also tend to lead longer and healthier lives, according to the American Public Health Association.

Below, you can look up to see how your district did.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement from Sen. London Lamar of Memphis.

Colorado’s Excel Center gives Aurora-area adults another chance at high school — and a diploma

2024-10-25T18:08:44+00:00

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On a recent October day, Roddrick Marshall wore a wide-brimmed hat decorated with red and blue pipe cleaners with a yellow sign that said: “Vote Roddrick & Dejanae.”

Around his neck he also showcased a sign declaring that the pair would “stand on BUSINESS for YOU!” a campaign slogan they hoped would convince fellow students to elect them as co-class presidents of The Excel Center high school in Aurora.

Running for student body elections wouldn’t have happened when he was a 17-year-old getting into trouble, Marshall said. But decades later, at 50, he is getting the chance.

From left, Roddrick Marshall, of Denver, prepares to leave class with his son, Bryson LaCroix, 10, on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 at the Colorado Excel Center in Aurora, Colorado.

At the Excel Center, run by Goodwill of Colorado and the first high school building in the state dedicated just to adults, Marshall and other adults without a diploma are getting the opportunity to learn in a more traditional type of school setting at no cost to them.

Marshall’s wife first told him about the school and also enrolled him.

“I jumped right on it,” Marshall said. “It’s in person and it’s free, and it’s more of an educational environment where you really get a chance to learn one-on-one with the teacher.”

Statewide, estimates show that over 300,000 Coloradans didn’t finish high school. Despite that high number, Colorado was the last in the nation to begin funding adult education when it did so in 2014.

From left, Mary Garcia, of Denver, and Erika Aldava, of Aurora, holding her daughter Miracle Aldava, 8 months, work on writing fictional short stories during their English II class on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 at the Colorado Excel Center in Aurora, Colorado.

In 2023, state lawmakers increased annual funding for adult education from $1 million to $3 million a year. They also set aside $5 million to help create the Excel Center.

The plan was to provide the specialized program in an area with great need. Goodwill, which brought the idea to lawmakers and lobbied to open the adult high school, chose Aurora because more than 30,000 adults in the area over the age of 25 never graduated.

The school fits into Goodwill of Colorado’s mission — to help educate, train, and place residents in jobs that help them increase their economic mobility and independence.

The exterior of the Colorado Excel Center building, seen on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 in Aurora, Colorado.

The adult high school building opened on Aug. 5, and school officials hope to someday enroll as many as 350 students as they work to finish their high school education.

The 26,000-square-foot building, located in an Aurora strip mall complex owned by Goodwill, will have most of its dozen classrooms nearly half full soon — with 58 students enrolling in the first eight week session and about 150 expected in the second session.

Most of the current students have a ninth grade education, although students who are learning English tend to have a lower education level, said James Sanchez, a Goodwill of Colorado director.

Some students are expected to graduate quickly — such as those who dropped out in their senior year. Sanchez expects the school’s first graduation in December for those who only need to earn a few credits.

Students with a ninth grade education might need to stay enrolled up to 18 months, Sanchez said. And students who are learning English take remedial classes first.

Sanchez said the school is very clear that it isn’t just recreating a high school environment. Adults have much busier lives than when they first attended high school, meaning they require more resources.

A paper reading “Don’t Quit” is taped on the window in Austin Malone’s classroom, a teacher with the Colorado Excel Center, on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 at the Colorado Excel Center in Aurora, Colorado.

The program offers onsite day care for students’ kids over the age of 2-and-a-half, gives them bus passes and gas cards, screens students for learning disabilities such as dyslexia, and has flexible class schedules. The school also caps classes at 24 students.

“We really try to get them individualized support,” Sanchez said.

The Aurora Excel Center is part of a network of 41 other Goodwill schools in nine states across the nation. The first school was started in 2010 in Indianapolis.

Although Goodwill has a history of offering this program, Sanchez said there still have been challenges starting something new in Colorado.

It has been difficult to find teachers, and most of those who’ve taken jobs at the center were previously retired. The school also doesn’t offer students the opportunity to earn as many industry certificates as leaders had hoped, though they’re working on more partnerships that will help students pursue higher paying jobs after graduation.

English language arts teacher Lizzie Louis agreed building something new for adults in the area can be difficult. But the students make it easy.

Dr. Lizzie Louis, a teacher with the Colorado Excel Center, smiles as she listens to students during the English Language Arts III class on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 at the Colorado Excel Center in Aurora, Colorado.

She said part of teaching them means respecting their life experiences.

She ensures students’ kids have a play space with toys in the corner of her room. And she focuses on encouraging students to pursue their long-held education dreams.

“We get to build community and create a safe place to learn for them,” Louis said.

Marshall said he’s felt the support throughout the building as he tries to earn the high school diploma he’s wanted for years.

On the day he campaigned in his brown hat to become co-class president, Marshall brought his five children with him to school, including his twins. Although they were a rambunctious crew, they’re welcome at the school.

A poster for students Roddrick Marshall, and Dejanae Ryan, both of Denver, to promote their run for student president on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 at the Colorado Excel Center in Aurora, Colorado.

“My kids are in school, but it’s times like this when they’re out for fall break, or some type of break, and I still have class that the day care is helpful,” he said.

Marshall, a custodian, wants to study HVAC after he gets his diploma and increase his potential for higher earnings. He also wants his kids to see him succeed.

“It’s good for them to see their parent continue their education and see how important it is to get their high school diploma,” he said. “They’ll get theirs the first time.”

Students are testing out the FAFSA before it goes live in an effort to avoid last year’s mess

2024-10-23T22:29:41+00:00

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Thousands of students, including in Newark, Chicago, and the Denver area, are helping test out federal financial aid forms before they go live to the broader public on or before Dec. 1.

The testing, which is in its second of four rounds, is meant to identify glitches that made it difficult for many students to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid last school year. The hope is that by testing the form this time around, the U.S. Department of Education will be able to deliver on the promise of the Better FAFSA — a simpler form that offers a faster overall experience than the previous version.

Advocates say the testing is a welcome change from last school year when problems with a botched overhaul of the form led to over 200,000 fewer students completing the form.

The wide range of communities chosen for testing include many of the student groups who struggled most to fill out the form last year — those who have immigrant parents who don’t have a Social Security number and those who are the first in their family to go to college.

So far, advocates and officials who have helped with the testing report fewer problems overall, as well as what they’ve said is “cautious optimism” that the FAFSA should function as needed to help students qualify for financial aid, grants, and scholarships that help them offset the cost of college.

By participating in the testing, students get early access to completing the form, extra technical assistance, and their information sent earlier to colleges of their choice.

National College Attainment Network CEO Kim Cook said lingering issues are still being addressed on the 2025-26 form, including students struggling with identity verification and for mixed-status immigrant students. NCAN supports members to help students get to college and graduate.

“Fundamentally, testing a system before launch is a best practice,” Cook said. “I think this year it’s especially important because of what we learned in last year’s 2024-25 FAFSA rollout.”

The federal government revamped the FAFSA form last year and released it on Dec. 31, three months later than typical. While the Better FAFSA, as it is now called, proved to be shorter and easier when functional, the technical issues hurt the process.

The U.S. Department of Education has been selecting beta testing sites to help troubleshoot problems and has employed volunteers from community organizations, government agencies, districts, and high schools.

The plan is to expand the number of students participating in each round.

In the first round of testing, about 650 high school students helped test the FAFSA through the first half of October. Another 3,500 students, including students already enrolled in college, are testing the FAFSA in the second round, according to the department.

A spokesperson for the department said participants are selected based on criteria that include the student population, geographic location, and type of school.

The testing includes colleges and high schools from rural, urban, and suburban areas, and the department sought out students who are the first to college in their family, from immigrant backgrounds, and who have never filled out the form.

Schools report positive testing experiences

Colorado’s Adams City High School, which educates predominantly students from low-income backgrounds and who are mostly Hispanic, was selected to participate in the second round of beta testing.

INSPiRE founder Jesse Ramirez, whose nonprofit organization helps mentor students to college, submitted the application for Commerce City high school officials. Ramirez’s nonprofit has worked with the district for years, including participating in a state grant that helps increase FAFSA completion rates. Last year, despite gains the year before, far fewer students filled out the form, he said — about 20% less.

The school held its FAFSA event on Oct. 16, which happened during fall break. Still, many students volunteered, he said. About 75 students showed up on the day of testing, Ramirez said.

During testing, Ramirez brought in over 50 financial aid experts, most of whom were bilingual. Families and volunteers were able to call Education Department officials who were staffed to support the testing.

Some students filled out the form in 15 minutes, while others needed more support.

Ramirez said most students encountered issues where they entered information that didn’t perfectly match tax records. This meant they were then not found in the system. For example, if a parent with a hyphenated last name used a hyphen when filing their taxes but the student didn’t use the hyphen when filling out the FAFSA, their application would get bounced back.

That error then needed to be sorted out through a phone call to the Education Department.

Ramirez said he’s pleased with how the testing went. With the FAFSA being delayed two months later than usual, every day counts, he said. Historically, about half of all students who complete the FAFSA do so between October and the end of the year.

“Why wouldn’t we do this?” Ramirez said. “Why wouldn’t we want to create these opportunities? There’s no idea that is too crazy, as long as it’s about empowering our kids and helping our families.”

Other districts, such as Chicago Public Schools, tested 150 of the 500 students they were allowed to test in the second round. The district will be allowed to test up to 2,000 more in the third testing window. The district expects more than 50 high schools to participate in the third round.

District leaders also want students to get ahead on the FAFSA, with a goal of 10% of Chicago Public Schools students to have the form completed early so they can get ahead and address barriers to getting to college, a spokeswoman said.

National advocacy groups report growing confidence in the Better FAFSA

National advocacy group leaders have said that while they wished for the FAFSA to be ready by October, the testing is important.

Jill Desjean, National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrator director of policy analysis, said the organization is 100% behind the testing. She’s especially happy that the Education Department has sought to test students from a variety of socioeconomic, geographic, and familial backgrounds.

“It’s really important to be looking at every possible type of student who could be filling out a FAFSA and every type of family scenario they could be encountering,” she said.

The Education Department has provided updates on testing, and an Oct. 21 update showed that so far 2,830 students were able to complete the form during the two rounds of beta testing. Those students reported 93% satisfaction with the form. Almost 90% of students say they were able to complete it in a reasonable amount of time.

The top reason for a student’s FAFSA being rejected was a missing student or parent signature, according to the department. According to a Government Accountability Office investigation, many students last year saw signatures disappear after saving and re-opening the form. Officials say they are working through those issues.

Cook, with NCAN, said the testing has helped instill some confidence after last school year.

The Education Department has also been transparent in documenting the issues students are running into, she said. Some issues the department has detailed include usability issues and the ongoing signature problems.

“We’re seeing it largely work,” Cook said. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t still issues for us to address, but we’re clear on what the issues are, and I think they’ve been heard and they’re being worked on.”

Struggling with student loans? Colorado advocates offer five tips for borrowers.

2024-08-08T21:58:11+00:00

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Almost 796,000 Colorado borrowers hold more than $29 billion in federal student loan debt, contributing to the nation’s $1.6 trillion student debt load.

To help borrowers understand how to manage their debt, Young Invincibles and other Colorado advocates and government officials have held a series of clinics over the last several days. These services are especially important now that payments have restarted after a pandemic pause and new college graduates are beginning to repay their loans.

Cameron DeTello, Young Invincibles’ Rocky Mountain engagement manager, said the goal of the clinics is to ease the burden on borrowers, for example by showing them how to make payments more manageable. Young Invincibles is a national nonprofit that advocates on issues affecting young adults, and also helps educate them on issues such as economic mobility and financial choices.

DeTello said many young adults hold off on buying homes or having kids because of student debt.

“We’re hoping that by giving them more information, some of them might be eligible for forgiveness, or they’ll be able to save on some income-driven options, or maybe they’ll just feel better about their situation,” she said.

On average, Colorado student loan borrowers owe about $37,000 each — or roughly the average cost of a midsize SUV. It’s a daunting amount for adults who are also managing other costs, but experts say there are ways to make repayment easier.

“While it’s hard, we need to remain informed borrowers,” said Kelsey Lesco, Colorado student loan ombudsman, and one of the clinic’s panelists.

Here are five tips Young Invincibles shared this week during the clinics for managing student loan debt:

Learn how to navigate the Federal Student Aid website

Getting familiar with the Federal Student Aid Office student loan website is a great starting point. The student aid website holds a wealth of information about public student loans, DeTello said.

Federal student loan borrowers can create a login on the student aid website. There they can view their loans and find repayment options, DeTello said.

Know the makeup of your student loans

How much is your student loan interest rate and how much of your repayment goes to that interest? What type of loans do you have? Are they all federal loans, or do you have separate private loans?

These questions can be answered easily, but borrowers sometimes don’t know the answers, Lesco said. It’s hard to figure out how to manage loans unless you know their makeup, she said.

“It seems basic, but you just really need to know what’s coming,” Lesco said.

Apply for student loan repayment programs

There are seven types of student loan repayment programs, according to Lesco.

Lesco and DeTello said borrowers should familiarize themselves with the different options. Some might cut down monthly payments or the number of payments borrowers must make.

For instance, income-driven repayment programs — where payments are limited to a percentage of a borrower’s income — are popular options that can make the monthly bill more manageable. Some borrowers are eligible for a public-service loan forgiveness program if they work for a qualifying employer, such as a government entity or nonprofit organization. The program forgives the balance after 120 payments.

Learn what different repayment programs can do for you by visiting the student aid office’s loan simulator.

Watch for scams

You can access everything you need on your account through the student aid website, Lesco said. That means no one from the U.S. Department of Education will call you about forgiving your loans. They also won’t ask for payment over the phone.

If someone claiming to be from the department contacts you this way, don’t fall for it.

This is especially important during uncertainty about repayment programs, such as the recent court ruling blocking a Biden administration repayment program, she said.

“Scammers are always targeting student loan borrowers,” she said. “And it’s a constant danger during periods of seeming instability or confusion.”

Coloradans who suspect a scam can file a complaint with the state attorney general’s office.

Can’t figure it out? There are people to help.

The federal student loan services website has a dedicated help line and ombudsmen to help borrowers troubleshoot.

Lesco said the Colorado ombudsman can also help with complaints. Her office can help investigate, report on, and settle complaints related to student loans.

“We’ll help them navigate problems that they’re experiencing with their student loan,” she said.

She’s worked with borrowers who have issues getting their payment counted, whose servicers aren’t getting in touch with them, or who have had issues with their schools, such as colleges that have committed wrongdoing.

And Colorado’s Office of Financial Empowerment also has plenty of financial literacy resources, Lesco said.

For a second year, FAFSA will again be delayed in the fall

2024-08-07T23:25:04+00:00

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For the second year in a row, students and families won’t have access to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid on Oct. 1, when it’s traditionally released, but federal officials have promised a fully functional form on or before the start of December.

In a news release, the U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday it would start testing the system in October with a limited number of students, colleges, and universities. This process will allow the Federal Student Aid Office to address issues before the 2025-26 FAFSA is widely released nationwide, according to the news release.

This announcement follows the problematic rollout of the 2024-25 FAFSA form. After a late release last year, ongoing technical glitches made completing the form difficult.

“The Department listened carefully to the input of students, families, and higher education institutions, made substantial changes to leadership and operations at Federal Student Aid, and is taking a new approach this year that will significantly improve the FAFSA experience,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in the news release.

The plan doesn’t fully satisfy national advocacy groups who said they’re disappointed the form won’t be ready on time. But they said the late release of a functional system is better than families suffering through another glitchy FAFSA season.

“The fact that we are still, to this day, dealing with the aftershocks of this year’s FAFSA rollout shows just how imperative it is that the process is thoroughly tested from end to end and launched as a system, not in a piecemeal manner,” said Beth Maglione, interim president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, in a written statement.

The federal government revamped the form last year. For students who don’t encounter problems, the so-called Better FAFSA is much faster and easier to fill out than the previous version. But technical problems with the revamped form caused widespread delays and frustrations and slowed down when students received financial aid awards. It has created worries that fewer students, especially those from lower-income backgrounds, will show up in the fall.

Students whose parents don’t have a Social Security number encountered the most problems.

In response to problems in the spring, many higher education institutions nationwide delayed enrollment dates to help students have more time to understand their financial aid awards. Yet problems with the FAFSA have persisted even into the summer.

The National College Attainment Network said the federal government’s latest update is not what they hoped. About half of all students who fill out the FAFSA do so before the end of the calendar year, making it important to launch as scheduled.

However, the nonprofit’s CEO Kim Cook said the FAFSA must be reliable, especially because college officials nationwide needed to adjust numerous times during the last year to help students. NCAN has a mission to help more students make it to and succeed in college.

“We acknowledge this is a difficult trade-off between functionality and the release date,” Cook said. “We appreciate the certainty and transparency that this announcement provides to the college access field. Counselors and educational leaders can now plan their FAFSA support strategies with the understanding that students who complete the form will receive financial aid awards in a timely manner.”

The education department has also promised more information about how the testing will work and will share regular updates. It will also continue to gather feedback and officials said they will release additional tools for students and families, counselors, institutions and others about the FAFSA.

Students who submit FAFSA during the testing phase will not need to re-submit once the form is live, and the Federal Student Aid Office will use their data to identify software issues ahead of the larger launch.

Due to issues this year, FAFSA completion is down over 10% from the previous year — or over 232,600 fewer students finished the form compared to last year, according to data from NCAN.

The true impact of this year’s problems will become more clear in the fall. Financial aid experts worry that although some students might have filled out the form, they might opt to skip college in the fall.

That’s because many students graduated high school without the financial award information they typically use to select a college. Importantly, high school counselors also help advise students after they enroll, such as filling out paperwork or signing up for orientation.

Many also left high school without counseling support to understand how much college would cost them and help to understand the next steps to showing up on a college campus in the fall.

Hispanic enrollment slow to recover at CUNY

2024-08-01T14:26:01+00:00

This story was originally published on Aug. 1 by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning.

The CITY partners with Open Campus on coverage of the City University of New York.

Enrollment at the City University of New York is up for the first time in five years — which is still not enough to make up for the four consecutive years of losses that came before it. But the University is hoping its ubiquitous subway ads and outreach campaigns will help.

The 233,352 students who attended one of CUNY’s 25 schools in Fall 2023 was an increase of 21,368 from the previous year — but still down 41,554 compared to 2018, the last year that enrollment went up. And enrollment among Hispanic students, the largest single ethnic or racial group of CUNY students, is lagging, according to an analysis by THE CITY and Open Campus of CUNY’s internal enrollment data for Fall 2023, that was published this summer.

While the 3.5% increase in Hispanic enrollment for the 2023 school year was consistent with the 3.3% lift in total enrollment, that modest uptick has done little to reverse the sizable drop-offs for the group over the previous four years.

Even with last year’s gains, matriculation among Hispanic students fell by 18,835, or 22%, between Fall 2018 and Fall 2023 — considerably more than the overall 15% decline over that period.

“I think the pandemic kind of made people question, ‘is higher education as valuable as what we place on it? Are there other ways to achieve the goals I’m looking for without necessarily spending a lot of money and time?’” said Ayinde Bennett, a post-secondary access manager at the educational nonprofit Urban Assembly, who also noted how Latinx families had experienced disproportionate economic impact during the pandemic.

“I think with lower income, certainly Black and Latinx students, you probably are seeing more of a drop and more of a necessity maybe to work or to help out or support their families in some other way.”

Indeed, the downsizing in matriculation was particularly dramatic at the community college level, which generally enrolls greater shares of lower-income, first-generation, and Black and Brown students compared to senior colleges.

Overall, CUNY’s seven two-year colleges registered a 33.2% decrease in Hispanic enrollment amid a 21.5% decrease in total enrollment between Fall 2018 and Fall 2023, a far sharper drop than any other group.

By comparison, CUNY’s 11 senior colleges saw a 14% decrease in Hispanic enrollment and 12% decrease in total enrollment.

At Bronx Community College, for example, where 52% of students identified as Hispanic in Fall 2023 — the most of any CUNY school — enrollment fell by 42% between Fall 2018 and Fall 2023, including a 50% decline among Hispanic students, the most of any community college and the second-most system-wide.

Richard Ginsburg, the college’s spokesperson, like Bennett, also attributed the dramatic decline to the pandemic’s “significant impact” on the borough and its Hispanic population.

“Many students in underserved areas struggled with the shift to online learning due to inadequate technology and internet access, exacerbating the decline in enrollment,” he said, though noting that enrollment for this fall is looking up from last fall, “thanks to our continued efforts to focus on community engagement, digital inclusion, economic support, and holistic student services to reverse the enrollment decline and foster growth.”

National outlier

CUNY, however, reported just a 17% decline in Hispanic and Latino enrollment between Fall 2018 and Fall 2023 to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which is 5 percentage points less than the 22% Hispanic decline registered under CUNY’s internal system.

(Schools that receive federal funding are required to report race- and gender-based enrollment data to the NCES’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Systems, commonly known as IPEDS.)

CUNY spokesperson Noah Gardy said the discrepancies are due to “numerous differences between CUNY’s internal race/ethnicity tracking and the IPEDS methodology, such as how students with multi-ethnic identities or nonresidents are categorized and reported.”

But even with those numbers, the drop in Hispanic enrollment at CUNY wasn’t mirrored nationally. Rather, IPEDS data show that public universities overall saw Hispanic enrollment tick up by 0.8% over the same five-year period even as total enrollment declined by 7%.

Gardy said this is because CUNY has “a student body with a larger proportion of low-income and Hispanic students than the national average,” and noted how the 25-school system consists of 16 colleges designated as Hispanic-serving institutions.

But CUNY is working to get on par — and it’s brought in outside help to move towards those goals.

In February, the University awarded a $425,000 contract for “marketing analysis and strategy consultant for CUNY enrollment,” New York State comptroller records show.

Gardy told THE CITY the analysis is still ongoing, but a report CUNY issued this year on “Stabilizing the University’s Finances” lays out the university’s plan to enroll 150,000 undergraduate students at senior colleges and 80,000 students at community colleges by 2030 — which would be 15% and 8% increases respectively from current levels.

And it will do so, the report stated, through “implementing innovative recruitment and retention strategies,” “diversifying of program offerings such as Online Programs or accelerated program,” and “revamping programs to ensure that they are meeting demands of students and employers.”

“Thanks to the hard work of enrollment and admissions at our campuses and centrally, enrollment is on the upswing,” Gardy said, pointing to a 10% increase in community college enrollment in Fall 2023 from the year prior. “Going forward we hope to build on this achievement and sustain CUNY as an engine of social mobility.”

‘Working on it’

Bennett, who used to be a college counselor at a majority Latinx high school, said CUNY would have to continue to bolster outreach and supportive services provided to prospective students to close the matriculation gaps.

“It’s a real nightmare for some students to navigate such a large institution like that, where getting support — and again it’s something CUNY’s working on — but it hasn’t always been there,” Bennett said.

He has encountered a number of CUNY students at two-year colleges, he added, who did not continue onto the system’s senior colleges because they struggled to navigate the complexities of financial aid while contemplating transfers.

At York College in Jamaica, Queens, enrollment management director Nick Jones told THE CITY that in-person outreach has been particularly successful in attracting some prospective students, particularly transfers, which is up 3.7% in Fall 2023 compared to the year before.

“You can always be online, but having conversations — tangible conversations — having people seeing our faces, seeing York College, shows that we want to make sure we have an impact on the community,” Jones said.

“We’re making sure we’re going out into the community, and in the high schools to make sure students know about us — and that they understand the SEEK and the ACE programs,” he continued, referring to two academic support programs available for students at a number of CUNY schools.

Gardy also pointed to a number of efforts CUNY’s central office has taken to boost enrollment and offer student support, including CUNY Reconnect, which has re-enrolled 16,319 students by paring them with advisors who help them navigate the re-entry process, as well as CUNY ASAP, which has so far provided more than 100,000 community college students with free tuition, textbook stipends and transportation benefits.

A CUNY report last year also boasts improved college enrollment among Black and Hispanic high school seniors who participate in its peer mentoring program.

For Medgar Evers College in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where Hispanic enrollment experienced a 50% decline between Fall 2018 and Fall 2023 — the steepest of any CUNY schools — efforts to account for students’ need to work has also helped enrollment rebound between Fall 2022 and Fall 2023, said spokesperson Nick Masuda, when the number of Hispanic students grew by 8.6%.

“The educational journey took a backseat to helping their families adjust to an unprecedented worldwide health crisis,” Masuda said, referring to the pandemic’s impact on the area’s prospective students. “Our commitment to flexibility in a students’ schedule is a primary focus, making sure that each student can balance their personal and educational aspirations.”

And while enrollment woes have swept across many CUNY colleges, Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn’s Manhattan Beach is one bright spot: Between Fall 2018 and 2023, Hispanic enrollment there jumped by 49%, while total enrollment increased by 27%.

Kingsborough spokesperson Cheryl Todmann credited those successes to the college’s strategic efforts in 2021 to boost its Hispanic student population in order to qualify for the federal Hispanic-Serving Institution status designation and related federal grants.

As part of the initiative, Toddman said Kingsborough’s multilingual recruiters offered Spanish-language information sessions and campus tours as part of the college’s “Sueños Empiezan Aquí,” or “Dreams Begin Here” campaign, and visited schools and NYCHA developments to promote the college’s flexible learning options in both English and Spanish. Meanwhile, the college also hired liaisons in Sunset Park to assist with college applications and registrations.

Also key to the college’s Hispanic enrollment growth, Toddman added, was its investments into a number of Spanish-language advertising campaigns placed across subways, bus shelters, radio, cable, newspaper and social media.

Gardy added: “Over the past two years CUNY has made a concerted and successful effort to raise awareness around the exceptional and affordable educational opportunities available to New Yorkers.”

Overall, according to state comptroller records, CUNY has planned to spend more than $12 million on advertising on Facebook, Spotify, and across the city since 2021 — most visibly on the MTA’s army of subway cars, commuter trains and buses.

One subway ad slogan reads “A Degree for Every Dream,” while another encourages onlookers to “Turn Your Internship Full Time. Launch your career with CUNY’s paid internship programs.”

Bennett, the post-secondary success expert who emphasized how many prospective students are now prioritizing economic mobility more than before, said he’s also noticed those dark blue posters as he traverses the city.

“CUNY is really trying to do a lot of rebranding as a city school for the city of New York, and are trying to work on connecting careers and employment with education,” Bennett said. “All of those are efforts to correct the course, like “How do we help them matriculate and see CUNY as a place of success?’

“I know CUNY is working on it like everyone else in the city.”

Indiana FAFSA filings hold steady so far this year

2024-06-21T19:50:56+00:00

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Roughly the same number of Indiana high school seniors filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid this year as in 2023, despite this year’s rough rollout.

Indiana ranks first in the country for the least amount of year-over-year change in FAFSA submissions. As of June 14, the National College Attainment Network, or NCAN, tracker showed 39,800 FAFSA completions in the Hoosier State, down just 1.1% from 2023.

Delays and glitches have plagued the FAFSA filing process since a new version was fully released in January. The Indiana Commission for Higher Education and INvestEd worked with students and parents for months to complete as many submissions as possible before the state’s April 15 priority deadline.

“We are just a percentage away from matching last year’s filing, which is amazing when you think about the three-month shorter window and all the hurdles that families had to jump through,” said William Wozniak, INvestEd’s vice president of communications and student services.

Did Indiana meet FAFSA goals?

As of June 14, Indiana was no. 21 in the nation for the percentage of seniors completing FAFSAs with 44.7% — about 15 percentage points shy of the commission’s 60% goal. Earlier in May, CHE announced the state was in the top 10 for FAFSA submissions and completions, which was another goal.

The third goal, a 5% overall state increase in FAFSA filings, has not been met yet, though numbers are up, said Michelle Ashcraft, chief program officer at CHE. That statistic included high school, current college, and adult students.

Wozniak and Ashcraft said several factors contributed to the state’s FAFSA results, including extensive communication, the pre-admissions initiative, and a new state law requiring students to file.

“[Despite the delay], we still ran our typical event schedule in the fall. We focused on creating FSA IDs instead of filing the FAFSA. A lot of our communications throughout the semester were, ‘Hey, this thing is coming. We can at least help you take the first step to get ready.’ So when it opened fully in January, most of our students across the state were ready to go,” said Ashcraft.

“The commission was very active in reaching out to students and families about filing. We were thrilled that our contact information was included in that messaging so families could give us a call,” added Wozniak.

In the four days before the state deadline, INvestEd received more than 1,000 calls for FAFSA help, he said.

What counts toward April FAFSA deadline

Since students and parents submitted FAFSA information separately this year, Ashcraft said the commission used the student’s submission date for the deadline. This decision allowed parents to make edits and corrections later without affecting priority financial aid eligibility. When the government started sending files to the states and schools, errors were discovered that affected CHE’s ability to pinpoint the number of students who filed before April 15.

“We have had to go through two rounds of federal corrections that are separate from the typical process that individual students might have to do to correct their FAFSA,” Ashcraft said.

Once CHE can assess how many students filed before April 15, they can determine how much funding is going out, how much is left, and whether they can extend the priority deadline.

“Last year, we were able to extend the guaranteed funding deadline to June 30. The year before that it was August 31, and the year before that it was May 30. We try to award as far out into the summer as we can until we’ve exhausted the funding allocation for that year,” said Ashcraft.

Lingering issues with Social Security numbers

Ashcraft said one lingering FAFSA issue is helping students affected by Social Security number glitches. Another priority is helping students who filed a paper FAFSA to ensure they met the April 15 deadline. The federal government didn’t start processing those applications until June.

Anne and Mike Vandall of Fishers started the FAFSA filing process with their daughter, Emily, in February and didn’t finish until May. Emily plans to attend Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.

“The biggest challenge was navigating once we were able to get in,” said Anne Vandall. “We did it intermittently because we would get to a certain point, and sometimes it would kick us out. But when we tried to go back in to resume, we weren’t sure where we were supposed to go.”

Ashcraft encourages families that had trouble filing or haven’t filed to complete the process as soon as possible because they’re still eligible for state and federal aid.

“We’re back to normal processing times,” she said. “It’s about a one- to three-day turnaround from the time the student files for that information to get to states and the institutions.”

Still time to fill out FAFSA for federal deadline

The federal FAFSA deadline is June 30, but that cutoff date is for the 2023-24 award year. The 2024-25 deadline is June 30, 2025.

“Let’s say somebody was going to school in January 2025. They weren’t going to go in the fall, but they’re going to go in the spring. The FAFSA has to stay open for the whole year,” said Wozniak.

As for the 2025-26 award year, Ashcraft said she thinks more participation in the pre-admissions initiative and the state law requiring FAFSA filing will boost submissions.

“I am grateful for the progress we’ve made in spite of all the challenges. It gives me hope that next year, if it opens on October 1 with no issues, we can make significant progress on that [60%] goal,” she said.

Wozniak added that families should stay ready for next year’s FAFSA form.

“We want them to have the best experience possible,” he said. “And we’ll be ready no matter what it looks like.”

Correction: July 1, 2024: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Indiana met its third goal, a 5% increase in overall FAFSA filings. Numbers are up, but the state hasn’t reached that goal.

Mitzi S. Morris is a freelance journalist. Contact Chalkbeat Indiana at in.tips@chalkbeat.org.

She started high school during the pandemic. How one senior overcame empty classrooms and isolation.

2024-06-21T14:00:04+00:00

Leer en español

About this series: Four years ago, Chalkbeat reporters documented the stories of high school freshmen experiencing a critical year through Zoom calls and from behind masks. These students, who experienced freshman year at a distance, are now graduating seniors. How did the pandemic shape their high school lives? How did their expectations for these formative four years play out? We caught up with these members of the Class of 2024 to find out.

Throngs of Bronx seniors packed into their schoolyard, feasting on empanadas, dancing to thumping music, and climbing through an inflatable obstacle course. It was college decision day and the blacktop outside Urban Assembly School for Applied Math and Science had transformed into a carnival.

That sweltering afternoon was one of Ashanty Peralta’s final days at the school she’s attended since sixth grade. The scene was the polar opposite of her freshman year, when Ashanty was one of just two students in her classroom on the first day of in-person lessons.

In October 2020, New York City was reeling from the pandemic and the Bronx had suffered from the highest rates of COVID infections, hospitalizations, and deaths of any borough. Officials scrambled to reopen classrooms, but half of city students and most of Ashanty’s AMS classmates chose to stay home and learn virtually. She was among the millions of American high school students who experienced their freshman year of high school behind a mask and socially distanced.

Four years later, a few bottles of hand sanitizer could still be found inside AMS. A now-disabled thermometer that once checked students for fever remains bolted to the wall. But that time was far from Ashanty’s mind as she weaved through the courtyard.

Ashanty posed for a photo after her first day of in-person classes as a freshman in 2020.

Her teachers and classmates took turns scribbling sendoff notes on her red “decision day” T-shirt. “You’re so driven and a great wrestler,” one teacher wrote.

“You’re the sweetest ever and I’m gonna miss you so much,” a classmate added. By the end of the afternoon there were few open spaces left.

“I was one of those kids who were very eager to socialize,” Ashanty said. “I can see how much I’ve grown.”

But Ashanty’s path to senior year was pockmarked with setbacks. Though she hoped to get in-person support from her teachers and start making friends freshman year, a citywide order to shut down school buildings that November meant she spent nearly the whole year behind a screen.

Meanwhile, her family life was unraveling. Ashanty, her mother, and two younger brothers, moved three times in four years, settling in Manhattan during her freshman and sophomore years before returning to the Bronx. Instead of a 10-minute walk to school, she faced more than an hour on the subway some days, making it difficult to participate in clubs and other activities.

When her mother suffered a broken toe, Ashanty also took on some of the cooking and laundry duties.

“I had to really step it up and be a mom to my siblings, too” who were 12 and 3 at the time, Ashanty said. The situation left her with “no motivation” for schoolwork, and she wondered if she would pass her classes.

Things didn’t improve much sophomore year. Even as all students were required to return to school in person, Ashanty still lived far away from campus and struggled to re-acclimate.

“My freshman year I didn’t really have that many friends,” she said. “And once 10th grade hit, I was like, ‘I don’t even know how to make friends at this point.’”

It was a low moment. But she resolved to throw herself into the school community rather than retreat from it. “It pushed me a lot to be more mature,” Ashanty said. “I was eager to be able to socialize more — to recover the year that I lost from not being able to go outside.”

Gaining confidence and lifting up others

Clubs and sports turned into a lifeline.

Ashanty is naturally shy, but she signed up for everything from cooking and pottery clubs to softball and volleyball.

“If I was in a club I had teammates. And your teammates are not people you’re going to fight with,” Ashanty said. “It was one of the easiest ways to make friends.”

Despite the camaraderie she found through sports, Ashanty said she didn’t wind up forging a tight group of friends. Athletics did, however, help her build a much closer bond with her brother, Albert, now a rising senior at AMS.

The pair often played sports together, including tennis and taekwondo. After cheering on Albert during a wrestling match, Ashanty worked up the nerve to join the team. She often competed against boys.

“That first year, she was a little timid,” said Chaka Baker, the school’s wrestling coach. That reticence didn’t last long. Baker remembers a moment when Ashanty faced a narrow defeat against a boy from Queens.

“She got a good hold on him, threw him, landed him on his back — the entire gymnasium erupted in applause and cheers,” Baker said. “Even after taking a tough loss like that she held her head high.” Ashanty eventually became captain of the team for two seasons, earned recognition as a top-ranked wrestler across the city, and had the chance to travel outside the city to compete, including to Philadelphia and Chicago.

Ashanty stands with her wrestling coach, Chaka Baker.

As Ashanty’s confidence grew, she forged deeper bonds with her teachers, too. She didn’t like history at first, but her attitude shifted sophomore year in Travis Taylor’s global history class. She was captivated by topics that lended themselves to debate like the Cuban missile crisis and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“It changed my entire perspective on school and education,” Ashanty said. “With his class I was always eager to be here.”

The experience made her approach her principal with an unusual request: Could she help teach the class during her junior year?

With the principal’s blessing, Ashanty spent her advisory periods in Taylor’s classroom, often going over material one-on-one with students who were behind, and co-teaching a few lessons. In one instance, Ashanty worked with a boy who struggled to show up to class.

“He was Dominican, and I sat him down and really gave him that Dominican mother talk,” explained Ashanty, who moved to New York from the Dominican Republic almost a decade ago. She went over the material with him but also offered a pep talk about why he needed to pass the class. “You have to get it together,” she told the boy. “¿Qué tú estás haciendo?”

Travis Taylor, one of Ashanty's history teachers, agreed to let her student teach during her junior year.

Taylor said Ashanty’s presence regularly helped pull disengaged students, including the one who struggled with attendance, back into their schoolwork.

“If Ashanty sat there and talked to him, maybe she’s talking in Spanish … he kind of would come up a little bit and do some work,” Taylor said. “Some of the kids I couldn’t reach. She could because she was their age.”

The college decision: to stay or go?

Ashanty enjoyed mentoring other students so much that she dreams of becoming a teacher. She imagines returning to her alma mater one day, following in the footsteps of Nairée Taveras, a former AMS student who returned to teach history.

“She’s just a natural leader,” said Taveras, one of Ashanty’s mentors. “She’s unafraid to be herself.”

But just days before graduation, Ashanty was still grappling with her next steps. She was accepted to multiple colleges that offer a variety of opportunities, but also vastly different experiences. She considered a private college more than 350 miles from the Bronx, as well as multiple public colleges closer to home.

Due to glitches with the federal student aid process, she was still waiting for final details about the financial packages. And some of her closest mentors have offered differing advice about where to go.

One educator nudged Asanty toward the private college. Meanwhile, Taveras cautioned Ashanty the school could feel isolating due to a lack of student diversity — an observation based on Taveras’ own experience at the same college.

Ashanty poses with AMS history teacher Nairée Taveras.

One of the main considerations for Ashanty was whether she could stand to be far away from her younger brother. That relationship helped Ashanty get through the toughest stretches of high school.

“He’s my support system,” she said. “Every sport that I do, he’s my teammate. He’s always there if I need to talk.”

As Ashanty got up to the microphone in the school cafeteria to announce her placeholder college decision last month, it started to dawn on her that whatever choice she makes about what to do after graduation, she likely won’t ever go to school with her brother again.

The thought of leaving him behind left her in tears.

A few minutes later, Albert emerged from the audience of cheering students and staff.

He offered Ashanty a hug.

Ashanty slides through an inflatable obstacle course to celebrate college decision day last month.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Una estudiante de la ciudad de Nueva York superó la pandemia y los contratiempos personales para aprovechar al máximo su high school

2024-06-21T10:00:00+00:00

Read in English.

Acerca de esta serie: Hace cuatro años, los reporteros de Chalkbeat documentaron las historias de estudiantes de primer año de high school que vivían un año crucial a través de llamadas de Zoom y detrás de mascarillas. Estos estudiantes, que vivieron el primer año a distancia, son ahora seniors que se van a graduar. ¿Cómo moldeó la pandemia sus vidas en high school? ¿Cómo se materializaron sus expectativas para estos cuatro años formativos? Nos pusimos al día con estos miembros de la clase del 2024 para averiguarlo.

Una multitud de estudiantes de último curso de Bronx se amontonaba en el patio del colegio, deleitándose con empanadas, bailando al ritmo de la música y trepando un circuito de obstáculos inflable. Era el día en el cual los estudiantes deciden a qué universidad irán y el asfalto frente a la Urban Assembly School for Applied Math and Science se había transformado en un carnaval.

Aquella tarde sofocante fue uno de los últimos días de Ashanty Peralta en la escuela a la que ha acudido desde sexto grado. La escena fue todo lo contrario a la de su primer año, cuando Ashanty era una de sólo dos estudiantes en su clase el primer día de clases presenciales.

En octubre del 2020, la ciudad de Nueva York se encontraba inmersa en la pandemia, y el Bronx en aquel momento había sufrido las tasas más altas de infecciones, hospitalizaciones y muertes por COVID de cualquier región de la cuidad. Los funcionarios locales se apresuraron a reabrir las aulas, pero la mitad de los estudiantes de la ciudad y la mayoría de los compañeros de Ashanty en AMS optaron por quedarse en casa y aprender virtualmente. Ella estaba entre los millones de estudiantes de high school estadounidenses que vivieron su primer año de high school detrás de una mascarilla y con distanciamiento social.

Cuatro años después, aún hay algunas botellas de alcohol desinfectante en AMS. Un termómetro, ahora en desuso, que antes servía para comprobar si los estudiantes tenían fiebre, sigue atornillado a la pared. Sin embargo, Ashanty no pensaba en aquellos tiempos mientras zigzagueaba por el patio.

Ashanty Peralta posa para una fotografía luego de su primer día de clases presenciales en 2020.

Sus maestros y compañeros tomaron turnos para garabatear notas de despedida en su camiseta roja del “día de la decisión”. “Tienes tanta motivación y eres una gran luchadora”, escribió un maestro.

“Eres la más dulce de todas y te voy a extrañar tanto”, añadió una compañera. Al final de la tarde quedaban muy pocos huecos vacíos.

“Yo era uno de esos chicos con muchas ganas de socializar,” dijo Ashanty. “Puedo ver lo mucho que he crecido”.

Pero el camino de Ashanty hacia su último año de high school estuvo plagado de contratiempos. Aunque esperaba recibir apoyo en persona de sus maestros y empezar a hacer amigos en su primer año, una orden municipal que obligaba a cerrar los edificios escolares en noviembre hizo que pasara casi todo el año detrás de un monitor.

Mientras tanto, su vida familiar se desmoronaba. Ashanty, su madre y sus dos hermanos pequeños se mudaron tres veces en cuatro años, estableciéndose en Manhattan durante su primer y segundo año de high school antes de regresar al Bronx. En lugar de caminar 10 minutos para llegar a la escuela, algunos días tenía que viajar más de una hora en subte, lo que dificultaba su participación en clubes y otras actividades.

Cuando su madre se fracturó un dedo del pie, Ashanty también asumió algunas de las tareas de cocina y del lavado de la ropa.

“Tuve que ponerme las pilas y ser madre de mis hermanos también”, que en aquel momento tenían 12 y 3 años, cuenta Ashanty. La situación la dejó “sin motivación” para las tareas escolares y se preguntaba si pasaría sus clases.

Durante el segundo año, las cosas no mejoraron mucho. A pesar de que todos los estudiantes debían volver a la escuela en persona, Ashanty aún vivía lejos de la institución y le costaba volver a adaptarse.

“El primer año de high school en realidad no tenía muchos amigos,” ella dijo. “Y una vez que empecé décimo grado, pensaba: ‘A estas alturas ni siquiera sé cómo hacer amigos’”.

Fue un momento difícil. Pero ella decidió involucrarse en la comunidad de la escuela en vez de alejarse de ella. “Me empujó mucho a ser más madura”, dijo Ashanty. “Me hizo querer unirme a la mayor cantidad de clubes posible. Quería estar en cualquier sitio menos en casa”.

Confiar en sí misma y elevar a los demás

Los clubes y los deportes se convirtieron en su salvación.

Ashanty es tímida por naturaleza, pero se apuntó a todo tipo de clubes, desde cocina y cerámica hasta softball y voleibol.

“Si estaba en un club tenía compañeros de equipo. Y tus compañeros de equipo no son gente con la que te vayas a pelear,” dijo Ashanty. “Era una de las maneras más fáciles de hacer amigos.”

Ashanty dijo que, aunque le gustaba socializar, no consiguió consolidar un grupo de amistades íntimo. Sin embargo, el atletismo la ayudó a establecer un vínculo mucho más fuerte con su hermano Albert, que ahora cursa el último año en AMS.

Los dos practicaban deportes juntos frecuentemente, como el tenis y el taekwondo. Después de alentar a Albert durante un combate de lucha, Ashanty se atrevió a incorporarse al equipo. A menudo competía contra varones.

“Ese primer año era un tanto tímida,” dijo Chaka Baker, el entrenador de lucha de la escuela.

Esa reticencia no duró mucho. Baker recuerda cuando Ashanty perdió por muy poco contra un joven de Queens.

“Le agarró bien, lo tumbó y aterrizó de espaldas — todo el gimnasio estalló entre aplausos y ovaciones,” dijo Baker. “Incluso después de una derrota tan difícil como ésa, ella mantuvo su frente en alto.” Con el paso del tiempo, Ashanty llegó a ser capitana del equipo durante dos temporadas, logró el reconocimiento como una de las luchadoras más destacadas de toda la ciudad y tuvo la oportunidad de viajar para competir en otras ciudades, como Filadelfia y Chicago.

Ashanty Peralta con su entrenedor de lucha Chaka Baker.

A medida que Ashanty tenía más confianza en sí misma, ella también iba profundizando los vínculos con sus maestros. Al principio no le gustaba historia, pero su actitud cambió el segundo año en la clase de historia del mundo de Travis Taylor. Le cautivaban los temas que invitaban al debate, como la crisis de los misiles cubanos y el conflicto Palestino-Israelí.

“Cambió toda mi perspectiva sobre la escuela y la educación,” dijo Ashanty. “Con su clase siempre tenía ganas de estar aquí”.

Esta experiencia la llevó a proponerle a su director una petición poco habitual: ¿Podría ayudar a dar la clase durante su undécimo año?

Con la bendición del director, Ashanty pasó sus períodos de asesoramiento en el aula de Taylor, frecuentemente repasando el material uno a uno con los estudiantes que estaban atrasados, y enseñando de forma conjunta algunas lecciones. En una ocasión, Ashanty trabajó con un joven que tenía dificultades para asistir a las clases.

“Él era dominicano y me senté con él y le di esa charla propia de una madre dominicana,” explicó Ashanty, que se mudó a Nueva York desde la República Dominicana hace casi una década. Repasó el contenido con él, pero también le dio una charla para animarlo a que aprobara la asignatura. “Tienes que ponerte las pilas”, le dijo al joven. “¿Qué tú estás haciendo?”

Travis Taylor, uno de los maestros de historia de Ashanty, la invitó a ayudar en su aula. Ella formó conexiones con los estudiantes desmotivados.

Según Taylor, la presencia habitual de Ashanty ayudaba a que los estudiantes desmotivados, incluido el que tenía dificultades con la asistencia, retomaran sus tareas escolares.

“Si Ashanty se sentaba y hablaba con él, a lo mejor ella le hablaba en español... él se acercaba un poco y hacía un poco de trabajo,” dijo Taylor. “A algunos de los niños yo no podía llegar. Ella podía porque tenía su edad”.

El dilema de la universidad: quedarse o irse

Ashanty disfrutó tanto poder enseñarle a otros estudiantes que sueña con ser docente. Se imagina volver a su alma mater algún día, siguiendo los pasos de Nairée Taveras, una antigua alumna de AMS que volvió para enseñar historia.

“Es simplemente una líder natural,” dijo Taveras, una de las mentoras de Ashanty. “No tiene miedo de ser ella misma.”

Ashanty Peralta con su maestra Nairée Taveras.

Pero a pocos días de su graduación, Ashanty aún no ha decidido cuáles serán sus próximos pasos. Ha sido aceptada en varias universidades que ofrecen una gran variedad de oportunidades, pero que también ofrecen experiencias muy diferentes. Consideró una universidad privada a más de 350 millas de Bronx, así como varias universidades públicas más cerca de su hogar.

Debido a fallos en el proceso de ayuda federal para estudiantes, todavía estaba esperando los detalles finales sobre los paquetes financieros. Y algunos de sus mentores más cercanos le han dado distintos consejos acerca de a dónde ir.

Un educador le aconsejó a Ashanty que se decidiera por la universidad privada. Mientras tanto, Taveras le advirtió a Ashanty de que la universidad podía resultar demasiado aislante debido a la falta de diversidad estudiantil — una apreciación basada en la propia experiencia de Taveras en la misma universidad.

Pero una de las razones principales que Ashanty tuvo en cuenta fue si podría aguantar estar lejos de su hermano menor. Esa relación ayudó a Ashanty a superar los momentos más difíciles del high school.

“Él es mi sistema de contención,” ella dijo. “En todos los deportes que practico, él es mi compañero de equipo. Siempre está ahí si necesito hablar.”

Cuando Ashanty se acercó al micrófono en la cafetería de la escuela para anunciar su decisión de a cual universidad asistirá, empezó a darse cuenta de que, independientemente de lo que decidiera hacer después de graduarse, probablemente nunca más volvería a ir a la escuela con su hermano.

La idea de dejarlo atrás la hizo llorar. Pero unos minutos más tarde, Albert salió de entre el público de estudiantes y personal que aplaudía.

El la abrazó.

Ashanty se desliza por un circuito de obstáculos inflables para celebrar el día de la decisión universitaria.

Traducido por Flavia Melia Franco

Alex Zimmerman es reportero de Chalkbeat New York y cubre las escuelas públicas de Nueva York. Puede ponerse en contacto con Alex enviándole un correo electrónico al: azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

After home school and online learning, Philly student graduates near the top of his class

2024-06-13T23:16:46+00:00

Four years ago, Yahya Long was preparing to go back to school after a near lifetime of learning at home. He hadn’t been in school since one brief, miserable experience in third grade.

But then the pandemic hit, disrupting his plans. He had to wait even longer to do in-person learning at a school he and his mother felt was a perfect fit for him: Workshop School, a quirky place that started out as the automotive academy of West Philadelphia High.

Ninth grade at Workshop was remote – a disappointing experience not only because it delayed his being with peers, but because Workshop stressed hands-on, project-based learning, which was hard to do on Zoom.

At Workshop, Long looked forward to indulging his love of animation and other self-directed, creative pursuits, as well as catching up on his socialization skills, which he admitted were rusty.

But on Thursday in his speech to his classmates and their families as salutatorian of Workshop’s 36-member Class of 2024, he said graduation was a “momentous occasion” preceded by trials and tribulations.

“Our journey to get to this position in our lives was a rocky road to say the least,” he said. “From practically having our freshman year ripped from us because of COVID, and then being forced to adjust.”

Yahya Long greets family and friends after the graduation ceremony on Thurs., June 13, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Long plans to continue his education at Arcadia University, located just outside the city limits in Elkins Park, and study art and animation.

His speech was witty and self-revelatory. “These four – really three – years of my life have been pretty monumental to my development,” he said. “I remember in the 10th grade being a shy weirdo in the corner who kept to himself and made sure he wasn’t noticed, which I think I failed at miserably.”

Workshop helped him evolve, he said, “to a weirdo who is slightly less shy and willing to speak in front of a crowd of people, pretty crazy if you ask me.”

Now 18, Long has blossomed. At first, he said, going to school in person was just “something to do, a reason to get out of the house.” But attending Workshop in person for three years gave him structure and the chance to interact with peers. Teachers encouraged his creativity and interests.

At first, he said in an earlier interview, he found interaction with other students and teachers to be difficult.

“I wasn’t that outgoing and talkative. I was not antisocial, just shy.”

But he adapted well. Although Workshop started out as an automotive academy, and many in the mostly male student body do prepare for careers as mechanics, Long wasn’t one of them.

“I think I put on a car tire once, that’s the most I did,” he said, laughing.

Instead, he spent his time making art. In 11th grade, he was an intern for a semester at the University City Arts League, where he discovered the Fabric Workshop. “Screen printing, working with textiles, that seemed chill,” he said.

Artwork courtesy of Yahya Long.

As a career, he said, “I want to do art. I want art to give people experiences, to make them feel good, to have a positive experience of the things I make, to say, ‘Whoa, that’s cool.”

Frogs often show up in his artwork – as a child, he learned to read with the book Frog and Toad. In his typically taciturn way, he shrugged when asked to elaborate on this attachment beyond his first exposure through that book.

“I don’t have a deep answer, I just like frogs,” he said. “I just like how they look.”

To hear him tell it, his artwork reflects whatever is preoccupying him at the moment, from “circles to robots to ordinary people.” One storyline that he has explored is “a big robot that goes to different planets across the galaxy.”

He also has done animation of a Spider-Man-like character flying and tumbling through the air.

As an animator, he would like to have his own company. “If the opportunity arose to work for Disney or Pixar or game companies, that would be cool. But I really want my own control over things I want to make.”

He is not, by his own admission, “a person who wants to change the world or be president. I want to make it, while you’re here, that you have a good time.”

Initially, Principal Ayanna Walker told Long that he would be the school’s valedictorian, and his reaction was matter-of-fact, she said. “It was not that he was almost mad, but more like, ‘Oh, now, I have to give a speech.’”

But just the day before graduation, when final grades were calculated, it turned out that he was salutatorian. With a 3.8 grade point average, he fell a tiny fraction behind Johari Williams.

He also took this news in stride. “He’s comfortable with who he is,” Walker said, “and he doesn’t need the validation. It’s not too often that you know who a child is at an early age. He’s one of those people true to their identity … his own person … you never see him with a crowd … he’s talented, artistic and smart.”

A school with a special mission

The initiative that became Workshop started in 1999 at West Philadelphia High School as an after-school program to build electric cars, founded by teacher Simon Hauger and several other educators. By 2012, it had evolved into its own separate school with a focus that moved beyond its automotive roots to focus on hands-on projects of all kinds.

“Our school is not for kids who want to be a doctor or lawyer and go to Harvard,” Walker said. Many of its students “don’t fit in at a typical school. This school is not cookie cutter.”

Since it had such a specialized mission, it benefited from the district’s longtime high school admissions process – it has tiers of selective and citywide schools, all with criteria for entry – that gave principals a say in choosing the student body.

But in an effort to combat any bias and to open opportunities for more students to attend the city’s most selective magnets, especially Masterman and Central, district leaders inaugurated a lottery three years ago that gave preference to qualified students from five underrepresented ZIP codes. This system took away any principal discretion in selecting the incoming class.

The new process has proven to be problematic for schools like Workshop that cater to a particular type of student.

“It’s had huge implications,” said Hauger, who left as principal several years ago. “We serve some of the most marginalized students in the city.”

Workshop leaders had worked hard to give more balance to the student body and to make sure those admitted understood what the school would demand of them before deciding to attend. The lottery upended those efforts and has resulted in many students going there who are not a good fit for the school, Hauger said. There also has been a surge in students with special needs. Its enrollment is now below 200.

For Long, however, who entered just before the lottery took effect, Workshop has served him well. For his final projects at Workshop, he made a website and put together an art portfolio.

Artwork courtesy of Yahya Long.

“I just want to say I have the utmost faith in all of you to be successful people in your lives, even if you yourself don’t believe so,” he told his classmates, citing how the projects they did and the people they met taught them about networking, about finance, and about their field of interest.

“Everything will go according to plan, all you have to do is just work for it,” he said. “And finally, let us all raise our heads up high and march across the line into the unknown and embrace the trials and tribulations that await us.”

Grinning broadly, he ended with a joke that hinted at how nervous he was. Now, he said, “I am going to take a nap or something.”

Dale Mezzacappa is a senior writer for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, where she covers K-12 schools and early childhood education in Philadelphia. Contact Dale at dmezzacappa@chalkbeat.org.

Aprendiendo a ‘amar más’. Cómo un estudiante de Detroit se gradúa y sigue adelante después de la pandemia

2024-06-13T17:49:23+00:00

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Cuando King Bethel inclinó su cabeza hacia atrás para cantar durante una presentación reciente en la Fellowship Chapel, la música de acompañamiento no se escuchaba por los altavoces. Tuvo que improvisar.

“Me puse a improvisar, a actuar,” dijo Bethel mientras chasqueaba los dedos. Es decir, cantó a capella con su voz suave y melosa y atrajo al público en una sesión improvisada de preguntas y respuestas sobre su trabajo. Cuando por fin sonó la música, se puso en modo artista.

“Sabes, me estaba divirtiendo todo el tiempo,” dijo Bethel. “No estaba ni estresado ni preocupado.”

“Estoy dispuesto a aprender, estoy dispuesto a informarme sobre las injusticias y estoy dispuesto a encontrar una solución”, dijo King Bethel. Sus ojos están abiertos a las disparidades raciales en Detroit, y a la injusticia en general. La pandemia también profundizó su comprensión de estos temas.

Para Bethel, ese momento representó su crecimiento como músico y artista. Lleva actuando, cantando y haciendo espectáculos desde que aprendió a caminar. Su música lo ayudó a atravesar la pandemia, cuando su madre estuvo a punto de fallecer a causa del COVID, cuando practicaba solo en su casa, y cuando cambió de escuela con la esperanza de tener más oportunidades.

Él ha vivido acontecimientos en su vida mucho más estresantes que un percance con el equipo de sonido.

Bethel era uno de los millones de estudiantes de high school estadounidenses que cursaron su primer año en línea. Ahora él es presidente de la clase senior y salutatorian, o sea el segundo más sobresaliente de su clase, ese en la Jalen Rose Leadership Academy. Este próximo otoño, Bethel acudirá al prestigioso Berklee College of Music en Boston.

Para él, la pandemia fue un momento determinante en su vida, un momento que puso a prueba su resiliencia y le enseñó a comprender la fragilidad de la vida.

Madurar durante la pandemia histórica de COVID

Durante la pandemia, la madre de Bethel, Netha Johnson, contrajo COVID y luchó contra la enfermedad durante semanas. Cuando Bethel se acuerda de aquella época, su comportamiento alegre cambia y su voz se convierte en un tenor grave y profundo: “Entró a mi habitación con el rostro inexpresivo y la piel muy pálida,” él dijo.

El estado de Johnson siguió empeorando y a su hijo le preocupaba la posibilidad de quedarse sin madre. Ella lo ha ayudado siempre a cultivar su pasión por la música y el espectáculo, desde comprarle un teclado de juguete Fisher-Price cuando tenía 2 años hasta inscribirlo en competiciones locales de canto y llevarlo a presentaciones por toda la ciudad.

Su madre se recuperó eventualmente. Mientras estaba enferma y la pandemia causaba estragos, Bethel se distraía con sus clases virtuales en el Detroit School of Arts, donde cursó su primer año de high school virtualmente y el segundo año en formato híbrido. Entre las clases y sus actividades extraescolares, a menudo tenía tres dispositivos conectados a diferentes reuniones de Zoom.

King Bethel y su madre Netha Johnson posan para un retrato a lo largo del Detroit Riverwalk el 15 de julio del 2021. Johnson ha sido el sistema de apoyo de Bethel mientras desarrolla su carrera musical y actoral. Cuando ella contrajo COVID durante la pandemia, a Bethel le preocupaba perderla. Ahora él abraza a su madre “cada día más fuerte.”

Pero él mantuvo todas las reuniones, todas las pantallas en orden. Según él, la pandemia lo impulsó a redoblar sus esfuerzos y a mantener su calificación promedio de 4.0. Pasaba horas haciendo los deberes para poder dedicar el resto de su tiempo a hacer música, cantar y ponerse en forma. Durante ese tiempo, bajó 60 libras de las 200 que llegó a pesar.

Parte del impulso y la ambición que ayudaron a Bethel a distinguirse en las clases virtuales y a alcanzar metas personales surgieron de la necesidad de evitar el estrés y la incertidumbre provocados por la pandemia. “Era demasiado triste, era demasiado,” él dijo.

Para su año junior, Bethel se trasladó a la Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, dejando atrás el enfoque artístico de su primera escuela, porque dijo que la escuela chárter lo conectaría con más oportunidades de becas universitarias. Era la primera vez en sus años de high school que tomaba todas sus clases de forma presencial y se sentía incómodo al respecto. ¿Era realmente seguro estar tan cerca de sus compañeros de clase?

Darse cuenta de que Bethel estaba navegando una nueva normalidad fue sólo un momento de descubrimiento para el artista creciente de Detroit. La pandemia también marcó un punto en el que empezó a estar más consciente de la injusticia.

“Empecé a ver más las noticias, a prestar realmente atención a lo que ocurría,” él dijo. Tras el asesinato de George Floyd, Bethel lideró y habló en una marcha por la justicia racial, redactó un discurso sobre redlining (la negación sistemática de varios servicios por agencias gubernamentales resultando en la creación de racismo estructural) que presentó a un concurso nacional, y se involucró en más organizaciones comunitarias. Ahora él trabaja con su padre, Monty Bethel, para poner en marcha una organización sin fines de lucro que capacitará a las familias negras a mejorar los barrios deteriorados de la ciudad.

Los contrastes que vio entre los suburbios de Detroit y la ciudad en sí le abrieron los ojos al problema: “Ni siquiera tengo que viajar lejos — Dearborn, Ann Arbor — para ver las diferencias sutiles en cómo crecen los árboles y su ubicación, la distribución de cosas al aire libre, cómo funciona la comunidad, qué aspecto tienen las escuelas, qué tan grandes son las escuelas, qué actividades extraescolares tienen las escuelas,” él dijo. “No he visto en mi comunidad una estación de carga eléctrica, pero las veo todo el tiempo en comunidades suburbanas.”

Un artista joven de Detroit que ‘podía hacer de todo’

Este verano, Bethel trabajará en uno de los campamentos musicales que lo ayudaron a mejorar sus aptitudes como músico, el programa Keys 2 Life. Cuando Bethel tenía 11 años, conoció en el campamento al músico, educador y predicador Darrell “Red” Campbell. Campbell estaba dando una clase de composición de ritmos y quedó sorprendido por la cantidad de talentos de Bethel.

King Bethel dice que la música llena sus días y sus noches — se despierta con letras y ritmos resonando en su cabeza y se acuesta con otros nuevos susurrándole a la cama. Durante los fines de semana, canta en el coro de su iglesia.

“Él era un poco camaleónico, como si pudiera encajar en cualquier sitio y podía hacer de todo,” dijo Campbell. El programa incluye clases de composición de canciones, composición de ritmos, baile y actuación. Aunque Bethel era alumno de este último, Campbell dijo que el estudiante quería hacerlo todo.

“Es una locura que yo me convirtiera en su mentor — él ni siquiera estaba en mi clase — pero eso habla de su interés por probar un poco de todo. Y entonces, teniendo uno actor que puede hacer ritmos, y además que puede cantar y todo eso, mi primera impresión fue como, él podía hacer de todo.”

En la actualidad, Campbell trabaja con Bethel a través de los programas Hitsville Next Motown, en donde produce parte de la música del adolescente. Cuando Bethel cruzó las puertas por primera vez, llegó “en plan competición,” dijo Campbell. “Él tenía sus propios ritmos, sus propias canciones y todo lo demás.”

El trabajo que Bethel y Campbell han hecho juntos, y el trabajo que Bethel ha hecho con una extensa lista de miembros de la comunidad a lo largo de los años, culminó este año cuando fue aceptado en Berklee. Él ni siquiera había oído hablar de la institución hasta que uno de sus mentores, Rashard Dobbins, de Class Act Detroit, le habló de Berklee y de una asociación que Dobbins tenía con la institución.

"K" es la inicial de su nombre King y espera que el mundo conozca pronto su nombre.

Por muy prestigiosa que sea Berklee, no era la primera opción de Bethel. Él también había aplicado a Juilliard y Yale pero había sido rechazado. Fue un momento difícil, pero él tiene muy claro que va a entrar en una industria en la que los caminos están llenos de rechazo y la única forma de superarlo es seguir adelante. Si la música no funciona, Bethel estudiará marketing y Derecho.

“Tengo un plan alternativo, pero no voy a dejar que me desvíe de mi plan principal, que es mi carrera musical y lo que amo hacer,” él dijo. Ya sea a través de la música o por otra industria, Bethel dijo que su objetivo primordial es ser un líder comunitario influyente.

Angela Kee percibió la madurez y el liderazgo de Bethel desde el principio. La maestra de coro de la Detroit Academy of Arts & Sciences empezó a trabajar con él cuando era un estudiante de cuarto grado en dicha institución. “Y él se presentó como un hombre de negocios pequeño. Me tendió la mano y me dijo, ‘Hola. Me llamo King. Y me gustaría unirme a su coro.’” Kee se quedó atónita, lo único que pudo atinar a hacer fue “pestañear enérgicamente” ante el estudiante de cuarto grado.

Cuando King formó parte del coro de la DAAS, éste obtuvo numerosos premios, entre ellos dos Detroit Music Awards y un Michigan Emmy.

Kee tiene numerosas anécdotas que ilustran el ímpetu y la resiliencia de Bethel, como la vez que buscó al multimillonario Dan Gilbert durante una excursión y se presentó a sí mismo. “De modo que tienes a los otros chicos correteando, haciendo ruidos de pedos con los brazos con la palma de la mano en la axila y ya sabes, haciendo tonterías. King estaba por ahí…lo vi tendiéndole la mano al Sr. Gilbert y presentándose.

El dijo, ‘Mi nombre es King. Y algún día voy a ser como usted.’”

Ese momento resultó fructífero — en el 2019, Bethel cantó el himno nacional durante un partido de baloncesto en el que jugaban los Cleveland Cavaliers de Gilbert.

En la actualidad, dijo Kee, disfruta de la posibilidad de vivir a través de uno de sus ex alumnos. “Berklee era una institución a la que quería asistir... porque sabía que era el lugar al tiene que ir todo músico serio.”

Bethel está asimilando que haber sido aceptado en Berklee es un gran logro. Y se precipita en reconocer las muchas personas que lo ayudaron a llegar a este punto — su familia, sus mentores, los miembros de su comunidad y una ciudad con un legado musical abundante que dio al mundo algunas de sus fuentes principales de inspiración, artistas como Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder y J Dilla.

Los días extraños de la pandemia también ocupan un lugar importante en su trayectoria.

“Toda esa experiencia, y las repercusiones, la sanación de todo eso, me hizo más fuerte. Y también me hizo amar más,” él dijo.

Traducido por Flavia Melisa Franco

Robyn Vincent es una reportera para Chalkbeat Detroit que cubre las escuelas de Detroit y la política educativa de Michigan. Puede ponerse en contacto con ella: rvincent@chalkbeat.org.

Teacher Prep Academy brings teaching career experience to high schoolers

2024-06-12T20:46:53+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Elley Kropp wasn’t sure at first if her family would approve of her becoming a teacher.

She knew she might make more money as a nurse or a cosmetologist. And she had faced challenges in school; in the eighth grade she was diagnosed with learning disabilities.

But the possibility of helping students like her drew her to the field of education. The final push came when her father, a plumber, gifted her tool caddies to repurpose for her future students’ supplies.

“Knowing I could be a teacher who helps a kid who’s struggling, I want to be that person for someone,” said Kropp, now an elementary education major at the University of Indianapolis School of Education.

Kropp started her teaching training in high school through the university’s Teacher Prep Academy, a free summer program now in its second year that lets high schoolers live on campus for a week and take a transferable dual credit course in education.

The academy seeks to address a core issue of Indiana’s teacher shortage: More teachers are retiring while fewer students are enrolling in teacher prep programs, resulting in a net decline in the number of teachers.

The need for more new educators comes as the state enacts sweeping changes to curriculum that will require more teachers to be trained in dual credit programs and reading science practices.

By connecting students to the profession in high school, the program hopes to put them on track to study teaching and eventually step into those open roles. The academy allows students who are interested in teaching to meet and bond, creating a supportive environment for would-be educators.

Getting young people to consider teaching

While the Indiana Department of Education doesn’t track teacher vacancies and open positions year over year, there were over 2,200 open teaching positions on the state’s teacher job board as of June 11, as well as over 600 open student support roles — numbers comparable to previous years.

Schools anecdotally report ongoing hiring challenges, especially in hard-to-fill subjects like career and technical education, science, and math.

The most recent state data shows that in 2022-23, there were 61,409 teachers teaching in a content area for which they’re licensed, down from 63,232 the year before.

A number of factors have dissuaded students from pursuing a teaching career, including the negative rhetoric directed at education, and concerns about pay, said Kelley Carnagua, coordinator of the Teacher Prep Academy, which is funded through a state grant.

The university is also using a portion of this grant on a marketing effort to change how students and their families view the teaching profession, Carnagua said, including sharing stories of the impact that educators have.

“Whatever path they choose, they have to get an education first,” Carnagua said.

Inside the Teacher Prep Academy

Some students are there to follow in the footsteps of a teacher who made a positive impact on their lives. MacKenzie McKinney, a rising junior in Clark-Pleasant schools, named her middle school choir director and her chemistry teacher as two of her inspirations.

Others want to change the educational experience for students who come after them, Kropp said. Kropp this year serves as a mentor to the high school students in the Teacher Prep Academy.

This year, the academy has enrolled 24 students from 11 school districts in central Indiana, who spent a week on campus in June.

They took field trips to an elementary school to help with summer school, as well as the Indianapolis Children’s Museum to talk about learning experiences outside the classroom.

Of all the experiences, students are usually most excited about classroom visits, where they can work with students on experiential lessons in science- and technology-related activities and garden clubs.

“That’s what lights their fire,” Carnagua said.

On a recent Thursday on campus, students were split into two classrooms — one discussing the external factors that affect schools, like communities and funding, and the other learning about what goes on inside the classroom.

In the latter, John Somers, director of graduate studies at the School of Education, walked students through the ABCs of behavior — antecedent, behavior, and consequence. One wanted to know: Do real teachers know about this?

“They do if they went through our program,” Somers said.

Students had designed posters about other topics they had covered that week, like multi-tiered systems of support, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and incorporating elements of hip-hop into pedagogy.

Anye’ Watson, a rising senior in Wayne Township schools, said she had seen those concepts put in practice in her own education, even if she didn’t yet know what they were called. What resonated with her was that good classroom relationships were at the heart of each lesson.

“It’s about building bonds,” Watson said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Learning to ‘love more.’ How a graduating Detroit student is moving ahead after the pandemic

2024-06-07T19:00:05+00:00

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When King Bethel tilted his head back to sing during a recent performance at the Fellowship Chapel, the accompanying music didn’t play from the speakers. He had to think fast.

“I threw on my improv hat, my acting hat,” Bethel said as he snapped his fingers. That meant singing his smooth, honey-coated voice a cappella and drawing the crowd into an impromptu Q&A session about his work. When the music finally came on, he slipped into full performance mode.

“You know, I was having fun the whole time,” Bethel said. “I wasn’t stressed, I wasn’t concerned.”

"I'm willing to learn, I'm willing to educate myself of injustices, and I'm willing to find a solution," King Bethel said. His eyes are open to inequities in Detroit, and injustice more broadly, he said. The pandemic deepened his understanding of these issues.

For Bethel, that moment represented his growth as a musician and a performer. He has been acting, singing, and performing since he could walk. His music helped carry him through the pandemic, when COVID nearly took his mother’s life, when he practiced alone at home, and when he changed schools in hopes of more opportunity.

He has experienced far more stressful life events than a sound system mishap.

Bethel was among the millions of American high school students who spent their freshman year online. Now he is the senior class president and salutatorian at Jalen Rose Leadership Academy. In the fall, Bethel is heading to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston.

He sees the pandemic as a defining moment in his life, one that challenged his strength and sharpened his understanding of the fragility of life.

Coming of age during the historic COVID pandemic

During the pandemic, Bethel’s mother, Netha Johnson, contracted COVID and battled the illness for weeks. As Bethel thinks back to that time, his playful demeanor shifts and his voice drops into a low, deep tenor: “She came in my room with this very blank face and her skin was extremely pale,” he said.

Johnson’s condition continued to worsen and her son was worried he might lose his mother. She has helped him at every turn to cultivate his passion for music and performing, from buying him a Fisher-Price toy keyboard when he was 2 years old to entering him in local singing competitions and chauffeuring him to performances all over the city.

His mom eventually recovered. While she was sick and as the pandemic raged on, Bethel distracted himself with his virtual classes at Detroit School of Arts, where he attended his first year of high school virtually and his second year in a hybrid format. Between classes and his after-school activities, he often had three devices connected to different Zoom meetings.

King Bethel and his mother Netha Johnson pose for a portrait along the Detroit Riverwalk on July 15, 2021. Johnson has been Bethel's support system as he cultivates his music and acting career. When she contracted COVID during the pandemic, Bethel worried he would lose her. Now he hugs his mom "tighter every day." (Nic Antaya for Chalkbeat)

But he kept all the meetings, all the screens in order. He said the pandemic drove him to double down on his work and maintain his 4.0 grade average. He would spend hours plowing through his homework so he could devote the rest of his time to making music, singing, and getting in shape. During that time, he lost 60 pounds from his once 200-pound frame.

Some of the drive and ambition that helped Bethel excel in virtual classes and achieve personal goals stemmed from a need to escape the stress and uncertainty wrought by the pandemic. “It was too sad, it was too much,” he said.

For his junior year, Bethel transferred to Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, leaving behind the arts focus of his first school, because he said the charter school would connect him to more college scholarship opportunities. It was the first time in his high school career that he was taking all his classes in-person and he felt uneasy about it. Was it really safe to be in close proximity to his classmates?

The realization that Bethel was navigating a new normal was just one moment of discovery for the burgeoning Detroit performer. The pandemic also marked the point when he became more acutely aware of injustice.

King Bethel poses on July 15, 2021, a few months before he entered his sophomore year at the Detroit School of Arts. He took classes in a hybrid format that school year due to ongoing health concerns over the COVID pandemic. (Nic Antaya for Chalkbeat)

“I started watching the news more, really paying attention to what was going on,” he said. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Bethel led and spoke at a racial justice march, wrote a speech about redlining that he submitted to a national competition, and became involved in more community organizations. Now he is working with his father, Monty Bethel, to launch a nonprofit that will empower Black families to improve blighted neighborhoods in the city.

The contrasts he saw between Detroit’s suburbs and the city itself opened his eyes to the problem: “I don’t even have to travel far — Dearborn, Ann Arbor — to see the subtle differences in how the trees are grown and where they are, the outdoor placement of things, how the community works, how the schools look, how big the schools are, what extracurricular activities the schools have,” he said. “I haven’t seen an electric charging station yet in my community, but I see them all the time in suburban communities.”

A young Detroit performer who ‘could do anything’

This summer, Bethel will work at one of the music camps that helped him further his skills as a musician, the Keys 2 Life program. When Bethel was 11 years old, he met musician, educator, and preacher Darrell “Red” Campbell at the camp. Campbell was teaching a beat-making class and was struck by Bethel’s multitude of talents.

King Bethel says music fills his days and nights — he wakes up with lyrics and beats swirling in his mind and rests his head with new ones whispering him to bed. Then on the weekends, he sings in his church's choir.

“He was a bit of a chameleon, like he could fit in anywhere,” Campbell said. The program includes classes in songwriting, beatmaking, dancing, and acting. Bethel was attending classes in the latter but Campbell said the student wanted to do it all.

“It’s wild that I even became his mentor — he wasn’t even in my class — but that speaks to him dabbling in a little bit of everything. And so, having one of the actors who can make beats, and then who can sing and all that, my first impression was like, he could do anything.”

Today, Campbell works with Bethel through the Hitsville Next Motown programs, where he produces some of the teen’s music. When Bethel first walked through the doors, he arrived “in competition fashion,” Campbell said. “He had his own beats, his own songs, and everything like that.”

"K" is for King and he hopes the world will soon know his name.

The work that Bethel and Campbell have done together, and the work Bethel has done with a long list of community members over the years, culminated this year when he was accepted to Berklee. He had not even heard of the school until one of his mentors, Rashard Dobbins, of Class Act Detroit, told him about Berklee and a partnership Dobbins had with the school.

As prestigious as Berklee is, it was not Bethel’s first choice. He also applied to Juilliard and Yale but was rejected. It was a tough moment, but he is clear-eyed about stepping into an industry where the pathways are paved with rejection and the only way through is to keep moving. If music doesn’t work out, Bethel will study marketing and law.

“I have a backup plan but I’m not letting it take me away from Plan A, which is my music career and what I love to do,” he said. Whether through music or another industry, Bethel said his ultimate goal is to be an influential community leader.

Angela Kee recognized Bethel’s maturity and leadership early on. The choir teacher at Detroit Academy of Arts & Sciences began working with him when he was a fourth grade student there. “And he introduced himself like a little businessman. He extended his hand and said, ‘Hello. My name is King. And I would like to join your choir.’” Kee was stunned, all she could do was “a hard blink” at the fourth grader.

While King was a member of DAAS’ choir, it garnered multiple awards, including two Detroit Music Awards and a Michigan Emmy.

Kee has no shortage of stories that illustrate Bethel’s drive and resilience, like the time he tracked down billionaire Dan Gilbert during a field trip and introduced himself. “So you got the other boys running around, doing the arm farts where you put your palm into your armpit and you know, just doing goofy stuff. King’s over there … I saw him extend his hand to Mr. Gilbert and introduce himself. He said, ‘My name is King. And someday I’m going to be just like you.’”

That encounter was fruitful — in 2019, Bethel sang the national anthem during a basketball game when Gilbert’s Cleveland Cavaliers were playing.

Now, Kee said, she is enjoying a moment living vicariously through one of her former students. “Berklee was a school that I wanted to attend … because I knew that was the place to go for serious musicians.”

King Bethel will attend Berklee College of Music in the fall but he says no matter what happens with his budding music and acting career, his number one goal is to be a community leader.

For Bethel, it’s sinking in that his acceptance to Berklee is a major feat. And he is quick to acknowledge the many people who helped him get to this point — family, mentors, community members, and a city with a rich musical legacy that gave the world some of his key sources of inspiration, artists like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and J Dilla.

The strange days of the pandemic figure prominently in his trajectory, too.

“That whole experience, and the aftermath, the healing from it, made me stronger. And it also made me love more,” he said.

Robyn Vincent is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit, covering Detroit schools and Michigan education policy. You can reach her at rvincent@chalkbeat.org

‘Apreciar el tiempo que se me concede:’ una estudiante de Denver lleva a la universidad las lecciones de la pandemia

2024-05-29T22:22:58+00:00

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Acerca de esta serie: Hace cuatro años, los reporteros de Chalkbeat documentaron las historias de estudiantes de primer año de high school que vivían un año crucial a través de llamadas de Zoom y detrás de mascarillas. Estos estudiantes, que vivieron el primer año a distancia, ahora son estudiantes seniors que están por graduarse. ¿Cómo influyó la pandemia en sus vidas en high school? ¿Cómo se desarrollaron sus expectativas durante estos cuatro años formativos? Nos pusimos al día con estos miembros de la clase del 2024 para averiguarlo.

Casandra Sotelo-Rivera estaba haciendo todo lo posible por disfrutar de sus últimas semanas de high school en Denver. Es una lección que dijo haber aprendido durante los días largos de aprendizaje en línea.

“Para mí, una cosa buena que salió de esto fue apreciar el tiempo que se me concede”, dijo Sotelo-Rivera durante un periodo de almuerzo reciente en el Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College.

“Cuando sucedió lo de COVID, nadie esperaba que se alargara durante tanto tiempo. Entonces, cuando ocurrió, toda la vida se puso en pausa”.

Sotelo-Rivera era una alumna tímida de noveno grado en el año escolar 2020-21, parte de una generación de millones de estudiantes estadounidenses que pasaron un año crucial de sus vidas en aprendizaje a distancia.

Se ha convertido en una integrante comprometida de su comunidad escolar. Tras su graduación, irá a la Universidad Estatal de Colorado(CSU por sus siglas en inglés) en Fort Collins, siendo la primera persona de su familia en irse de casa para ir a la universidad. Mientras se prepara para cruzar el escenario de la graduación, dijo que lleva consigo una serie de lecciones sobre la pandemia que la han formado como estudiante y como persona.

Casandra Sotelo-Rivera en su foto profesional para graduación.

En algunos aspectos, Sotelo-Rivera prosperó en el aprendizaje a distancia. Era más fácil participar en las discusiones de clase como un avatar en una videollamada o un nombre en el chat que como una estudiante presencial, cuyos compañeros giraban sus cabezas hacia ella cuando hablaba. El anonimato tecnológico le permitió asumir riesgos académicos y creativos.

También le ha enseñado la importancia de luchar por sí misma.

“En la formación en línea, era la primera vez que no tenía a alguien que estuviese a mi lado y me guiase a través de todo,” dijo la joven de 18 años. “Me enseñó a aprender por mí misma. Además, como no estábamos en persona, me enseñó sobre la importancia de comunicarse y contactar a mis maestros si necesitaba algo. Y eso es algo que antes no hacía bien”.

Pero también hubo inconvenientes. Cuando cerraron las escuelas en modo presencial en la primavera de su octavo grado, Sotelo-Rivera dijo que dejó de hablar con muchos de sus amigos.

“Me decían, ‘Creía que estabas enojada con nosotros,’” recuerda. “Pasaba horas o días sin hablarles. Estaba tan metida en mi propio mundo.”

Un autoretrato hecho por Casandra Sotelo-Rivera durante su primer año de high school.

Aunque el colegio reabrió sus puertas de modo presencial en el segundo semestre de su noveno grado, Sotelo-Rivera optó por permanecer en línea. No volvió a poner un pie dentro de un aula hasta el décimo curso — e incluso entonces, los estudiantes debían llevar mascarillas y mantener el distanciamiento social. A medida que avanzaba el año escolar y se reducían las restricciones del COVID, Sotelo-Rivera dijo que “era la primera vez que veía las caras de algunos de estos chicos, y fue raro tratar de acostumbrarse.”

“Sinceramente, lo único que me costaba equilibrar era tratar de hacer todas mis actividades extracurriculares y ocuparme de mis amistades a la vez que mantenía buenas notas,” dijo. “Tuve que acostumbrarme a ver a mis amigos todos los días. … Es algo que no sabes que extrañas hasta que vuelves a tenerlo.”

Sotelo-Rivera es una embajadora estudiantil en el consejo de administración del personal de su escuela, en el que discute temas que van desde las renovaciones recientes del edificio hasta cómo aumentar la asistencia de los estudiantes. También forma parte del comité de planificación del último año, que ayudó a planificar el baile de graduación de su escuela en el Acuario de Denver y una barbacoa de fin de curso.

Como es una líder estudiantil, Sotelo-Rivera dijo que un consejero escolar le propuso crear un banco de alimentos y ropa. Su escuela, como muchas otras de Denver, ha recibido este año a un gran número de nuevos estudiantes procedentes de Sudamérica. Ahora, los martes y miércoles, los estudiantes y las familias necesitadas pueden llevarse a casa ropa y alimentos donados, explicó.

Sotelo-Rivera también ayuda a dirigir el club de actividades al aire libre, que trabaja con una organización sin fines de lucro de Denver para llevar a los estudiantes a excursiones como senderismo y escalada en roca. Su excursión favorita fue al Repositorio Nacional de Águilas, en Commerce City, que distribuye plumas de águila a las tribus nativas americanas para que las utilicen con fines religiosos y culturales.

El año que viene quiere especializarse en biología de pesca, fauna silvestre y conservación en la Universidad Estatal de Colorado(CSU por sus siglas en inglés). Un TikTok que vio de un biólogo de la fauna silvestre que realizaba un proyecto de investigación sobre gorilas la inspiró, dijo. Su hermana mayor cursó dos años de universidad, pero Sotelo-Rivera será la primera de su familia en asistir a una universidad de cuatro años y vivir en el campus de la universidad a más de una hora de distancia.

Para hacer más sencilla la transición, Sotelo-Rivera participará en un programa de verano para estudiantes de primera generación. Vivirá en una residencia, asistirá a clases y a sesiones de estudio obligatorias. Se mudará el 9 de junio, sólo 10 días después de graduarse del high school.

“Sinceramente, aunque estoy asustada, sé que es lo correcto”, dijo.

Aunque Sotelo-Rivera dice que todavía se describiría a sí misma como un poco tímida, su autoestima ha crecido en los cuatro años transcurridos desde que era una estudiante de primer año que siempre mantenía la cámara apagada durante las clases.

“Veo una diferencia en mi mentalidad: Si nadie más va a hacerlo, seré yo quien lo haga”.

Traducido por Flavia Melisa Franco.

Melanie Asmar es la corresponsal jefa de Chalkbeat Colorado. Comunícate con Melanie por correo electrónico a masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Her freshman year was spent online. Now she’s graduating, with plans for the great outdoors.

2024-05-29T22:20:41+00:00

Leer en español

About this series: Four years ago, Chalkbeat reporters documented the stories of high-school freshmen experiencing a critical year through Zoom calls and from behind masks. These students, who experienced freshman year at a distance, are now graduating seniors. How did the pandemic shape their high school lives? How did their expectations for these formative four years play out? We caught up with these members of the Class of 2024 to find out.

Casandra Sotelo-Rivera was trying her best to savor her last few weeks of high school in Denver. It’s a lesson she said she learned during the long days of online learning.

“For me, a good thing that came from it was to appreciate the time that I’m given,” Sotelo-Rivera said during a recent lunch period at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College.

“When COVID happened, no one was expecting it to drag out for as long as it did. So when it did, your whole life was put on pause.”

Casandra Sotelo-Rivera poses for her senior portrait.

Sotelo-Rivera was a shy ninth grader in the 2020-21 school year, part of a cohort of millions of American students who spent a critical year of their lives in remote learning. She’s grown into an engaged member of her school community.

After graduation, she’s headed to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, the first person in her family to leave home for college. As she prepares to walk across the graduation stage, she said she carries with her a number of pandemic lessons that shaped her as a student and a person.

Sotelo-Rivera thrived in remote learning in some ways. Participating in class discussions was easier as an avatar on a video call or a name in the chat box than it had been as an in-person student whose classmates’ heads would swivel toward her when she spoke. The technological anonymity allowed her to take academic and creative risks.

It also taught her the importance of advocating for herself.

“In online learning, it was the first time I didn’t have someone sitting there and walking me through everything,” the 18-year-old said. “It taught me how to teach myself. Also because we weren’t in person, it taught me the importance of communicating and reaching out to my teachers if I needed something. And that’s something I was not good at before.”

But there were downsides, too. When school buildings shut down in the spring of her 8th grade year, Sotelo-Rivera said she stopped talking to many of her friends.

“They said, ‘I thought you were mad at us,’” she recalled. “I would go hours or days without talking to them. I was so caught up in my own world.”

A self-portrait Casandra Sotelo-Rivera made in an online photography class her freshman year.

Although her school building reopened in the second semester of her ninth grade year, Sotelo-Rivera chose to stay online. She didn’t step foot inside a classroom until 10th grade — and even then, students were required to wear masks and social distance. As the school year progressed and the COVID restrictions eased, Sotelo-Rivera said “it was the first time seeing some of these kids’ faces, and it was weird trying to get used to it.”

“Honestly the one thing I struggled with balancing was trying to do all my extracurriculars and manage my friendships while maintaining good grades,” she said. “I had to get used to seeing my friends every day. … It’s something you didn’t know you missed until you had it again.”

Sotelo-Rivera is a student ambassador on her school’s staff governing board, which she said discusses issues ranging from recent building renovations to how to increase student attendance. She’s also on the senior planning committee, which helped plan her school’s prom at the Denver Aquarium and an end-of-year senior BBQ.

Because she’s a student leader, Sotelo-Rivera said a school counselor approached her about starting a food and clothing bank. Her school, like many in Denver, has enrolled an influx of new students from South America this year. Now, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, students and families in need can take home donated food and clothing, she said.

Sotelo-Rivera also helps lead the outdoor club, which works with a Denver-based nonprofit to take students on excursions such as hiking and rock climbing. Her favorite trip was to the National Eagle Repository in Commerce City, which distributes eagle feathers to Native American tribes to use for religious and cultural purposes.

She plans to major in fish, wildlife, and conservation biology at Colorado State University next year. A TikTok she saw of a wildlife biologist conducting a research project on gorillas helped inspire her, she said. Her older sister did two years of college, but Sotelo-Rivera will be the first in her family to attend a four-year university and live on a campus more than an hour away.

To help ease the transition, Sotelo-Rivera is set to participate in a summer program for first-generation students. She’ll live in a dorm, take classes, and attend mandatory study halls. Her move-in date is June 9, just 10 days after her high school graduation.

“Honestly, as much as I’m scared, I know it’s the right thing to do,” she said.

Although Sotelo-Rivera said she’d still describe herself as a bit shy, her confidence has grown in the four years since she was a freshman who always kept her camera off during class.

“I see a difference in my mentality: If no one else is going to do it, you’ll be the one to do it.”

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Plans to put libraries in most Michigan schools get support from educators and parents

2024-04-17T16:17:11+00:00

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Six years after they were first introduced, a package of bills that would put a library in almost every Michigan public school got a hearing for the first time in the Senate on Tuesday.

The three bills would make school libraries as well as certified librarians accessible to all students. The bills are finally getting consideration at a time when the number of school librarians in the state is dwindling and gaps in student literacy achievement are widening. Supporters say the legislation would help tackle the state’s literacy crisis.

Michigan is ranked 47th in the nation for its ratio of students per certified librarian, according to the most recent analysis by the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, with 2,988 students for every librarian.

Kathy Lester, former president of the American Association of School Librarians, told lawmakers the ratio “correlates very closely” with the state’s low literacy achievement scores. “This is a matter of equal access for our students in Michigan,” she said.

Making the legislation a reality would be costly. Local districts could have to pay as much as $403.7 million a year collectively to fulfill the bills’ mandates, in addition to initial costs to meet the new requirements, according to a fiscal analysis of the three bills.

But if they pass the bills, Michigan lawmakers would be giving school libraries a big vote of confidence. Many libraries across the nation are facing backlash from conservative community members and lawmakers who don’t want children to have access to books that cover topics such as racism, sexuality, gender, and in general topics deemed harmful or obscene.

Sen. Darrin Camilleri, a Democrat from Trenton who has introduced legislation to bolster school libraries for years, said he first saw the need for the legislation when he worked as a teacher at a charter high school in southwest Detroit and was shocked to find that it had no library.

School libraries are “increasingly being seen as an afterthought,” Camilleri said, even though they are crucial to improving literacy skills.

“We need to help all students have the resources they need to succeed, including grade-level aligned texts and knowledgeable, accessible school librarians no matter which school you go to or where you live,” he said.

The three bills, introduced in March, must pass a Senate Education Committee vote before they are considered by the rest of the Senate. The House has not yet considered the bills.

School library supporters say they play many roles

It’s not clear how many school libraries the state has. But state data shows less than 10% of schools that have libraries actually staff them with full-time certified librarians. That worries observers as well.

School librarians are essential, Lester said, because they lead the schoolwide culture of reading, connect students with the resources they need to learn, and provide crucial instruction they may otherwise miss out on.

She cited studies in Michigan and nationwide showing that schools with certified librarians produce better student outcomes on a range of measures, from higher graduation rates to higher scores on college entry exams.

Volunteers can fill the gap to a certain extent. Amy O’Brien, a parent who substituted as a librarian in Van Buren Public Schools for two days a week to keep the library open, said during Tuesday’s hearing that while she helped students check out books and supervised them, she wasn’t able to do everything a certified librarian is trained to do.

“What I couldn’t do was give them expertise in selection resources, teach lessons on information literacy, or teach lessons on information technology,” she said during the hearing.

O’Brien said she believes that to give students a “complete and equitable academic base for their studies” that all parents want, every school should have a fully staffed library with a fully certified librarian.

“The teaching and support that certified librarians provide should not be abandoned,” she said.

The lack of librarians and libraries can also increase burdens on other school staff, especially during staffing shortages.

Joy Lyman, a teacher and lead instructional coach at Flextech High school in Brighton, said none of the schools she’s taught in throughout her career had fully staffed school libraries.

When an alternative school she worked at got hundreds of books through a grant, they had to be stored in a closet since there was no library, and she had to track and organize them “on top of our normal teaching duties,” Lyman told lawmakers.

The bill would have different requirements for small rural schoolsSchools with fewer than 51 students would automatically get waivers from the Michigan Department of Education, although larger schools could also apply for waivers. Small schools would still be able to open school libraries or higher librarians if they chose to.

What would Michigan’s library bills do?

Here are some more details about the three bills discussed by senators on Tuesday.

One bill introduced by Camilleri would require every public school to have a library by the 2025-26 school year.
Under this bill, the libraries would have to be housed in a central location outside of classrooms and serve as hubs for community resources.
Every library would have collections that support students in reading independently as well as enriching their classroom curriculum.
The other bill from Camilleri would require every district to have certified school librarians in every school library it currently operates by the 2024-25 school year.
The librarians would work with other educators to provide literacy instruction and to ensure every student could read at grade level. They would also teach information, technology, and research skills.
Requirements for staffing librarians would be based on the size of districts. For example, schools with fewer than 300 students that don’t receive a waiver would have to employ at least one part-time certified school librarian. Schools with 300 to 1,499 students would need at least one full time librarian, and schools with 1,500 or more students would have to have at least two full-time librarians.
A third bill introduced by Sen. Rosemary Bayer, a Democrat from West Bloomfield, would require schools to designate staff to supervise students in school libraries when a certified librarian is not present.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Ante los problemas del formulario FAFSA, los consejeros quieren que los estudiantes sigan enfocados en sus sueños universitarios

2024-04-16T23:13:31+00:00

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Christian Rojas Linares no puede terminar de rellenar sus formularios de ayuda financiera porque está recibiendo un sinfín de mensajes de error. El estudiante de último curso de secundaria de Nueva York ha recibido incluso correos electrónicos incorrectos que le decían que su solicitud había sido cancelada.

En Filadelfia, Yasmeen Mutan tuvo más suerte: sólo tardó una hora en rellenar el formulario. Pero el gobierno federal ha sido tan lento a la hora de procesar y comunicar sus datos que, cuatro meses después, aún no sabe cuánto recibirá en ayuda financiera. Sin eso, no puede decidir a qué universidad ir. Y eso significa que tampoco puede solicitar ayuda financiera del estado.

“Me conecto cada un par de días, sólo para asegurarme de que no me he perdido nada”, dijo Mutan. “Es que no sé qué hacer”.

Ante la inminente finalización de los plazos para tomar una decisión universitaria, miles de estudiantes de último curso de secundaria se han quedado en un limbo debido al fallido lanzamiento de la nueva Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes (FAFSA, por sus siglas en inglés).

Se suponía que la denominada FAFSA Mejorada (Better FAFSA) simplificaría la gestión de la ayuda financiera para los estudiantes. Sin embargo, los errores han sido tantos y tan graves que los consejeros de secundaria y los defensores del acceso a la universidad temen ahora que estudiantes con mucho futuro de la promoción de 2024 acaben por no ir a la universidad.

Desde finales de marzo, un poco más de un tercio de los estudiantes de último curso de secundaria han completado con éxito el formulario FAFSA, según los datos de la Red Nacional de Acceso a la Universidad. En años previos, a esta altura casi la mitad de los estudiantes de último curso ya lo habrían hecho. Los estudiantes que completan el formulario FAFSA tienen muchas más probabilidades de ir a la universidad, por ende los bajos índices de estudiantes que han completado el formulario FAFSA es preocupante por su impacto a largo plazo en la clase que se gradúa este año.

Y la disminución documentada por la red es notablemente mayor en las escuelas que tienen muchos alumnos con familias de bajos ingresos y estudiantes de color.

Restringir las oportunidades de ayuda financiera crea “enormes problemas”, afirmó CJ Powell, director de incidencia política de la Asociación Nacional de Orientación para la Admisión a la Universidad, especialmente para los estudiantes cuyas familias tienen menos recursos. Estos estudiantes, que suelen ser estudiantes de color e hijos de inmigrantes, dependen especialmente de las becas Pell y otras modalidades de ayuda para poder pagar la universidad. Y cuando retrasan la universidad, dijo Powell, tienen menos probabilidades de acudir a ella.

“Que la gente se vaya me mantiene despierto por la noche”, dijo Bill Wozniak, vicepresidente de comunicaciones y servicios estudiantiles de INvestED, una organización sin ánimo de lucro que promueve la educación terciaria en Indiana. “Las personas que son más vulnerables y hacen todo bien y no les está yendo bien, eso sí me preocupa”.

Una avalancha de problemas con el nuevo formulario de FAFSA

No debía ser así.

Completar el formulario de FAFSA es la puerta de entrada a subvenciones, becas y préstamos subvencionados que hacen que la universidad sea asequible para millones de estudiantes. Durante muchos años, los estudiantes y los padres decían que el formulario era complicado y estresante.

En el 2020, el Congreso aprobó una ley para simplificar el formulario, con muchas menos preguntas y mucha información financiera de la familia extraída directamente de las declaraciones de impuestos que el gobierno federal ya tiene. Pero la transición resultó ser mucho más difícil desde el punto de vista técnico de lo previsto y recayó en un Departamento de Educación de Estados Unidos que también tenía la responsabilidad de supervisar unos complejos programas de cancelación de la deuda estudiantil, según varios informes.

El lanzamiento del nuevo formulario se retrasó y, cuando por fin estuvo disponible en línea a finales de diciembre, estaba repleto de fallos técnicos.

Los estudiantes de familias de estatus mixto, familias en las que uno o ambos padres no tienen número de Seguro Social, se enfrentaron a algunos de los obstáculos más grandes. Las alternativas que estos estudiantes han utilizado durante años, como introducir todos los ceros en lugar del número del Seguro Social, ya no funcionaban. Y durante semanas no hubo forma de que estos estudiantes - la mayoría ciudadanos estadounidenses - añadieran la información financiera de sus padres.

En marzo, el departamento de educación anunció que el problema se había solucionado. Pero muchos estudiantes todavía encuentran problemas incluso al intentar verificar la identidad de sus padres.

Es el caso de varias alumnas de Danielle Insel en el Instituto de la Asamblea Urbana de Matemáticas y Ciencias para Mujeres Jóvenes de Brooklyn. Siguen “dando vueltas para conseguir que se reconozca la identidad de sus padres y así poder rellenar la sección de padres de FAFSA”, explica Insel, directora de preparación postsecundaria de la escuela.

“Después de cinco, seis, ocho intentos, quieren darse por vencidas”, dijo. Las estudiantes ya se lo están diciendo, a veces en broma y otras no tanto: “No voy a ir a la universidad, no voy a recibir ayuda financiera”.

“Es desmotivante, frustrante, y sí, puedo ver que tiene una relación directa con una disminución de las inscripciones. Si no la inscripción, sí la matriculación”, añadió.

En grupos de chat y foros, los orientadores universitarios intercambian consejos para que los estudiantes superen los obstáculos técnicos. A veces suenan como trucos de videojuegos retro.

Hace poco, en la escuela secundaria West High School de Denver, Federico Rangel, orientador universitario de la Fundación de Becas de Denver, compartió un truco con el estudiante René Torres, que recibía un mensaje de error cada vez que intentaba añadir a sus padres a su cuenta, un paso necesario.

“Pulsas dos veces el botón de retroceso”, le dijo Rangel a Torres. “Debería llevarte de vuelta a la página original y entonces podrás avanzar. Entonces debería permitirnos hacer la cuenta”.

Al principio, el truco no funcionó, pero entonces a Torres le apareció una pantalla distinta.

“Oh,” dijo Rangel. “Estás en la página de verificación de identidad”.

“Es un paso en la dirección correcta”.

René Torres, de 18 años, prepara su solicitud de ayuda financiera en el Centro del Futuro de la escuela secundaria West High School de Denver.

Muchos estudiantes no tienen paquetes de ayuda financiera

El departamento federal de educación también ha tardado en compartir los datos de los estudiantes con las universidades y recientemente anunció que volvería a procesar muchos formularios para corregir discrepancias en los datos fiscales. La publicación “Crónica de la Educación Superior” informó de que los gestores de ayuda financiera de las universidades están notando muchos errores, lo que provoca más retrasos y frustraciones. Las universidades no quieren enviar paquetes de ayuda financiera que luego tengan que modificar.

En un año normal, los estudiantes recibían los paquetes de ayuda financiera junto con las cartas de admisión de las universidades y tendrían semanas o meses para comparar las ofertas y considerar sus opciones. Este año, los estudiantes reciben cartas de admisión de las universidades, pero en la mayoría de los casos no reciben los paquetes de ayuda financiera.

“Los estudiantes deciden a dónde ir y si ir o no basándose en los paquetes de ayuda financiera”, dijo Bill DeBaun, director senior de datos e iniciativas estratégicas de la Red Nacional de Acceso a la Universidad. “Están mirando estas opciones diferentes sin tener idea de cuáles son accesibles para ellos”.

Para los consejeros, esto significa que todavía están trabajando con los estudiantes de último año en lugar de empezar a trabajar con los estudiantes de tercer año en sus composiciones universitarias como lo harían normalmente. Es más difícil organizar eventos presenciales para “llenar el formulario FAFSA” cuando las familias se marchan frustradas. Y darle el seguimiento a los distintos plazos se ha convertido en un dolor de cabeza.

Para los estudiantes, no poder decidirse por una universidad puede retrasar o complicar otras decisiones.

Mark Stulberg, director de orientación universitaria en la escuela secundaria Lincoln Park de Newark, dijo que los intentos de los estudiantes para conseguir un lugar en donde vivir, pasantías y otros aspectos de la vida universitaria para el próximo año están todos “casi como en pausa en este momento.”

Lincoln Park forma parte del sistema de escuelas chárter de la Academia Estrella del Norte (North Star Academy Charter School system), donde la mayoría de los alumnos son negros y proceden de familias de bajos ingresos. Las escuelas hacen hincapié en el ingreso a la universidad desde el kinder.

Este año, el 85% de los estudiantes han completado el formulario FAFSA, un porcentaje muy por encima del promedio estatal, pero todavía es un 5% a 10% menor que en un año típico de Estrella del Norte.

Stulberg dijo que los maestros y consejeros están haciendo todo lo posible para animar a los estudiantes que sean pacientes y vean los retrasos como un obstáculo relativamente pequeño en un largo viaje. Por ahora, las familias están siguiendo el proceso.

Sin embargo, le preocupa que algunos de sus alumnos “hayan dedicado los últimos 10 a 12 años de su vida para prepararse y tener éxito en la universidad”, sólo para elegir otro camino que no los conducirá al éxito cómo puede hacerlo la educación terciaria.

Los consejeros les dicen a los estudiantes: céntrense en los objetivos a largo plazo

Wozniak, de Indiana, dijo que su equipo de orientadores universitarios, que atienden las líneas directas y participan en eventos, quiere que los padres y los estudiantes sepan que no están solos y que no es culpa suya. Muchas universidades y sistemas estatales de ayuda financiera están retrasando los plazos para adaptarse a los retrasos, y las ofertas de ayuda financiera llegarán luego.

Powell dijo que los consejeros pueden ayudar a los estudiantes a solicitar otras becas mientras esperan, o repasar cómo leer una oferta de ayuda financiera para que puedan comparar opciones en un tiempo reducido.

Rojas Linares intenta ser optimista. Ha sido aceptado a varias universidades públicas y privadas, aunque está en un limbo hasta que pueda enterarse de sus becas Pell, programa de trabajo y estudio, préstamos federales y su beca a través del Programa de Asistencia para Matriculación del Estado de Nueva York.

“¿Cuánto más tenemos que esperar para conocer los resultados de la ayuda financiera?” se pregunta Rojas Linares. “Sólo espero que todo esto termine para no tener que estresarnos más”.

Mutan está decidida a ir a la universidad, pero es posible que tenga que esperar un año si no recibe pronto información sobre la ayuda financiera. Sus padres son inmigrantes palestinos que hablan árabe y poco inglés, y su padre es el único sustento de la familia. No quiere presionar económicamente a sus padres ni endeudarse.

“Quiero ser capaz de poder pagar la universidad, y FAFSA es gran parte de ello”, dijo.

Traducido por Flavia Melisa Franco

Amy Zimmer y Michael Elsen-Rooney, ambos periodistas de Chalkbeat, basados en Nueva York, Catherine Carrera, basada en Newark, Carly Sitrin, basada en Filadelfia, y Jason Gonzales, basado en Colorado, contribuyeron a la redacción de este artículo.

Erica Meltzer es la editora nacional de Chalkbeat y está basada en Colorado. Puede ponerse en contacto con ella enviando un mensaje a emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan State Board of Education calls for more charter school oversight and transparency

2024-04-12T22:12:03+00:00

The State Board of Education this week made a statement calling for more transparency and oversight for Michigan’s charter schools.

The resolution, introduced by Democratic Board Member Mitchell Robinson during Tuesday’s meeting, asks the legislature to pass bills that would make the Michigan Department of Education oversee approval of new and expanding charters, only allow nonprofit organizations to manage charters, and mandate that charters comply with the same transparency laws that traditional public schools do.

“While the original notion of charter schools as laboratories of innovation came from teachers unions, that purpose has now largely been lost to predatory for-profit charter organizations … and politically motivated special interest groups,” said Robinson during the meeting.

The board voted along party lines 6-1 in favor of the resolution. Tom McMillin, a Republican, was the only vote against it. Nikki Snyder, the only other Republican on the board, left the meeting earlier in the day after her resolutions on public safety failed.

McMillan said those who want to impose more restrictions on charter schools “don’t want parents to have choices.”

“What this will do is simply force charter schools to not open,” he said.

What does the resolution recommend?

The board’s resolution asks lawmakers to enact bills that would do the following:

Make the MDE the entity that approves or denies applications of new and expanding charters in consultation with local districts.
Only allow nonprofit charter management organizations in the state.
Make charter management firms have complete financial transparency and publish expenditure reports online for the public.
Mandate that charters and their management organizations comply with open meetings laws and the Freedom of Information Act.
Require the entities adhere to the same contract bidding laws and regulations that community districts schools do.
Prevent charters from excluding students based on behavior, academic performance, disability, proficiency in speaking English, family status, or living situation.
Prohibit charters from refusing transfer students during the school year if there is available space.
Strongly encouraged charter teachers to have certification instead of short-term permits, or work to become fully certified.

What is Michigan’s history with charter schools?

Charter schools, also known in the state as public school academies, were created about 30 years ago. Those in favor of the new alternative to traditional public schools said at the time the schools could offer families more choices, with better academic achievement for students. Other supporters said the competition would force long struggling districts to improve academic outcomes.

Since then, the topic of school choice has become a political flashpoint in Michigan and across the U.S.

There are currently 285 charter districts with 363 schools in the state, accounting for about a third of all of Michigan’s local education agencies. Those schools served around 149,000 students in the 2023-24 school year, or about 10.7% of Michigan students.

Most of the state’s charters operate in cities. Nearly half of Detroit students attend charters.

Charters are publicly funded but usually rely on management companies to oversee day-to-day operations. Those companies are not held to the same transparency laws as school districts.

More than 80% of charters in the state are managed by for-profit companies that either handle all of the functions of the school or perform individual functions such as payroll and hiring, or budgeting.

Charter schools collected around $1.5 billion in funding from the state this school year.

In Michigan, community colleges, intermediate school districts, universities, and local traditional districts can authorize charter schools. Authorizers can collect up to 3% of state funding given to their charter schools.

Other states have stricter criteria for charter authorization. For example, in Nevada, authorizers are required to submit applications to the state department of education. In Indiana, authorizers are accountable for student academic achievement and must submit annual reports to the state.

Ellen Lipton, a Democratic board member, said that because of its system, Michigan is among the states with the least amount of oversight of charters.

“The governing structure for charter schools in Michigan created really perverse incentives,” she said. “It was really designed to look like there was going to be oversight, but I think intentionally to not have oversight.”

There are still questions about whether charters produce better academic results in students, and how they affect the greater school system. Some studies have indicated that charter school students show more growth than students in traditional public schools in reading and math assessments. One prominently cited report says charters added 16 days of learning in reading and six days in math. But, the “days of learning” metric used in that report is controversial among researchers who say looking at the same results by performance percentile shows not much difference between charter and traditional public school students.

Detroit charters tend to perform better academically than traditional public schools in the city, but the gains are minimal and still well below state averages.

One 2023 study found DPSCD enrolls a higher percentage of students from families living in poverty than charters in the city do. Those enrollment differences can complicate comparisons between traditional districts and charters.

In December 2022, the board passed another resolution calling for laws that would require financial transparency for charters in the state.

The move came after the board learned that only 12 of 166 charter schools responded to Freedom of Information Act requests sent by the MDE. The same request was sent to 112 traditional public school districts, all of which responded.

The board had voted in June 2021 to ask the MDE to send the requests to determine whether charters are held to the same transparency standards as other public school districts.

A package of charter reform bills was introduced by Sen. Dayna Polehanki, a Democrat from Livonia, in March 2022, but failed to move forward in the legislature.

In October, a bill was introduced by Rep. Matt Koleszar, a Democrat from Plymouth, that would require the entities that run charters to make public the average salaries of new and veteran teachers as well as support staff. The bill was referred to the House Education Committee in October.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

A bungled FAFSA rollout threatens students’ college ambitions

2024-04-05T20:09:03+00:00

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Christian Rojas Linares can’t finish his financial aid forms because he’s been blanketed with error messages. The New York City high school senior has even received incorrect emails telling him his application was canceled.

In Philadelphia, Yasmeen Mutan had better luck: Finishing the form only took her an hour. But the federal government has been so slow to process and share her data that, four months later, she still doesn’t know how much she’ll get in financial aid. Without that, she can’t decide where to go to college. And that means she can’t apply for state financial aid either.

“I’m logging in every couple of days, just to make sure I didn’t miss out on anything,” Mutan said. “I just don’t know what to do.”

With college decision deadlines looming, thousands of high school seniors have been stuck in limbo due to the bungled rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The so-called Better FAFSA was supposed to make it simpler for students to receive financial aid. Yet the mistakes have been numerous and serious enough that high school counselors and advocates for college access now fear that promising students from the Class of 2024 will end up not going to college at all.

As of late March, just over a third of high school seniors had successfully submitted the FAFSA, according to data tracked by the National College Attainment Network. In previous years, nearly half of seniors would have done so by now. Students who complete the FAFSA are far more likely to go to college, so the low completion rates raise concerns about the long-term impact on this year’s graduating class.

And the decline tracked by the network is much greater at schools serving a lot of students from low-income backgrounds and students of color.

Closing off routes to financial aid creates “enormous issues,” said CJ Powell, director of advocacy for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, especially for students whose families have fewer resources. These students, often students of color and children of immigrants, are especially reliant on Pell grants and other aid to afford college. And when they delay college, Powell said, they are less likely to go at all.

“That people will walk away is keeping me up at night,” said Bill Wozniak, vice president for communications and student services with INvestED, a nonprofit that promotes postsecondary education in Indiana. “The people who are most vulnerable and they do everything right and it’s not working, I do worry about that.”

Cascade of problems with new FAFSA form

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Completing the FAFSA is the gateway to grants, scholarships, and subsidized loans that make college affordable for millions of students. But for years, students and parents found the form to be complicated and stressful.

In 2020, Congress passed legislation to simplify the form, with far fewer questions and more family financial information pulled directly from tax returns that the federal government already has. But the transition proved to be far more technically difficult than anticipated and fell to a U.S. Department of Education that was also tasked with overseeing complicated student debt forgiveness programs, according to numerous reports.

The launch of the new form was delayed, and when it finally came online in late December, it was riddled with technical glitches.

Students from mixed status families, in which one or both parents don’t have a Social Security number, faced some of the biggest hurdles. Workarounds that these students have used for years, such as entering all zeros in place of a Social Security number, no longer worked. And for weeks there was no way for these students — most of them U.S. citizens — to add their parents’ financial information.

In March, the education department announced that the problem was fixed. But many students are still encountering problems even attempting to verify their parents’ identities.

That’s the case for several of Danielle Insel’s students at the Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women in Brooklyn. They are “still going back and forth with just getting their parent’s identity recognized so they can finish the parent section of the FAFSA,” said Insel, the school’s director of postsecondary readiness.

“After five, six, eight attempts, they want to give up,” she said. Students are already telling her, sometimes jokingly, and sometimes less so: “I’m not going to college, I’m not going to get financial aid.”

“It’s demoralizing, frustrating, and yes, I can see it having a direct link to a decrease in enrollment. If not enrollment, then definitely matriculation,” she added.

In group chats and on message boards, college advisers trade tips for getting students past technical hurdles. At times they can sound like a retro gaming cheat code.

On a recent afternoon at Denver’s West High School, Denver Scholarship Foundation college adviser Federico Rangel shared a hack with student Rene Torres, who was getting an error message every time he tried to add his parents to his account, a necessary step.

“You press the backspace button twice,” Rangel said to Torres. “It should take us back to the original page and then we can move forward. It then should allow us to make the account.”

At first, the trick didn’t work, but then Torres got a new screen for the first time.

“Oh,” Rangel said. “You got the identity verification page.”

“It’s a step in the right direction.”

Rene Torres, 18, works on his financial aid application in the Future Center at Denver's West High School. College advisers continue to work with seniors late into the spring when they would normally be shifting their focus to juniors.

Many students don’t have financial aid packages

The federal education department has also been slow to share student data with universities and recently announced it would be reprocessing many forms to correct discrepancies in tax data. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that college financial aid officers are encountering a lot of mistakes, leading to more delays and frustrations. Colleges don’t want to send out financial aid packages that they later have to change.

In a typical year, students would get financial aid packages alongside college acceptance letters and would have weeks or months to compare offers and weigh their options. This year, students have acceptance letters from colleges but in most cases no financial aid awards.

“Students decide where to go and whether to go on the backs of these award letters,” said Bill DeBaun, the National College Attainment Network’s senior director for data and strategic initiatives. “You’re looking at these various pathways with no idea which ones are accessible to you.”

For counselors, this means they’re still working with seniors instead of starting to work with juniors on their college essays like they normally would. It’s harder to hold in-person “complete the FAFSA” events when families might just leave frustrated. And keeping track of shifting deadlines has become its own headache.

For students, not being able to decide on a college can delay or complicate other decisions.

Mark Stulberg, director of college counseling at Newark’s Lincoln Park High School, said students’ attempts to line up housing, internships, and other aspects of college life for next year are all “kind of on pause right now.”

Lincoln Park is part of the North Star Academy Charter School system, where most students are Black and from low-income families. The schools emphasize college-going starting in kindergarten.

This year, 85% of students have completed the FAFSA, a rate far above the state average but still 5 to 10 percentage points lower than in a typical year for North Star.

Stulberg said teachers and counselors are doing everything they can to encourage students to have patience and see the delays as a relatively small bump in a long journey. So far, families are sticking with the process.

Yet he’s worried some of his students “will have put in the last 10 to 12 years worth of work to prepare themselves to be successful in college” only to choose another path that won’t set them up for success like higher education can.

Counselors tell students: focus on long-term goals

Wozniak in Indiana said his team of college advisers, who staff hotlines and events, want parents and students to know they’re not alone, and it’s not their fault. Many colleges and state financial aid systems are pushing back deadlines to accommodate the delays, and financial aid offers will come.

Powell said counselors can help students apply for other scholarships while they’re waiting, or go over how to read a financial aid offer so they can compare options in a shortened time frame.

Rojas Linares is trying to remain upbeat. He has been accepted to a number of public and private universities, though he’s in limbo until he can find out his Pell grants, work study, federal loans, and his award through the New York State Tuition Assistance Program.

“How much longer do we have to wait to get the results of financial aid?” Rojas Linares wondered. “I’m just hoping this will all be over so we don’t have to stress about it any more.”

Mutan is determined to go to college but may end up waiting a year if she doesn’t get financial aid information soon, she said. Her parents are Palestinian immigrants who mostly speak Arabic, and her father provides the household’s only income. She doesn’t want to put financial pressure on her parents, and she doesn’t want to take on debt.

“I want to be able to put myself through college, and FAFSA is a big part of that,” she said.

Chalkbeat journalists Amy Zimmer and Michael Elsen-Rooney in New York, Catherine Carrera in Newark, Carly Sitrin in Philadelphia, and Jason Gonzales in Colorado contributed reporting.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Germany, known for sorting kids into college and vocational tracks, takes a more flexible approach

2024-03-19T09:00:00+00:00

This story about German vocational training was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s newsletter.

COLOGNE, Germany — Neriman Raim, a 16-year-old student in this northwestern German city, thought that after finishing school she’d want to work in an office.

But two years ago, she did a two-week internship in an architect’s bureau, and it was tedious. Later, a placement working with kindergartners led her to consider a career as a teacher — but not of kids this young. The next school year, she spent three weeks supervising older children as they did their homework.

Neriman now plans to become an educator working with grade-school children. After finishing school this summer, she’ll participate in a year-long placement to confirm that teaching is the right career for her before going to a technical college. Her internships offered a glimpse of what working life could look like, she said: “I could see what a day is like with kids.”

Neriman is taking part in Kein Abschluss ohne Anschluss, or KAoA, — or “no graduation without connection” — a program that has been rolled out across the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia to help students better plan for their futures. Young people get support with resumes and job applications; in ninth grade, they participate in short internships with local businesses and have the option of doing a year-long, one-day-a week work placements in grade 10.

“You don’t learn about a job in school,” said Sonja Gryzik, who teaches English, math, and career orientation at the school Neriman attends, Ursula Kuhr Schule. “You have to experience it.”

Neriman Raim, 16, thought she wanted to work in an office — until she actually tried it. The KAoA program allows students to get work experience in school and think about their future goals.

Germany and other Western European countries have long directed students into career paths at earlier ages than in the U.S., often placing kids onto university tracks or vocational education starting at age 10. Students in Germany can embark on apprenticeships directly after finishing general education at age 16 in grade 10, attending vocational schools that offer theoretical study, alongside practical training at a company. College-bound kids stay in school for three more years, ending with an entry exam for university.

The apprenticeship system, which is credited with keeping youth unemployment low, has drawn strong interest in the U.S. amid growing disenchantment with university education. Youth apprenticeships have begun to pop up in several U.S. states, and career exposure programs are expanding. “Many of the best jobs our country has to offer don’t require a college education,” wrote workforce training advocate Ryan Craig in his recent book “Apprentice Nation: How the ‘Earn and Learn’ Alternative to Higher Education Will Create a Stronger and Fairer America.”

But in Germany, the hundreds-year-old vocational system has faced headwinds. There is longstanding criticism that low-income students and those from immigrant backgrounds are channeled into vocational fields and away from more academic ones. More recently, despite the high demand for workers in the trades, students and their parents are increasingly hesitant about vocational education. Germany’s labor market has become digitized, and young people are keeping their options open before settling on a career path. Meanwhile, the pandemic had an outsized impact on vocational training, forcing many programs to close for long periods. And recent immigrants may be unaware of voc-ed’s high standing.

All this has led more students to choose to attend university. Yet many drop out: According to recent data, up to 28% of students fail to complete a degree. The figure for students in humanities and natural sciences is even higher, up to 50%.

This high failure rate, coupled with labor market needs, has led policymakers to tweak traditional vocational models to make them more flexible. Students in the academic track increasingly have access to both apprenticeships and university, and some students who complete vocational qualifications can still go on to attend a university, where options for combining practical experience with academic studies are growing.

German schools put more focus on career pathways

The program Neriman participates in, KAoA, is part of a wave of efforts to engage all students, not just those bound for vocational programs, in workforce preparation. All ninth and 10th grade students in North Rhine-Westphalia must do a three-week-long practical internship. Those on a vocational track begin apprenticeships after completing 10th grade, while students hoping to go to university attend academic high school for three additional years. The program encourages students from all backgrounds to think about their futures in concrete terms, said Bernhard Meyer, a teacher at Ursula Kuhr who coordinates KAoA in 11 towns across the Northwestern region.

“We have every type of possibility,” Meyer said. “And there’s not only apprenticeship or university, there are some studies in between.”

Related: Middle schools are experimenting with themes like math, sustainability and the arts. But is it all just branding?

At Ursula Kuhr Schule, students in the school’s woodworking lab build birdhouses and toy cars. A state-of-the-art kitchen lets students develop their culinary skills. An extensive garden, full of herbs, and boasting a hen house, offers an opportunity to test out horticultural skills.

Students take field trips to learn about different jobs. For example, on a trip to the airport they learn about positions such as flight attendant, fire service, security or aircraft mechanic. Employees from Ford, which has a plant in Cologne, visit the school to talk about their work with students and parents.

While university is free in Germany, students who study vocational fields can achieve financial security earlier on.

Students build a rainbow lamp together with teacher Frank Rasche during a woodworking class at Ursula-Kuhr-Schule, a vocational school in Cologne Chorweiler, Germany. The country faces a shortage of students pursuing careers in the trades.

Businesses in Germany seem keen to participate in vocational training. Chambers of commerce and industry support company-school partnerships and help smaller businesses train their interns. Students are even represented in unions, said Julian Uehlecke, a representative of the youth wing of Germany’s largest trade union alliance.

The goal of apprenticeships is to offer training in the classroom and in the workplace. The system gives students “a pretty good chance of finding a well-paid stable job,” said Leonard Geyer, a researcher at the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research.

Lukas Graf, head of the Swiss Observatory for Vocational Education and Training described the “basic principle” of Germany’s program as providing all-around training: “in the classroom, in the seminar room, and training in the workplace.”

Mile Glisic, a 15-year-old student at Ursula Kuhr Schule, is doing a long-term work placement at a hardware store and considering an apprenticeship in sales. Earning money while training for a career will help him understand financial planning, and prepare him for a future in which he has a house and family, he said. “I think it’s better because you start to learn what to do with your money when you’re younger,” said Mile.

While the KAoA program has rolled out across all 2,000 schools in this region of Germany, including those that focus on university preparation, Ursula Kuhr Schule prioritizes practical education. Students, more than half of whom come from minority backgrounds, begin career orientation when they are just 12 or 13.

Parents hesitant on vocational options

Backers of vocational training say it supports social inclusion by giving young people training that allows them to secure well-paid, stable jobs. But, as in the United States, many argue it limits the prospects of students from marginalized backgrounds and reproduces generational inequalities. This is “a huge debate,” said Graf, of the Swiss Observatory.

To Graf, the value of either a university degree or practical study depends on the particular courses chosen. A university graduate in a field like philosophy, for example, might end up with fewer well-paid opportunities than someone with vocational education training, he said.

The pandemic deepened many parents’ ambivalence about vocational training. While university teaching continued through online platforms, on-the-job training came to a stop when companies had to shut down, said Hubert Ertl, vice president and director of research at Germany’s Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training and professor of vocational education research at the University of Paderborn.

Parents have a big influence. Research by Ertl’s institute shows that when students express interest in a vocational program, their parents often talk them out of it and push them toward higher ed instead. “That’s often not doing the young people any favors,” he said.

His organization works with schools and parents to tackle preconceived ideas about vocational education. “We’ve started to engage with parents quite directly because parents often don’t know about the vocational programs at all, and they don’t know what opportunities they afford.”

Tim Becker, 20, is doing an IT apprenticeship after completing the university entry exam at his academically oriented high school in Cologne. At first, his parents, who worked for CocaCola, were uneasy. German parents usually want their children to go to university, “especially if they go to a gymnasium,” Becker wrote in an email, referring to academic high schools.

But in school, his career classes urged students to compare the benefits of university to a practical qualification. For Becker, who’d always loved computers, hands-on training beat out academic theory. “I am just not that guy that likes to sit all day in any lectures at some university,” he said. Some of his old classmates have already dropped out of college and are pursuing internships, he added.

Teacher Frank Rasche oversees a student during woodworking class at Ursula-Kuhr-Schule. Germany is known for sorting students into academic and vocational tracks, but now the lines are blurring.

Parents at Ursula Kuhr attend meetings, called “future conferences,” with their kids several times a year. Mile’s parents, who moved to Germany from Serbia when he was 9, have met his teachers frequently. “I know that they were very happy with it,” he said, referring to his career path. “They had some questions about it. But I think they’re thinking good about it because, I mean, it’s only doing good for us.”

Neriman’s mother, who is a nanny, “loved the idea” that her daughter would teach in grade-school, Neriman said. The teachers and staff at Ursula Kuhr help students gain confidence about their futures, she said. “The teachers do everything for us — they don’t want anyone to finish school and have nothing.”

Labor market needs drive educational changes

Other European countries are seeing similar labor market needs. Denmark, whose minister for education trained as a bricklayer, is facing a significant skills shortage in vocational fields, said Camilla Hutters, head of the National Center for Vocational Education, a Danish research organization.

In the 1960s, practical and project-based learning was common in Danish schools, Hutters said. That changed in the 1990s, when Denmark scored poorly on international rankings like the Program for International Student Assessment. Now, economic needs are causing a swing back to vocational and career education.

Today, Danish students as young as 6 might visit a workplace or spend a week learning about a particular career, she said, and discussions are under way to further integrate practical learning in primary school. Danish leaders also want to improve collaboration with business across the education system, including at the university level, Hutters said, where an increasing number of courses are likely to involve working with a company. Political leaders are discussing reforms that would “improve practical learning in the whole system,” she said.

But a tension between on-the-job training and academia persists in Danish thinking, she added. Although policymakers want to expand the practical element across all levels of education, university still remains the goal for many students and their parents. “This is a little bit of a mixed tendency at the same time, right now in Denmark,” she said.

Back in Germany, Becker will finish his internship in September 2024 with expertise in IT services and network security. Throughout his training, he has earned money — and will get up to €1,260 (roughly $1,360) per month in his final year — which has meant he could avoid taking on part-time work as some of his college friends have done. “You don’t need to sit all day in university and go to work in the evening to pay your bills,” he said.

And it suits him. He grew up surrounded by computers, tinkering alongside his dad, and that love of technology persisted through his teens. He likes working with his hands and doing, “something where I can learn practical things,” he said.

Long-awaited FAFSA fix means students from immigrant families can finally finish aid applications

2024-03-18T20:41:17+00:00

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Many students breathed a sigh of relief last week when federal education officials announced critical fixes to the federal application for financial aid that allows parents without Social Security numbers to contribute information to the form.

The change means tens of thousands of U.S. citizen students and others who are eligible for federal financial aid can finally complete their FAFSAs. But it also leaves families and college counselors scrambling to get through the process months after other students. And some families are still encountering problems.

“It can be very discouraging for students and families who feel like they’re doing all the right things and yet are still coming up against barriers,” said Amanda Seider, who oversees the Massachusetts branch of the college access group OneGoal.

Chalkbeat reported in January that a technical glitch had blocked students with undocumented parents from completing their financial aid applications for over two months. That left many educators and college access groups worried that students who already face higher barriers to college would be deterred by the delays — piled on top of an already difficult rollout of the new, supposedly easier FAFSA. Some colleges and scholarships award aid on a first-come, first-served basis, so students who apply later are at a disadvantage.

During that time, students were left to navigate a confusing array of options, including whether they should just sit tight and wait for a fix, or try a partial workaround that could put them at a higher risk of making a mistake on their application or would require them to come back and fill out more paperwork later.

And there are still outstanding issues. As federal officials put the new fix in place, they uncovered two more issues affecting the same group of students that still need to be resolved.

That means parents without Social Security numbers will have to enter their financial information manually, instead of having it pulled directly from the IRS. And in some cases — when a parent enters a name or address that doesn’t exactly match what their child put down, for example — parents are still getting error messages that block them from filling out the form. Federal officials said last week they would work to fix the issue “in the coming days.”

Federal officials estimated that around 2% of financial aid applicants were affected by the original Social Security number glitch, which would equate to hundreds of thousands of students in a typical year.

The issue caught the attention of dozens of Democratic House members, who sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona urging the department to fix the problem quickly. In a press release issued last week, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman of California said the glitch was a “completely unacceptable error” that had caused “fear, stress, and missed opportunities for many kids across my district and the country.”

“I hope to see the Department take the steps necessary to ensure issues like this never arise again,” Huffman said.

The rollout of the new FAFSA has been riddled with problems and delays. Education department officials have blamed insufficient funding and significant technical challenges in updating old systems. Republicans have accused the administration of being distracted by dealing with student loan forgiveness. Outside observers have said all these factors and more played a role, according to news reports.

FAFSA applications are down 33% compared with this time last year, according to federal data tracked by the National College Attainment Network.

In the meantime, many colleges have pushed back deadlines as they wait for student financial information that will help them assemble aid packages. And families are waiting.

Now, college counselors and advisers say they’re working to make sure students know what to do if they continue to encounter glitches. They’re also trying to keep students’ spirits up and getting them ready to compare their financial aid and acceptance packages when they come in.

“The most important thing we can do is to share information about how to go about entering information manually, how to make sure that as they are completing those steps that it requires a lot of precision,” Seider said. “We really want to make sure that students and families are being proactive, and not experiencing this as their shortcoming, but rather saying ‘Hey, this system has been a little confusing, we need some help with it.’”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit schools are enrolling more migrant students. Can the district meet their needs?

2024-02-26T19:29:50+00:00

As an influx of school-aged migrant and refugee children have resettled with their families in Detroit in recent weeks, schools are working to quickly adapt to meet their needs.

Some are more prepared than others.

Detroit Public Schools Community District campuses on the southwest side of the city have long served diverse student groups and have many Spanish-speaking teachers and administrators who can easily communicate with parents. But a large number of students who have recently migrated to the U.S. are being placed in available shelter beds on the city’s east side, where schools have historically served children with different needs.

“It’s no fault of the schools,” said Elizabeth Orozco-Vasquez, CEO of Freedom House Detroit, a nonprofit that supports asylum seekers and refugees. “It’s just that they’ve never had to prepare for that before. Meeting the needs of a new population of kids is a big ask to put on an already tasked school system.”

Translation services in those schools are often limited. Additionally, transportation for kids to attend schools in southwest Detroit can be difficult to arrange, advocates say. The district is required by the federal McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act to help students without a fixed address maintain school stability.

“We are seeing a lot of school-aged children come in, primarily in schools outside of southwest Detroit that aren’t necessarily prepared for children coming from other countries who don’t speak English,” said Orozco-Vasquez. “It’s a resource that has to be built.”

About 70 families who recently arrived from Venezuela enrolled their children in DPSCD, according to the district, and the number continues to grow. Administrators say they are providing language interpretation and translation, and training staff to understand new students’ unique needs. In the long term, the district is considering establishing newcomer programs, which would centralize students at specific schools to streamline services for migrant and refugee children.

Detroit hasn’t seen the large numbers of migrants and refugees arriving that large cities like Chicago and New York have in recent months. But some of the families arriving in Detroit are coming from those cities because shelters and humanitarian organizations there are overwhelmed.

DPSCD is working to meet students’ needs

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in an email all schools in the district are now receiving support as they adapt to meet the needs of migrant students. Staff are being trained to use translation tools, to identify curricular resources to help students learn English, and to address the trauma the kids may have experienced.

The district has formed a small team of teacher training and support coordinators specializing in English language learning to deploy to schools with newcomer students, he said. DPSCD is also continuing to collaborate with community members through its Bilingual Parent Advisory Council as well as the Office of Family and Community Engagement to meet the families’ needs.

Staff can request a live interpreter and document translations, said Vitti. The district also offers over-the-phone and remote video interpreters, and students and staff are able to use Microsoft Translate.

“The district is working with all school leaders and teachers to make sure that they are fully aware of these resources and use them consistently to communicate with families who need language services,” said Vitti.

Part of the challenge, said Orozco-Vasquez, is that the newly arrived students are speaking many languages. In addition to Spanish-speakers, some speak Portuguese or French.

Some nonprofit organizations work with school districts to fill gaps in providing language support to refugee students. Samaritas, a faith-based statewide nonprofit, works with DPSCD.

“If there is no comprehensive ELL program in place, we work with the school on providing that,” Rawan Alramahi, supervisor of Samaritas’ school impact program.

Funding from a $94.4 million settlement – from a 2016 lawsuit that alleged Michigan failed to teach Detroit students to read and described inadequate education for English language learners – will likely allow the school system to hire more academic interventionists to work with English language learners, the superintendent said. A task force formed to identify how DPSCD should spend the settlement recently recommended the district do so.

The settlement funding will also be used to help the district determine whether there is a need for more newcomer programs to be developed at schools in DPSCD to “better serve first- and second-year immigrants,” Vitti said. There is one existing program at Western International High School that provides academic and social support to newcomer families.

“Through this strategy, newly arrived students with limited English skills would be assigned to these schools so we can concentrate resources for support, such as ELL teachers and [academic interventionists],” said Vitti.

The planned Health Hub at Western International, which will provide medical, dental, and mental health care, will also have a resource center with services for newly arrived families, said Vitti. Other Health Hubs, which will expand over the next three years at schools across the district, may also have the same focus, depending on need, according to the superintendent.

For migrant students who experience homelessness or are housed in shelters, the district will provide all the services guaranteed by the McKinney-Vento Act, which mandates that unhoused students be allowed to quickly enroll in schools, stay in the same school even if they move outside of enrollment boundaries, and receive transportation to their schools regardless of the distance, among other protections.

Overall, the district’s system for identifying students who need services through the act has improved, said Vitti. The need for transportation services with that funding has increased in the community across the board and is not unique to newcomer or refugee students.

“Newcomer and refugee students are not always homeless, but when they are, we are committed to providing transportation services,” said Vitti.

In the past, there were concerns about DPSCD’s ability to educate English language learners, who graduate from high school at lower rates compared to their English-speaking peers. Parents expressed a need for more language access in the district, and felt their concerns were ignored.

Inequities for ELL students is not unique to DPSCD. Michigan ranks among the lowest in the nation for funding for students who are not native English speakers, according to an analysis by The Education Trust-Midwest.

Last year, the state passed a historic school budget that provided $1.3 million more in funding for ELL students.

Some migrant families arrive from Chicago, New York, Texas

Most of Detroit’s migrant students have come from Venezuela, according to the school district.

Others are coming from Columbia, Angola, Senegal, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Orozco-Vasquez said there is a mix of families coming from larger cities like New York and Chicago as well as various cities in Texas, where officials have struggled to keep up with the growing need for services for migrants, as well as people coming directly from their countries of origin.

Samaritas is currently serving more than 250 school-age children, and has recently seen more families coming from Venezuela and Cuba, along with families from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ukraine.

Both Freedom House and Samaritas said most of the newly arrived school-age children they serve have enrolled in DPSCD, and some are attending charter schools in Wayne County.

The increase in the number of families migrating to Michigan isn’t expected to slow anytime soon – officials expect to see a 40% increase in refugees settling in the state this year, which would amount to more than 3,600 people. As demand for temporary housing grows, the Office of Global Michigan this week asked residents to open their homes as part of a refugee support program.

Michigan has long been a destination for refugees and asylum seekers. Though the recent influx of migrants is sizable, it’s not the largest the state has experienced.

In 2013, more than 3,400 Iraqi refugees resettled in Michigan. And after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, more than 2,000 refugees came to live in the state.

DPSCD has also previously seen influxes of migrants. More than 40 refugees from Afghanistan enrolled in the district in May 2022.

Navigating a foreign school system

Ivan Nakonechngi, 13, works on his computer at home on Wed., Feb., 21, 2024 in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

In addition to DPSCD and other schools in Wayne County, refugees are also being placed and enrolling in schools in Macomb, Oakland, and Genesee Counties.

One mother, Svitlana Nakonechna, 33, arrived in the U.S. three years ago after fleeing the war in Ukraine with her son, Ivan Nakonechngi, now 13.

Nakonechna is still learning English, and she communicates with Ivan’s teachers at South Hills Middle School in Bloomfield Hills Schools through an online translator application in email and on video calls. The mother tries to keep up with Ivan’s grades and when his work is due.

“Usually, I keep track of that since she’s not really good with English,” said Ivan, who began learning English in school in Ukraine.

Ivan Nakonechngi, 13, left, poses for a portrait with his mother, Svitlana Nakonechna, 33, in their home on Wed., Feb., 21, 2024 in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Nakonechna said through an interpreter that she doesn’t know much about the curriculum Ivan is being taught, but she trusts he’s learning because she sees he’s engaged in his school work.

Though her sponsors and Samaritas have been helpful in enrolling her son in school and navigating the system, Nakonechna worries what may happen if she has to move out of the housing she receives through her employer to another school district.

“If we move from this place to another city and I need to find a new school, I still will need help because I don’t know how to handle it by myself,” she said.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

¿Cómo se completa la FAFSA si un padre no tiene un número de Seguro Social?

2024-02-22T23:35:07+00:00

Actualizado: Problema corregido en la FAFSA abre el formulario para muchas familias inmigrantes

Los formularios de ayuda federal financiera, conocidos como la Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes o FAFSA (por sus siglas en inglés), pueden dar acceso a mucho dinero para que los estudiantes paguen por sus estudios universitarios.

Los estudiantes que son ciudadanos estadounidenses, residentes permanentes y ciertos estudiantes sin ciudadanía pueden obtener ayuda financiera, sin importar el estatus migratorio de sus padres. Los estudiantes, los padres y el cónyuge del estudiante, si es un adulto casado, todos tienen que proporcionar información personal financiera para que los estudiantes reciban esta ayuda, aunque los padres o el cónyuge sean indocumentados.

Este año, hay un nuevo formulario que supuestamente es más simple y fácil—y los estudiantes de familias con bajos ingresos deben recibir más dinero que años anteriores. Pero el proceso ha tenido algunos problemas técnicos, especialmente si uno o ambos padres no tienen un número de Seguro Social. En este momento, el formulario disponible en línea no permite que esos padres proporcionen la información financiera necesaria—y eso significa que los estudiantes no pueden enviar sus formularios.

Los funcionarios federales dicen que el problema se solucionará a mediados de marzo. Mientras tanto, hay un par de alternativas disponibles si tu estudiante debe cumplir con las fechas límite de algún programa estatal, universitario o para solicitar becas en las próximas semanas.

Esto es lo que debes saber:

El primer paso es que los padres creen su propia cuenta.

Crea una cuenta de ayuda federal para estudiantes donde proporcionarás información. Los padres que no tengan un número de Seguro Social deben seguir las instrucciones para verificar su identidad a través de TransUnion. Para hacer esto, quizás sea necesario que proporciones ciertos documentos.

A veces TransUnion no tiene toda la información correcta. Si TransUnion no puede verificar tu identidad, llama al Centro de Información sobre Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes (FSAIC, por sus siglas en inglés) al 1-800-433-3243. Ahí abrirán un caso y te enviarán un mensaje por correo electrónico con instrucciones sobre el tipo de documentos que puedes proporcionar.

Los funcionarios federales dicen que están tratando de simplificar y facilitar este proceso, y que están agregando más agentes que hablan español para que contesten las llamadas.

El siguiente paso es proporcionar información financiera básica.

Ten a la mano tus declaraciones de impuestos de años anteriores, cheques de tus ingresos o salario e información bancaria mientras completas los formularios.

Este proceso es sencillo para las personas que tienen un número de Seguro Social. Para aquellas sin un número de Seguro Social, el proceso es un poco más complicado.

En este momento, si no tienes un número de Seguro Social, debes completar algunos pasos adicionales. Usa estas alternativas solo si tu estudiante necesita cumplir con ciertas fechas límite en las próximas semanas para una universidad o beca en particular. La razón es porque, más tarde, deberás regresar y hacer algunos cambios cuando los formularios se arreglen verdaderamente.

Puedes completar un formulario impreso. Haz clic aquí para encontrar el formulario en español. En la sección donde te piden un número de Seguro Social, ingresa todos ceros y proporciona un Número de Identificación Personal del Contribuyente o ITIN (por sus siglas en inglés) si tienes uno. Los padres pueden completar el formulario impreso sin pasar por el proceso para verificar su identidad.
Puedes usar una alternativa en el formulario en línea. No ingreses ningún número en el espacio donde piden el número de Seguro Social del padre o cónyuge. Al hacer esto, tendrás que ingresar manualmente la información sobre los ingresos e impuestos de la persona. El padre o cónyuge no debe completar su propio formulario todavía. Cuando haya un arreglo permanente en un par de semanas, el padre o cónyuge podrá regresar al formulario en línea, aprobar su información y agregar su firma.

Si tu estudiante no necesita cumplir con ciertas fechas límite en las próximas semanas, los funcionarios federales recomiendan esperar hasta que el problema se solucione para que puedas usar el proceso más simple en línea que otras familias usan.

¿Qué se debe hacer si el estudiante no tiene un número de Seguro Social?

La mayoría de los estudiantes que no tienen un número de Seguro Social no cumplen con los requisitos para obtener ayuda financiera federal. Sin embargo, algunos estados ofrecen ayuda financiera a ciertos estudiantes indocumentados. Hablen con el asesor universitario en la escuela de tu hijo o en la oficina de ayuda financiera en las universidades a las que enviaron una solicitud de admisión.

¿Tienes más preguntas?

Hablen con el asesor universitario en la escuela de tu hijo. Recuerden que no tienen que pasar solos por este proceso. El gobierno federal calcula que cientos de miles de estudiantes han sido afectados por este problema, así que muchas personas enfrentan las mismas dificultades.

El gobierno federal también ofrece un centro de ayuda telefónica llamando al 1-800-433-3243. Advertencia: el tiempo de espera puede ser largo.

Lee más: Familias inmigrantes tienen problemas para completar la FAFSA. Aquí te informamos.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

Kalyn Belsha es reportera nacional de educación con sede en Chicago. Se habla español. Para comunicarte con ella, envíale un email a kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Frustrated with FAFSA? There is a paper form, but it might not be the best option.

2024-02-13T19:37:25+00:00

Leer en español

As many students continue to experience technical glitches preventing them from submitting their application for federal financial aid online, there is one potential workaround: an old-fashioned paper form.

But college access organizations and financial aid experts caution that for many students, this may not be the best route.

Here’s what you should know before you fill out the paper version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA:

What is the paper FAFSA form? Where can I find it?

Federal officials have long released a paper version of the FAFSA, though only a small share of students submitted a hard copy in recent years, which is why you may not have heard about it before now.

You can find a paper copy of the FAFSA in English here, and in Spanish here.

Why might I consider filling out a paper FAFSA form?

Right now, parents who don’t have a Social Security number cannot add their information to their child’s online application for college financial aid, and in some cases may not be able to obtain login credentials to access the online system.

That’s because of a technical glitch federal officials say they are working to fix. A senior official for the U.S. Department of Education told reporters on Monday that officials are meeting daily to try to resolve the issue, but right now there is no timeline. This problem has prevented thousands of students whose parents are immigrants from completing the FAFSA.

The paper form allows parents and spouses without Social Security numbers to write in all zeroes, as they could in past years online, and to provide an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN, if they have one. Parents can fill out the paper form without going through the identity-verification process blocking some from obtaining login credentials online.

If your college, state, or scholarship organization has a hard deadline to submit the FAFSA, and that’s coming up, you may want to consider filling out the paper form as a way to meet that deadline. Once you mail in the paper form, the day the application is received in the mail will be marked as your submission date.

Should I wait for the online form to be fixed instead of filling out the paper form?

If you don’t have a pressing FAFSA submission deadline, it may be a better option to wait for the online form to be fixed, said MorraLee Keller, a senior director at the nonprofit National College Attainment Network.

That’s because paper forms will be processed after online applications, so you risk putting yourself farther back in the processing line if you go the paper route. That matters because some colleges award aid on a first-come, first-served basis.

Federal officials recently announced that they won’t be sharing students’ information from online applications with colleges until March. Already, because of delays in the FAFSA process, colleges have less time to put together financial aid packages and students will have less time to review them and make decisions. If you fill out a paper form, a college may not review your financial aid application until April.

The paper form also leaves more room for mistakes, as the instructions can be more complicated to follow. If you’re considering filling out the paper form, reach out to a college counselor at your school or a college access organization for help, especially if you’ve never filled out a FAFSA before.

“It’s all those families out there who don’t have someone guiding them that there would be potential that they could make mistakes on the paper form, even though there’s pages and pages of instructions,” Keller said. “There’s a lot more guidance in the online form.”

If I fill out the paper form, can I still fill out the online form?

Yes. If you mail in a paper FAFSA and then fill out the online version, the federal government will rely on the online version and treat the paper copy like a duplicate submission.

And if you make a mistake on your FAFSA, don’t worry: There is a process to submit corrections, too.

“We just want to encourage families to stay the course,” Keller said. “Don’t give up on the idea of higher education or going to college because the form is a stumbling block right now.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

A glitch blocks thousands of immigrant families from a new, simpler FAFSA. The fix is TBD.

2024-01-25T22:20:06+00:00

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Update as of Feb. 21: There are now two workarounds for the Social Security number problem, one a paper form and the other online. Federal officials promise a permanent fix is coming in March.

Like many high school seniors, 18-year-old Jocelyn is trying to get through her college application to-do list.

She’s applied to 10 colleges so far. Northeastern University in Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago are her top picks. She’d like to study veterinary medicine and work with animals like her two cats, Strawberry and Copito.

With the help of her sibling, Jocelyn completed her portion of the federal application for financial aid in around an hour. But now she’s stuck. That’s because her mom doesn’t have a Social Security number, so she hasn’t been able to add her financial information.

The new Free Application for Federal Student Aid that debuted last month was supposed to be easier for students and families to complete. And in many ways it is: It’s shorter, and it pulls tax information directly from the IRS instead of asking families to enter it themselves. The goal is to get more students to apply for aid and attend college.

But the form was released months later than usual, leaving students much less time to complete it and schools scrambling to offer help. On top of that, many families have experienced glitches. One of the biggest issues is that parents who don’t have a Social Security number can’t enter their information right now, and workarounds from prior years are gone. Potentially tens of thousands of U.S. citizen students and others with legal status — who are eligible for federal financial aid regardless of their parents’ immigration status — could be affected.

Federal officials say a fix is on the way, but can’t say when. Education advocates say there needs to be a stronger sense of urgency to resolve the issue, as some colleges award aid on a first-come, first-served basis.

Eighteen-year-old Jocelyn shows the Instagram video she watched to make sure she filled out her portion of the FAFSA correctly.

“We need to be working around the clock,” said Amalia Chamorro, who directs the education policy project for UnidosUS, a civil rights group that advocates to improve educational opportunities for Latino students. “We do worry that this is just another hurdle, another barrier, another way that they’re getting the message that they don’t matter, that they’re not as deserving of pursuing post-secondary education. That’s not the message that we want them to get.”

Jocelyn, whose last name Chalkbeat is withholding so as not to jeopardize her mother’s immigration status, is feeling stressed. But she’s trying to stay optimistic that she’ll be able to check this off her list soon, too.

“I didn’t want to turn in the FAFSA form late, and now I’m going to have to wait,” she said. “I know that my other friends have turned it in already, and I feel like I’m a little behind.”

Why some students are getting stuck on new FAFSA

Jocelyn isn’t the only one of her classmates having trouble.

On a visit in mid-January to Kelvyn Park High School in Chicago, just two of the 15 students in her class that helps students prepare for and apply to college had managed to complete the FAFSA. The high school serves predominantly Latino students from low-income families, many of whom will be the first in their family to attend college.

Some students got tripped up trying to add their parents as “contributors” to the FAFSA, a new step that requires them to sign up for an account and verify their identity. In the past, students could more easily fill out their parent’s portion for them.

That has presented challenges especially for families who are unfamiliar with the financial aid process, who have language barriers, or who worry about sharing personal information with the federal government.

When students are the first in their family to attend college, or there are immigration concerns, “You’re going to have a lot of paranoia, you’re going to have a lot of anxieties around it,” said Josh Kumm, who teaches Jocelyn’s class in partnership with OneGoal, a nonprofit college access organization that works in over 30 high schools in Chicago.

Eighteen-year-old Breann Sanford was one of the lucky ones who got through.

It helped that her mom was familiar with the FAFSA — she filled one out when she took a few college classes — and Sanford’s college and career coach knew just what to do when Sanford accidentally entered her email instead of her mom’s in one instance.

“It was a big help,” she said. “I knew I had a lot of different support options that I could go to if I needed help.”

Breann Sanford, 18, was able to submit her FAFSA successfully by mid-January. In her class at Kelvyn Park High School in Chicago that helps students apply to college, only a few completed the form without challenges.

Others are struggling for other reasons. During the recent visit, 18-year-old Ángel Serrano said he was still trying to tell his mom that he’s applying to college and needs her help with the financial aid form. His window to do that is on Wednesdays — the only day she’s not exhausted or working, Serrano said.

Another student in the class needs financial information from his mom, but they’re no longer living together or on speaking terms.

“You’ve got all these other things going on,” Kumm said. “It’s not just socioeconomic, it’s also the social-emotional parts of the family dynamics … That’s complicated.”

One-on-one help is key, but some FAFSA issues need federal fix

One-on-one support has been crucial for students to navigate FAFSA hiccups, though school counselors and college coaches have been swamped with requests for help. Sometimes the fix is to sit on hold with the U.S. Department of Education for hours — a step that’s impossible for many working parents.

Elve Mitchell, the senior director of program operations for College Possible in Chicago, a college access organization that works with a half-dozen high schools in the city, said one big thing his organization’s coaches are working on is making sure students and parents know the right questions to ask when they finally do get through to a live person on the department’s helpline.

Another way school staff and coaches are trying to help is by finding other ways students can work on their applications, such as fine-tuning a personal essay or using a federal student aid estimator to do some rough comparisons of college costs.

But for students whose parents do not have Social Security numbers, there isn’t much a school counselor can do right now.

When Jocelyn met with her school’s college and career coach this week, the advice was to sit tight, keep checking the federal government’s website, and wait for “the green light on what to do.”

Schools like Kelvyn Park High School in Chicago have been stepping in to offer students help when they've struggled to complete the new FAFSA form.

In the past, parents without a Social Security number could enter all zeros and sign a paper form.

The education department set up a new process for these parents to verify their identity through a credit agency, but educators say it’s not working consistently. Parents have had to call the federal helpline, open a case, and then share documents that prove their identity.

“For someone who’s undocumented, it’s very scary to give the federal government any documentation,” said Tony Petraitis, a college and career curriculum specialist for Chicago Public Schools, who’s been assembling how-to guides with screenshots to support school counselors. “For one of our most vulnerable populations, it’s a pretty big deal.”

Even if the credit agency produces a correct match, these parents still can’t share additional information on the FAFSA until the federal government comes up with a fix.

Chamorro, of UnidosUS, hopes the added delays and frustrations don’t deter students from applying to college.

“We don’t want them to give up,” she said.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

FAFSA form completion could become a Michigan high school graduation requirement

2024-01-23T20:13:14+00:00

Michigan students would be required to complete a federal financial aid form to graduate from high school under a bill that supporters hope will help remove a barrier to the pursuit of higher education.

The proposal would bring Michigan in line with about a dozen other states that have passed laws to make completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid a graduation requirement. A few more states are contemplating a similar rule.

The FAFSA is used to determine a student’s eligibility for federal grants, work-study funds, and loans. It’s also used in some cases to determine whether a student qualifies for state or and private aid, as well as tuition assistance programs offered by the state’s major universities to students from low-income families.

State Sen. Darrin Camilleri, a Democrat from Trenton, said he introduced the bill to help students recognize the post-secondary opportunities available to them.

“In 2023, only about half of graduating high school seniors completed a FAFSA in Michigan, and this year was not an outlier, " he said during a Senate Education Committee hearing in October. “On average, Michigan students are leaving nearly $100 million in federal aid on the table simply because this form is not filled out.”

Skeptics of the bill have been concerned that the FAFSA requirement would force families to disclose sensitive financial or personal information, either to complete the form or to seek a waiver from the requirement. The bill has been modified to address some of their concerns.

Others say it would add a new burden on college counselors to help students comply. The online form can be confusing, and usually requires students and their parents — or anyone else who might help pay for a child’s education — to set up separate accounts and logins and complete their respective parts of the form.

The federal government’s rollout of a new FAFSA form with fewer questions was supposed to make the process easier. But the changes have not gone as smoothly as intended since the soft launch on Dec. 31, with numerous reports of technology issues.

“I’ve spoken to colleagues who have their own kids who are seniors and are filling out FAFSA this year,” said Wendy Zdeb, executive director of the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals. “They thought the form would be easier this year, and they have found that not to be true. It took them a lot more time, and these are people who are already familiar with the process.”

Expect more such challenges for people who are not familiar with the form.

Ninth-graders Omari Pennington and Brayden Lewis said they had never heard about the FAFSA.

They are both interested in going to college but haven’t talked with a counselor at Detroit Public Schools Community District’s Henry Ford High School about the opportunities available to them yet.

Both children of single mothers, Omari and Brayden said it might be difficult for their moms to find the time to fill out the form with them if it were a requirement.

“My mom is busy,” said Brayden. “She goes to work from like 7 to 12 in the morning.”

But both Omari and Brayden said they can see the benefit the bill might have in allowing more kids to see that there is funding available for their education.

States with FAFSA requirements see higher completion rates

Onjila Odeneal, senior director of policy and advocacy in Michigan for the Institute for College Access and Success, said that overall the bill will help a lot of students see college as something they can attain, especially in low-income and minority families.

“A lot of kids are not completing FAFSA because they don’t think post-secondary education is possible for them,” Odeneal said. “It’s important for them to be aware of what’s available for them.”

Filling out the FAFSA unlocks grants and funding from Michigan universities, such as the University of Michigan’s various tuition discount programs and its Go Blue Guarantee, and Michigan State University’s Spartan Tuition Advantage.

The form is also required for students to qualify for money from two key state programs. One of them, the Michigan Achievement Scholarship gives up to $5,500 a year for qualifying students to attend an in-state public university, $4,000 a year to go to an independent nonprofit college, $2,750 for community college, or $2,000 for career training programs. The other, Michigan Reconnect, pays tuition at local community colleges for students age 21 and older.

States that have adopted the requirement have seen big increases in FAFSA completion rates among high school seniors. Texas’ FAFSA completion rate went from about 50% to around 63%. In Louisiana, 2020 research by the Century Foundation found the requirement helped close the gap in FAFSA completion rates between school districts in low- and high-income communities.

However, the research also revealed information gaps and other hurdles for students applying for aid.

For example, the number of applications with incomplete information was higher in districts with higher rates of students of color and students from low-income families. English-learners also had difficulty interpreting the form, and students who didn’t have documented legal immigration status struggled to fill it out because they didn’t have Social Security numbers.

Zdeb, from the principals group, worries that the legislation undermines the efforts of educators to destigmatize the idea of going to trade and technical schools, rather than four-year colleges, after high school. “This is kind of contradicting that message,” she said.

Camilleri noted that the bill would still help many students pursuing those educational options, because FAFSA is also used to determine eligibility for federal Pell grants, which can be used to attend some trade and technical schools.

Bill allows for waivers from FAFSA requirement

Under the most recent iteration of the bill, the law would take effect with this year’s sophomore class — the high school graduating Class of 2026 — and require every public school student to submit a FAFSA form to the U.S. Department of Education, unless they receive a waiver. School districts and the Michigan Department of Education would be required to compile data on how many students complete the form and how many receive waivers.

Parents could sign a waiver to exempt their children from the requirement. Waivers would also be available for students 18 or older, emancipated youth, and youth experiencing homelessness, among other circumstances, such as when parents or guardians are unwilling or unable to submit their part of the form.

The bill would require the newly created Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential to create an information packet on the FAFSA for school districts to distribute to high school students.

School districts would have to come up with funding they need to enforce compliance with the legislation, according to a fiscal impact analysis of the bill.

A big concern for administrators and school groups is whether high schools have enough counselors equipped to take on the new task. Michigan ranks among the lowest in the nation for the ratio of counselors to students, and the problem is especially acute in rural areas.

“There couldn’t be a worse time to put another initiative on our counselors and administrators,” said Zdeb. “Their focus right now is on student mental health and making sure kids can graduate. Putting another thing on them is not good timing.”

Odeneal acknowledged the shortage of counselors but said the bill should provide the impetus and the time — two years before it takes effect — for schools to hire more.

Legislation changed to address privacy concerns

The current version of the bill reflects changes made to address questions about privacy.

Groups including the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center argued that the bill would require parents and students to disclose sensitive information such as immigration status in order to get a waiver from the requirement.

“We were able to work with legislators on some meaningful changes to the bill and we have now shifted our position to neutral,” said Christine Sauvé, the center’s community engagement and policy coordinator, said Monday. “Significantly, the updated version involves community partners in the development of the waiver form and allows vulnerable students to opt out due to privacy concerns.”

The changes were important to protect immigrant and LGBTQ+ students, students who are victims of child abuse and neglect, and other vulnerable populations who may not want or be able to disclose why their parents can’t sign a waiver, Sauvé said.

“The updated bill also adds a requirement for school districts to take reasonable steps to provide language access to students and families with limited English proficiency throughout the FAFSA submission and opt-out process, ensuring that materials will be translated into the language spoken by the family,” Sauvé said.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Few students signed up for career scholarships, as lawmakers look to expand the law

2024-01-10T19:19:06+00:00

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Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

Just over 200 Indiana students received state funding for job training in the first year of the state’s Career Scholarship Accounts program, state officials said Wednesday, as lawmakers consider expanding the allowed uses for the money to include paying to get a driver license.

These accounts were the centerpiece of Republican lawmakers’ plans to “reinvent high school,” during the last legislative session, and allowed students to access state funding for workforce training outside of their schools. Advocates said the law would open more doors for students whose schools didn’t offer certain training programs, while critics said it lacked transparency, and could affect funding for high schools’ career and technical education programs.

State officials anticipated that 1,000 students in grades 10-12 would participate in the program during its first year, with each one eligible to receive up to $5,000 for job training and related expenses. Lawmakers appropriated $15 million over two years for the scholarship accounts.

While 574 students applied for the program, around 40% were rejected because they did not have job training lined up, said representatives from the Indiana Treasurer’s Office during a hearing of the House Committee on Education on Wednesday. The program is jointly administered by the treasurer, the Indiana Department of Education, and the Commission on Higher Education.

The 234 students who were approved for scholarship accounts received an average of $3,200 each for curriculum and course material, they said, for a total allocation of $1.17 million.

A total of 30 organizations have been approved as providers for job training, including Indiana University, Ball State, and Ivy Tech, according to the higher education commission.

Lawmakers are considering a bill during this year’s session that would make changes to the law, including allowing students to use the funding to obtain driver’s licenses so they can commute to job training — something that advocates say would encourage participation.

House Bill 1001, authored by Chuck Goodrich, a Noblesville Republican, also seeks to allow students to use scholarships earmarked for attending college after high school for job training instead — a proposal that was rejected last year.

Proponents of the driver’s license provision said that allowing students to use the funding for licenses would open the program to those who otherwise could not get to work sites. The original career scholarship bill provided funding for transportation, but did not specify driver’s licenses.

“Driver’s licenses are a big barrier to growing the program. Kids couldn’t get to where they needed to get,” said Abhi Reddy, legislative counsel at the Treasurer’s Office.

However, Rep. Ed DeLaney, an Indianapolis Democrat, noted that offering funding for driver’s licenses through one program might motivate students to drop academic paths in favor of pursuing a job training scholarship.

The education committee rejected DeLaney’s amendment to remove the provision allowing students to use college scholarship funds — like the 21st Century Scholarship aimed at low-income students — for job training.

It also turned down a separate amendment authored by DeLaney that would’ve required that students be paid for the work they do during their job training opportunities.

“The potential for abuse is all through this bill, and this is one example where the abuse would directly affect the student,” DeLaney said.

HB 1001 passed the education committee and will move to the House.

You can track this bill on the General Assembly’s website.

This story has been updated with a total allocation for career scholarship accounts from the treasurer’s office.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee needs more students to finish higher education to meet job needs, report says

2023-12-13T01:36:41+00:00

Tennessee’s education system must do more to help minority and economically disadvantaged students earn postsecondary degrees in order to meet the state’s workforce needs, a report by an education policy and advocacy organization warned.

The State Collaborative on Reforming Education’s 2024 report, released at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, lauded Tennessee students’ overall progress on standardized tests since the pandemic, and a rebound in the number of students attending college during that time. But the group noted that fewer students were finishing college within six years of graduating high school.

For example, only 26% of the students who entered high school in 2012 had earned degrees or credentials by the summer of 2022, the report said. Black and Hispanic students have lower postsecondary graduation rates than their white peers. Among students who entered high school in 2012:

15% of Black students earned postsecondary degrees by 2022
16% of Hispanic students earned postsecondary degrees by 2022
30% of white students earned postsecondary degrees by 2022

“This is one of the most important data points in the report,” said David Mansouri, CEO of SCORE. “We know that the current pipeline, from K-12 to postsecondary education, and into the job market, is broken, and we are losing too many Tennesseans along the way who want and deserve better opportunities.”

Those numbers also don’t bode well in a state where only 56 workers are available for every 100 jobs, according to the report, and where 70% percent of business leaders say there are not enough trained workers to fill many of those jobs.

“To prepare Tennesseans for jobs enabling economic independence, the education system must better align and respond to the labor market,” the report said. “Tennesseans with postsecondary training valued by employers qualify for a larger portion of the state’s jobs, show greater resilience in the job market during economic downturns and experience greater earnings throughout their lifetime.”

To address the problem, SCORE recommends strengthening existing policies such as the Tennessee Promise program, which provides tuition assistance for students to attend community or technical colleges. SCORE said the program doesn’t go far enough to help students complete college, noting that only one-third of Tennessee Promise students earn a degree in six years.

It also recommends building more effective pathways between education and careers, such as providing clear information on which credentials and degrees are required for certain careers. And it calls for ensuring that K-12 education supports and meets student needs — for example, by finding more highly effective teachers for Tennessee’s low-income students and students of color.

Correction: Dec. 19, 2023: A previous version of this story stated that of the 26 % of Tennessee students who entered high school in 2012 and earned degrees or credentials in 2022, 30% were white, 16% were Hispanic, 15% were Black and 37% identified as other. The percentages for each racial or ethnic group are actually the rates within that group, not the number within the category of all Tennessee students.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools reporter Laura Testino contributed

Bureau Chief Tonyaa Weathersbee oversees Chalkbeat Tennessee’s education coverage. Reach her at tweathersbee@chalkbeat.org.

How Indianapolis-area students can earn college credit in high school

2023-12-07T16:10:41+00:00

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This article was originally published by WFYI.

More than a decade ago, only a quarter of Marion County public high school graduates earned college credit. Today, over half of all graduates earn dual credits from Indiana public colleges during their high school years.

The growing popularity of dual credit comes as the price tag of a secondary degree is questioned by debt-averse students, and Indiana’s college-going rate is stuck at the lowest point in a generation.

In Indianapolis, the number of high schoolers going directly to college after graduation fell to about 47 percent in 2021, according to the most recent state data.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, more students than ever were choosing to earn several types of advanced credit that count toward their graduation and can not only streamline the transition to higher education but cut the bill. Nearly 63 percent of Indiana high schoolers who graduated in 2021 had some type of college credit, a slight dip from the previous year.

In the next four years, state education leaders want to ensure that every Indiana high school provides students the opportunity to earn 30 core college credits, covering essential subjects like English composition, introductory biology, and chemistry. That’s called the Indiana College Core — a certificate earned by completing a set of coursework that can be transferred between all Indiana public colleges and universities and some private ones. Today more than 220 high schools offer it.

Proponents of College Core say it’s working. Over 1,800 students from the class of 2021 graduated with the Indiana College Core, and 90 percent of those students went on to attend college.

Those students could also save on the price of a degree. The Indiana Commission for Higher Education estimates the average cost for a year at a state public college at $22,000.

Students can still take classes for transferable college credit that work towards earning the Indiana College Core without taking all 30 credits needed to earn the certificate.

Michael Hansen with the Brookings Institution says many people are rethinking the purpose of college credit — including how it could be a pathway to enrolling in and completing college.

“I think, for many students, it does show them that maybe college isn’t that challenging, after all,” Hansen said. “I think some students just sort of tell a story about their academic ability during school, and they just feel like college is not for me, and so I’m not even going to try.”

High schools in Indianapolis provide various dual credit programs, with some large traditional schools like Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis Public Schools and Lawrence North in Lawrence Township, reporting around 68 percent of graduates earning credits, according to most recent state data.

Here’s how two Indianapolis high schools provide programs for students to earn college credits and, for some, even a chance at an associate’s degree.

Earning credit on a college campus

Rhymz Johnson is a junior at GEO Next Generation High School. He’s been at GEO since he was a freshman. He arrives at the school in the Meadows northeast side neighborhood every weekday morning around 8:30 a.m. A little bit later, he gets on a bus.

Johnson and two other classmates are headed a few miles to Ivy Tech Community College. It’s the first day of a new term in October.

Rhymz Johnson is a junior at GEO Next Generation High School. Johnson attends classes each day at Ivy Tech Community College as part of a program to earn credit or an associate degree that can transfer to an Indiana college or university.

Johnson, 17, said he feels more like a college student than a high schooler. This semester, he only has one class at the charter high school. The rest of his classes are at Ivy Tech, like the design technology class today.

“Every year since freshman year, I’ve basically had more college classes than high school classes,” he said about the Ivy Tech courses that also satisfy his graduation requirements.

Kevin Teasley, the founder of GEO Academies, said getting students on campus to take classes prepares them for the experience of navigating and learning at college.

“So they walk away with not only a bunch of credits, saving themselves and their family a bunch of money, but they walk away with a lot of experience,” Teasley said. “That’s the key. So if they get an associate’s degree, fantastic. But what we really want them to get is that life experience of going off to college.”

Teasley opened a Gary charter school in 2005. The goal was initially to thwart the high dropout rate in the Northwest region. What he found was a way to connect students with post-grad opportunities.

Now two GEO schools in Gary offer dual credit programs at local colleges. At Gary Middle College, aimed at non-traditional students, nearly 80 percent of graduates reported employment or college enrollment a year after graduation in 2020, according to the most recent data available.

The GEO Next Generation High School Indianapolis opened in 2020 and it offers the Indiana College Core. About 180 students are enrolled at the 7-12 grade school, according to state data. In 2022, 85 percent of students graduated.

“We’re in the business of dropping all barriers,” Teasley said. “We want our students to succeed. So if we have to provide transportation we do. We do pay for the tuition. We do buy the textbooks. We do provide academic and social supports. It’s a complete approach.”

The cost per credit hour for part-time students at Ivy Tech is $170.

Multiple times each day a bus transports students from GEO Next Generation High School on the city’s north east side to the campus of Ivy Tech Community College.

For Johnson, the experience at GEO Academy led him to reconsider a plan to take off time after high school.

“I think I’ll just go ahead and stick to it and just take another year at Ivy Tech, at least to try to get my associate’s degree,” he said.

Now, Johnson is considering transferring to a four year university after getting his associates to major in engineering.

College classes at your high school

Ben Davis University is a three-story building just outside the I-465 loop west of downtown. From the outside, it appears to be a traditional high school but is a partnership between the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township and the public Vincennes University.

The curriculum is designed for students to earn a diploma and associate’s degree to ease the path to a four-year college. Students take classes to complete one of four degrees and career paths: liberal arts, business management, information technology, and health careers.

The school district covers all the costs.

Gift Akintomide is a junior who picked IT as her focus. She said the smaller, more intimate educational environment at BDU led to her choosing the school over other options. About 390 students are enrolled at the 10-12 grade school, according to state data.

“There’s a lot fewer people [at BDU] than at other high schools. So you feel like you’re getting a tailored education and you have a more personal relationship with your teachers and your peers,” said Akintomide. “But I will say that the early college did draw me in as well. There are opportunities to grow from it.”

BDU students take college classes every other day from a Vincennes University adjunct professor. This semester, Akintomide is taking an advanced computer science class.

She chose IT because it’s a growing field and the skills she’s learning now will be transferable to whichever career path she lands on.

Vincennes counselors are also in the building to help students stay on track for their degree completion. Akintomide says she learned that if you collaborate with teachers to understand the college coursework, “you will excel.”

In 2022, 100 percent of students graduated. In 2021, nearly 95 percent of graduates reported they were employed or enrolled in college after graduating a year earlier.

Wayne Township offers other dual credit options outside of Ben Davis University. The Early College Career Center at Ben Davis High School offers a program for students to earn their diploma and associate degree in pharmacy technology, culinary arts, or precision machining.

Ben Davis University is part of the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township. Through a partnership with Vincennes University students can earn an associate degree when they graduate with their high school diploma.

“Wayne Township has always had pathway options for students so that they can individualize what they want to do during high school and what they want to do after high school,” said Rebecca Daugherty-Saunders, the district’s Director of College and Career Readiness. “We definitely have seen a growing trend of interest in career certification programs. And so we’re adapting to meet the needs of our students.”

The Area 31 Career Center, also based at Ben Davis High School, offers credentials in welding, cosmetology, and supply chain management. Students get school credit for hands-on work experience.

Akintomide, the junior at Ben Davis University, hasn’t nailed down exactly what she wants to do for her career but wants to go into the medical field. She is considering a major in bioengineering on a pre-med track and then continuing to medical school.

“I think it gave me an idea of what college is. I may not be like physically in an actual college. but it does let me know how the structure works,” Akintomide said about the school. “I also get to talk to the professors, and they let me know how it is at Vincennes University.”

Contact WFYI Marion County education reporter Sydney Dauphinais at sdauphinais@wfyi.org.

How the delayed FAFSA is impacting a new mandate for Indiana students

2023-12-07T11:00:00+00:00

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It’s the first school year that Indiana students are required to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA. But they still don’t have access to the form.

The FAFSA is typically released in October. But this year, its release has been delayed as the federal government works on a new version that’s supposed to be easier and quicker to fill out. It’s now expected to be out by the end of the month.

All that change means it’s even more important for resources to reach every student individually, school leaders said.

The FAFSA is how students are considered for federal financial aid such as grants, loans and scholarships as well as some aid from states and individual colleges. Students can also access funds for a Next Level Jobs Workforce Ready Grant for a short- or long-term credential by filling out the form.

The new statewide requirement, which has some exceptions, is part of an effort by state leaders to boost Indiana’s college-going rate, which stood at about 53% for the Class of 2021, the latest data available. That’s roughly the same percentage as for the Class of 2020, although it declined for several years before that.

Filling out the FAFSA is considered an indicator of college-going, and nearly 48% of students in Indiana’s high school Class of 2023 completed the form, per a state dashboard. But the FAFSA delay could create a time crunch; of those students who completed the FAFSA, roughly 60% filled out the form by Dec. 31.

What families need to prepare for the FAFSA

One big change is when students and parents create their Federal Student Aid ID, which serves as a digital signature students need for the FAFSA

As part of creating the ID, they submit personal information to be verified, and the ID can take one to three days, said Bill Wozniak, vice president of communications and student services for INvestEd, which provides free FAFSA help in-person and via phone.

In the past, students and parents could create their FSA ID before sitting down to fill out the FAFSA or at the same time, but the latter is no longer an option, Wozniak said. So families need to have the ID ready before they start the form.

“It really launches the whole process,” said Rebecca Daugherty-Saunders, director of college and career readiness for the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township.

School leaders and others are telling students to create their FSA IDs now. Otherwise, for example, families might come to a FAFSA event in the spring expecting to complete the FAFSA there with experts to help them, but won’t be able to because they don’t have an ID ready to go.

How sports and free dinners help schools boost FAFSA completion

In years past, Wozniak said INvestEd would hold roughly half of its FAFSA events before the new year, in part because there’s typically a group of students who wanted to fill out the form around the time when college applications are due.

Plus, College Goal Sunday, a free event to help families fill out the FAFSA at locations across the state, is typically in October and in February. But this school year, it’s only on Feb. 25, 2024, said Wozniak, who serves as the event’s co-chairperson.

Still, INvestED has more than 900 events scheduled this year at high schools across the state, including ones this semester about the FSA ID and general information.

And districts including Warren and Wayne townships received the College Matters grant to increase college enrollment in Marion County; they are using it to help students fill out the FAFSA.

Both Ben Davis and Warren Central have added experts and support staff from universities and community groups to answer questions and work with students and families on the FAFSA. District leaders said they are looking for ways to make it as easy as possible for families.

At Warren, that means having people available to help before and during the school day at the district’s community resource center, in addition to the evening sessions for filling out the FAFSA.

It also means ensuring there is FAFSA information at events families attend, such as athletic competitions, said Laura Butgereit, coordinator for college and career readiness, school counseling, and family engagement for the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township.

At Ben Davis, the Indianapolis Urban League is providing hot meals for families during the FAFSA nights. That makes it easier for families to attend, Daugherty-Saunders said: “We’re taking time away from families outside of school. It’s their dinner time.”

Reaching all students can be difficult in a high school as big as Ben Davis, but it’s crucial, Daugherty-Saunders said. She added that teachers and counselors both work to reach seniors about their postsecondary plans.

Butgereit agreed that reaching each student is crucial to the new FAFSA mandate’s success.

“It’s going to come down to our counselors [and] support people working through all the seniors,” she said.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. She also covers access to higher education and Warren Township Schools. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools students are taking longer than four years to finish college: report

2023-12-05T11:00:00+00:00

Most Chicago Public Schools students take five years or longer to finish college, according to a new report from the To&Through Project at the UChicago Consortium on School Research.

The report — titled “The Four Years Fallacy” — analyzed CPS students who graduated in 2015 and enrolled in college the following year. It found 30% finished their degree in four years, but when looking at college completion rates within six years, the rate climbs to 50%.

Most students — roughly 67% — finished their degree in five years, after one or two extra semesters, while 12% took longer. About 15% finished in four years, exactly eight terms, and 4% finished early.

Jenny Nagaoka, deputy director of the UChicago Consortium and senior advisor for the To&Through Project, said college graduation rates are most commonly reported by the federal government and higher education institutions as six-year rates, but that’s not how students and families think about college when they’re applying.

“The problem is that we call them four-year colleges,” Nagaoka said. “If I’m on a two-hour flight, and if it arrives three hours later and that’s considered on time, I’m going to be pretty unhappy.”

The report did not look at the reasons why students took longer, and the authors said there are many valid reasons students take more time. However, the report points out that taking longer than four years to complete a degree can create financial burdens, including more student debt, and can delay the start of one’s career and earnings.

When looking at a student’s race and gender, disparities in college completion emerge.

Young Black men are least likely to finish their degree in either four or six years, followed by young Black women and young Latino men. Young white and Asian American women have the highest college completion rates, followed by their male counterparts, according to the report.

“We’re seeing a lot more first-generation college students, a lot more low-income students, and we’re seeing more students who are going to college are racially diverse,” Nagoaka said. “What colleges need to do to make sure that students are successful has changed considerably.”

Brian Harris, Director of College Pathways with Chicago Public Schools, said it’s important not to “negatively stigmatize taking six years to finish college.”

“Our focus is on our students’ success in general as opposed to doing it within a specific amount of time,” Harris said.

CPS has a curriculum for all sixth through 12th grade students to help them think about their future careers and how to navigate college applications and enrollment, as well as prepare them academically to be successful in college classes, Harris said.

But once they’re on a college campus, that extra guidance and help can fade away.

“So much of persistence and completion is connected to the type of support they get on the college level,” Harris said.

He pointed out that the district has had a partnership with more than a dozen local universities and colleges since 2014 aimed at collaborating on the question of how best to support CPS students.

“We talk about financial aid, we talk about admissions policies, we talk about student affairs policies,” Harris said. “We have a pretty open line of communication with higher ed institutions in hopes that we get feedback on: How can we best prepare students for success at your institution?”

“And on the flip side, here’s what we’re hearing from our students in higher ed institutions. This is what our students need in order to be successful at your institution,” he said.

Harris noted that the data in the report looks at the Class of 2015 and said district officials anticipate seeing improved four-year and six-year college completion rates in the coming years.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Butler University launches two-year college with degrees free to most students

2023-11-03T17:16:48+00:00

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Students can earn an associate degree from Butler University at no cost to them, and continue on to earn a bachelor’s degree for $10,000, thanks to a new program.

On Friday, Butler announced it is opening a new two-year college on campus that will offer associate degrees in business and allied health. The program will start enrolling students in fall 2025.

The program is focused on Indianapolis-area students from low-income backgrounds, including students who are undocumented. The university said in its Friday announcement that it wants to make college more accessible and affordable for previously underserved students, and help them navigate the college-going process.

The program is designed as a commuter school, and its students will have access to the same resources and amenities as other Butler students, officials said Friday. However, students in the two-year program will also have additional support, including small classes, dedicated faculty advisors, mental health services, and financial aid, per a news release.

A majority of qualifying students will also qualify for Federal Pell Grants and the state’s Frank O’Bannon Scholarship. Those two sources of aid will cover the cost of the two-year degree, the university said.

Students who earn a 3.0 or higher GPA in their two-year program automatically qualify to continue at Butler to earn a four-year degree. Students with a lower GPA will be considered on a case-by-case basis, per the university.

If students continue work towards their bachelor’s degree, the Pell and O’Bannon funds will — along with aid from Butler — keep costs to the student to a maximum of $10,000, according to Butler.

Butler’s announcement is the latest effort from Indiana’s institutions of higher education to improve the state’s college-going rate. For the Class of 2021, the latest data available, the college-going rate was about 53%. That’s roughly the same rate as for the Class of 2020; the rate fell for several years before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education released this fall showed enrollment in higher education increased by roughly 4,700 students from a year ago. That increase included a roughly 3,200-student increase in two-year schools.

Butler is launching its new college in partnership with the national nonprofit organization Come to Believe Network. The organization works to help colleges and universities start two-year programs as a pathway for students to earn associate and bachelor’s degrees, per a news release.

Butler will be Come to Believe Network’s third partner, joining Loyola University Chicago and University of St. Thomas – Minnesota. More than 80% of graduates from this model transfer to a four-year college or university, and 75% earn a bachelor’s degree in addition to their two-year degree, Butler University said.

Come to Believe credits that success in part to the mix of students having access to the amenities of the four-year campus with added support.

Across the state, Ivy Tech Community College and Vincennes University, which are two-year campuses, offer students the most options for two-year degrees.

However, several other universities and colleges offer a smaller number of associate degrees, per the Commission for Higher Education: Ball State University, Indiana University, IUPUI, Indiana Wesleyan University, Purdue University, the University of Saint Francis, and the University of Southern Indiana.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. She also covers access to higher education and Warren Township Schools. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Growth in Indiana college enrollment marks largest increase in 13 years

2023-10-18T18:29:57+00:00

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More students are going to Indiana’s colleges and universities this fall, and the share of students earning degrees on schedule has also grown in the last few years, the state announced Wednesday.

Data released by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education showed that enrollment this fall increased by roughly 4,700 students from a year ago. That marks the largest year-over-year increase in 13 years, per the state. The commission reported that there are about 244,600 students enrolled in Indiana institutions of higher education this fall.

The new state data shows a move in a positive direction for state leaders, who are aiming to increase the state’s college attainment after years of declining college-going rates. That includes several efforts aimed at college access enacted earlier this year by state lawmakers.

Per the state, the number of undergraduate students increased by nearly 3% over last year; the number of graduate students declined by less than 1%.

The enrollment increase includes roughly 2,500 students from Indiana, a nearly 2% bump for in-state enrollment.

Enrollment increased at both two-year and four-year institutions. For students from Indiana, enrollment in two-year schools is up by roughly 3,200, and enrollment in four-year institutions is down by roughly 700.

The commission also said that more students are completing degrees on time, with a 9% increase over the last five years.

Earlier this year, the state also reported that Indiana’s college-going rate is about 53% for the Class of 2021, the latest data available. That’s about the same as the rate for the Class of 2020; the college-going percentage fell for several years before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The changes approved by state lawmakers this year to improve college access include automatically enrolling students into 21st Century Scholars, which covers tuition for qualifying students; requiring all students fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to access more funds; and preventing state and for-profit private colleges and universities from refusing transcripts to current or former students who still owe money to the institution.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. She also covers access to higher education and Warren Township Schools. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

How a Colorado community college attracted more older students to college

2023-10-06T21:34:49+00:00

Colorado’s community colleges have struggled to enroll older adults since the start of the pandemic, but several schools have been able to work against that trend by helping them with their busy lives.

For example, Pueblo Community College leaders have found ways to cater to and begin to attract older students, or those who aren’t recent high school graduates. The school has leaned into using remote learning, creating flexible class schedules, and offering more child care options to help older adults.

Those changes have made it easier for older students to see themselves on campus, state and school leaders say, while also focusing on the increasing demand among high schoolers participating in concurrent enrollment — a program offered to high school students to take college level courses and even earn an associate’s degree.

“We’ve tried to look at the whole student and make sure that they have the financial resources that they need, but also all of the support services that they need to be successful,” said Patricia Erjavec, Pueblo Community College president.

Overall, the state’s community colleges, as of the end of September, are educating 8.5% more students over last year, or about 84,000 students, up from 78,274 at the same time last year.

Community college enrollment remains below 2019 levels, but concurrent enrollment has helped reduce the losses in the last couple years.

Statewide, concurrent enrollment has increased by 18.5% over last year, or an increase of 5,651 students. On average, most high school students enrolled in the program only take a couple courses.

Degree-seeking student enrollment at the state’s 13 colleges varied this year. Students seeking a degree increased by 2% over last year, or about 1,000 students.

Degree-seeking students include those that have just graduated from high school and students who are going to college after taking a break from school. The state has struggled to get the second group, especially students ages 21-39, to enroll.

The slower rebound in older adults enrolling statewide can likely be attributed to the state’s economy, said Landon Pirius, vice chancellor of academic and student affairs of the college system.

Older students tend to enroll at higher rates during economic downturns to get job training that opens up jobs with higher pay. But Colorado has a strong job market, with one job for every two residents.

Yet, some of the most in-demand jobs require a college education and the state has created new free college training programs in fields such as health care, law enforcement, firefighting, construction, and teaching.

The state must continue to cater to adults through flexible class schedules and support that takes into consideration that many adults come to college with bills to pay and families to support, Pirius said.

“I think we can get there, but I think our systems currently aren’t set up to support adult students as well as they are students who are straight out of high school,” he said.

Pueblo Community College has so far increased concurrent enrollment numbers by 30% this year over last year, second only to Red Rocks Community College.

Erjavec said the school has expanded what it offers to high school students.

The school has a new law academy and enrolled more criminal justice students. Pueblo Community College also started a Friday academy, where concurrent enrollment students come to the school every week. They get to see what it’s like at college, Erjavec said, and help spread the word about the benefits of concurrent enrollment.

Degree-seeking student enrollment among older students has increased by 3.5% over last year. Schools such as Pikes Peak, Front Range, and the Community College of Denver also have boosted enrollment.

Erjavec said the region’s economy might be playing into why it’s seeing interest from older adults. Pueblo has lagged behind the rest of the state in economic growth as a manufacturing city that’s experienced a shrinking of industry in recent years.

Because of the area’s economy, more students might be looking for new opportunities through going to college, Erjavec said.

Her goal is to make it easier for adults to be on campus or take classes.

“We serve a very low socioeconomic, rural area,” Erjavec said. “I always tell my team we get one chance to make sure that the students get the best academic experience they can.”

So far, changes have come without big financial investments, Erjavec said.

The school has relied more on bolstering its remote or hybrid learning options, which especially helps adults who can’t always be on campus because of work or family obligations, she said.

School officials also are thinking about how to provide support or academic services outside of normal school hours.

And the school also has a new child care center at its St. Mary’s-Corwin campus, and she hopes to grow on-campus child care options. The goal is to make students comfortable on campus and build trust that the college can work for them, she said.

“I think we have a good reputation,” Erjavec said. “Students know that and they count on that when they enroll with us.”

You can apply to college for free in Indiana from Sept. 25-29. Here’s how.

2023-09-22T11:00:00+00:00

Indiana students can apply to 36 colleges in the state for free next week, saving them hundreds of dollars in fees.

The fee is waived during College Application Week, which runs from Sept. 25 to 29. The effort is part of a push to increase college-going in the state, which stagnated at 53% of high school graduates from the class of 2021, and was declining before the COVID-19 pandemic.

While some Indiana colleges have no application fee, those that do range from about $25 to $65 per application, so the cost can add up quickly, said Michelle Ashcraft, senior associate commissioner and chief programs officer for the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, who leads the commission’s K-12 outreach team.

The commission has several initiatives aimed at increasing the college-going rate after high school, including automatic enrollment into 21st Century Scholars, which covers tuition for qualifying students; requiring all students fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to access more funds; and pre-admissions, where students at participating schools receive a letter telling them which of the participating Indiana colleges they’d be admitted to if they apply.

The application fee waiver next week not only reduces the cost of applying for college, it also means students are researching colleges and applying earlier in the year, Ashcraft said. She added that increases their chances at merit scholarships and helps to meet early deadlines.

If a student hasn’t yet started an application or decided where to apply, Ashcraft said it’s still “very feasible” for students to apply to multiple colleges during College Application Week.

Colleges in the state have worked to streamline their application process, and in some cases, have one-page applications, she said, adding that if a student is undecided about college, this means they have the option for free.

However, Ashcraft said that if students have concerns about affording the application fee after this coming week, they should contact that school’s admissions office and ask if waivers are available.

How to apply to college in Indiana for free:

Below is a list of Indiana colleges and universities participating in College Application Week.

Students should go to the institution-specific application (not the Common App) on that school’s website and fill it out as usual. If a code is listed below, enter that when prompted, otherwise the fee should be automatically waived, Ashcraft said.

List of participating colleges

Anderson University
Bethel University
Caris College
DePauw University
Earlham College
Franklin College
Grace College
Hanover College
Huntington University
Indiana Tech
Indiana State University (Fee waived until Oct. 1)
Indiana University East
Indiana University Fort Wayne (Fee waived from Sept. 15 to Oct. 1. Use code: FWCOLLGO)
Indiana University Indianapolis (Use Code: INCOLLGO)
Indiana University Kokomo
Indiana University Northwest
Indiana University South Bend
Indiana University Southeast
Indiana Wesleyan University
Ivy Tech Community College
Manchester University
Marian University
Martin University
Oakland City University
Purdue University Fort Wayne (Fee waived from Sept. 25 to Oct 8. Use Code: CollegeGo2023)
Purdue University Northwest (Fee waived all of September)
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College
Saint Mary’s College
Trine University
University of Evansville
University of Indianapolis
University of Saint Francis
University of Southern Indiana
Valparaiso University
Vincennes University
Wabash College

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief and covers higher education. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

A path to the workforce and a pipeline of workers: Companies go to high schools for career training

2023-09-20T11:00:00+00:00

Every now and then, Ayden Corbett has to explain to surprised homeowners what he’s doing in their front yard.

Since the second semester of his senior year of high school, he has responded to field calls as an employee of the largest underground utility locating company in North America — the Indianapolis-based U.S. Infrastructure Company (USIC). The white truck and multicolored flags marking the location of water, power, and telecommunications lines usually give it away.

“You learn how to work with people,” he said.

Corbett graduated in 2022 from a unique program at the Hinds Career Center in Elwood that trains high schoolers for the little-known underground utility locating industry. As demand for the profession skyrocketed during the work-from-home boom of the pandemic, USIC representatives approached the career center about creating a high school graduation pathway that would lead to a diploma, an industry certification, and a job offer.

While still uncommon in Indiana, partnerships between schools and private companies that lead students directly into employment in highly specific trades are growing — the Hinds Center program is the newest among four that have been started statewide.

“Their goal is to have trained employees ready to enter the field; ours as a career center is to give students the workforce and soft skills to be employable in whatever they choose,” said Jim Pearson, director of the Hinds center.

And creating more of these programs is a top priority for state education officials, who have been charged under a new state law with reworking high school requirements to encourage more students to work and earn credentials before they graduate.

It’s part of an effort to counter Indiana’s declining college going rates by connecting high school students to in-demand and high-paying jobs without the need for postsecondary education.

Ayden Corbett, a 2022 graduate of the underground utility locating program, stands with his company truck.

“Young people are really wanting a variety of options for leading to viable, successful futures. That’s not necessarily a four-year degree,” said Rachel Rosen, senior research associate at the Center for Effective Career and Technical Education at MRDC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.

‘Employable in whatever they choose’

The underground utility graduation track at the Hinds Center is a slower version of the standard company training program, hosted inside a former sewing classroom that USIC equipped with a virtual reality system and a wall showing the typical utility connections on a home. The company also provides the two instructors, said Darrin Haynes, senior manager of career and technical education at USIC.

Students study the underground utility maps of Indiana cities like Westfield, where new home construction is booming, and learn to use the equipment that allows them to detect underground utility lines both through virtual reality and in the field. They spend part of the day at the center for career training, but also take traditional academic courses at their home high schools.

USIC has hired 14 of the 16 graduates of the Elwood program over two years, and fielded calls from its competitors looking to hire students as well, Haynes said. As of this year, students will also earn college credit at Indiana Tech upon completing the pathway.

One of the main draws of the track is the opportunity to start working during senior year, said Jacob Wright, another 2022 grad. Students who are at least 18 years old are paid the same rate as new hires to respond to calls to 811, the service that companies and homeowners are supposed to call before digging projects, according to Haynes.

“You get a job out of high school, a (company) truck second semester, and you get paid to take calls,” said Wright.

A hallway inside the Hinds Career Center in Elwood, Indiana, shows the 15 different career technical education paths offered to students.

Programs should connect to college and career

Several other local graduation pathways in Indiana offer students direct links to local companies, including the RV construction pathway at Wa-Nee Community schools, and a now-defunct aviation sheet metal pathway at Decatur schools.

The latter operated for a year before the pandemic created challenges for teaching and recruiting students, said Michael Gehrich, director of aviation at Vincennes University, which worked with Decatur schools on the pathway.

Like the utility locating program, the aviation pathway sought to expose students to a local industry that’s in need of workers, with a lower barrier to entry than existing dual credit aviation programs that require additional college education, Gehrich said.

Other similar programs can be found in New York City’s P-TECH schools, said Rosen, the researcher, which are six-year schools that partnered with companies to allow students to graduate with STEM skills, a high school diploma, and an associate’s degree.

Where vocational schools of the past contributed to inequity by directing low-income and students of color into low-wage jobs, modern career training can give students a window into their options, Rosen said.

“CTE in high school provides students an opportunity to explore what they don’t want to do as much as what they do want to do,” Rosen said. “We may see a failure because the student did not want to go into that field, but higher-resourced students have more opportunity to explore and make mistakes. If they wait till college to explore what they don’t like, there can be a real cost to doing that.”

The goal should be preparing students for a career with mobility, Rosen said.

Haynes said underground utility locating offers that mobility. Graduates can work for municipalities instead, move into management and training roles at USIC, or request to be relocated to another state.

The pathway opens a new option in a community where the college-going rate has dropped, said Haynes.

Darrin Haynes, senior manager of career and technical education at USIC, shows a training wall inside the Hinds Career Center classroom.

State data shows the rate for Madison County dropped 16 percentage points from 2015-2020, mirroring the state’s drop of 12 points in that time period.

Though no students have yet changed their minds about the senior-level course, Pearson said one advantage of the career center is that it has the flexibility to redirect students to one of its other career paths.

Plans to expand in Indiana and other states

Pearson said the Hinds center is open to working with other companies to develop local graduation pathways and meet workforce needs — but that they would need to work closely with educators on curriculum and standards.

The career center would aim to stay away from low-skill, low-pay tracks, but wouldn’t outright reject retail pathways, for example, if they led into supervision and management positions, Pearson said.

Haynes said that other companies interested in creating their own pipeline programs at local high schools need to commit to an upfront investment with a slow return. In addition to a workforce pipeline, one major benefit to USIC is that graduates have more time to absorb the training, and begin working with more experience, often making fewer mistakes than other new hires.

Haynes said the company isn’t working with students who are using Indiana’s new career scholarship accounts, which give students money to take career training outside of their schools. Those students could apply for a job with the company and take the training there, he siad.

A mural in Elwood is dedicated to Red Gold Tomatoes, a major manufacturer and employer in town.

The company plans to continue recruiting in high schools. Haynes said USIC has replicated the high school training program in Oklahoma and New York, and hopes to grow it further throughout Indiana and other states.

“Most of our graduates have moved out, have a place of their own. They start their lives in a way that we all dream of when we’re teenagers,” said Haynes. “We’re putting them on a pathway to do that.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Career-focused graduation pathway for English learners takes root in Perry Township

2023-09-07T19:10:06+00:00

For over a decade, Southport High School teacher Amy Peddie has led classes of students who are English language learners through the intricacies of getting ready for college, like filling out applications, finding financial aid, and writing personal essays.

This year, she’s teaching a class with a new emphasis: Getting ready for a career by writing cover letters, resumes, and professional emails. In a recent exercise, students contacted companies they were unfamiliar with to ask about job and training opportunities.

“One student said, ‘I thought this was an [English learner] class, but this feels like a work class,’” Peddie said.

Peddie’s course is part of a new graduation pathway for students who are learning to speak and read in English, where students can train for the workforce during high school and graduate with a job and a diploma in hand. It’s the first local graduation pathway in the state to specifically cater to English learner students who have limited English proficiency.

This pathway is part of a growing emphasis in Indiana and nationwide on preparing students for jobs without the necessity of a two- or four-year degree, as college-going rates have declined from several years ago and skilled trades face a worker shortage.

In Indiana, lawmakers have pushed to “reinvent high school” to make it more relevant to in-demand careers.

At Perry schools, which educate around 4,600 English learner students, the second largest population in the state, the pathway also gives students another way to meet Indiana’s graduation requirements and local hiring needs. Like the college-going class, it aims to help newly arrived students navigate a potentially unfamiliar process.

“If your choice is college, great, but if not, that’s not something to look down on,” said Southport Principal Amy Boone. “We want to have options and opportunities.”

Southport has around 600 students receiving English language services, Boone said, and district officials say they’re expecting a record enrollment this year of students who have recently relocated to the United States from other countries. In Indiana, this population grew 52% from 2017 to 2022.

The population is not only growing, but changing, Boone said: More students have arrived in recent years with less experience in formal education, both as a result of the pandemic and international conflict.

But once they enroll, they’re still required to meet Indiana graduation requirements that include demonstrating postsecondary skills. Students with extenuating circumstances could be granted a waiver, but this approach will be limited going forward under a state law passed this year.

If English learners are missing reading and writing skills in their first languages, a traditional career and technical education course may be inaccessible, even with the aid of translation, Boone said.

The new graduation pathway provides students who enrolled in U.S. schools in seventh grade or later a way to meet graduation requirements through classes on business math and personal financial responsibility, as well as internships and mock interviews. It’s also meant to help students develop their English proficiency through speech and English as a New Language classes.

In addition to being the first such local pathway for graduation in Indiana, Perry’s track for English learners is one of just two in the state that equips students with general career skills, rather than focusing on a specific trade or industry.

This year, an initial section of students piloting the pathway has already discussed what they hope to do after high school — answers that included working as barbers or cosmetologists.

Peddie said she hopes to take them on field trips to visit local salons and see that work up close. But she’d also like to introduce them to other industries, like manufacturing, where local companies are actively hiring.

Boone said the key to the program is to balance student interests with community needs.

Local staffing companies that already place the parents of Southport students in jobs are working with Perry schools on the new pathway.

The district itself could employ students to work on campus beautification projects, and then hire them after graduation knowing they have the required skills, Boone said. Southport High School, for example, recently hired a current student to work in the cafeteria.

“There’s been a pendulum shift,” Boone said. “We pushed for a long time on college, but there’s value in the trades, too.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Gen Z isn’t so sure about college, a new poll finds. Colorado counselors say that isn’t the whole story.

2023-08-03T23:09:06+00:00

Gen Z believes education after high school is necessary. They’re just not so sure about going to a four-year university.

It isn’t that the generation born between 1997 and 2012 doesn’t want to get a bachelor’s degree, according to a recent study by the ECMC Group. The cost of tuition, student debt, and not feeling prepared keep them from heading to a university. Some are more open to certificate programs, apprenticeships, two-year degrees, and on-the-job training as viable paths to a career.

The general attitudes of Gen Z students, documented in the report by the group that pushes to help students succeed, tracks similarly to what Colorado college counseling groups hear. Advisors say students they talk to are recovering from an unprecedented pandemic and they’re more cost conscious about their education. Gen Z students are putting financial security first.

“They’ve seen so many people just operate to survive during the pandemic,” said Melissa Muniz, the Latin American Educational Foundation student services and program manager.

With those attitudes in mind, counselors say there’s a balance in helping Gen Z students understand how to approach their education. About 65% of students say post-high school education is important, the report says. And almost 60% say they can be successful without a four-year degree.

Having a four-year degree has benefits. State data shows having a bachelor’s degree can open opportunities for more secure and higher-paying jobs that Gen Z students seek. Residents with a bachelor’s degree are also more mobile.

Nonetheless, financial worries persist about the high cost of tuition at a four-year university or the debt students might be saddled with after they graduate. The study says six in 10 teens worry about how to pay for their education. That can hold them back.

Students do have options in Colorado, and it’s true that some students can get what they want out of their education from a shorter-term program.

But the study shows not enough students feel they get the counseling they need to make the decision. About 63% said they need guidance on finances and 48% said they need education and career guidance.

“They’re operating from this place where they want to find something they love, they want to find something they’re passionate about doing,” said Muniz, whose nonprofit pushes for greater access to higher education among Latino and Hispanic students. “But they question how they are also going to have stability so that they can provide for themselves and for their families.”

Gabriel Guindon, Denver Scholarship Foundation college access director, said counselors always make sure students know about Colorado’s talent pipeline report that says about 92% of the top jobs statewide require schooling beyond a high school diploma. The Denver foundation helps students realize their college dreams through advising and financial aid.

Students also should get advised individually to find the best fit, whether that’s academic, financial, or social, he said. Guindon offers advice on how to pay for a four-year degree, but he doesn’t steer students just toward universities. He tries to help students see that an education beyond college is necessary and at their fingertips.

Gen Z’s openness toward other options expressed in the survey aligns with some of Colorado’s higher education priorities. Colorado’s higher education strategic plan calls for students to get a return on what they pay, help more low-income students get into programs after high school, and for colleges to work more closely with employers.

The state has been investing more in programs that connect post-high school education and industries that need more trained workers. Sometimes these programs lead to a bachelor’s degree and sometimes they don’t.

The state wants more high school students to leave with a certificate or credential that can lead to a job and has free high school programs where students can attend college-level classes and earn credit.

Colorado now offers free college and training in a range of fields where there’s a shortage of workers, such as teaching, firefighting, and law enforcement. These programs can help students find a track that fits their interests and offers good job prospects after completion. These programs expanded on Colorado’s CareForward program, which provides free education for health care fields.

Other examples include schools such as Colorado Mountain College, which partners with local employers to create practical training for students to get jobs on the Western Slope. Community colleges such as the Community College of Aurora have also cut some arts and humanities programs to focus on courses that prepare students for jobs.

Sachs Foundation President Ben Ralston said Gen Z attitudes he’s observed are also reactions to issues that should be challenged. The national survey says students want their interests to lead to fulfillment in their careers.

Ralston, whose nonprofit supports Black Colorado students, said he’s heard from many students who want to learn business or engineering because they care most about the money they’ll earn. Some students, however, have no interest in those careers and won’t find fulfillment, he said.

Adults shouldn’t forget a four-year education also can lead to jobs that may not pay as much, but help create a more robust society through art, literature, or teaching, he said. It’s on state leaders to help make jobs with high societal value worth the time students spend getting educated for them and to help students find value in creativity.

For instance, Ralson said Colorado needs more Black educators. The foundation and Teach for America Colorado have teamed up to provide financial and career development support to Black educators, through learning groups and a salary incentive.

Sachs Foundation Chief Operating Officer Pamela Roberts said Gen Z notions about higher ed also can be challenged simply by offering them information. Not every student has to go to an Ivy League school and most students realize that college is more affordable than they expect depending on where they go.

Muniz said, however, students too often don’t get the information they need to make dreams a reality.

“They know what it takes and they know what they might want to do,” she said. “But some of them are just lacking that confidence or lacking that ability or the resources to really understand how to take advantage of these opportunities.”

Correction: The original story incorrectly named the organization that worked on the study. The ECMC Group conducted the study.

Indiana’s newest college-going rate holds to previous year

2023-07-13T15:52:17+00:00

The newest college-going rate for Indiana high school graduates is about the same as it was for the graduating class the year before.

Last year, data from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education showed the high school class of 2020 had a 53% college-going rate, which was a significant drop even with years of declining enrollment, prompting concern from state leaders.

This year, the commission’s data showed that the college-going rate for Indiana high school graduates in the class of 2021 was a “mild decline,” the smallest decline in a decade, according to Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Chris Lowery.

The class of 2021 went to college at a rate of 52.9%, a half of a percentage point down from 53.4% for the class of 2020. That meant that about 400 fewer high school graduates went to college. This rate is the percentage of students going directly from high school to some form of college — which ranged from less than one-year certificates to four-year degrees.

The 2023 College Readiness Report, which includes data about the class of 2021, has not been released yet, but Lowery previewed the data as part of his report at the Indiana Commission for Higher Education meeting Thursday.

Lowery said he’s hopeful initiatives underway will boost the rate in coming years.

Also included in the preview of the data were college-going rates for several groups of students.

The college-going rate for Black high school graduates in the class of 2021 was 45%, an increase of two percentage points from the previous year, and it was 43% for Hispanic and Latino high school graduates, a drop of one percentage point.

Among 21st Century Scholars in the class of 2021, 80.8% went to college compared with 30.1% of students from low-income backgrounds who didn’t use the scholarship and 59.2% of students from high-income backgrounds.

The 21st Century Scholars program offers up to the equivalent of four years tuition and regular fees at an in-state public university or college to students who meet income and residency eligibility. Students must pledge to follow requirements like maintaining a minimum GPA.

Previously, students had to opt into the scholarship before high school, but a change in state law now means that all students who qualify will be automatically enrolled in the scholarship, but have the option to opt out.

Students in the high school class of 2021 had their junior and senior years of high school, the time when college decisions are made, interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lowery said the full 2023 College Readiness Report is expected within a few weeks.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief and covers higher education. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org. Chalkbeat Indiana partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Battle Creek scholarship program to pay up to 100% of college tuition for grads

2023-05-17T20:49:10+00:00

The Battle Creek high school seniors walked across the stage to enthusiastic applause as they formally announced their post-high school plans, but that couldn’t hold a candle to the big announcement that came after: A new scholarship program will pay for up to 100% of their college tuition and fees.

The Bearcat Advantage, part of a partnership between Battle Creek Public Schools and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, will ensure that district graduates have an opportunity to attend college. The scholarships begin with the Class of 2023, who graduate next week, Superintendent Kimberly Carter said during a decision day event — one of many held across the country during the month of May that celebrate the post-graduation plans of high school seniors. The district enrolls 3,753 students, including 279 seniors.

At this event, which was live streamed on YouTube, the scholarship announcement overshadowed those decisions. Students learned that if they have been enrolled in the district since kindergarten, they will have 100% of their tuition and fees covered. The amount decreases depending on how many years a student has been enrolled. For instance, a student enrolled for just the four years of high school will have 65% of their tuition and fees covered.

It was unclear Wednesday afternoon how much the foundation had provided to launch the scholarship program.

“It’s amazing,” said Kapree Richardson, a sophomore at Battle Creek High School. “This is like a good side door to a lot of things people can’t do. A lot of people want to go to college, but a lot of people can’t afford the terms of going to college.”

Kapree was uncertain himself. “This right here, it helps me out a lot.”

The scholarships cover tuition and fees at Michigan public or private colleges and universities. It is also eligible to be used at nearly 100 historically Black colleges and universities.

“This will change your life,” said La June Montgomery Tabron, CEO of the Kellogg Foundation. (The foundation is a Chalkbeat funder. Click here for a list of our supporters.)

The program is similar to the Kalamazoo Promise, which also covers up to 100% of tuition and fees for district graduates. Since it was announced in 2005, many other “promise” type scholarship programs have been created, including in Detroit, where eligible students can have their tuition costs covered through the Detroit Promise.

“This is our promise to this community,” Tabron said. “It’s our promise to all of you.”

The district and foundation have partnered for years. In 2017, the foundation gave the district a $51 million grant that was aimed at improving academic outcomes in the district. Carter said the grant helped the district create new academic and extracurricular programs for students, including career academies, dual enrollment programs, International Baccalaureate programs, and programs focused on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

“Over the last few years, our goal has been to use every resource, partnership and strategy available to make sure that each and every one of you succeeds,” Carter said. “For us, failure is not an option.”

The most recent data show that for the Class of 2022, the four-year graduation rate of the district was 58%, which is down from the pre-pandemic rate of 72% in 2018-19. For those who graduated in 2021 and enrolled in college, whether it was a four-year college or a community college, nearly 18% had to enroll in a remedial course because they needed an academic boost before taking more challenging college classes.

When the announcement came Wednesday afternoon, Carter was met with a loud round of applause. But Kapree said some students didn’t fully understand the magnitude of what they heard. But the adults knew. You could see many of them standing in ovation. Many were crying. “It was an emotional moment,” district spokesman Nate Hunt said.

“That is a blessing,” said Christina Taylor, who teaches high school geometry. “People should have been dropping to their knees. We are blessed beyond measurement. The only thing these children do is make sure they get to college. The resources are now there. That barrier has been lifted. Go home and let mom and dad know … the ball is in their court.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Honorary Manual High diplomas given to former Denver students displaced by the school’s closure in 2006

2023-05-16T01:23:57+00:00

After the Denver school board voted in 2006 to close Manual High School, Manual’s 800 students were scattered across the city. Many graduated from different Denver high schools, a milestone that some who disagreed with the closure look back on with mixed emotions.

On Monday, a new Denver school board issued honorary diplomas to 11 former Manual students who did not have the opportunity to graduate from the 129-year-old high school, which is one of the city’s oldest and most storied with a long list of notable alumni.

Wearing black mortarboards, the former students accepted their diplomas and shook hands with board members and Superintendent Alex Marrero, who were dressed in full graduation regalia.

Shanita Lewis was a freshman when Manual closed. Lewis went on to graduate from Denver’s George Washington High School in 2009 but said she always identified with Manual.

“It’s been a long time coming,” she said after the ceremony. “It feels complete.”

Her sister, Oshanette, was a sophomore when Manual closed. She too graduated from George Washington, where she said students were disrespectful to who they termed “the Manual kids.”

DPS awarding her and her classmates honorary Manual diplomas “means a lot,” she said.

Oshanette Lewis was a sophomore when Manual High School closed. In this 2006 photo, she chanted with her classmates to protest the closure.

Marrero apologized to the former Manual students for the closure.

“We can never fully repair the pain that was caused,” said Marrero, who joined DPS in 2021 and wasn’t superintendent at the time of the closure. “We learn from it and we grow.”

Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, himself a graduate of Manual after it reopened, said the honorary diplomas were an effort to recognize “our past failure as an institution.”

“We are going to make this right,” Anderson said.

A previous school board voted in February 2006 to close Manual for low academic performance. It reopened in fall 2007 with freshmen and rebuilt its student body over the next several years.

The closure was in line with a philosophy held by the DPS administration at the time. Former boards and superintendents believed closing and restarting schools with new teachers and programming was key to improving test scores and better serving students.

But that approach was often traumatic for the students and families, most of whom were Black and Latino. The current administration has moved away from closing schools for low test scores, though it recently closed three schools for low enrollment.

Ten of the 11 honorary diplomas were awarded to former students who attended Manual when it was closed in 2006.

The eleventh was issued to Otis Taylor, who should have graduated from Manual in 1967 but was expelled for what Anderson said was “hair discrimination,” which is now illegal in Colorado. Taylor is a musician who was later inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, according to the school board proclamation awarding him an honorary diploma.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Scholarships, FAFSA, and transcripts: Three new laws aim to help Hoosier students reach college

2023-05-15T20:15:27+00:00

With an eye to addressing Indiana’s low college-going rate and the perception that college is too expensive, Indiana leaders approved three new laws aimed at improving college access.

The new laws aim to strengthen a state scholarship program, provide more information about financial aid, and limit colleges’ power to withhold transcripts from those who still owe money to institutions.

In 2020, the most recent year for which data is available, the state’s college-going rate dropped to 53%, a decline of 12 percentage points from five years before. And there’s been a similar decline in adults who are looking for postsecondary opportunities, per the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

Improving college-going is about the “removal of barriers,” said Alison Bell, chancellor at Western Governors University Indiana. “There are a lot of complicated reasons why the college going rate is low.”

Plus, the state is coming up on its 2025 deadline to have at least 60% of Hoosiers with a credential beyond high school. When state leaders set that goal in 2009, that number was 33%, said Indiana Higher Education Commissioner Chris Lowery in his 2023 State of Higher Education address. It now sits at 54%, but that includes the addition of certificates that were not originally counted, according to the commission.

Higher education leaders and advocates for these bills stressed that finances are a particularly big barrier for students when they don’t know what’s available to them to help them pay for college.

Here what you need to know about three new laws:

21st Century Scholars program expands

The 21s Century Scholars program offers up to the equivalent of four years tuition and regular fees at an in-state public university or college to students who meet income and residency eligibility, and follow requirements outlined in a scholar pledge.

Previously, students had to sign up for the scholarship in middle school, before a no-exceptions deadline of June 30 after eighth grade.

But with the new law, eligible students will automatically become part of the program. After that, students and their families can decide if they want to continue to meet requirements to stay in it. State data showed that 48% of eligible students enrolled.

“It expedites the process,” said Vincent Isom, director of 21st Century Scholars at Indiana University Bloomington, referring to the new law. He said that students and their parents are no longer dependent on finding out about an application and submitting it.

Students required to seek out financial aid options

Indiana students, with some exceptions, are now required to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the FAFSA.

Advocates of the change said that millions of dollars in aid were being left on the table. Requiring the form would allow students to see their school funding options, they argued, and perhaps convince more students to enroll in postsecondary education.

The form is what students need to be considered for federal financial aid such as grants, loans, and scholarships. Completing the form is also considered a leading indicator of college-going.

States and colleges also use the FAFSA to determine eligibility for their respective aid programs.

Colleges can’t withhold transcripts

State and for-profit private colleges and universities can no longer refuse to provide transcripts to current or former students who still owe money — including fees and student loans — to the institution. They also can’t can’t charge a higher fee for the document for those who owe money.

This change removes a barrier for adult learners who want to finish their degrees, but still have payments to make. It often takes months for someone who is thinking about going back to school to make a decision, and not having access to a transcript can derail them, Bell said.

“When a student learns something, they’ve learned it,” said Bell, who advocated in favor of the change. “Withholding a transcript only removes the university’s verification that they’ve learned it.”

Improvements in college access, but more needed

While higher education experts agree these changes are a big step forward, they said that having the money to go to college is only one piece of access.

Access means having information and resources, not only as students are entering college, but also as a college student, said Maurice Shirley, an assistant professor in higher education and student affairs at IU.

He said that includes knowing things like what applications to fill out and where to find them, housing options, and what is needed for a major or to switch majors. And the information to students needs to be targeted and easy to find, said Shirley, given that there can be an information overload.

The change to automatically sign up students for 21st Century Scholars, the change isn’t a “magic wand,” Isom noted. But he said the new law will allow him and others to work with students to spend more time on benchmarks and staying successful in college, instead of on the scholarship application.

And the information to students needs to be targeted and direct, said Shirley who said there is information overload, so the easier it is to find answers to questions, the better.

Both Isom and Shirley agreed finances is an area that they want to see more improvement.

Isom said that students need to be prepared to handle their finances both during and after college.

Shirley said costs of college still need to be lower. One option is addressing tuition costs. But a second way, he said, is decreasing or providing aid for the fees that come with the tuition bill, from activity fees and housing to general living expenses like groceries, health care and so on, he said.

Gone are the days that a student could afford to pay their way through college by working a summer job and using that money during the school year, he added.

A college degree starts with housing help at this program for single mothers in Anderson

2023-04-27T12:54:41+00:00

Amanda Lowery was driving to school last summer when her phone rang. A few weeks earlier, the 32-year-old had started classes to earn her high school diploma. But what she really wanted was to go to college.

A single mother who dropped out of high school at 16, Lowery was working two jobs when she decided to go back to school. She struggled to balance going to class with working to pay bills and not having child care in the evenings or on weekends.

When she answered her phone, Lowery learned she was one step closer to moving into the Anderson Scholar House in Anderson, Ind. And when a second phone call during her history class made it official, she cried. She had a new beginning.

Anderson Scholar House helps single mothers who want a college degree but need housing and extra support. It doesn’t eliminate bills and other pressures of life, but creates a support system that stops those pressures from derailing college careers.

Participants can attend any college, as long as a majority of classes are in-person, and they have transportation to campus. The scholar house provides stable housing for the women — known as scholars — and their children — known as junior scholars — while also teaching life skills and providing guidance.

The aim is for scholars to leave as college graduates who no longer need the housing vouchers, food stamps, or other government assistance they previously have relied on.

It’s a simple concept, and it’s proven successful elsewhere. Plus it’s slated to grow, with two locations possible in Indianapolis.

Rosemary Baker, the family advocate who helps the scholars navigate day-to-day challenges, said it’s the first program she has seen that “did not put a Band-Aid” on people’s problems, leaving them no better off once it ends.

Instead, she said, once it ends, “you’re a new person.”

Anderson Scholar House provides stable housing for single mothers who are looking to earn a college degree.

Giving scholars the support and privacy they need

Last fall, Lowery was one of the first to move into the scholar house, which is actually a pair of apartment buildings. Four of the apartments are occupied. Renovations are wrapping up on four more, and there are several more to be renovated in the future.

Lowery lives in a two-bedroom apartment with her two-year-old daughter, Aaliyah. It’s a space they’ve made their own, from the jungle-themed bedroom for Aaliyah to the “perfect” two-seat kitchen table Lowery gushes about.

In the mornings, they get ready for school together before Lowery heads to classes and Aaliyah goes to day care.

“I’m like, ‘OK baby, mommy’s got to go to school and you got to go to school, we got to get ready, we got to put clean clothes on, brush our teeth, we’re gonna have a good day, learn new things,’” Lowery said.

In the evenings, they make and eat dinner together before Lowery does homework.

Challenges still happen: Aaliyah gets sick and needs to stay home, or Lowery’s car needs repairs. She balances school with working at Cracker Barrel. She still has bills to pay.

Lowery and the other scholars aren’t entirely on their own when it comes to living expenses. The program uses housing vouchers, so they pay a reduced rent. Many also use other assistance programs such as food stamps, and they have scholarships and grants for their education.

Aaliyah points to her toy box crafted by Doug Eckerty, the executive director of JobSource, which runs Anderson Scholar House.

The scholar house staff and providers help with applications and navigating paperwork. Scholars are urged not just to earn college degrees, but to do so in fields that are in demand and offer high wages.

Lowery said Baker — who works out of the scholar house — is her first point of contact when she wants to talk through a challenge and doesn’t know what to do.

“She can either tell me what I need to do, how to do it, or make a phone call to think it out,” Lowery said.

Baker is quick to say that she doesn’t make decisions for the scholars, and she respects their privacy. But what she won’t do is let them ignore their problems and hope they disappear.

“Sometimes, the decisions [the women] make are not good, but we have to allow them to make that [decision] and fall,” Baker said. “But we won’t allow you to lay there, we’re going to get back up.”

She added that each scholar needs support with different things, and the path isn’t always easy. There are lots of tears, but many are happy ones.

Last week, Lowery completed her Core 40 high school degree at The Excel Center, a free public school for adults. While the scholar house typically requires a high school degree to start, Lowery was taking dual credit courses from Ivy Tech Community College at the same time, which meant she qualified.

On the same day as her high school finals, Lowery registered for classes at Ivy Tech, where she has a full scholarship and plans to earn a degree in medical imaging. She’ll start with one class this summer before attending full time in the fall.

Scholars get help with academics, finances, mental health

Anderson Scholar House is modeled after Family Scholar House, which started nearly three decades ago in Louisville, Ky. But the idea of bringing it to Anderson started three years ago.

In early 2020, Doug Eckerty, executive director of the community action agency JobSource, wanted to expand social services in Madison County with something new to the area.

So Eckerty looked for ideas, and that’s when he learned about Family Scholar House.

It started in the 1990s, but opened its first residential campus in 2008. Since then, those living at the now five Family Scholar House campuses have earned nearly 780 college degrees for a graduation rate of 86%, said Cathe Dykstra, chief possibility officer, president, and CEO of Family Scholar House.

She added that of the residential scholars, 99% have exited to stable housing, 81% have exited with stable employment, and 66% have been able to move out while continuing their education, usually graduate school.

“When I first came across them, it seemed too good to be true,” Eckerty said.

After doing his research, Eckerty worked to bring the program to Anderson, which is now one of multiple affiliates of the Family Scholar House across the country. JobSource purchased a pair of apartment buildings in early 2021, and uses the Family Scholar House programming, but adjusts it as needed.

Anderson Scholar House has a staff of four as well as a slew of providers and volunteers who work with the scholars. They work with other community organizations for services like mental health, financial aid programming, and academic coaching. with other community organizations for services like mental health, financial aid programming, and academic coaching.

Volunteers provide babysitting and help with painting and furnishing apartments. Scholars have guidance and workshops on meal planning, appliance maintenance, and tax preparation. Financial classes help them prepare for housing after graduation.

There are monthly financial check-ins, midterm grade reports, and apartment checks. Not because the staff is nosy, but to make sure scholars are staying on track, Baker said.

Rosemary Baker, the family advocate for Anderson Scholar House, says the program changes lives and isn’t just a Band-Aid.

“Our goal is that if we see you slipping, sliding, or something going on, we address it with you,” Baker said.

As long as they are enrolled in college full-time and attend 75% of classes in person, participants can stay in their apartments. They also must have passing grades, attend workshops, and help out around the scholar house. Their children must go to child care or school. No other adults are allowed to stay the night or move in.

Potential residents can make progress towards living in the scholar house by enrolling in school, attending online workshops, meeting with financial advisers, and providing updates to Baker.

There’s a waiting list of nearly three dozen to move in. And Eckerty has plans to grow the program even more.

The biggest challenge is acquiring the housing and doing the renovations, he said. So when the opportunity to partner with Glick Philanthropies came up to help with a future Indianapolis expansion, it just made sense.

Staff at two locations owned by Glick Housing Foundation are currently training at pilot programs before they start working with potential scholars, said Ceceily Brickley, director of resident success with Glick Philanthropies. (Glick Philanthropies includes the Glick Fund, a fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation which also funds Chalkbeat Indiana.)

College registration is just the next step

Finishing high school and registering for college on the same day felt empowering and exciting, Lowery said.

When Lowery learned last year that she and Aaliyah would be able to move into Anderson Scholar House, she cried. Now she has long-term plans that include a master’s degree.

When Lowery registered for college, Baker ended up crying, just like Lowery did when she got into the scholar house.

“She’s just our first success story,” Baker said.

A year ago, Lowery wasn’t taking high school classes yet, and she wasn’t living in the scholar house. Now, it’s her village. Lowery said Anderson Scholar House has taught her that big dreams are possible, a sentiment that she wants to pass to her daughter.

Lowery’s ultimate goal is to get a master’s degree in clinical social work and open her own rehab facility for those who are pregnant and mothers of young children with mental health and substance challenges.

“The scholar house has given me a future, it’s given me hope, it has given me a home, stability, a community of people that care about me and that care about my success,” she said.

Learn more or volunteer here: Anderson Scholar House.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief and covers higher education. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.Chalkbeat Indiana partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

FAFSA will be required for Indiana students starting next school year

2023-04-20T17:52:54+00:00

Indiana’s 2023 legislative session is under way, and state legislators have introduced more than 100 new education bills and bills impacting schools and students. For the latest Indiana education news, sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free newsletter here.

Starting next school year, Indiana students will be required to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

The requirement was approved by both the Indiana Senate and House and signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb on Thursday. It applies to all students, with some exceptions, but is not a requirement for high school graduation.

The new law makes filling out the form, known as the FAFSA, a conscious choice instead of happenstance, advocates said. They added that students would also have a better picture of the money available to them for college, and perhaps convince more students to enroll in postsecondary education, at a time when Indiana officials are concerned about the number of students who enroll in college. In the Class of 2020, 53% of students went on to college, according to state data.

The FAFSA is the form that students need to file to be considered for federal financial aid such as grants, loans, and scholarships, and completion is also considered a leading indicator of college-going.

States and colleges also use the FAFSA to determine eligibility for their respective aid programs. The new law would require students to submit the FAFSA by April 15 of their senior year, which is the deadline to be eligible for state aid in addition to federal aid.

And the money isn’t just for two- and four-year institutions. Filling out the FAFSA can also provide funds for students who want to use a Next Level Jobs Workforce Ready Grant for a short- or long-term credential.

The new law comes at a time when officials said students are leaving nearly $70 million in Pell Grants on the table, amid perceptions that higher education is unaffordable.

A state dashboard of FAFSA completion shows that about 44% of this year’s high school seniors in Indiana have completed a FAFSA.

Lawmakers have tried for years to pass this FAFSA requirement, and it was increasing the number of exceptions that got the bill the widespread support it needed to pass.

The exceptions are for students at certain nonpublic schools, and for students who have a parent sign a waiver (emancipated minors can also sign it for themselves) to decline to complete the form. A school principal or counselor can also waive the requirement if they are unable to reach the student’s parent or guardian by April 15 after “at least two reasonable attempts.”

Additionally, the requirement expires in 10 years, so lawmakers can reevaluate it. Indiana joined at least eight other states who have such a law.

This year, the deadline for state aid was extended to May 15 for students in the seven counties under a disaster emergency declaration due to recent storms: Benton, Johnson, Monroe, Morgan, Owen, Sullian, and White.

Regis’ inclusive education program offers students with intellectual disabilities support through college

2023-04-18T16:00:00+00:00

Jen Anderman loves college.

She lives on campus at Regis University, is learning about world religions like Buddhism, and took on the persona of Benjamin Franklin once to present in a class.

Anderman, 25, always wanted to follow in her sister’s footsteps, but most colleges don’t offer programs geared toward students with intellectual disabilities who might need more support. Anderman also wanted a program that pushed her academically and allowed her to get the college experience she desired.

Jen Anderman, right, poses for a selfie with a Regis University student housing adviser.

In Colorado and nationwide, most colleges don’t offer programs for students with intellectual disabilities, which includes limitations in reasoning, learning, problem solving, or social or practical skills. Those colleges that do have limited spots.

Anderman, who is a person with autism, now is living her dream. Regis University’s Global Inclusive College Certificate program has offered Anderman and four other students at the Denver Jesuit school a full college experience for about two years, plus extra support to earn their certificate. Regis’ program launched in the fall and joined several others across the state that offer support for students with intellectual disabilities.

Anderman’s mom says Jen thrives when she gets to learn with students who learn in a variety of ways. Living on campus, she’s made plenty of friends. Home is just 20 minutes away, which means she didn’t have to go far to continue her education.

The program allows Anderman to take any Regis class, which she likes. She said that so far, she has enjoyed them all.

Regis offers a certificate requiring students to complete from 12 to 30 hours of school work over the course of one or two years. The program focuses on academics, but also teaches social skills, emotional regulation, career development, and independence, according to Jeanine Coleman, the certificate programs director. The program also offers tutoring, class preparation and other help.

Coleman hopes to add several more students to the program next year, and the school has received support from the GLOBAL Down Syndrome Foundation and the Anna and John J. Sie Foundation.

Recently the school announced it received $365,000 to help provide scholarships. The scholarships are crucial for many families who never thought that their children would find a college that works for their learning style.

“They just didn’t plan for that because they didn’t really think it was an option,” Coleman said. “There are just not very many opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities beyond high school.”

Statewide, the University of Northern Colorado, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, and Arapahoe Community College offer programs tailored toward students with intellectual disabilities, said Tracy Murphy, Colorado Initiative for Inclusive Higher Education executive director.

Until 2016, Colorado was one of four states nationwide that didn’t offer specific programs for students with intellectual disabilities, Murphy said. Lawmakers that year passed a law establishing specific programs for students at colleges, and last year approved grants to support new or existing programs at higher education institutions.

Creating a more inclusive environment is good for students with and without intellectual disabilities, Murphy said.

Students at established programs have rushed fraternities and participated in student government, she said. They’re helping create acceptance and enabled others to see the value students with disabilities can bring to a school campus and jobs, she said.

“College students benefit from seeing that capability,” she said.

For Jordan Stewart, 18, the Regis program has boosted his confidence, his mother Cassy Stewart said. While Colorado offers high school for students with intellectual disabilities until they are 21, Jordan wanted most to graduate with his class and get a diploma with them, she said.

Regis helped Jordan thrive in a college setting. Previously, his mother had worried about his future because so few college programs work with his learning style.

Jordan Stewart has loved being a part of the school community. He enjoys the classes more than those in high school, and making friends is his favorite part of the experience.

“College makes me feel great,” he said, “and included.”

First lady Jill Biden visits Colorado, calls the state a model for workforce training

2023-04-03T21:02:13+00:00

First lady Jill Biden praised Colorado lawmakers for working across party lines to become a model in providing residents options to get workforce training in a visit Monday to the state’s Capitol.

Biden visited Colorado as part of a national tour to highlight President Joe Biden’s investments and commitment to workforce training and how states have used federal money to prop up programs to help Americans.

First lady Biden, a community college educator, focused mostly on Colorado’s community college programs during her talk with lawmakers at the Capitol. Over the last several years, the state has created programs to get more students to attend college and provide free training for in-demand fields. Biden said the state has become an example for others.

In recent years, Colorado leaders have focused more on educating and training residents, especially because it has relied heavily on bringing in educated workers from other states.

“I ask you to keep going,” she said. “Keep innovating.”

President Biden has made connecting workers to jobs a key part of his presidential agenda and has focused on investments that include pandemic relief money to develop job training in states. The administration has said its goal is to create more good-paying jobs for Americans.

Jill Biden also touted spending in the president’s 2024 federal budget proposal to improve workforce training.

Colorado has used federal money to create several programs in the last year that help residents connect to job training, especially with two job openings for every employee. Gov. Jared Polis has highlighted the need to get residents the skills they need to land jobs.

For example, she highlighted the $26 million in federal relief money Colorado is using to get students free training in health care fields.

The state plans to also expand the program primarily at community colleges over the next two years. A bipartisan bill backed by Polis would spend $40 million over two years to provide free workforce training for other in-demand jobs such as manufacturing, law enforcement, and teaching. Another bill would provide about 15,000 high school students from the Class of 2024 with a $1,500 scholarship to use toward approved training.

The state also put together a committee to focus on how to improve Coloradans’ access to jobs. One of the recommendations, called the Opportunity Now Grants program, provides $85 million to create or expand ideas that bring together industry and schools to create opportunity for students.

First lady Biden also highlighted that universal preschool is a major part of the birth-to-career pipeline that the Biden administration has pushed.

Colorado is set to start its universal preschool program this summer. Colorado also has supported apprenticeship programs, and offers high school students the ability to graduate with a college certificate or degree.

Biden said Colorado has shown there are people on both sides of the aisle who want to help employers find the workers they need.

“There aren’t red ideas or blue ideas,” she said. “They’re American ideas. And you all have been investing in these programs for years.”

State Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat, said Biden’s visit validates Colorado’s efforts to provide opportunities to more students in the state. He said the state has tried to innovate to get more residents the training they need. He hopes more states look at what Colorado is trying to do.

“It was time that we solved this problem in new and innovative ways,” Bridges said, “and that’s what we’re doing.”

A FAFSA requirement for Indiana students is one step closer to becoming law

2023-03-15T19:04:03+00:00

Indiana students could soon be required to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a shift that supporters say could give students more money to go to college and convince more of them to enroll in higher education in the first place.

The Indiana House Education Committee voted 11-1 Wednesday to advance Senate Bill 167, which would create the requirement starting with the 2023-24 school year, although there would be several exceptions. Lawmakers also amended the bill Wednesday to have the requirement expire in 10 years.

“This money is going to be spent somewhere, when we have a chance to put our hand out, let’s take advantage of it,” state Sen. Jean Leising, a Republican and one of the bill’s authors, told fellow lawmakers last week.

If the bill becomes law, Indiana would join at least eight other states who have this law.

The FAFSA is the form that students need to file to be considered for federal financial aid such as grants, loans and scholarships. States and colleges also use the FAFSA to determine eligibility for their respective aid programs.

By not filing out the form, students in Indiana are leaving $69 million in Pell Grants on the table, Leising said last week.

“That doesn’t even count the [other] scholarships, we don’t even have an idea of that money that’s lost,” she added. “We have got to do something about this.”

The legislation would require all high schoolers to complete and submit the FAFSA by April 15 of their senior year, which is the deadline to be eligible for state aid in addition to federal aid.

The bill includes exceptions for students at certain nonpublic schools, and for students who have a parent sign a waiver (emancipated minors can also sign it for themselves) to decline to complete the form. A school principal or counselor can also waive the requirement if they are unable to reach the student’s parent or guardian by April 15 after “at least two reasonable attempts.”

There was some concern about the bill during committee meetings. Rep. Tonya Pfaff, a Democrat, said during the vote that while she was supporting the bill, she still had concerns about the burdens on school counselors and wanted to work on that.

However, the exception in the bill to limit the attempts to reach families has eased that concern for others. And it could give the bill crucial support, after years of unsuccessful attempts to require students to fill out the FAFSA.

What FAFSA says about Indiana’s college attendance

Completion of the FAFSA is considered a leading indicator of college-going.

Just 53% of students in Indiana’s Class of 2020 went on to college, and many Hoosiers see college as too expensive. In a statewide survey by the Indiana Department of Education, only 27% of parents said postsecondary education is affordable.

A state dashboard of FAFSA completion shows that about 36% of Indiana’s high school seniors have completed a FAFSA.

It’s not that there aren’t efforts to get the word out from the state and other groups. Indiana has had College Goal Sunday, an in-person event to help families sign up, for more than 30 years.

But that doesn’t mean every student or family knows about the form or if it’s for them. And schools with higher rates of students receiving free and reduced-price lunch tend to have the lower completion rates, said Josh Garrison, associate commissioner for public policy for the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, in a previous House education committee meeting.

The legislation would make sure that filing out or not filling out the FAFSA is a choice, not happenstance of who found out about it, advocates of the bill said.

They added that filling out the form can also help reduce student debt. FAFSA qualifies students for government loans that have lower interest rates than the private loans that they would get without the form, Garrison said.

The committee meeting last week about the bill featured a show of support from organizations representing school boards, principals, and counselors, as well as public, private and community colleges in the state, and the Indiana and Indy chambers.

Will higher FAFSA completion mean more Hoosier students go to college? Officials hope so

2023-02-23T22:13:47+00:00

As higher education battles low enrollment and perceptions that it is too expensive, lawmakers and others are working to make sure more Indiana students know about the financial aid available to them.

This Sunday is College Goal Sunday, a free in-person event at locations around the state, to help families fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly known as the FAFSA. And earlier this week, lawmakers advanced a bill that would require most students to fill out the form.

The legislation and the College Goal event highlight arguments from public officials that millions of dollars in aid is being left on the table, money that could change a student’s decision about postsecondary education.

A new survey released earlier this month by the Indiana Department of Education shows that roughly 70% of high schoolers in Indiana plan to pursue education after high school.

But just 53% of students in Indiana’s Class of 2020 went on to college, state data released last summer showed. And only 27% of parents say it’s affordable, per the new survey.

Filling out the FAFSA would show Hoosier families more aid options and potentially change that, in turn, improve Indiana’s college going rate, leaders argue.

As of Feb. 10, roughly a third of Indiana’s Class of 2023 had completed the FAFSA, per Form Your Future, a national tracker of FAFSA completion.

College Goal Sunday offers FAFSA help

Students need to fill out the FAFSA to be considered for federal financial aid, such as Pell Grants. But the form is also used by many states and colleges as well as private aid providers to determine eligibility for state and school grants, scholarships, and more.

In Indiana, the deadline to file the FAFSA for state aid is April 15.

Senate Bill 167 would require all students, with certain exceptions like for those at some nonpublic schools and for students whose parents sign a waiver, to complete the FAFSA by that state deadline during their senior year. The Indiana Senate passed the bill earlier this week and it now awaits action from the Indiana House.

College Goal Sunday started more than 30 years ago and is now a model used in other states.

The event comes around like clockwork, and families can count on it as a way to get the form off their to-do list, said Bill Wozniak, co-chair of the event.

“The FAFSA is so critical and the most important form,” he said.

But he knows that despite strong interest in education after high school, many Hoosiers are uncomfortable with the financial aid process.

He’s heard it in his role leading College Goal Sunday, and as he’s traveled the state leading an advisory team from INvestED, a nonprofit that provides free financial aid advising to students and families. And a survey from INvestED shows the same.

Nearly 90% of Hoosiers see a value in education beyond high school, but 62% say understanding the process of paying for college is not easy, per the survey results released earlier this month. And of people who don’t enroll, 28% said it was because of the cost.

When it comes to FAFSA, families and students are often worried that they are on the hook for student loans just by filling out the form, or that they make too much money or it’s too difficult to fill out, he said.

But Wozniak stressed that the FAFSA doesn’t require people to take out loans and is a way for many people to qualify for aid beyond what’s earmarked for students from low-income backgrounds.

And events like College Goal Sunday can help not just by answering questions, but by calming nerves, he said.

Pensó que la universidad estaba fuera de su alcance. Aquí te contamos cómo lo logró.

2023-02-14T17:00:00+00:00

Read in English.

La madre de Sabastian Ortega lloró cuando él le dijo que había sido aceptado en la Colorado School of Mines. Él pensó, mientras hablaban por teléfono, que ella estaba llorando de alegría. No lo estaba.

En cambio, a su mamá le preocupaba que la familia pudiera pagar sus estudios: sin ayuda económica del estado, solo la inscripción es $20,600 anuales para estudiantes residentes. Y vivir en el campus puede costar unos $40,000.

“Me afectó mucho”, dijo Ortega. “Acabé llorando cuando colgué la llamada, porque me preguntaba: “¿Cómo voy a pagar por esto?” Se preguntaba después de la llamada: “¿Qué voy a hacer?”

Gracias a un consejero de la secundaria, Ortega solicitó numerosas becas y finalmente consiguió una beca completa para asistir a la Colorado School of Mines, una escuela de ciencias e ingeniería ubicada en Golden. Pero Ortega, de 21 años y ahora estudiante de tercer año, es uno de los pocos habitantes de Colorado con bajos ingresos que ha podido asistir a la universidad pública más selectiva de Colorado.

Entre las universidades públicas, la Mines tiene la sexta tasa de inscripción más baja de estudiantes con beca Pell del país según un análisis de Education Reform Now. En 2020, más de una cuarta parte de todos los estudiantes universitarios de primer año de Colorado recibieron becas Pell, pero en la Mines, solamente un 13.4% tenía esas becas.

Para calificar para una beca Pell, los estudiantes tienen que demostrar necesidad financiera. Entre los beneficiarios del programa Pell, los datos federales muestran que cerca de un 93% son de familias que ganan $60,000 o menos al año.

La proporción de estudiantes que reciben becas Pell en una universidad se ha convertido en un indicador indirecto de cuántos estudiantes de bajos ingresos asisten a una institución. La cantidad de estudiantes con becas Pell es importante porque muestra el grado en que esa institución está ayudando a estudiantes de todas las clases sociales a encontrar oportunidades.

Cómo pagar por la universidad

¿Necesitas más información sobre ayuda financiera? La Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes, conocida como FAFSA por su nombre en inglés, ayuda a los estudiantes a obtener dinero gratis para pagar la universidad. La FAFSA te dirá si tienes derecho a una beca Pell, por ejemplo.

Aquí te mostramos por qué debes llenar la FAFSA — aunque todavía no sepas con certeza si vas a ir a la universidad.

Para obtener más información sobre la ayuda financiera en la Colorado School of Mines, los estudiantes o los padres pueden llamar a la oficina de ayuda financiera al 303-273-3301 o al número sin cargos 1-888-446-9489. También puedes enviar un correo electrónico a finaid@mines.edu.

Y habla con tu consejero de universidad en la secundaria. Él o ella te puede ayudar a encontrar más apoyo y a entender cuáles son tus opciones.

Los líderes de la universidad quieren que la Mines sea más representativa de la composición económica y demográfica del estado. Muchos de sus esfuerzos para conseguirlo — por ejemplo, presionando para que las escuelas K-12 ofrezcan más clases avanzadas de matemáticas y ciencias, estableciendo un programa federal para ayudar a los estudiantes a asistir a la Mines y animando a los estudiantes de pocos ingresos a unirse como comunidad — están todavía en sus inicios. Los administradores dijeron que hubo conversaciones durante años sobre lo que había que hacer, pero que fueron lentos en actuar.

Una lista de metas que la universidad espera lograr en 2024 y más allá incluye llegar a ser “accesible y atractiva para estudiantes calificados de todos los orígenes.” La cantidad de becas Pell ilustra lo lejos que está la escuela de lograr esa meta, y los administradores reconocen que hay trabajo por hacer para conectar a los estudiantes de bajos ingresos con una educación que ofrece una de las inversiones con más retorno económico del país.

El presidente Paul Johnson, que ha dirigido la universidad desde 2015, ha enviado un mensaje a los administradores para “redoblar los esfuerzos para resolver esto”, dijo Sheena Martínez, vicepresidenta adjunta de vida estudiantil para equidad y participación. El puesto de Martínez es nuevo y tiene por objeto elaborar estrategias para ayudar a los estudiantes de minorías raciales y a los que de bajos ingresos. Ella dijo que universidad la escuela está construyendo los cimientos que ayudarán a los estudiantes en los años venideros.

“Estamos trabajando para ser de elite, pero no elitistas”, dijo Martínez. “Y si hablas con estudiantes que provienen de áreas poco representadas, te dirán que históricamente no han visto a la Mines como un lugar disponible para ellos”.

Sabastian Ortega ganó una beca completa para asistir a Colorado School of Mines.

La preparación para una escuela como la Mines empieza desde temprano

Ortega empezó a interesarse por la ciencia, la tecnología, la ingeniería y las matemáticas (STEM) en la escuela intermedia. La secundaria Odyssey Early College and Career Options de Colorado Springs le preparó bien, dice. Cuando se graduó, ya tenía suficientes créditos para un título asociado de universidad.

Su experiencia en la secundaria no es la que tienen todos los estudiantes, dijo.

“La cuestión es que, si no tomas ninguna clase universitaria durante la secundaria, ya estás atrasado”, dijo Ortega.

Los líderes de la Mines saben que esto es un problema. La Mines requiere que los estudiantes tengan conocimientos previos en clases avanzadas como trigonometría, precálculo y química.

Muchos estudiantes de Colorado nunca toman esas clases, y los administradores de la Mines se están comunicando cada vez más con las escuelas secundarias para animarlas a incluir clases rigurosas y que otorguen créditos universitarios en matemáticas o ciencias, dijo Lori Kester, vicerrectora asociada de manejo de inscripción.

“Estamos tratando de comunicarnos con los orientadores de las escuelas secundarias y asegurar que encaminen bien a los estudiantes desde temprano para que puedan ser admitidos en la Mines”, dijo Kester. “Eso es realmente crítico para nuestro éxito”.

Los líderes de la Mines han creado algunas oportunidades para preparar a los estudiantes de pocos ingresos y lograr que se interesen por la universidad. Pero tienen limitaciones.

Programas como The Challenge Program preparan a los futuros estudiantes con clases de matemáticas y ciencias y seminarios sobre el manejo del tiempo y el estrés. La universidad ofrece programas de tutoría en la escuela intermedia DSST: College View Middle School, en el suroeste de Denver y donde casi todos los estudiantes proceden de familias de minorías raciales, y envía a estudiantes de la Mines a trabajar como voluntarios en escuelas de todo el estado.

La universidad también cuenta con un programa de verano que les permite a estudiantes de undécimo y duodécimo grado de minorías raciales, de primera generación o de bajos ingresos vivir y aprender en el campus.

Las iniciativas más recientes incluyen el programa Upward Bound Math Science Program en la escuela Alameda International Jr./Sr. High School. Se trata de un programa financiado con fondos federales en el que muchas universidades de todo el país han participado por décadas para ayudar a los estudiantes en desventaja.

Incluso cuando las escuelas empujan a los estudiantes hacia los programas STEM, es difícil conseguir que ellos persistan en ese campo, dijo Analise González-Fine, directora de iniciativas universitarias de la red de escuelas chárter DSST. La escuela se enfoca en desarrollar las destrezas en el campo STEM, pero muchos estudiantes quizás nunca terminen en una universidad como la Mines, dijo ella.

Alrededor de un 55% de la clase graduanda de 2022 de la escuela tenía intenciones de ir a una universidad STEM. Y un 25% de los estudiantes de familias de pocos ingresos dijeron que irían a una universidad STEM, dijo González-Fine.

Sabastian Ortega trabaja durante una clase sobre los procedimientos estándar de operación para los parámetros de calidad del agua. Él sabía que quería estudiar en la Colorado School of Mines y convertirse en ingeniero medioambiental, pero el alto costo de asistir a la universidad era un problema.

Ortega estuvo a punto de tomar un camino diferente — como tantos otros

Cuando llegó el momento de solicitar admisión a las universidades, Ortega no tenía otra opción — solamente solicitó admisión a la Colorado School of Mines. Él sabía que quería ser ingeniero medioambiental especializado en recursos de agua.

Participó en los programas de la Mines, por ejemplo, el Challenge. No obstante, las finanzas no funcionaron. Consideró unirse a la Guardia Nacional o dejar la universidad por un año para trabajar y ahorrar.

“Sentía que era la única forma de pagar la universidad”, dijo Ortega.

El costo de asistir a la Mines es sin duda el mayor factor decisivo para los estudiantes que quieren asistir a esa universidad, dijo Ortega.

Jill Robertson, directora de ayuda financiera, dijo que la universidad tiene programas de grants para los residentes de Colorado basadas en mérito (no en necesidad económica). La institución también ha redoblado sus esfuerzos para encontrar donantes que ofrezcan becas y ayudas para esos estudiantes.

La universidad también se ha asociado con las universidades comunitarias del estado, donde los estudiantes pueden obtener créditos para un diploma de la Mines pero sin tener que pagar la matrícula de la Mines.

Robertson dijo que la universidad ha tratado de limitar los aumentos en la matrícula anual para que coincidan con la tasa de inflación. Sin embargo, el estado gastado menos en educación superior en las últimas tres décadas, y por lo tanto todas las universidades del estado han aumentado sus precios de matrícula.

Hace diez años la universidad les cobraba alrededor de un cuarto menos por semestre a los residentes del estado. Los aumentos han perjudicado aún más a los estudiantes de bajos ingresos del estado, especialmente cuando las becas Pell solamente pagan hasta unos $6,900 al año, mucho menos que el costo anual para asistir. Por otro lado, las ayudas estatales solamente cubren una parte del costo para los residentes.

“Realmente tratamos de mantener el costo en un nivel razonable”, dijo Robertson. “Pero educar ingenieros realmente buenos es caro.”

Sabastian Ortega hace una pregunta durante una clase de ingeniería civil y medioambiental en la Colorado School of Mines. Él ha visto cómo sus amigos de orígenes similares a los suyos abandonaron la universidad en mayor proporción que sus otros compañeros.

No basta con admitir estudiantes. También necesitan apoyo.

La mayoría de los estudiantes de la Mines se gradúan en seis años, alrededor de un 83%, según datos federales. Pero en ese mismo plazo, la cifra de estudiantes de bajos ingresos que se gradúan de la Mines es menos, cerca de un 75%. Y la Mines no es la única universidad en la que eso ocurre. Las tasas de graduación de los estudiantes con becas Pell son más bajas en las universidades de todo el estado.

Ortega dijo que vio cómo amigos con antecedentes similares abandonaban los estudios en mayor proporción que sus amigos con mejor nivel económico. Muchos no podían equilibrar sus trabajos con la pesada carga de estudios, dijo. Los estudiantes de minorías raciales que quedan son mayormente estudiantes internacionales.

“Uno de mis amigos, su papá es dueño de una empresa petrolera”, dijo Ortega. “Por eso es difícil establecer una conexión cuando se trata de esa parte de su vida”.

La universidad ha empezado a reunir a estudiantes de primer año de orígenes similares para que puedan formar una comunidad que entienda sus luchas, dijo Martínez. La esperanza es que los estudiantes tengan un grupo de compañeros que les ayude en el camino.

Ortega dijo que ha visto que la escuela también se enfoca más en su Programa Multicultural de Ingeniería, que comenzó en 1989. Desde que él empezó en la Mines, ha visto más eventos y más administradores que aparecen para hablar de servicios financieros, de tutoría o de consejería, dijo.

“Creo que por fin se han dado cuenta de que tienen realmente que ayudar a estos estudiantes”, dijo Ortega. “Creo que se han dado cuenta de que para ayudar de verdad a estos estudiantes, tienen que lograr que ellos por fin sientan que pertenecen aquí”.

Ortega también intenta poner de su parte. Trabaja en la oficina de ayuda financiera varias veces a la semana. Su objetivo es que los futuros estudiantes de entornos como el suyo sepan que tienen un sitio en la Mines.

No quiere que ninguna mamá se preocupe o llore por el costo de la universidad, porque hay opciones. También intenta decirles a los estudiantes y padres que Mines ayudará a los estudiantes a conseguir trabajos que les darán dinero y contribuirán a cambiar el mundo.

“Es algo que me hubiera gustado que mi mamá tuviera”, dijo Ortega, “que alguien le dijera ‘todo va a salir bien’”.

Jason Gonzales es reportero que cubre temas de educación superior y la legislatura de Colorado. Chalkbeat Colorado colabora con Open Campus en periodismo sobre el tema de educación superior. Para comunicarte con Jason, escríbele a jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado remains highly educated but lost ground during the pandemic, report finds

2023-02-01T00:44:25+00:00

Get Chalkbeat Colorado’s latest reporting on college and career paths for Colorado high school grads in our free monthly newsletter Beyond High School.

Colorado remains one of the most educated states in the country despite losing some ground during the pandemic, according to a new report.

More Black and Hispanic Coloradans report having a degree or other postsecondary credential than did two years earlier, a small sign of progress in a state with large gaps in educational opportunity. The survey compared residents ages 25 and older in 2021 with 2019.

But many states made more progress toward improving college attainment than Colorado did.

The Lumina Foundation’s A Stronger Nation report released Tuesday provides an annual look at educational progress in the nation and individual states to show how well working adults are getting the skills needed to qualify for higher-paying, skilled jobs by earning college degrees, credentials or certificates. (Lumina is a funder of Chalkbeat. See our funders here and read our ethics policy here.)

Lumina uses A Stronger Nation to track the country’s progress toward the goal of 60% of the population getting a degree or credential of some sort. Forty eight states, including Colorado, have a goal to improve college attainment rates.

Here are five Colorado takeaways from the report.

Colorado lost some ground during the pandemic

Overall, in two years the nation improved college attainment levels by nearly 2 percentage points, to 53.7% in 2021 — its largest two-year growth, according to a news release. Idaho, Mississippi, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont grew their college attainment levels the most during that span, said Courtney Brown, Lumina’s vice president of impact and planning.

Over the same period, Colorado regressed slightly, but remained a leader. The state dropped from 61% of residents having a degree or credential to 60.5%.

Colorado has a goal of getting 66% of its residents earning a college degree, certificate, or credential by 2025. But Colorado likely won’t reach that goal. The report says the state would have to significantly increase how many people it educates.

The report does not distinguish between people educated elsewhere who move to Colorado and people from Colorado who get a degree here. Historically, Colorado has imported a large share of its educated population while sending its high school graduates to college at rates below the national average.

Brown pointed to the pandemic as to why Colorado and some others experienced stagnant growth and ran into troubles.

The number of people that have earned a certificate or college credential dropped, likely because those programs are typically in-person, hands-on programs and had reduced enrollment during the early days of the pandemic.

Brown also said a boost in wages at entry-level jobs lured students away from education. And some people couldn’t go to college because they had to support their families or because they got sick.

College-educated Black and Latino residents grow

The Centennial State slightly outpaced the nation in growing the share of Black and Latino Coloradans with a college degree, certificate, or credential.

In the two years leading to 2021, Colorado Hispanic college attainment grew 3 percentage points, to 28.1%,. The Hispanic population in the nation as a whole also saw strong growth, up to 27.8%, a gain of 2.3 percentage points.

In Colorado, Hispanics still have the lowest share of college education among all residents.

Colorado’s Black education level beyond high school grew in the same two years by 2.4 percentage points to 40.3%. Black residents nationwide grew 1.8 percentage points to 34.2% in 2021.

Younger Native American residents less likely to go to college

In a troubling trend from 2019 to 2021, Native American college attainment levels have remained mostly flat for those ages 25 to 34.

The proportion of those with schooling beyond high school nudged up from 18.8% to 19.1%.

Those numbers have dropped precipitously since 2014, when 30% of the Native American population ages 25 to 34 had a college degree or credential, signaling that an older population of Native American residents are boosting college attainment levels in the state, with 35.4% of that population having a college education.

More Coloradans went back to school — and more dropped out

As Brown noted, the portion of Colorado residents with a certificate, credential, or who have some college shrunk. But when looking only at college attainment, the proportion of Colorado adults who hold a degree actually grew.

Brown said the report shows that many Colorado residents with a certificate or credential returned to school to further their education. Overall, the number of residents who hold a masters, bachelors, or associate’s degree increased.

Nonetheless, the number of Coloradans who enrolled but never finished college also increased.

Colorado has made a big push in recent years to get more people who dropped out of college to go back and finish. The full impact of those efforts won’t be clear for several more years.

It’s unclear how those migrating to or away from the state have impacted the state.

College education is concentrated in certain counties

The breakdown of which Colorado counties have the highest share of college-educated residents is hardly surprising.

Boulder, Broomfield, Douglas, and Pitkin counties lead the state in credentialed residents. Boulder boasts about 70.6% of its residents with a college degree or credential, and the other three hover at about 70%.

The lowest levels of college attainment, are in two Eastern Plains counties. Just 19.2% of Bent County’s residents have an education beyond high school. Nearby Crowley County is similar, at 19%.

Pa. high schools could start offering students K-12 education training next school year

2023-01-13T20:58:21+00:00

Starting next school year, Pennsylvania schools will have a new career and technical education option to offer students: K-12 education.

The program is just one of many ways the state is responding to a teacher shortage that’s created cascading staffing challenges across the Commonwealth.

Tomás Hanna, the state Department of Education’s chief talent officer, said the goal of the program is to expose young people to careers in education.

“We’re not saying that a senior in high school is going to come out teaching in our schools,” Hanna said at Wednesday’s state board of education meeting. “What we’re saying is we have to get young people into the profession and aware of the profession earlier, particularly men, women, people of color.”

Teachers of color are rare in many Pennsylvania schools, and nonexistent in some districts.

Statewide, less than 7% of teachers are people of color, compared to 37% of students, according to the state Department of Education.

Hanna said while teaching has historically been promoted to white women, many people of color don’t think about becoming teachers until later in life when it’s harder to change paths.

Data shows fewer people are entering the profession overall. Roughly 15,000 Pennsylvania college graduates received teaching certificates in 2010, compared to less than 5,500 in 2020.

Career and technical education programs exist at many Pennsylvania high schools, with subjects ranging from carpentry and welding to child care and dentistry.

While CTE, once called vocational education, can provide an alternative path for students who don’t plan to go to college, program offerings have increasingly been geared toward exposing students to fields, like education, that require a degree.

The creation of an education CTE program is one of many potential remedies mandated by recent amendments to the state’s school code.

A state Department of Education committee looked at standards from similar programs in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and several other states to come up with standards for Pennsylvania, said Lee Burket, the state’s director of career and technical education.

Burket said the department will add the new standards to its website and share them with schools this week.

Schools can choose to offer the program informally or with department approval; the latter makes them eligible for state and federal funding, she said.

In addition to the new CTE program, Hanna said, the state is working on many other solutions to the teacher shortage, including creating a grant program that partners schools with teacher preparation programs in their communities and modernizing the state’s certification process.

It often takes several months for the state to certify a new teacher. Hanna said officials want to get that down to 15 days.

“That is a moonshot, to be frank with you, but it’s a shot worth taking,” he said.

Pennsylvania is also working on its own Grow Your Own program, an apprenticeship that allows teacher candidates to go to school for free and get paid to student teach. The U.S. Department of Labor added teaching to its list of registered apprenticeships a year ago. Since then, eight states have created programs.

Philadelphia launched its own version this spring using money from the American Rescue Plan Act. The program pays for district-employed paraprofessionals to get their teaching degrees.

The fact that Philadelphia could have upwards of 100 new homegrown teachers in the next few years, many of whom are people of color and bilingual, is impressive, Hanna said.

Long-term funding is a concern, he said, which is why the state Department of Education is working with the state Department of Labor and Industry to make teaching a registered apprenticeship in Pennsylvania. Once that happens, a move that requires legislative approval, schools will have access to federal dollars.

Hanna won’t bring the project to the finish line though, since he’s set to leave his position this week to become head of secondary schools for the School District of Philadelphia.