Chalkbeat

As more Colorado students take college-level classes, a report says it’s time to make improvements

2026-08-18T20:42:07+00:00

Sign up for our free monthly newsletter Beyond High School to get the latest news about college and career paths for Colorado’s high school grads.

About 40% of Colorado’s community college enrollment is made up of high school students earning college credits, part of a nationwide rise in younger students enrolled in college-level courses. But a recent report finds that Colorado and other states still face significant challenges in making sure those students get the most out of the experience.

The report from the Community College Research Center at the Teachers College, Columbia University says growth doesn’t equate to program quality, and states should rethink policies to support high school students who are dual enrolled.

The report’s observations match some of the challenges Colorado has faced with these programs, including the need for more funding and coming up with ways to ensure that the credits students earn put them on a clear college or career path.

Colorado lawmakers created the state’s concurrent enrollment program in 2009 so that high school students can get exposure to college courses and earn credits that transfer to a two- or four-year university, saving them money on tuition. Colorado also offers online options. The number of Colorado students participating has steadily increased in recent years.

About 78,000 students took a college-level course in 2025, according to Colorado Department of Higher Education numbers. And about 40,000 of those Colorado high school students were considered dual-enrolled at a community college in fall 2025, meaning they take one or more classes while in high school, according to Colorado Community College System numbers. That number increased by more than 3,000 students compared to the previous fall.

Some students even finish college while in high school, with a recent report showing about 3.4% of the class of 2022 earning a degree.

But Bobby Pace, Colorado Community College System interim vice Chancellor for academic and student affairs, said there is room for improvement.

“It’s interesting to know that Colorado, we’re not alone in this, and that no state has quite gotten it quite right,” Pace said.

The report offers five areas where states can strengthen dual enrollment for students and includes recommendations related to each.

The five areas include a call for states to improve academic, financial, and career advising support; track student data more comprehensively; and ensure these programs enable students to earn credits that align to their interests.

For example, the authors say many of the programs focus on general college courses instead of career or college pathways, a pattern they describe as “random acts of dual enrollment.”

Pace believes many states, including Colorado, are thinking about how to tailor programs so students aren’t just accumulating credits but graduating with what they need to get ahead in college. This would improve eventual degree attainment that leads to jobs, he said.

“I think that’s that fundamental shift that states are now going to be looking at,” he said.

The Colorado Department of Education has already enacted some of the other recommendations in the report and is working toward getting every high school student enrolled in at least one college class, earning 12 college credits, or enrolling in a work-based learning opportunity before graduation.

A spokesperson said CDE is working to develop additional resources to help schools, counselors, students, and families understand concurrent enrollment and which credits transfer to colleges and universities. The department is also working with the higher education on dual enrollment pathways, according to the spokesperson.

The programs are also mostly low cost for students, but the research center shows that Colorado ranks among states with low funding for dual or concurrent enrollment programs. That means some students must still pay for books and fees.

Pace said that in recent years, racial and socioeconomic disparities have popped up in who is earning credits through dual enrollment. He sees room for the state to improve student support resources within districts and when students matriculate to college.

“No model that we have in the state currently has the wraparound student support that may be necessary,” he said.

This story has been updated to include numbers from the Colorado Department of Higher Education and a response from the Colorado Department of Education.

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

Chalkbeat Ideas is a section featuring reported columns on the big ideas and debates shaping American schools. Sign up for the Ideas newsletter to follow our work.

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.

Who should go to college? More students may benefit than we think

2026-08-04T20:40:26+00:00

Chalkbeat Ideas is a section featuring reported columns on the big ideas and debates shaping American schools. Sign up for the Ideas newsletter to follow our work.

It’s well known that college-educated workers earn more money, on average, than those with just a high school diploma. And there are few middle-class jobs available for workers without a degree, as I found in a recent data analysis.

So does that mean more people should go to college?

The Fordham Institute’s Mike Petrilli is skeptical. Many people who don’t attend college “were nowhere near college ready at the end of high school,” he wrote in response to my piece. Sending academically underprepared students to college does them no favors, Petrilli continues. Only 40% or so of high school students have demonstrated college readiness, he says. Pushing the other 60% to college could just lead them to debt without a degree.

I was curious about this myself. Should college be limited to those who do relatively well in high school? To get a better sense, I dug into the research. The findings surprised me.

It is genuinely complicated to determine the value of college and who should attend. While degreed workers make more money, we don’t know if that’s because they went to college.

Fortunately, researchers have developed a clever strategy to see whether four-year college makes a difference: tracking students who just managed to get into college and comparing them to similar peers who didn’t get that opportunity.

An influential 2014 study by Yale University economist Seth Zimmerman focused on Florida International University, a large four-year public college that provided a sharp admissions advantage to students whose GPAs were above 3.0. Zimmerman compared students right above and right below that threshold. The intuition is that someone with a 3.01 GPA is essentially identical to someone with a 2.99 average, except one person receives an admissions edge and the other doesn’t. This creates a natural experiment.

The students who just managed to get into FIU were not academic standouts — far from it. Their SAT scores, just over 800 out of 1600, were at the 21st percentile of high school seniors planning to attend college. For many, if they didn’t get into FIU, they wouldn’t have gone to a four-year college at all.

Zimmerman found a clear advantage for students who got the opportunity to attend FIU. Roughly a decade later, those students earned 22% more than similar students who didn’t get in. These earnings gains were well worth the cost of tuition.

Only about half of these marginal FIU students went on to earn a bachelor’s degree within six years. By comparison, the national graduation rate for four-year nonprofit colleges is roughly two-thirds. The study isn’t able to distinguish the effects on graduates versus non-graduates. It can only speak to the average effect. It’s possible that many non-graduates did not benefit or were even harmed. But they may have developed skills in college that helped them in the future, even though they didn’t earn a degree.

This was one paper in one particular setting, but the findings have shown up in other contexts too.

A Georgia study found students who just got into the state’s four-year public university system eventually earned 17% more annually by age 30 than similar non-admitted students. These were students at about the 30th percentile of SAT performance.
Research in Massachusetts found that low-income students who just got into state colleges there received large economic benefits years later. In high school, these students’ test scores were slightly below the average for high school graduates.
A Texas paper, using test-score admissions cutoffs across 35 public colleges, found a clear economic edge for students who won admission to a four-year school.

These studies generally look at students who otherwise would have attended a two-year college rather than no college at all. A different Texas study showed a clear hierarchy: Students fared better in four-year colleges than two-year schools, but a two-year program was better than no college at all. The two-year college advantage was for students at roughly the 30th percentile of high school test performance in the state. (One wrinkle: Another recent study in the state found marginal students didn’t seem to benefit from transferring to a four-year college from a two-year school.)

This body of research should be interpreted with some degree of caution. It looks at specific places and specific groups of students, who typically entered college decades ago. The papers find positive effects on average, but they don’t imply that everyone benefited. The studies can’t speak to whether AI will change the value of a degree, as some predict. The research also doesn’t show whether students are developing skills in college that help them succeed or whether they are getting hired because employers use a college education as a signal of skill.

Still, these papers find that even students who don’t excel in high school often stand to gain from attending college. Many, perhaps most, of these students would not have been categorized as “college ready” by traditional benchmarks. If anything, the research suggests that some states have set college admissions cutoffs that are too high, not too low.

“Given the population of people who want to go, we would benefit from helping more of them go, at least somewhat,” says Zimmerman, the Yale professor.

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

Iowa school districts quietly agreed to new limits on undocumented students’ course access

2026-07-15T18:31:12+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

Most Iowa school districts have quietly agreed to exclude undocumented high school students from certain federally funded career and technical education programming, according to records obtained by Chalkbeat.

The move follows the Trump administration’s controversial interpretation of a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Plyler v. Doe, guaranteeing children a free K-12 education regardless of immigration status. Trump officials argue that the ruling protects only a “basic public education,” but not “postsecondary” education. That distinction affects high school students as dual enrollment and career training programs have become increasingly common.

The Iowa records reveal how Trump has made notable headway limiting the educational rights of immigrants without legal permission to be in the country and in chipping away at Plyler. Iowa is at least the second state under Republican control to adopt such a policy — Virginia did so but then changed course after electing a new Democratic governor.

“There is a very strong argument that Plyler as written forbids what Iowa is doing,” said Aaron Tang, a law professor at the University of California, Davis. Yet, he said, there’s a plausible counterargument, and the conservative Supreme Court might well agree with this novel interpretation, if the issue were to reach the high court.

Tang said that if the Trump administration’s interpretation wins out it will be difficult to determine what constitutes a “basic public education.” Does calculus class? What about precalculus?

It’s not clear how many, if any, students in Iowa or elsewhere have been affected by this provision. Schools don’t typically ask students about their immigration status so there’s no simple way to know who to exclude.

Trump pushes limits on undocumented students’ educational rights

Last year, the Trump administration announced a sweeping new legal interpretation of a federal law on unauthorized immigrants’ access to public benefits. States were not immediately required to follow this interpretation, but the Education Department could take action to enforce it.

The Iowa Department of Education soon said that under the new rules undocumented students should be kept out of federally funded early college experiences and community college classes “even if the course occurs at the high school.” (This restriction does not apply to concurrent enrollment courses that high schools use to meet basic course offering requirements under state law.)

The state soon began requiring school systems and community colleges to agree to these new terms in order to access federal funding for career and technical education.

The vast majority of Iowa school districts have done so, either directly or through a CTE consortium that they are a part of, according to the records obtained by Chalkbeat. A handful of systems have not submitted reimbursement requests recently, so they have not agreed to those terms, the records indicate. Heather Doe, a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Education, said the state has not denied any schools funding over the issue.

Among other things, Iowa schools have used CTE dollars, known as Perkins funding, to help students attain industry-recognized credentials in a variety of fields.

It is not clear how school systems could enforce these new restrictions on undocumented students or if they have any intention of doing so. “The Iowa Department of Education does not require the reporting of immigration status but rather confirms the institution’s awareness of federal funding restrictions,” Doe said.

Spokespeople for a number of Iowa-based immigration and Latino advocacy groups did not respond to inquiries about whether any student has been denied programming under this new rule. None of several large school districts in the state responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Iowa superintendents’ association said it has not heard concerns or questions from members about the new rule.

A federal judge has halted enforcement of the federal legal interpretation in a number of states where Democratic officials have challenged its legality. Iowa is not one of them.

A U.S. Department of Education spokesperson downplayed the likelihood of taking action against states or schools that didn’t comply, saying the agency was focused on “litigation developments rather than on patchwork enforcement” of the guidance.

Still, confusion remains about the policy. On a recent call hosted by the Trump administration for state CTE and adult education officials, at least two people asked for clarification about the current status of the immigration rule, according to an excerpt of the chat obtained by Chalkbeat.

Officials on the call did not respond to those questions, according to a transcript of the conversation.

The Trump administration’s actions here are a small part of a massive campaign to deport unauthorized immigrants and restrict the public benefits available to those who remain. For instance, Trump and a number of Republican governors have prevented undocumented students from receiving in-state tuition at public universities in a number of states.

At the same time, conservatives have been strategizing about how to undermine and reverse the Plyler ruling. Earlier this year, state legislators in Tennessee seriously considered a law meant to challenge the ruling, but the legislation ultimately died.

This story has been updated to clarify that Iowa’s restriction does not apply to courses used by schools to meet certain basic course offering requirements.

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

Newark’s new workforce program wants young adults to master AI before the job market demands it

2026-07-14T20:50:07+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to get the latest news about the city’s public school system delivered to your inbox.

Monajah Williams built her first website just a few months ago. Before then, she didn’t know how to code or use HTML.

After years of unstable jobs in retail and food service that left her feeling drained and unmotivated, Williams, 25, said she’s finally seeing a glimmer of hope for her career. At Hopeworks’ new training room in Newark, Williams is learning to code, build websites, and use artificial intelligence as she prepares for a career in tech.

The program is betting that young workers like Williams, between 17 and 26, can hold their own in an evolving and increasingly competitive job market being redefined by AI and emerging technologies.

Between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., trainees work in an open-style layout, similar to that of a regular office. Conference rooms, a lunchroom, and couches for morning huddles give trainees a chance to collaborate on projects, interview with AI tools, and use other digital tools to support their work.

“It is hard to find a job right now but I feel like there’s a lot of opportunities with these careers,” Williams said.

Entry-level jobs that heavily use AI are growing fast, up 35% since 2019, while other entry-level jobs have shrunk 10% over the same period, according to PwC’s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer. Those growing jobs also expect entry-level workers to bring senior-level skills such as judgment and leadership. Hopeworks says it’s training young adults for exactly those kinds of jobs.

“What we find is that employers want folks who can adapt quickly to emergent technologies, who have human skills, professional social emotional skills, take feedback well, and aren’t afraid of new technologies,” said Dan Rhoton, CEO of Hopeworks.

The nonprofit trains young adults in technical and workforce skills, prepares them for interviews and professional settings, and then places them in paid jobs. Hopeworks started in Camden, later expanded to Philadelphia, and this month opened its Newark site on Broad Street. Trainees spend two to three months learning web development, coding, GIS mapping, medical billing, and professionalism before moving into six-month paid internships at Hopeworks’ own businesses. From there, they are placed in full-time jobs with other employers.

Most Hopeworks trainees have never used AI but are curious about what it can do.

Williams said she uses AI regularly in her training. As she built her first website, she asked ChatGPT to explain concepts she didn’t understand and apply what she had already learned rather than finish the work for her. That’s a skill she was never exposed to in the city’s public school system, said Williams, a 2019 alum.

In recent years, Newark Public Schools has rolled out new AI, including Khanmmigo, an AI tutoring chatbot, Amira Learning, an AI literacy screener, and installed thousands of AI cameras across schools. Despite the aggressive expansion, the district has not said how it plans to keep students safe as it engages with new technologies.

For Trindalah DeLane-Smith, senior site director at Hopeworks Newark, that’s the key: teaching young adults to use AI as a tool rather than a shortcut.

“They are learning the platforms, they use AI as a tool, but they’re learning how to develop and build these platforms from scratch,” DeLane-Smith added.

Hopeworks' Newark trainees have access to Dell’s GenAI mock interview tool that puts their interview skills to the test.

Trainees also use Dell’s GenAI mock interview tool, which launched at Hopeworks Newark last week. The virtual assistant watches program trainees’ posture, eye contact, and interview responses, then generates a scorecard with tips on how to improve their interviews.

Although Williams hasn’t used the new tool yet, she is eager to put her skills to the test. She said she often gets nervous during job interviews but thinks interviewing with an AI tool first would help her feel more comfortable.

Rhoton says that’s another benefit of training the next generation to use AI. His team found that young adults will often play it safe with a human interviewer because they want the job. But with AI, they feel like they can fail, reset, and try a completely different approach to the interview with much less risk.

“I don’t know about you but I’m not really worried about what the AI thinks. Whereas this human, maybe an executive from J.P. Morgan, I’m going to do everything very buttoned up,” Rhoton added.

Across its three locations, Hopeworks currently places 20 to 30 young adults into jobs each month. At its Camden and Philadelphia sites, graduates earn an average salary of $43,276 and retain jobs at a 92.11% rate after 12 months, according to the organization’s 2025 impact report.

Trindalah DeLane-Smith, senior site director at Hopeworks Newark, said it's important to teach young adults to use AI as a tool rather than a shortcut.

Most recently, DeLane-Smith said a trainee who is still completing her internship was offered a job at pocstock, an AI company that shares Hopeworks’ Newark building. The trainee met the company’s CEO in an elevator and impressed him enough that he invited her for an interview with plans to hire her full time.

As Williams enters her fourth month of the program and prepares for an internship, she also hopes she can impress tech companies. She said she finally feels ready to apply for new jobs and “put myself out there.”

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Half of Philadelphia’s high school graduates opt out of college. Can pre-apprenticeships help them find jobs?

2026-06-25T19:04:29+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.

In a rehabbed shipping container in West Philadelphia, Nakiah Walker leaned over her friend’s Chromebook to take a peek at logo ideas.

Walker, 20, was among a group of high school students and recent graduates trying to apply the tips and tricks they’d learned during a semester-long digital marketing program.

She joined the program because she was interested in learning more about marketing. But more than anything, she said she’s glad to have the opportunity to explore different career options.

“They don’t really offer that in school,” said Walker. “In school, they just tell you to get your work done, graduate, then go to college. They don’t really tell you there are other things to pursue, and you can have a career doing things that you actually want.”

The program, launched in 2023 by the Philadelphia nonprofit We Love Philly, is part of a recent statewide effort to expand what’s known as pre-apprenticeships, which provide job training to high school students and recent graduates in a variety of fields. Pre-apprenticeships must be connected to apprenticeships, which are often connected with employers. The idea is that that pipeline can help ensure programs actually connect young people to jobs. But there isn’t comprehensive data yet to show whether that’s working.

Last year in Pennsylvania, there were nearly 150 pre-apprenticeship programs with around 3,200 active participants, according to state data. That’s three times the number of participants compared with two years prior, and a large portion are concentrated in the Philadelphia area. Gov. Josh Shapiro has proposed doubling the state’s investment in pre-apprenticeships and other career training programs for students to $7 million next fiscal year.

The investment comes as the number of students in Philly and statewide who opt out of going to college directly after high school has grown. In Philadelphia, around half of high school graduates in the Class of 2025 did not matriculate, according to district data. The rate was slightly higher for Black students like Walker. State officials are backing pre-apprenticeships as a way to help fill high-demand jobs and connect students to career pathways that don’t require a college degree. Still, those pathways remain rare, and college is still the surest bet for expanding economic opportunity. Experts and educators say students need more support for pre-apprenticeships to ultimately lead to real jobs.

“We talk a big game about, ‘You don’t have to go to college,’” said Taylor White, director of the Postsecondary Pathways for Youth program at New America, a think tank. “But there are very, very few other ways, and they’re really inaccessible and hard to find.”

Several other states have worked to expand apprenticeship opportunities for young people in recent years. And studies of some programs show they can help connect youth to careers, especially if students also take coursework in the same area. But the field is still fairly new in most states, said White.

Pennsylvania doesn’t publish any data on pre-apprenticeship participants’ outcomes. A spokesperson for the Department of Labor and Industry said in an email that the department has only recently begun collecting data on pre-apprenticeships “so the information we have at this stage is still somewhat incomplete and is not yet ready to share with confidence.”

Patricia Blumenauer, deputy secretary for workforce development at the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, said the pre-apprenticeships goal is broad: connect more young people with industries looking to fill jobs and help them get relevant skills. Even if a student doesn’t continue in their pre-apprenticeship field, she said she still sees it as a win if the experience gives a young person a better sense of what they want to do.

“Really getting that experience and making a decision either way for us feels like a success,” Blumenauer said. That’s partly why the state wants to keep expanding pre-apprenticeship opportunities and get more employers on board to work with young people, she said.

Officials push pre-apprenticeships as a college alternative

When Walker graduated high school in 2024, she felt stumped about what to do next.

She thought about going to college, but didn’t want to pay for it before she knew what she wanted to study. But coming up with another long-term plan for her future felt impossible, she said.

After graduation, she spent a year working a mix of jobs. Then she got a call from someone she considered to be a mentor, telling her about the pre-apprenticeship. She was skeptical at first, and felt that it was risky to leave her job to start the short-term program. But she agreed to check it out.

Soon, Walker was showing up four days a week and earning a stipend of $12 per hour. She built a portfolio and earned a certification from Google in digital marketing. The team at We Love Philly also helped her format a resume and update her LinkedIn profile.

“I was at a point in time when I was stuck, until I got recommended here,” said Walker.

Walker was one of thousands of Philly students in her year who did not go to college the following fall. Of those who matriculated, around one-quarter dropped out after a year.

Research shows going to college remains the surest way for young people to access economic opportunities and move out of poverty.

At the same time, members of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration have repeated that alternatives to college — like military training, apprenticeships, and trade school — are valuable options for Pennsylvania’s young people.

“We need to respect each and every pathway the same,” Shapiro said at a rally earlier this year as part of his reelection campaign.

Blumenauer said many Pennsylvania students are looking for options other than college, even if they understand the relative value of higher education. She hopes pre-apprenticeships will help those students and help fill jobs in the state.

“We are constantly hearing from businesses that they are concerned about the future and where their pipeline of workers going forward is going to come from,” said Blumenauer.

Participants in the cybersecurity pre-apprenticeship program at We Love Philly learn coding skills that could lead to a job after the program.

Still, it’s unclear if the approach is working. Many states, including Pennsylvania, have set their own definitions of what an apprenticeship for young people should look like and standards for what it should accomplish. Data on outcomes of students after they leave the programs is also hard to come by.

The tension between college and careers comes up frequently in Philadelphia. Even groups working on helping students access college say they see lots of value in expanding career-oriented opportunities.

But some worry the push for career-related opportunities has eclipsed support for kids looking to go to college. Farah Jimenez, CEO of the Philadelphia Education Fund, which works with Philly high schoolers to access college and career training, said it’s useful to expose young people to different careers. But she worries the emphasis on career-related paths perpetuates the belief that college is expensive, likely to result in debt, and out of reach for many.

The question kids hear all the time now, she said, is: “Why would you go to college?”

Pre-apprenticeships provide job training, but no job guarantee

After Walker finished her pre-apprenticeship in digital marketing, she said she was hopeful and excited about what might come next for her professionally. She felt her resume, experience, and credentials would help her get noticed by employers, and she’s been able to find work since the program ended.

But that work isn’t in digital marketing. These days, she’s working at a hospital and considering applying for college in a year or two. She still isn’t sure if she wants to go into marketing, but in her free time, she enjoys using some of the skills she learned to help friends design websites and is preparing to launch her own jewelry business.

“It’s not just like we’re learning a skill — it’s also like we’re learning other things that goes into being an adult, being a good worker and just having and maintaining a career,” she said.

Josiah Miller, another recent pre-apprentice at We Love Philly, participated in the organization’s cybersecurity training program. He learned about and got into a paid two-year program to train recent graduates for tech-related jobs. He now plans to go into tech, and he attributes that to his time in the pre-apprenticeship.

His pre-apprenticeship motivated him “to learn new skills, put myself out there more,” Miller said.

At We Love Philly, directing students to jobs isn’t the only goal. The organization dedicates a portion of each day to social-emotional learning to help students build trust and prepare for the professional world.

“We have to create an environment where they want to be and are comfortable enough to take risks without feeling embarrassed or angry because, you know, they messed up or didn’t do something right,” said Cory Zoblin, who runs the cybersecurity pre-apprenticeship.

As with schools, workforce training programs can’t provide all the answers, Zoblin said. “But they can make learning and curiosity more integral, so that kids want to keep going.”

Rebecca Redelmeier is a reporter at Chalkbeat Philadelphia. She writes about public schools, early childhood education, and issues that affect students, families, and educators across Philadelphia. Contact Rebecca at rredelmeier@chalkbeat.org.

Non-college career pathways have a math problem

2026-06-23T09:56:46+00:00

Chalkbeat Ideas is a section featuring reported columns on the big ideas and debates shaping American schools. Sign up for the Ideas newsletter to follow our work.

For much of the last few decades, some young people have heard a simple mantra: bachelor’s or bust. That is, the best and perhaps only path to economic prosperity is through a four-year college education. Now a wide swath of politicians, educators, and philanthropists are rethinking this. Some even suggest that there are numerous lucrative jobs that don’t require a degree.

A New York Times video explained that “Job demand in fields like construction, along with the allure of potential six-figure salaries, have some high schools investing in hands-on classes that are redefining what success looks like for the Class of 2026.”

At the recent Education Writers Association conference, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore suggested high schools are too focused on getting students into college. If a student chooses a different route “and they find something that’s going to make them have economic mobility for them and their family, then right on,” he said.

Amidst this enthusiasm I wanted to take a look at the data to answer a simple but contested question: How likely is it that students can skip a four-year degree and make a good living or achieve “economic mobility?”

The short answer is it’s certainly possible, but the odds are stacked against workers without degrees. “We all want the $70,000 job that a student can access right outside of high school,” says Dom McKoy, executive director of the University of Chicago’s To&Through Project. But those opportunities are rare. “We have to be really clear-eyed about what is a true pathway at scale for young people.”

Some non-college occupations offer solidly middle-class salaries — but the largest ones typically don’t

To analyze this issue, I used federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data on pay by occupation, organized by the share of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

On average, jobs where degrees are required or encouraged pay more. Notably, though, a handful of jobs in the blue-collar trades also make slightly above the national median. Those include plumbers, machinists, HVAC installers, and carpenters, among others. Although these jobs typically require some form of postsecondary training, and in some cases students take on debt, they don’t demand four-year degrees.

Still, the most common non-college jobs make far below the median. For instance, there are over 4 million people who work as home health and personal care aides in America, the largest single occupation. That’s more than the number of plumbers, electricians, carpenters, HVAC specialists, welders, car mechanics, roofers, and power-line installers combined. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts more growth in jobs for home health aides than any other occupation. The median salary is about $35,000 a year.

Other large non-college vocations — each encompassing millions of people — include retail sales workers, cashiers, order stockers, waiters and waitresses, fast-food workers, and janitors. All of these pay substantially below the median. One exception is truck driving, a position that pays relatively well and employs millions of people. But many fear the job is at particularly high risk of automation.

All this maps onto other data showing that college-educated workers have a large wage advantage, on average, compared to those without a degree.

Better-paid, non-college occupations employ few women

Most of these relatively well-paid blue-collar jobs are dominated by men. In some cases, fewer than 10% of the positions are filled by women. Many of the large, lower-paid occupations, including home health aides, have a high share of women.

Some of the lower-paid careers where college degrees are required — including teaching and social work — are also largely staffed by women. Their salaries still outstrip the vast majority of non-college options, though. This suggests that forgoing college is particularly risky for girls and women.

Despite the headlines, six-figure salaries are rare in non-college jobs

The vast majority of non-college roles, including blue collar trades, earn below-average wages. This is different from median wages, which captures the typical worker’s experience. The average salary is usually higher than the median because it includes more of the upside for top earners within a profession.

This data indicates that non-college occupations have relatively low pay ceilings. The slew of headlines and viral social media videos about six-figure jobs in the trades appear to be outliers. In many cases, only the top 10%, or fewer, of those workers make such salaries.

Many occupations have a combination of workers with and without four-year degrees.

So far, I’ve been focusing on the distinction between college and non-college pathways, but as the data makes clear, this is not a simple binary.

In many cases, degree-holders likely have an edge within an occupation. But in other cases, the degree may have little, if any, value. A significant minority of lower-paid jobs are held by college graduates; even more are held by those who attended college but didn’t earn a degree. For instance, nearly half of home health aides spent at least some time in college.

Will AI change all of this?

This data cannot answer whether a particular student should attend college. That depends on what profession they want to pursue, their chances of graduating, the debt they may have to take on, and the quality of college they would attend. It also depends on an unknown future. The economy is always changing and may shift rapidly in the coming decades.

A recent Wall Street Journal survey found some economists predicting that AI will reduce demand for white-collar work. But others predicted no change or even said that there would be more demand for knowledge work.

The bottom line: Considering how the economy is currently structured, it’s risky to bet against the value of a bachelor’s degree.

Methodological note: The data we used here extrapolates hourly pay rates into estimated annual salaries for full-time workers. These figures, including the national median and average, do not count overtime pay, certain bonuses, and some other forms of compensation. We categorized the largest 250 occupations — encompassing the vast majority of workers — by the share of workers who have attained at least a bachelor’s degree. Other forms of postsecondary education are not included in this analysis. Keep in mind that there is substantial variation among workers in the same occupation, including by region, educational level, experience, union status, and more.

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

Students are often told to go to college. What if they need ‘career navigation’ first?

2026-06-16T04:01:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

What should come first for students: concrete plans for college or concrete plans for career?

Finding the best answer to that question is part of a huge reckoning in education right now.

More states and the federal government are rolling out workforce readiness programs, and in some cases they’re placing less emphasis on having K-12 education prepare kids to go directly to college. At the same time, a 2025 survey found that nearly half of Gen Z respondents aspired to be “professional content creators.” That suggests many don’t see a diverse set of career pathways they could pursue as they reach adulthood.

A new report out Tuesday argues that those less-varied ambitions among young people signal schools need to play a bigger role in helping students navigate an often confusing and chaotic postsecondary landscape.

The report from FutureEd, a think tank based at Georgetown University, finds that K-12 schools haven’t focused enough on helping students plan for and navigate future careers. That failure has meant that students graduate without a real idea of what to do next beyond just college. The reasons behind this shortcoming include a persistent school counselor shortage, an inadequate system to help lead students to information about potential careers, a crowded credential market, and the widely adopted “college for all” mindset in public schools, the report found.

“The assumption kind of has been that kids will figure out in college what they’re going to do with the rest of their lives,” said Anne Kim, the author of the report and a senior fellow at FutureEd. “Students really need to have a better idea of what they’re going to do in college before they even get there.”

Even with education increasingly focusing on workforce development, the FutureEd report found a “confusing and chaotic” marketplace of certification programs, and other short-term credential programs, with 1.8 million credentials offered by 134,000 providers nationwide. Changes from the Trump administration are also prioritizing workforce development over college for some federally funded programs, although some members of Congress have questioned that approach.

These shifts are taking place as students frequently say they feel adrift in navigating the world after high school. For example, 75% of recent graduates surveyed in 2022 by YouScience — an education company — said that they felt “moderately, slightly, or not at all prepared” for college and career. That vacuum can lead students to aspire to what are often unrealistic expectations, like becoming a professional athlete or social media influencer.

Kim said that instead, students need to hear that “there are other careers in your neighborhood, in your community that are much more reliable paths to a solid middle-class life that will get you places.”

The FutureEd report identifies wind turbine service technicians, solar panel installers, nurse practitioners, and actuaries as some of the fastest growing professions in the country.

Kim said a shortage of school counselors to shepherd students to career paths doesn’t help. Nationwide, there are 372 students for every one counselor, a far cry from the American School Counselors Association recommended ratio of 250:1.

Solutions range from embedding career coaches in middle and high schools to incorporating career education into curriculum, even for kindergarten-age students.

The report highlights one California school district’s “World of Work” curriculum as an example of a district integrating career prep into students’ lives. In the Cajon Valley Union School district, first graders learn about civil engineering by planning a virtual city. And one high school’s students spend 40% of their time doing work-based learning.

Kika Gutierrez, a first grade teacher in the district who is quoted in FutureEd’s report, said activities like starting a student-run flower help students understand how education can prepare for their future career.

“Exposing them at an early age gets them interested and makes the connection that there’s a reason behind all of this,” she said. “There’s a reason why my teacher is asking me to share with a buddy who I might not necessarily gel with because that’s real life.”

Some advocacy organizations have feared that shifting efforts away from preparing students for college could disproportionately limit the ability of students of color or other historically disadvantaged students’ will enroll in college. Schools sometimes have tracked these students into vocational education, limiting their opportunities.

Kim said the fear of tracking is a legitimate one. But career navigation doesn’t have to conflict with college enrollment, she said. And the broader problem is that people believe college is a one-and-done experience meant to happen right after high school, instead of embracing education as a lifelong pursuit, FutureEd’s report argues.

“We have to get away from this assumption that there is a lesser-than path, and that lesser-than path is not going to college, because it’s pretty clear at this point also that work and higher education are blending and blurring,” Kim said.

Lily Altavena is a national reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Lily at laltavena@chalkbeat.org.

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

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

Sign up for our free monthly newsletter Beyond High School to get the latest news about college and career paths for Colorado’s high school grads.

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.

Trump administration push to change program’s focus from college to workforce meets bipartisan resistance

2026-04-24T10:00:01+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

The Trump administration should abandon its push to dramatically revise a program that helps students from marginalized communities attend college, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators has told federal officials.

At the center of their request are the federal government’s Talent Search grants, which typically go to hundreds of colleges and community organizations focused on higher education. Talent Search falls under the umbrella of the federal TRIO programs, a $1.2 billion network. The Trump administration has cut TRIO grants as part of its anti-DEI purge and proposed eliminating the program entirely.

But the most recent grant applications posted by the Department of Labor, on behalf of the Department of Education, instead prioritize programs that focus on workforce development, including those that promote apprenticeships and job credential programs.

The change in grant priorities comes amid a larger debate about the value of higher education and how much help students should have in accessing and completing college. The Trump administration has emphasized preparation for the workforce as the primary purpose of education.

The 12 senators sent a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon on April 9, calling for the department to rescind the application and work with Congress to “protect the integrity of the Federal TRIO programs.”

In a statement, the Education Department showed no indication it plans to change its approach.

“We must break the cycle that assumes every student needs a four-year degree to succeed, and instead promote additional postsecondary alternatives that provide students and families with more choices,” spokesperson Ellen Keast said by email. “The Department is confident in our approach to this year’s competitions and encourages eligible entities to apply.”

The Labor Department posted the revised applications on March 17, giving programs less than two months to apply for these grants — not enough time to remake such a big program, policy advocates said. Existing Talent Search programs now risk losing their funding if they don’t align with the application’s new priorities.

In Talent Search programs, middle and high school students from low-income families attend college tours and receive tutoring and other counseling, part of the broader effort to encourage their journey to higher education.

Supporters of the changes to Talent Search argue that it’s time to widen TRIO’s net, and that the revisions are well within the Higher Education Act, the federal law that authorizes Talent Search. Backers of the new application raise a common refrain: Not every kid needs to go to college.

But others say that approach runs counter to TRIO’s core mission, which is to provide students with options they might otherwise not realize they have.

“We’re very concerned, very troubled, that the administration would take one of the foremost vehicles for helping low-income Americans move into higher education and to alter that mission,” said Kimberly Jones, president of the Council for Opportunity in Education, a TRIO advocacy center.

New priorities raise questions about Talent Search’s mission

Integrating workforce programs into TRIO’s program can help broaden and improve TRIO’s scope by helping more students, said Adam Kissel, a fellow in education policy at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation.

“The argument that TRIO is only for college-going students has a certain inequity built into that argument, whereas, if TRIO is helping people do any post-secondary ed … it’s a better way to help all students who may be qualified,” said Kissel, who worked at the Education Department on higher education programs during the first Trump administration.

But there’s some doubt that workforce development programs are the right path for the students Talent Search serves, said Wesley Whistle, student success project director for New America, a left-leaning think tank.

A 2025 report from the University of Chicago found students from low-income families attaining a bachelor’s degree or higher tended to earn the most among their demographics.

About 51% of students from low-income families go to college, according to the Brookings Institution, far below the rate for their wealthier peers. But 68.5% of Talent Search participants enrolled in a postsecondary education program immediately after high school in the 2022-2023 school year, according to an Education Department report.

“By narrowing TRIO’s focus to just workforce outcomes and programs, you are effectively closing doors rather than opening them,” Whistle said.

Still, a GAO report published in 2020 found the department needed to do more to assess if TRIO programs work.

The new application also prioritizes proposals from state agencies, intensifying fears from some TRIO supporters that hundreds of programs funded by Talent Search could be at risk.

The Higher Education Act says Talent Search should “identify qualified youths with potential for education at the postsecondary level and to encourage such youths to complete secondary school and to undertake a program of postsecondary education.”

It’s still unclear whether the revised applications will change Talent Search to the dramatic extent that advocates are fearing.

Curtis Blackwell founded Sound Mind Sound Body Foundation in Detroit, a community organization that runs a program funded with a Talent Search grant. The program includes mentoring, skills workshops, and college application help. Blackwell said he hopes broadening his program’s mission will reach more students.

Blackwell said they’re looking into partnering with a local vocational center to meet the new priorities.

“Sometimes I feel like we don’t do a good enough job of expanding, of exposing them to other options,” he said. “For me, our number one goal within our program is to meet students where they’re at. … So if they’re at vocational school, that’s great.”

Still, TRIO’s supporters worry that a new direction for Talent Search could portend bigger changes for the eight programs under the TRIO umbrella.

Matt Meyers is president of the Pennsylvania Institute of Technology, a private junior college attended by roughly 600 students. His college has a TRIO grant of $379,377 for student support services.

Meyers said these changes show the administration doesn’t understand TRIO. At his college, TRIO programs help get students from low-income backgrounds into the workforce. Sometimes that means taking them to a nice dinner so they can learn how to conduct a business lunch.

“It sounds silly, but giving them those experiences are the things that that expose them to to also want more and have more experiences, more positive experiences, and grow,” Meyers said.

The senators asking McMahon to rescind the application also requested that the department ensure there’s no lapse in Talent Search funding, which is set to expire at the end of August.

Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat who co-chairs the Congressional TRIO Caucus with Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, wrote in a statement to Chalkbeat that he believes the changes to Talent Search would “disenfranchise the exact students TRIO was created to uplift.” (Both Collins and Warnock signed the April 9 letter to McMahon.)

“The summers I spent on campus at Savannah State as a young man enrolled in Federal TRIO programs exposed me to new worlds and helped me see myself on a college campus as a real college student,” he wrote.

Lily Altavena is a national reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Lily at laltavena@chalkbeat.org.

‘Why wait?’ This South Bronx middle school is bringing internships to 12-year-olds

2026-04-15T23:49:30+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Inside the Capitol in Albany, Shaila Colon sat with four of her classmates, preparing to present legislation they wrote.

Seventh grader Shaila and her classmates at South Bronx Academy for Applied Media, also known as SBAAM, proposed a ban on unsolicited photography or videography without consent at the 2025 YMCA Middle School Youth Assembly. The proposal won the Outstanding Delegate award for best bill, and Shaila made such an impression that she was invited to return next year as Speaker of the Youth Assembly.

“I want to be a lawyer when I grow up,” Shaila said.“I’m very into the whole idea of defending people in positions where they’re vulnerable and can’t really defend themselves in matters of the law.” Her goal is to one day attend Harvard for law school.

In a room full of student delegates from middle schools across New York state, SBAAM’s seventh and eighth graders were among the few Black and brown students and the only group representing the South Bronx. Deja Senghor, their English teacher and director of the school’s “Classroom-to-Career Pipeline” program, said the trip was a milestone for the initiative she developed at the middle school just six months ago.

Seventh grade students from South Bronx Academy for Applied Media pictured at the Albany legislative house in November 2025. Students, from left: Noah Hayes, Moses De Leon, Ainara Rodriguez, Jah'niyah Westbrooks, and Shaila Colon, with teacher Deja Senghor (back row).

As the school’s first official internship adviser, Senghor wanted to transform the way her students think about secondary education, future careers, and the relevance of school. Fifteen middle schoolers elected to participate and receive career exposure through internships, mentorship, and real-world learning opportunities typically reserved for older students.

The South Bronx Academy for Applied Media is located in the South Bronx’s District 7, a school district that has long struggled with student enrollment and attendance. Senghor hopes her program will also improve school attendance and test scores by engaging students both inside and outside of the classroom. Senghor said she has already seen her students grow in leadership and academic skills since the program began last fall.

Senghor anticipates increasing the number of participants, driven both by the program’s success as well as a planned merger with the Academy of Public Relations, a middle school in the same building. Both schools have faced declining low enrollment over the past several years, each serving under 200 students since 2022, according to Education Department data.

The city’s Panel for Educational Policy is expected to approve the merger on Wednesday.

Citywide push for earlier career education

The school’s career programs and partnerships are almost all local to the South Bronx. One of the program’s broader goals is to engage students with local organizations and communities in the Bronx, which has the highest unemployment rate in the city.

Since the program started, Senghor’s students have also visited and contributed work to the nearby Bronx Museum, tutored fourth graders at nearby P.S. 1x (also known as The Courtlandt School), and are planning upcoming trips to Boston and Washington, D.C. SBAAM’s seventh and eighth grade students also receive mentorship and tutoring from 11th graders at Claremont International High School who are interested in education careers.

Teacher photos hang on a wall at the South Bronx Academy for Applied Media in District 7.

Giving middle schoolers more exposure to the workplace is the next phase in New York City’s increasing focus on career readiness — and Senghor’s work offers a glimpse into what career programs could look like for tweens.

The Education Department has mainly focused career education on older students, with 179 high schools in its FutureReadyNYC program, which offers students job training. The city also has 105 career and technical education programs providing high schoolers with workplace-specific certifications for post-graduation careers. But career education programs for middle school students are limited.

In January, the city launched a pilot program at 15 middle schools for career exploration,giving schools flexibility on their offerings. SBAAM’s own program is separate from the city’s pilot.

“There’s a huge demand from teachers and superintendents. It doesn’t tell kids what to do, it gives them options: ‘What does high school look like, what am I good at, and what am I interested in,’” said Jane Martinez Dowling, the Department of Education’s chief of student pathways.

Dowling said the city plans to include more schools in the program next year.

Senghor, who grew up in the South Bronx, said she knows how meaningful teacher support and mentorship was to her own career development, and she wanted to share that with her students.

“Why wait? Middle school students are already thinking about their futures, they have more time to explore different avenues without feeling pressure to commit,” Senghor said.

Students walk through the doors at the South Bronx Academy for Applied Media.

‘The future is still open’: Measuring success in and out of the classroom

A key part of Senghor’s objectives involve providing targeted engagement to help students meet academic goals. She also monitors attendance and chronic absenteeism, while keeping a close eye on in-class student engagement.

“When I look at attendance rates during school meetings, for example, I think: ‘What initiatives can we develop to increase attendance in sixth graders?’” said Senghor.

One important success metric is chronic absenteeism — defined as the percentage of students who miss 10% or more of the school year — which can help identify students more likely to fall behind in academic achievement.

Chronic absenteeism has been linked to poor educational outcomes and has been a nationwide problem since the pandemic. In New York City, 33.3% of students were chronically absent in the 2024-25 school year, compared to the 22% national average, according to New York City Public School data and research from nonprofit think tank RAND.

These trends are even more pronounced in Bronx school districts, including SBAAM’s District 7. In the 2024-25 school year, 41.5% of the district’s students were chronically absent — in line with SBAAM’s reported 40%. Over the last seven years, however, SBAAM’s chronic absenteeism rates have hovered around 43%, while the district has averaged 35%.

Senghor cited the Manhattan Institute’s chronic absenteeism research in her program’s objectives, which also shows that students who are more engaged have better attendance rates than their peers.

District 7 has historically struggled with below-average attendance rates and has about half the number of enrolled students than the average district. City data shows that the South Bronx neighborhood’s attendance rate has ranked in the bottom five of all 33 city school districts for the past five years. (Citywide attendance has averaged 90% over the last seven years.)

While the program is small and in its fledgling stages, Senghor is optimistic about early signs of improvement from her students. Seventh-grade student Shaila, for example, has improved her attendance and increased her engagement in class, her teacher said.

Five students from the South Bronx Academy for Applied Media prepare to present their bill at the Middle School Youth Assembly in Albany on November 24.

Senghor will continue to track student outcomes as the program expands. She hopes to grow the program to 25 students by next fall after the anticipated merger with the Academy of Public Relations.

The merger proposal said the low enrollment has prevented both schools from adding programs to attract new applicants, and that the two middle schools have been “unable to provide a robust learning environment to current students.”

In the meantime, Senghor is working with her students to plan future trips and additions to the program. She is currently exploring a potential partnership that would allow her students to work as teacher aides at a nearby elementary school, building on existing peer mentorship programs with The Courtlandt School and Claremont High School.

As for upcoming field trips to Boston and Washington, D.C., Senghor’s students have written their own proposals for the trips, building on the government policy and civic engagement experience of the Albany workshop. Students will visit national institutions and learn how the government functions on Capitol Hill and envision their educational futures through tours of Howard University and Harvard, she said.

“A lot of kids my age don’t usually get these kinds of opportunities. This internship is helping me see that there are a lot of opportunities out there, you just have to seize them,” said Jah’niya Westbrooks, a seventh grader who is part of the SBAAM internship program.

Not all of Senghor’s students have their future planned. But they’re exploring the possibilities.

“I don’t really know what I want to be yet, but, like, that’s OK, because the future is still open,” said seventh grader Moses De Leon.

Lizzie Walsh is a Data Fellow at Chalkbeat New York. She reports on New York City education and produces data-driven stories across Chalkbeat’s national network. Contact her at ewalsh@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois education officials vote to overhaul accountability for schools

2026-04-15T17:40:04+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

The Illinois State Board of Education unanimously approved an overhaul to its system for deciding how well schools across the state are performing.

The changes to the federally required school accountability system include some new labels that indicate how well a school is doing. The new system would also calculate the designations differently.

The proposed changes now go to the federal government for final approval; State Superintendent Tony Sanders said he expects a green light. With federal approval, the new accountability system would go into effect by this fall.

Under the current system, schools were labeled as Exemplary, Commendable, Comprehensive, Targeted, and Intensive, with the latter three that deemed a school needed more support.

The new system has the following labels: Exemplary, Approaching Exemplary, Commendable, Developing, and Comprehensive. Using 2025 school data as an example, officials found that this new system would more evenly distribute schools across these designations, with the Commendable label applying to 23% of K-8 schools and 29% of high schools, versus 73% for all schools currently. More schools also would have been considered “exemplary” under the new system — roughly one-fifth of K-8 and high schools, compared with 10% under the current system.

Schools that earn the lowest designations are supposed to get extra state funding to help improve.

Sanders described the changes as one of his biggest goals, and board members described the public feedback process as a thoughtful one that resulted in tweaks to the original proposal.

“Everybody is not going to be happy about it, and that’s OK,” said ISBE board vice chair Donna S. Leak. “What we’re trying to do is find ways to connect to student achievement in a more meaningful way.”

ISBE officials extended the timeline for getting feedback on its proposed changes, which it unveiled last fall. Still, ahead of ISBE’s vote Wednesday, several education advocacy groups remained opposed to some elements of the overhaul, including the removal of a measure for whether ninth graders are on track for graduation and another measure for capturing student attendance that the groups argue isn’t sufficient.

Federal education law has long required states to craft accountability systems for its schools and required them to administer state tests. ISBE created its current system in 2017 after an overhaul of K-12 education law under former President Barack Obama.

The current system, which ranks schools based on a weighted system, was giving many schools “the wrong signal” that they were doing better than they actually are, Sanders said at an ISBE meeting last month.

“I don’t think there’s anybody that I’ve met in public education that would say that our current accountability has worked effectively at moving school improvement for student outcomes over these past few years,” Sanders said.

ISBE spokesperson Lindsay Record said state officials will share resources such as infographics, short videos, and FAQs with the public ahead of this fall to help the families understand the new system.

To earn the new designations, schools will be scored based on what ISBE is calling “core indicators,” or what it considers the most important markers of academic performance; those include student academic growth, proficiency on core subjects, and graduation rates for high schools.

Under the new system, a school’s label is determined by its strongest core indicator. But if any of the indicators score at the lowest “comprehensive” level, then the school’s designation would be knocked down a level. For example, if an elementary school’s student growth ranks at the exemplary — or the highest — level, but its student proficiency is considered comprehensive, or the lowest, then that school would be given the designation of approaching exemplary, or the second highest label.

Schools can earn higher scores if they do well on “elevating indicators,” including how well English learners are growing and if many students are attending school at least 90% of the time — the opposite of the definition for chronic absenteeism.

Some groups have argued that threshold is too low, citing research that has found students do better academically when they’re attending school more often than 90%. In Chicago, the state’s biggest district, the chronic absenteeism rate was around 40% last school year compared with about 25% statewide.

Some education groups have lingering concerns

The department made some changes between the fall and now in response to concerns, such as clarifying the labels for schools and adding an additional indicator for determining whether high schools are successful, according to its amended accountability plan.

But it didn’t reinsert the 9th Grade On-Track measure, arguing that it is important but not “meaningfully” different from a school’s graduation rate. The measure will still be publicly reported on the state report card.

But some education advocacy groups argued that 42 states measure college and career readiness in some way. They said they hope ISBE will explore a process to consider adding these measures back in somehow.

Weighing school performance based on graduation rates without another readiness measure “can obscure whether students are truly prepared for what comes after high school,” said Hal Woods, chief of policy for Kids First Chicago.

In Chicago, a Chalkbeat and WBEZ investigation found that student absenteeism was growing as the graduation rate grew, even as research shows that absenteeism is linked to lower academic performance.

Perla Santoya, senior government relations associate at Advance Illinois, said losing such an indicator sends “an incomplete message about the experiences and skills we want our young people to have.”

Still, some other educator groups said they were pleased by the changes and praised the state for being open to feedback.

“What you have in front of you today, I believe, is fair,” Emily Warnecke, chief of staff at the Illinois Association of School Administrators. “It is reflective of the great work that is happening in our schools across the state, and it still maintains very high expectations for our students.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago students took more than 13,000 dual credit classes last year. Is it helping them get ahead?

2026-03-29T11:00:00+00:00

Data analysis by Cherry Salazar and Thomas Wilburn

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

At the start of her junior year, Arianna Brandt’s high school counselor urged her to go all out on dual credit — courses taught on her West Side Chicago campus that would earn her free college credit.

If Brandt pushed herself, she could even graduate high school with a two-year associate degree and shorten her path to a four-year college diploma.

Brandt felt daunted at first. But she quickly became one of the school’s dual credit “superstars,” in the words of a teacher, giving her new confidence that she belonged on a university campus.

Brandt’s school, Michele Clark High, has bet big on dual credit. At one point, it took the unusual step of enrolling each sophomore in these classes generally geared toward juniors and seniors. That has put the campus at the forefront of a broader push quietly unfolding districtwide: Chicago Public School students took more than 13,000 dual credit classes last year, more than double the number pre-pandemic.

That massive growth in dual credit participation has won praise for sending students to college better prepared and helping them avoid crippling debt — a boon especially for low-income students of color like the ones Clark serves —with early data showing progress.

But the expansion hasn’t always gone smoothly. Schools like Clark have had to course-correct on signing up younger students en masse. And on some campuses, sharp increases in dual credit participation have not yet translated into gains in college enrollment and persistence, a Chalkbeat analysis showed.

Michele Clark High Schools is an "early college" campus on Chicago's West Side that serves predominantly Black students from low-income families.

At the community colleges supervising the classes, the program’s rapid growth has led some faculty to worry about watered-down curriculums and pressure to enroll less-prepared students, offering them credits that selective colleges might not accept.

“My biggest fear is that you expand this in the name of equity, and students get college credit, but they are not prepared when they get to college,” said Troy Swanson, the policy chair at the Cook County College Teachers Union.

A lot is riding on getting dual credit right: Over the past decade, CPS has sharply increased the portion of students who graduate and enroll in college. But college completion rates haven’t improved significantly, leaving more students with debt and no credential.

District leaders and some experts believe that giving students a head start on college while they are still in high school could finally shift this dynamic.

“The district’s dual credit work is promising and clearly popular with students and families,” said Dominique McKoy, the executive director of the To&Through Project at the University of Chicago, whose Consortium on School Research is working on a study of dual credit in CPS, “but we are still learning about the best ways that dual credit can fuel stronger postsecondary outcomes.”

Chicago schools pushed to enroll more students in dual credit

On a recent morning, Brandt sat in a dual credit computer science class at Clark. Another student, a sophomore, mentioned she had dropped a dual credit Spanish class because of a scheduling conflict.

Robert Lee, the instructor, homed in: She’d missed a chance to earn high school and college credit in one go — and possibly hurt her odds of eventually getting an associate degree from Malcolm X College, which oversees Clark’s dual credit courses. It’s part of the City Colleges of Chicago community college network, which accounts for the bulk of the district’s dual credit courses.

Senior Arianna Brandt attends a dual credit computer science class with teacher Robert Lee at Michele Clark High School in Chicago on Jan. 21, 2026. The class earns her both high school and college credits from Malcolm X College.

“You have to play the numbers game those next two years,” he said. “Two for one — always keep that in mind! More bang for your buck!”

Then he pointed to Brandt, who has more than a year’s worth of credits and a courseload of seven college-credit courses this year.

Brandt recalls taking the dual credit plunge and finding the classes as accessible as her regular high school classes, with one key difference: Teachers were stricter about turning in work on time, stressing that would be the expectation at college.

She’d once planned to take a gap year after high school — to work and save up for community college. But now, she’s eyeing four-year universities right after graduation.

“In college,” she said, “I’ll be able to focus on my major, and I’ll be a step ahead.”

Charles Anderson, the principal at Michele Clark High School on Chicago's West Side, has worked to increase student participation in dual credit classes. They are taught by the school's instructors on its campus but also result in credit from Malcolm X College.

When principal Charles Anderson arrived at Clark a decade ago, he found the “early college” school wasn’t doing enough to give students a head start on college. He set out to rectify that.

The school, which serves predominantly Black students from low-income families, started sending some students to take courses at Malcolm X — what CPS calls dual enrollment. But transportation and scheduling issues limited participation. Then, Anderson realized Clark’s own teachers — if they had master’s degrees — could qualify to teach City Colleges classes right at the school as dual credit.

It was a game-changer: A growing number of students started earning 15 or more college credits, a semester’s worth. As the goal of sending students off with associate degrees became an all-consuming focus, the school pushed students to consider college-level classes sooner, starting the summer after their freshman year.

Meanwhile, a number of factors were driving dual credit growth districtwide. Under a sweeping 2020 agreement called the Chicago Roadmap, the district and City Colleges worked closely to expand dual credit and dual enrollment.

For City Colleges, where 10% of students are now dual credit students, that has been an important piece of bouncing back from a COVID-era drop in overall enrollment. In recent years, the partners have taken steps to make it easier to take dual credit, such as allowing seniors with a 3.0 GPA to bypass a required placement test.

CPS also has a three-year, $4.4 million contract with a Washington-based company called Equal Opportunity Schools to help identify students who would be good candidates for college-level coursework but were overlooked.

The district set an ambitious goal of graduating 70% of its students with some kind of postsecondary credential by 2029. Schools such as Brooks College Preparatory Academy started administering the dual credit placement exam to all sophomores.

Dual credit has risen sharply nationwide, with high school students now making up a fifth of community college students overall. Research has shown these classes improve the odds of going and staying in college — especially for students of color and low-income students, who remain underrepresented in dual credit nationally.

But these programs are also drawing growing scrutiny, including from some teachers who remain partial to the national Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate college-credit programs, which they consider more rigorous.

To CPS and City Colleges, the rise of dual credit in the district is an unadulterated success story. Thanks to the program, a record 211 CPS seniors earned associate degrees last year, and more than 1,000 completed 15 or more college credits, saving their families an estimated $10 million.

The lack of racial disparities in dual credit in CPS is notable compared with national data, says Amy Williams, the executive director of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships, which supports dual enrollment programs. Meanwhile, in the district’s AP and IB courses, white students are still significantly overrepresented and Black students underrepresented.

A Chalkbeat analysis of school-level dual credit participation data shows a mixed picture. Participation of students with disabilities is growing, but still about 3% of them take these courses. Participation has also remained relatively stagnant at district charter schools, which have not promoted dual credit as aggressively.

There are also pockets of limited access in district-run high schools, particularly in the city’s small South and West Side campuses; in more than a dozen, no students participate and in others, fewer than 5% do. Megan Hougard, the chief of college and career success, said CPS is trying to expand access in small schools by using its Virtual Academy to offer online classes.

Still, it’s undeniable that dual credit is gaining momentum. At Clark last year, 12 students graduated with associate degrees from City Colleges. They were a tight-knit group — some fellow members of the school’s football and track teams — who burned through the school’s dual credit courses largely in lockstep. When they ran out of classes at the high school, Anderson lined up a minibus to take them to the Malcolm X campus during their senior year.

Anthony Spivey, last year’s valedictorian, started at St. Ambrose University as a junior this past fall after the private college in Iowa accepted all of his credits. After taking three classes with Lee, the computer science teacher at Clark, and earning 23 industry certifications, he also knew exactly what he wanted to study: cybersecurity. He could start taking classes in his major right away.

“I felt I was more than prepared to take on a big college workload,” he said.

But fast growth of dual credit has also brought hurdles and skepticism.

A wall displays student photos at Michele Clark High School in Chicago on Jan. 21, 2026.

Some faculty and teachers question pass rates and rigor

Last school year, Anderson, the Clark principal, set out on a bold experiment: The school would make sure that every sophomore was enrolled in at least one dual credit course. The school’s dual credit participation rate skyrocketed to 90%.

It turned out to be too much, too soon.

In recent years, the school’s dual credit course pass rates had remained high even as participation grew. About 42% of students took at least one class and all passed in 2023-24 — a rate Anderson credits to an “everyone’s your study buddy” culture of supporting dual credit students. But by the end of last year, after many sophomores struggled, the pass rate plummeted to 60%.

“What we learned was that there still need to be some prerequisites — some preparation to help students get there,” Anderson said. “We doused them too quickly.”

Brandt ran into challenges too. Last spring, she signed up for a different kind of City Colleges class: a self-paced online statistics course, with no live virtual classes. She struggled with the material and missed interacting with other students. She passed the class after a high school math teacher stepped in to help. But this past winter, Brandt, a straight A student, failed a self-paced online English course.

Anderson says self-paced courses help students better understand how they learn and keep them on track to earn associate degrees. Some experts and even CPS officials say these classes tend to be a poor fit for most high school students, who often need more structure and engagement with faculty and peers. Yet almost 2,000 CPS students enrolled in them last year.

Experts caution that failed college credit classes can be a red flag to college admissions officials and can send the wrong message to students questioning if college is for them.

The fast growth of dual credit and dual enrollment worries some leaders in the union representing City Colleges faculty and some rank-and-file professors, who nationally tend to be the most skeptical voices on the issue.

Swanson, of the Cook County College Teachers Union, said he appreciates the benefits of dual credit. But he worries the system and CPS are too bent on boosting participation, putting students who are too young and unprepared into classes that might not be rigorous enough.

He says the growth of dual credit is threatening some introductory courses at community colleges with extinction because students already took them in high school.

College faculty are tasked with overseeing dual credit courses, but they can only monitor them so much while carrying their own campus course loads, Swanson said.

“To get AP credit, you have to take a test,” he said. “In dual credit, if the teacher says that you get the credit, you get the credit. There’s no standard mark of success.”

Todd Lakin, a Spanish instructor at Malcolm X, said he’s had a positive experience overseeing dual credit courses at Whitney Young Magnet High School and the charter Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy. But he said he pulled out of supervising a class at another high school, which he declined to name because he did not want to single out the campus for what he believes is a systemic issue. He said the curriculum was not at a college-level pace, and some students were not receiving the support they needed to get the most out of the class.

“Dual credit expanded too quickly, and the academic integrity of the courses can be called into question,” he said. “We are doing students a disservice.”

Some faculty have questioned CPS’s high dual credit pass rates, particularly perfect rates in some years at schools such as Clark. Data obtained by Chalkbeat shows 94% of CPS students passed dual credit English 101 last year, compared with 64% of students who took the course on City Colleges campuses. About 87% passed Math 140 in CPS compared with 66% at City Colleges. The district’s overall dual credit pass rate has hovered above 90% in recent years, though it dipped to 87% last year amid a big jump in participation.

The stairs leading to the second floor of Michele Clark High School, an "early college" campus on Chicago's West Side, display the names of universities.

Experts such as Williams say key differences between high school and college classrooms may help explain higher pass rates: High school classes tend to meet more frequently, class sizes can be smaller, and most teachers receive training in how to support a wide range of learners.

Daphne Whitington, an English teacher at Julian High School on the city’s Far South Side, which offers both dual credit and AP, said some colleagues believe the school should be preparing students for selective colleges more likely to accept AP courses. One of Whittington’s students, who had taken numerous dual credit and AP courses, last year got a full ride at the University of Southern California. The university gave her credit for all of her AP courses — and none of her 18 dual credit and dual enrollment credits.

But Whitington said both types of classes made the student a stronger applicant and prepared her for college. Dual credit has also helped round out the small school’s relatively limited selection of AP.

“College is daunting for our kids,” Whitington said. “But being exposed to that coursework in high school is a great bridge for them.”

It’s challenging to size up the impact the growth of dual credit is having so far. A Chalkbeat analysis did not find that campuses that boosted dual credit participation also consistently saw higher college enrollment and persistence. At Clark, for instance, as participation grew in the past three years, college enrollment remained relatively flat at about half of graduates, and persistence dipped.

But City Colleges leaders note CPS students who take dual credit and then enroll on their campuses do better than peers who did not take these courses. About 65% stayed past the first year, compared with 54% of other CPS students. Among the class of 2021, 55% of dual credit takers earned an associate degree in four years, compared with fewer than a third of other CPS grads.

It can be hard to say whether dual credit is sending more students to college or attracting already college-bound students. Still, CPS data shows 83% of students who took dual credit went to college compared with about 65% who did not take these classes. Roughly 82% of dual credit takers in the class of 2022 stayed in college past the first year, about 10 percentage points more than their peers.

Arianna Brandt, a Michele Clark High senior and one of the school's dual credit "superstars," has gotten numerous acceptance letters from four-year universities.

Officials stress because of the time lag in college outcomes, they don’t yet capture the real payoff of the recent rise in dual credit participation.

They say efforts to strengthen the program are ongoing: The system is looking into how to provide more access to tutoring and other help to students taking self-paced online courses, particularly in math, where City Colleges acknowledges students have traditionally not done well. Recently, faculty and teachers met with CPS and City Colleges officials to talk about how to strengthen English course rigor.

Hougard, the CPS postsecondary chief, dismisses concerns about rigor, saying some of the same worries came up amid a push to offer algebra to more middle schoolers — an effort that has successfully increased participation without hurting pass rates.

At Clark, school leaders pulled back from enrolling all sophomores in dual credit. They are focusing on offering students more support, including by encouraging them to band together and help each other as the 12 associate degree graduates from last year did.

Aware of college faculty skepticism, Anderson, Clark’s principal, sent Brandt and other students to meet with professors, in hopes of showing they were not that different from the college’s own freshmen.

Brandt, who wants to study business and athletic training, has already gotten 11 college acceptance letters, and is deciding between Chicago State and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Meanwhile, determined to earn an associate degree before she graduates high school in May, she is taking four more self-paced online classes and retaking English 101.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

On-demand college counseling, courtesy of AI

2026-03-27T12:00:00+00:00

This story about AI in college counseling was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for The Hechinger Report’s higher education newsletter.

By Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report

At 16, Khloe Watson-Barrett already knows she wants to be a lawyer. She also knows she’ll soon have to run the gauntlet of the high-stakes college admissions process, now that she’s past the halfway point of her junior year in high school.

“It’s nerve-wracking,” Watson-Barrett said of what she’s heard about applying to college.

That unease is only aggravated for many high school students by a lack of access to one-on-one time with overburdened college counselors, who are often buried under questions about what tests to take, which deadlines to meet, and how to fill out applications for financial aid.

Now Watson-Barrett’s school and many others are just at the start of testing a new generation of technology that promises to free up time for college counselors while giving students crucial information, even outside school hours: artificial intelligence built specifically to provide advice about life after high school.

Khloe Watson-Barrett, 16, a junior at the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice. “It’s nerve-racking,” she says of applying to college.

The AI being piloted for high school college counseling doesn’t simply skim the internet like general-purpose AI, which is subject to misinformation and manipulation. It’s programmed with answers provided by experts, based on a history of previous applicants’ questions. Unlike AI tools in many fields, several educators said, the AI being designed for college counseling — including a new AI platform called CounselorGPT that Watson-Barrett’s school expects to start testing next year — has the goal of encouraging more human interaction, not less.

College counselors still are best at understanding and suggesting how students can achieve their individual ambitions, said Diana Moldovan, director of college and career placement at the public Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, where Watson-Barrett goes. “You can’t replace the trust,” Moldovan said.

But counselors get bogged down answering procedural questions or prodding students to complete tasks, she said. “If AI could do some of these things, that leaves more time” to talk with soon-to-be graduates about their academic, social, and financial choices.

Nearly half of students are already using AI on their own to navigate the complex process of applying to college, according to a survey released in February by the higher education consulting firm EAB. That includes helping them pick and compare schools, complete their applications, and prepare for standardized tests.

This alarms college counseling professionals. Most generative AI that families are using can’t detect misinformation or disinformation, they say, and is vulnerable to recruiters who use tricks to put certain universities and colleges at the top of search results.

“I would not want a young person to be using these tools by themselves, because it’s about asking the right questions,” said Angel Pérez, CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, or NACAC.

“Ask [generative] AI what college you’re going to get into — you’re not going to get the right answers. There still has to be the human component,” he said.

Related: Interested in innovations in higher education? Subscribe to our free biweekly higher education newsletter.

Using AI to ease the burden on college counselor caseloads

Moldovan’s office, hung with the banners of colleges and universities, is often busy, though the school has only about 200 juniors and seniors, or fewer than 70 for each of the three college advisers — a much smaller-than-typical number.

Diana Moldovan at the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice's college and career office.

Even these counselors are frustrated by having to spend time on things AI could do, such as helping students fill out financial aid forms and reminding them to write their application essays. And that’s with caseloads much smaller than the national ratio of students to counselors, according to the American School Counseling Association: 372:1.

Nationally, nearly 1 in 5 high schools have no college counselors at all.

College counselors in schools that do have them are responsible for so many other tasks that only about a fifth of their time is spent directly on college admissions advising, NACAC estimates. And they’re available only during school days and hours — not on weekends, holidays, or in the summers, when students’ questions might crop up.

These are longstanding problems purpose-built AI could help solve, said Pérez, who said AI tools should be able to provide objective information from admissions experts such as how to take the SAT and fill out the free application for federal student aid, or FAFSA .

“All of that can be given to students at the press of a button,” Pérez said, “so college counselors can talk about fit and match and the unique aspects of the individual student.”

Several different and competing versions of AI college counseling tools are in their early or experimental stages.

One is CounselorGPT, operated by Urban Assembly, a nonprofit that supports 22 schools in New York City including Watson-Barrett’s. So far the organization has tested the tool in 13 schools, an effort started before New York City unveiled its preliminary AI guidance for schools this week. City officials are expected by June to finalize a policy for deciding what kinds of AI platforms will and will not be allowed in schools.

Developed by and proprietary to Urban Assembly, CounselorGPT uses real-time job postings analyzed by the labor market data company Lightcast to show what jobs are in demand, how much they pay, what credentials they require, and how much it will cost to get those skills.

That’s information high school college counselors haven’t historically been able to provide but that consumers want, said David Adams, CEO of Urban Assembly, whose schools are expressly focused on preparing students for the workforce.

“Even when students have access to the highest-quality college counselors, they can’t possibly know all the information around labor markets,” said Adams. “Students are left guessing about what kind of degree leads to social and economic mobility.”

They often make the wrong decisions, he said. “They shouldn’t have to go through college and struggle to get a job before they realize the low return on that credential.”

Another AI platform, called the Expert Virtual Assistant, or EVA, is being developed by a private company, the College Guidance Network, with which NACAC has a partnership.

It uses AI as a starting point that, in response to questions, not only provides basic answers but takes users to videos and other resources about applying to college.

Jon Carson, CEO of the College Guidance Network, said he co-founded the company when his own son, then in high school in the affluent Boston suburb where they live, got only an hour a year with his college counselor, who had myriad other responsibilities, including dealing with students’ non-college-application-related problems.

“I was stunned,” said Carson. “That’s the quantity problem. Then we get to the quality problem, which is that the average counselor also has to be a social worker.”

AI can’t substitute for human college counselors, he said, but it can offer basic information, at any time. EVA also records what questions students ask it, so counselors can track them. Carson compares it to the time-saving form that patients fill out before they see a doctor.

“What you’re trying to leverage here is that one hour that the counselor does have,” Carson said. “And they don’t have to use it answering the simplest questions.”

Twenty high schools are testing EVA, he said.

Not all college counselors embrace this idea. Though many are willing to use AI to streamline their own duties, fewer than 40% see it as a way to provide services directly to students, according to a survey by the American School Counselor Association and researchers at Ball State University.

“It’s still in the very early stages, and I’m seeing a little hesitation,” said Pérez. He said some counselors worry that AI might replace them altogether, or be used as an excuse for raising student-to-counselor ratios even higher.

There are also fears that students can become attached to and overly reliant on AI. EVA originally was given a female icon and pronouns to go with its female name, but is being changed to an owl to avoid users sentimentalizing it.

Jaheem Shaw, 18, a senior, in the hallways of the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice. “There’s a lot of value in asking someone who has experience in the process, on a more personal level,” he says.

Jaheem Shaw, a senior at the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, is deciding from among several universities that accepted him, with his counselors’ help. Like junior Khloe Watson-Barrett, he used the term “nerve-racking” to describe the process.

But he felt he benefited from the personal interaction with his college advisers and how they learned about him, his interests, and his shortlist of school choices.

Those advisers also gave him something else, he said: encouragement.

“And I don’t think that’s something you can get from AI,” Shaw said.

Contact writer Jon Marcus at 212-678-7556, jmarcus@hechingerreport.org or jpm.82 on Signal.

As NYC expands free child care, CUNY tries to grow its teacher pipeline

2026-03-17T16:27:58+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Rosalinda Rodriguez knows first hand what a difference free, high-quality child care can make for a New York City family.

Several years ago, Rodriguez, a 25-year-old single mom, enrolled her then-toddler-age son in a federally funded Early Head Start program on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Staffers there helped support her son with a speech disability and freed up Rodriguez to work part time.

Years later, her son is thriving in elementary school, and Rodriguez decided to pursue her long-time dream of attending college, enrolling at CUNY’s Borough of Manhattan Community College last fall to study early childhood education.

“It definitely feels like I got a second chance,” said Rodriguez, who hopes she can help families like hers. “There’s lots of low-income families that need child care, and kids need to get an education. [They] need someone who cares.”

Students like Rodriguez are at the heart of a new push from CUNY officials to bolster the city’s early childhood education workforce as Mayor Zohran Mamdani embarks on a historic expansion of free child care.

City officials haven’t said exactly how many new early childhood educators the expansion plans will require, but the need could be acute.

Mamdani, with funding from Gov. Kathy Hochul, has pledged to open 2,000 free child care seats for 2-year-olds this fall, and an additional 10,000 seats a year later, before growing the program to accommodate any city 2-year-old by its fourth year. He also expanded the city’s existing 3-K program by 1,000 seats in an effort to increase supply in oversubscribed neighborhoods.

Across CUNY’s 26 campuses, roughly 3,600 students are working toward a degree in early childhood education, university officials said. Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez recently asked all of the college presidents to review their early childhood education curriculum and ensure they’re pushing students out into the work force as quickly as possible.

“This is a moment where we need to meet the city’s demand for their work force,” Matos Rodríguez told Chalkbeat last week during a visit to a child development course at Borough of Manhattan Community College.

For aspiring early childhood educators who don’t want to pursue a full associate or bachelor’s degree, CUNY launched a free apprenticeship program last year to place them in assistant teacher roles. CUNY officials also hope that a separate state-funded program called Reconnect could prove particularly effective in bringing new early educators into the fold: It offers financial support for older students without a college degree to enroll in coursework in high-demand fields.

“You might have people out there who have experience working with kids and they have not been able to get their degree,” Matos Rodríguez said. “[Here’s] a chance to come do that, get an associate, it’s paid for, and be ready for when that credential becomes necessary.”

At a recent City Council hearing, Emmy Liss, Mamdani’s newly appointed director of the Mayor’s Office of Child Care, said “we will need to significantly expand the number of trained professionals working in child care” – jobs she acknowledged have been historically “underpaid and under-respected.”

Unlike teaching positions in K-12 schools, which uniformly require a bachelor’s degree and state certification, qualifications for city early childhood education jobs can vary.

Lead teachers for prekindergarten programs located in public schools need full teaching licenses. But for 2-K, which officials have said will be located in community-based centers or home-based settings, the qualifications are less stringent. Teachers in home-based programs must complete 30 hours of child development training, while center-based instructors must have, or be working toward, an associate degree in early childhood education, according to an Education Department spokesperson.

But even as university officials try to lure more students into early childhood education programs, they know that the meager wages awaiting many of them after graduation can make that task more complicated.

Early childhood educators made a median yearly wage of roughly $25,000 as of 2023, according to a report from former Comptroller Brad Lander — compared to nearly $100,000 for K-12 teachers. Mamdani has pledged to make increasing wages for educators a part of his child care expansion, but hasn’t laid out any specific plans or funding sources to make that happen.

“I think it’s pretty easy for people to find jobs,” said Phoebe Gilpin, a doctoral student at Hunter College and the instructor for Rodriguez’s course. “It’s hard for them to find living wage jobs.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Engineer or entrepreneur? NYC parents want career aptitude assessments for high schoolers

2026-02-12T23:13:35+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

As New York City schools ramp up their focus on job readiness programs, a parent board overseeing high schools is calling on the Education Department to implement career aptitude assessments for all ninth and 11th graders.

“It helps with the ever popular question of ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’” said Lawrence Lee, one of the sponsors of the resolution the Citywide Council on High Schools passed this week. “It’s a big world with lots of different options and choices. I think many people look around and think their choices are only what they can see around them.”

New York City schools, like other schools across the state and nation, are increasingly focusing on career education. There are more than 130 career and technical schools plus over 260 career and technical programs offering internships, apprenticeships, and job-focused courses across the five boroughs. But often, students are left to navigate a complicated application process without guidance on how various programs, electives, internships, career and technical tracks, and postsecondary paths might align with long-term goals, the high school council board members said. They believe the career aptitude assessments can help students reflect on their choices to improve how they select courses and work toward real-world goals.

“By 11th grade, those decisions directly affect college applications, workforce credentials, and financial planning. Rather than leave those moments to chance, these assessments can give students the agency to better understand their own talents and to see multiple futures for themselves,” said Deborah Alexander, one of the resolution’s sponsors.

Education Department officials said they will review the resolution, but added they currently use platforms that offer interactive career exploration activities and generate tailored career options based on students’ interests.

“This career planning is also embedded in 1:1 advising, ensuring each high schooler receives personalized support in mapping out their next steps,” Education Department spokesperson Isla Gething said in a statement.

The high school council members want students to take “developmentally appropriate, research‐based” assessments in the fall of freshman year and spring of junior year, saying it will help provide more guidance especially for students from historically underserved communities and those learning English as a new language.

“Some students grow up surrounded by professionals who talk openly about their work and pathways, but many do not,” Alexander said. “That difference can shape who sees themselves as an engineer, a nurse, a filmmaker, an entrepreneur, or who never considers those possibilities at all.”

The online career assessment industry has exploded in recent years: An estimated 47% of high schools and 40% of middle schools across the country use off-the-shelf advising tools from more than 20 companies, and many others use custom tech tools.

Some research suggests that career aptitude tools can help students better understand their strengths, exposing them to career possibilities that might otherwise not have been on their radar. Some experts suggest the tech tools can also help erode gender and other biases, when it comes to career advice.

But evidence of how effective these tools are remains scarce, which is why education research organization MDRC has embarked on a long-term analysis of two of the tech tools, expecting to release results in the summer. Though the tools offer schools a way to advise students without having to hire more counselors — doing deep dives into what kinds of careers fit a student’s aptitudes and personality as well as what kind of degree to pursue and potential salary ranges — they often need adult support to assist with interpretation, said Rachel Rosen, a senior research associate at MDRC.

“They’re not perfect,” Rosen said of the tools. “They are better if there is a teacher or an adult who will take the information and really work closely with the students on understanding how it can help them think creatively about what the tools are saying.”

While MDRC researchers don’t yet have definitive answers on whether the tool helped reduce bias, they did find that by the time students take the assessments, they already have some of their own assumptions about who they are and what kinds of careers they might do, Rosen said.

“They felt like they knew themselves better than the tool,” she said, and while the tools still had potential, “they need some good adult guidance to go with them.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

When is a good grade not good enough? A debate over selective college admissions.

2026-02-12T11:42:47+00:00

Read the full piece here.

Despite recent efforts to make change, top colleges are still home to mostly wealthy students

2026-02-10T20:12:00+00:00

Chalkbeat Ideas is a new section featuring reported columns on the big ideas and debates shaping American schools. Sign up for the Ideas newsletter to follow our work.

It’s hardly news that America’s elite universities are largely populated by students from America’s wealthiest families.

Yet in recent years this has drawn increasing alarm. Research has documented just how large the admissions advantage is for well-off students. Bloomberg Philanthropies has pumped tens of millions of dollars into efforts to get talented lower-income students into better colleges. The College Board, which administers the SAT, vowed to help in this effort. For some, the 2023 Supreme Court ruling banning race-based affirmative action added more urgency to the task. In the wake of the ruling, a number of schools pledged to step up recruitment and end legacy admissions.

Have these efforts paid off? A look at university press releases might suggest so. A number of schools — including Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, and Princeton — have recently touted a record share of students who receive Pell grants, education stipends that go to students from low- and middle-income families.

Most press releases did not mention a salient fact, however: The Pell qualification rules have changed in recent years, skewing comparisons over time. A careful parsing of the data suggests that America’s top colleges are still filled largely by students from advantaged backgrounds. Individual universities have seen some progress, but the aggregate changes appear to have been modest.

“There are benefits to enrolling more rich kids — untold benefits — for these selective institutions,” says Paul Tough, an author who has chronicled efforts to improve college access. “And there are very few benefits to enrolling more low-income students, except that it’s the right thing to do.”

This matters because enrollment at top universities has been linked to higher graduation rates and higher incomes post college. Selective schools typically provide a better-funded education, while offering more generous financial aid. They also often open the door to institutions of power and influence.

It’s important to be clear about how incremental progress in increasing economic diversity has been. If schools can get positive attention for addressing this without making substantial changes, they may feel even less pressure to undertake further reforms.

Researchers have often counted students as lower-income based on whether they receive a federal Pell grant. But since eligibility expanded in 2024, Pell numbers across the country have spiked. “My suspicion is that much of the uptick in Pell representation at these selective colleges and universities is a measurement issue,” says Sarah Turner, a University of Virginia professor who studies higher education.

Some universities acknowledge the changing Pell definition but say that their economic diversity has genuinely increased. To figure out whether this is the case, I looked at data from the National Student Clearinghouse, which tracks university enrollment, broken down by the income level of students’ neighborhoods.

Total enrollment at “highly selective” colleges has been going up in recent years, but the economic background of the student body has barely budged. The share of students from the two groups of lower-income neighborhoods has shifted from 13.2% in 2019 to 13.4% in 2025. In raw numbers, that’s an uptick of about 20,000 students, which is far less than the 95,000 student increase from the two highest-income neighborhoods.

Three-quarters of students at these selective schools come from those affluent areas. This is just 1 percentage point lower compared to six years earlier.

Another analysis, recently published by the College Board, looked at the year after affirmative action was banned. At very elite colleges, the share of first-year students from low- and middle-income neighborhoods rose by only a “minimal” amount, researchers found.

The clearinghouse income data only goes back to 2019. Would a longer time horizon change the picture? Not much. A recent analysis by James Murphy, a higher education analyst at the nonprofit Class Action, found that between 2013 and 2023, first-year Pell enrollment at highly selective private colleges increased from 16% to 18%. This uptick was a bit higher at Ivy League and elite liberal arts schools. Still, at selective public colleges, Pell shares fell by 2 points. (This was when the Pell definition was broadly consistent.)

The data I’ve described is imperfect. The clearinghouse measures students’ neighborhoods, rather than their individual economic circumstances. Those are highly correlated but are not the same. The clearinghouse also includes a variety of colleges, nearly 200, under the banner of “highly selective,” not just the very elite schools. Turner of the University of Virginia says more detailed data is needed to fully understand the trends here.

I asked the universities touting their record Pell numbers for any data beyond Pell showing that more low-income students were enrolled. None responded with that information.

The challenge of making substantial change is epitomized by the American Talent Initiative, an organization supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies (which is also a funder of Chalkbeat). In 2016, ATI set a goal of adding 50,000 low- and middle-income students to 350 or so colleges with high graduation rates. Many of those schools joined ATI as members, but even more did not participate in the initiative. Initial reports from the group showed that its members were making progress, but non-participating schools were actually enrolling fewer and fewer lower-income students.

Tania LaViolet, an ATI leader, says the original hope was to influence the broader ecosystem of top colleges by sharing best practices across institutions. “That hypothesis didn’t pan out as we had anticipated,” she says.

In 2024, ATI dropped its initial goal to focus just on colleges that opted to participate in the work. Its latest report, released last month, touts an increase in lower-income students among ATI members, though the authors acknowledge it’s challenging to compare trends over time because of the changing Pell definition. The organization no longer tracks data for non-members.

ATI officials note that even if the share of low-income students in selective schools hasn’t changed much, their raw numbers have increased, as overall enrollment has grown. “This increased number means thousands of lives changed for the better,” says LaViolet.

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

Colorado’s high school graduation rate rose again in 2025, while dropout rate hit a historic low

2026-01-13T15:01:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.

Colorado’s high school graduation rate, continuing its climb, rose to 85.6% for the class of 2025, the highest in more than a decade, according to state data released Tuesday.

That number represents the percentage of students who graduated within four years of starting high school. The 2025 four-year graduation rate was 1.4 percentage points higher than in 2024 and 4.5 points higher than in 2019, before the pandemic.

Graduation rates have been rising nationwide in recent years.

Meanwhile, Colorado’s dropout rate has fallen to a historic low: just 1.6% for the class of 2025, down from 1.9% in 2024. The previous statewide low was 1.8%.

In Colorado, students must complete both state and school district requirements to graduate. The district ones vary, with some districts requiring more credits than others and requiring students to take certain courses, such as health or fine arts, or complete community service.

At the state level, new graduation requirements went into effect in 2022. Those requirements offer students a menu of 11 options to show proficiency in reading, writing, and math.

The options include passing a standardized test such as the SAT or ACT, scoring at least a 2 out of 5 on an Advanced Placement exam, passing a college-level course, earning an industry certificate, or completing a capstone project. The SAT is the most common way students meet the state’s graduation criteria, state officials said at a press briefing Tuesday. Capstone projects and college-level courses are also popular, they said.

The improvements in graduation and dropout rates in 2025 were nearly universal across students of all races, those from low-income families, multilingual students, and students with disabilities. But big gaps remain. For instance, 90% of white students graduated within four years in 2025, compared with 80.6% of Black students and 80.2% of Hispanic students.

Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova called the rates “encouraging progress.”

“We also have work to do to continue closing gaps for students of color, students with special needs, students experiencing homelessness, economically disadvantaged students, and multilingual learners,” Córdova said in a statement.

Graduation rates held steady or increased in nearly 70% of districts, according to the Colorado Department of Education. The rate rose 2 percentage points to 81.9% in Colorado’s largest district, the 90,000-student Denver Public Schools system. Graduation rates also went up in the Jeffco, Aurora, Adams 14, Adams 12, Cherry Creek, Mapleton, and Westminster districts.

In the Pueblo 60 school district, where the four-year graduation rate rose 4.7 percentage points to 88.9%, Superintendent Barbara Kimzey ticked off a long list of factors that led to the gain.

They included adding transition programs for students entering sixth and ninth grades, expanding career and technical classes in subjects such as culinary arts and cybersecurity, and working with the city to adjust public bus routes to fight absenteeism among high school students, she said.

“What we have done is then really work on: Can we adjust those routes so they’re closer to our schools, so kids aren’t having to spend an hour on the bus?” Kimzey said. “And making sure our families all know what’s available. … We are a majority Latino community, so we make sure all of our communications are in Spanish and English.”

Many of the districts where graduation rates declined, including 2,400-student Englewood and 3,400-student Fort Morgan, have fewer students overall. The largest district to see a drop in its graduation rate was 20,000-student District 51 in Grand Junction.

Look up your school or district’s graduation and dropout rate below.

Update, Jan. 13: This story has been updated with comments from a press briefing.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

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

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

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

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.

Doing high school and college simultaneously: Dual enrollment surges in NY, saving families money

2025-12-02T23:00:28+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Every morning, all of the roughly 100 seniors at Kingsborough Early College Secondary school start their day taking classes together at CUNY Kingsborough Community College.

In the afternoon, they hop on a yellow school bus and head back to their school on the Lafayette educational campus about 15 minutes away.

Kingsborough juniors make the reverse trek. They start their morning at the Lafayette campus then take the bus to the community college for afternoon classes.

By the time the students graduate high school, most have earned associate degrees from CUNY Kingsborough. In fact, the majority — 57% — of CUNY Kingsborough students are not stereotypical college students. They’re high schoolers, according to a new analysis released Tuesday from a New York coalition of advocates and education institutions.

CUNY Kingsborough is one of six community colleges across the state where high schoolers make up the majority of students. It could be the harbinger of something bigger. As community college enrollment has declined nationwide in recent years, dual enrollment programs — where high school students take college courses and earn college-level credit — are expanding in New York state and elsewhere.

The state Education Department is making these programs a priority. It recently proposed new reporting regulations requiring institutions to not only report their dual enrollment partnership agreements but also to provide data on enrollment and outcomes. The idea is to help officials and educators get a better grasp on the variety of dual enrollment programs and find ways to ensure the programs reach more students who are underrepresented in higher education.

The stakes are high: According to a 2024 report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, workers will need a bachelor’s degree for 66% of “good jobs” in 2031 — defined as one that pays a minimum of $43,000 a year nationally to workers ages 25-44.

The state’s proposed rules, which it’s expected to adopt early next year, will mark the state’s first consistent policy governing these programs. Additionally, the state recently created a $9.1 million College in High School Opportunity Fund to support dual enrollment and other early college programs to focus on enrolling more students from low-income families.

Several studies have celebrated dual enrollment programs for helping put students on a path to college by exposing them to high-level coursework.

At Kingsborough, the program has proven so successful that many of its students not only complete higher education degrees, they eventually return to work at the school. Of the school’s 80 staffers, 16 are graduates, its principal, Tracee Murren, said.

And there’s one other very obvious benefit dual enrollment programs frequently offer: Students can save money by earning college credits, often for free, before they finish high school.

Early college programs help families save on average $13,000 on the cost of a bachelor’s degree, said Alexandra Wilcox, deputy director of the New York Alliance for Early College Pathways, the group that studied the state’s dual enrollment expansion.

Research has found students in these programs are also more likely to attend school regularly, avoid suspension, graduate high school, and earn a college degree within six years.

“It really is a game changer in terms of being able to save time and money to a degree,” Wilcox said.

But a deeper understanding of the types of programs, who they’re serving, and what their outcomes are — the things the state is proposing to capture — will ultimately strengthen dual enrollment programs, said Wilcox.

Though New York pioneered dual enrollment programs, launching them more than 50 years ago, the state’s approach in terms of policy and funding has been “inconsistent and unpredictable,” Wilcox said.

NYC has range of early college programs

Across New York state, dual enrollment jumped 15% year-over-year, the alliance report found. It now has the nation’s third largest number of students in dual enrollment with more than 176,000, behind California and Texas.

In New York City, the majority of dual enrollment students are in College Now, where they take college-level courses at CUNY for free, generally as an add-on to their regular high school courses. But there’s rising interest in the early college approach, which integrates college courses more deeply into the curriculum. About 30,000 students take College Now courses while roughly 3,500 students take CUNY classes through early college courses, a CUNY spokesperson said.

Nearly 45 out of the city’s 400 high schools offer early college programs, according to the city’s MySchools lookup tool.

The early college model traces its roots to Middle College High School, which opened in 1974 to provide students who struggled in traditional schools with an opportunity to take courses at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, where the school is still located.

Some early college programs do not screen students based on their academic records, like Pathways in Technology Early College High School, known as P-TECH. That school launched in Brooklyn in 2011 and spawned eight other high schools across the boroughs that offer a six-year program, grades 9-14, each affiliated with different CUNY institutions. Students at these schools can graduate with an associate degree in a STEM field at no cost.

Other programs are highly selective. Bard College, a liberal arts school in Annandale-on-Hudson, has four New York City Bard Early College campuses, where Bard professors teach students, who go through a rigorous admissions process involving a test and interview. The newly opened HBCU Early College Prep in Queens — which partners with Delaware State University, a historically Black institution — also admits students based on GPAs, a writing exercise, and a video submission. The HBCU Early College students take online classes through Delaware State.

Access to dual enrollment programs shifts

At Kingsborough Early College, which opened in 2006, the school targets students who are underserved in higher education — those “not typically selected for gifted and talented,” Murren said.

The school starts in sixth grade, admitting students through a lottery. Demand for it is high: Roughly 1,000 students apply for 100 seats every year.

Roughly 40 to 50% enter the program reading below grade level, Murren said, and the school takes an intensive approach to ensure they’re ready to read dense college-level material as they reach the upper grades. Middle schoolers also have an advisory class every day to ensure they have the “mental fortitude” to take on college-level work, she said.

Students at HBCU Early College Prep High School in Queens on its first day of school, Sept. 4, 2025.

The students take their first college class in ninth grade, a Spanish course, stretching it from one semester to the entire year to make it slower and more digestible, Murren said. The school intentionally starts with a foreign language since it’s a course that many four-year colleges require and has no prerequisites.

Professors from CUNY Kingsborough Community College come to the Lafayette campus to teach the freshman and sophomores in the afternoon, and the school has an extended day to accommodate these courses.

Balancing high school and the more advanced college courses simultaneously isn’t easy, Murren acknowledged. But her staff is committed. There’s low teacher turnover, and they get to know most students from the age of 10.

The students, for the most part, take their college classes together once they start attending the CUNY campus, maintaining a sense of community.

Murren said the students also support each other, characterizing their approach in this way: “‘We’ve been going through this together, and I don’t want you to fall off, so I’m going to make sure that you don’t.’”

She added: “We should never doubt what our students are capable of, their abilities, and their tenacity really shines through when given the opportunity.”

Historically, many high schools have used dual enrollment programs as an acceleration strategy instead of also a strategy to promote college access, said John Fink, a researcher at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University.

But that’s changing. Research into dual enrollment is also shifting away from addressing whether it works and instead trying to understand how to make it work better — and for more students, not just the top students who are “already acing everything,” he said.

The key question, Fink believes, is how to make sure that families know there’s free college available to New York City high schoolers.

“Even though you think that word would get out, it doesn’t,” he said, “[but] when it’s implemented as a purposeful path to debt-free college … that marketing also helps sell the high school.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

The curious disconnect between the data and the vibes of higher education

2025-11-11T22:50:00+00:00

Chalkbeat Ideas is a new section featuring reported columns on the big ideas and debates shaping American schools. Sign up for the Ideas newsletter to follow our work. You can also RSVP for our first online event this Thursday, where we’ll unpack new data on learning loss.

American colleges are under siege.

The Trump administration has waged a legal and rhetorical battle against the country’s elite universities. Voters have grown increasingly skeptical of higher education. Some high school students are questioning the value of a college diploma. In turn, there’s been a veritable firehose of news stories about a generational pivot away from college due to some combination of ruinous costs, close-minded campus cultures, and appealing alternatives.

It is a disorienting experience, then, to examine the cold, hard data of higher education.

College tuition has become more affordable in recent years. The economic return on a bachelor’s degree has stopped growing but remains near historic highs. After a post-pandemic dip, four-year college enrollment has almost fully recovered to near-record levels. Students are increasingly flocking to flagship public universities like UCLA and the University of Michigan.

Whatever the problems of higher education, the narrative has raced far ahead of the reality.

Much of this mistaken story stems from a simple confusion: conflating enrollment in two-year and four-year colleges. While it’s true that fewer people are in community colleges, the number of students seeking bachelor’s degrees hasn’t changed much. “It’s been roughly flat for the last 10 years,” says Joshua Goodman, an education economist at Boston University. “That’s very much not the narrative.”

Let’s unpack the disconnect between the data and the vibes.

The costs vs. benefits of college

It is often treated as a well-established fact that the price of college is soaring. That is no longer the case. For the last couple of decades, net tuition has, if anything, trended down at private and in-state public universities, according to data compiled by the College Board. Since household earnings have gone up during this period, college tuition appears to have become somewhat more affordable in recent years, not less.

“When I talk to members of the public this has not penetrated at all,” says Dominique Baker, a higher education professor at the University of Delaware.

The reality has been underappreciated because colleges’ sticker prices have been rising at an almost linear rate. But list price has become increasingly disconnected from the real price thanks to growing financial aid.

What about the economic benefits of a four-year college education?

On average, those with a bachelor’s degree still earn far more than those without. The “college-wage premium,” as economists call it, stands at about 75%. This figure has stagnated since the early 2000s, but it remains at or near its highest point in a century.

You may have seen headlines about careers that don’t require a degree but that come with lucrative salaries. Such examples certainly exist, but they are exceptions to the average. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the non-degreed occupations with the most new positions all earn under $40,000 annually. Those include home health aides, order stockers, and fast-food workers.

This does not mean that every student who attends college will see a return. The wage premium is a simple correlation and refers to those with a degree, which about one-third of college enrollees do not obtain. The decision for any individual student about whether to go to college depends on their chances of completion, the careers they’re interested in, and the cost.

Still, rigorous studies have repeatedly found that, on average, students benefit economically from seeking a four-year degree.

“There’s not a case to be made that it’s a worse deal now than it was 10 or 15 years ago,” says Jeff Denning, a higher education researcher at the University of Texas at Austin. “I’m not aware of any data that would suggest that.”

Four-year college enrollment has held steady, though two-year enrollment has fallen dramatically

For the last few decades, a little more than 40% of recent high school graduates have enrolled in a four-year college. These numbers have been fairly stable, even as high school graduation rates have risen.

Other data shows a dip in four-year enrollment in the wake of the pandemic, followed by a bounceback in recent years. The number of people pursuing bachelor’s degrees is now just 1% below pre-pandemic levels, according to a recent estimate.

While flagship state universities have generally seen enrollments rise, colleges with worse student outcomes, like the University of Phoenix, an online for-profit college, have seen drops, notes Preston Cooper in a report for the American Enterprise Institute.

The biggest decline in college enrollment has been at two-year schools, which are largely open-enrollment public institutions that most students attend part time. Until a recent upturn, attendance at these schools’ has been falling consistently since 2010.

Here’s where the conventional narrative about the college decline falls apart: Community colleges’ costs are very low and they have not been at the center of the cultural and political backlash to higher education. The prevailing narrative has focused on bachelor’s degrees, which community colleges typically don’t issue.

What explains the two-year college decline, then? A new study coauthored by Goodman of Boston University, shows that much of this is driven by economic trends. When job options are plentiful, community college is less appealing. Recently, as unemployment has ticked up, so has two-year enrollment. Another explanation is that more potential students have become wary of the value of two-year programs since the completion rates are quite low.

Reality may soon mirror perception

We may one day look back at this particular moment as a golden age of four-year colleges, even though it doesn’t feel like one.

There are signs that real tuition is going up as schools face new cost pressures. The perception of higher education has in fact declined markedly, which could eventually limit public funding and depress enrollment. (Or perhaps not: Enrollment has been rising over the last couple years at the height of the college collapse narrative.)

Another imminent challenge: At least for a while, each year’s high school graduating class is likely to be smaller than the last due to lower birth rates. Generative AI is an additional curveball, as some suspect it will devalue white-collar work and, in turn, a college education.

The irony is that the colleges likely to bear the brunt of these challenges are the country’s less-selective, less-known schools, not the elite institutions that have come to embody higher education in the public mind.

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

As CTE programs expand in Michigan, not all students are getting opportunities

2025-10-29T15:51:47+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.

Small drones buzzed all around the small gymnasium at Ypsilanti Community High School, controlled by students competing to get them through an obstacle course fastest.

In this yearlong drone and aviation technology class, a new career and technical education offering at the high school, students who master flying the machines will earn an industry-level certification and potentially a career advantage. Those are big pluses in a state where officials have prioritized boosting skilled trades.

Kayden Ross, a senior, quickly took to the drone course and sees career potential.

“People are definitely starting to use it a lot more, especially for real world things like fires or scoping out things, or checking structures to see if there’s any damage,” Kayden said. “So I feel like people are going to pay a lot of money for people that really know how to do that.”

The class is providing a unique opportunity to the students who are enrolled, but it is one the few Career and Technical Education, or CTE, courses available to local students. By the state’s definition, Ypsilanti Community Schools is a CTE desert — an area where data show participation in career tech programs is lower than expected.

Kayden Ross, a senior at Ypsilanti Community High School, sees career potential in a new drone and aviation career and technical education program that he's enrolled in. Voters in Washtenaw County on Nov. 4 will consider a tax measure that would raise money to pay for CTE programs like the drone aviation class operating in Ypsilanti.

CTE programs are gaining traction in Michigan and nationwide, in part because of student demand but also as advocates promote them as a way for students to explore careers and gain important skills in emerging fields. But high costs, a lack of funding, and other barriers like transportation are creating significant inequities along not just geographic but racial lines.

The CTE outlook in Ypsilanti and across the rest of Washtenaw County could brighten come Nov. 4 if voters in the county approve a special millage, a kind of property tax measure, that would create new revenue to fund pre-kindergarten-12th grade CTE programs. The measure would raise approximately $25 million annually for 10 years, benefitting each of the county’s nine districts.

Such millages can help turn a CTE desert into an oasis because they provide sustained funding to create new programs and maintain funding for existing programs. That’s important not just here in Washtenaw County but across Michigan — 41% of Michigan school districts are CTE deserts.

The drone aviation program at the Ypsilanti high school is one of five state-approved CTE programs offered to students, with the others being in collision repair, automotive, culinary, cosmetology, said Ypsilanti Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross. The school also has some career-focused electives.

The drone aviation class was able to launch this year thanks to a temporary grant that will expire in June 2026, Zachery-Ross said.

That’s why the tax proposal is so important.

If it passes, Principal Chelsea Harris-Hugan said, the school would look to add programs in hospitality, entrepreneurship, HVAC, and law enforcement.

“The millage is incredibly important to our students and to our community,” she said. “It provides a bigger pathway and a better opportunity for our students.”

Research finds career tech access problems across Michigan

If you look at CTE enrollment numbers in Michigan, the overall picture looks deceptively good. During the 2024-25 school year, 114,495 students were enrolled in CTE programs, and a record 55,431 completed a CTE program.

The enrollment number has consistently risen since the 2011-12 school year, when the state first began collecting the data, except for a pandemic-caused dip during the 2020-21 school year. Meanwhile, the number of completers is higher than it’s ever been.

But not all students are getting the opportunity. Not only are nearly half of all districts considered CTE deserts, but a 2022 report from the University of Michigan Youth Policy Lab found students from low-income homes, Black, and Hispanic students have less overall access to CTE.

A separate Youth Policy Lab report on CTE access in Washtenaw County, home to the Ypsilanti district, found similar gaps. The report said access is inequitable, and that the same groups mentioned above “have less overall access to CTE programming compared” to more affluent and white students.

When they aren’t being used, drones sit inside these cases in the drone and aviation technology classroom at Ypsilanti Community High School.

The data prompted the State Board of Education in January to adopt a resolution that called on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Legislature to provide additional funding for districts to open new CTE programs. State lawmakers did exactly that in the budget that was adopted Oct. 3, though the $70 million in funding to CTE desert districts was less than the $125 million Whitmer proposed earlier this year.

Celena Mills, director of the office of career and technical education at the Michigan Department of Education, told Chalkbeat earlier this year that CTE programs give students an opportunity to explore careers and in many cases get a jumpstart on a career in which they have interest. Or they could learn that a career isn’t a good fit, she said. In general, CTE programs are focused on careers that are growing and are expected to grow.

“We have such a need in our economy for more of those jobs to be filled,” Mills said. “We need a workforce, and so we’re starting to think about how we can train students sooner to be able to do that, to fill those positions.”

When students lack that access, they lose out because they can’t start that career exploration early and often must wait until they graduate high school.

“They’re not able to have that competitive advantage and to move as far as fast as the rest of their peers,” Mills said.

Career and technical education millages are under the purview of intermediate school districts in Michigan, which distribute revenue from the millage to local schools and are responsible for monitoring the career tech programs. There are 56 such districts in Michigan, and they exist to provide a range of services to the local school districts within their borders. Many of these districts, 41, already have CTE millages. The Washtenaw Intermediate School District, which serves the nine local districts in the county, is one of 15 that don’t.

While Washtenaw County has been identified as having broad access issues, that doesn’t mean CTE programs don’t exist. Three districts — Ann Arbor, Whitmore Lake, and Ypsilanti — provide their own programs. The remaining five districts are part of the South West Consortium, a CTE program operated by the intermediate school district that allows students to take career tech classes outside of their districts, with most of the classes offered in Saline, which is in the southern portion of the county.

Even with this consortium, access problems exist. There are only so many openings each year in each program. Distance can be a barrier for some students. And some popular programs have a number of students on waiting lists, officials say.

“I hate telling students no when it’s something you know they can be good at or are passionate about,” said Michael Kapolka, superintendent of the Chelsea School District, which is part of the consortium.

“Students want these opportunities because they know what they can provide for them,” Kapolka said.

Ayden Sisson, a senior at Ypsilanti Community High School, is enrolled in a drone and aviation technology class but would love to see his school expand its career and technical high school options to include performing arts classes.

If the millage passes, the consortium programs, as well as the programs in districts that aren’t part of the consortium, would continue to operate as they do today. But the county schools would adopt a more centralized system “to sustain existing programs and expand those with waitlists, while also creating new regional programs in areas of need,” said Ashley Kryscynski, spokeswoman for the Washtenaw ISD.

Meanwhile, she said, while every district would receive money from the millage, “because some districts, such as Ypsilanti and Whitmore Lake, have significantly fewer CTE opportunities than other districts in our county, much of our initial efforts will be to increase access for these districts.

Drone aviation class opens up opportunities for Ypsilanti students

Even in the CTE deserts, school officials have found some resources to launch new programs like the drone aviation class at Ypsilanti Community High.

Last year, Michael Cushman taught fourth grade in West Bloomfield. But he has extensive aviation training, so he jumped at the opportunity to teach the new drone and aviation technology class at Ypsilanti Community High School.

Last year, Michael Cushman taught fourth grade in West Bloomfield. This year, he’s teaching the drone aviation class. It’s not as odd a shift as you might think. Cushman has a degree in aviation flight science from Western Michigan University. He has a commercial pilot’s license, was a certified flight instructor, and most recently earned the remote pilot certificate required to fly drones.

That’s also the same certificate he expects students to test for in the spring. They’ll need it if they plan to fly drones for commercial purposes, Cushman said.

For now, though, they’re still learning about the intricacies of flying drones and the coding that’s required to do it. When they first started flying the drones through the obstacle course in the gymnasium, it took about 50 seconds to navigate the course. On the day Chalkbeat visited Oct. 9, the students were down to 27 to 28 seconds.

“We get competitive with the obstacle course, and I’m competitive too,” Cushman said. “So I picked up the drone to see if I could beat some of their times, and some of these kids that had just picked up a drone for the first time were going through the obstacle course faster than I was.”

When junior Camari Vawters was around eight years old, his older brother had a drone. He remembers constantly crashing the drone when he would play with it. Now, he drives a drone with focus.

“I love it.”

Kayden Ross, a senior, wasted no time signing up for the class after seeing a demonstration during an assembly last school year. Cushman said Kayden, in particular, “has a knack for it,” and has “really taken to it very quickly.”

Kayden says it’s “definitely” a career option for himself.

Drone aviation classes are an example of how CTE programs have evolved over the years to keep up with changing technology and with burgeoning careers. What’s also changed is the CTE programs of years ago were mostly geared towards students who either had no desire or need to go to college. Now, Mills said, that mindset has shifted.

“Now we know that almost every student in almost every career requires some sort of post-secondary training,” Mills said. “What that looks like depends on the career that the student is interested in.”

Ayden Sisson illustrates how that strain affects students. The Ypsilanti senior is having a ball in the drone aviation class, which he signed up for because he’s always been fascinated by the drone shows he’s seen while watching sports events. But as much fun as he’s having, he still wishes his school had a performing arts CTE program — which the state of Michigan recognizes as a CTE field.

“We do have drama classes, we have musical theater and stuff like that,” Ayden said. But a single drama class doesn’t compare to a CTE program that might last one or two years. “If it was a CTE that would have made much more impact.”

Junior India Smith holds the drone and the device students use to control the drone during a class earlier this month.

India Smith, a junior at Ypsilanti Community High and a student in the drone aviation class, said she was inspired to enroll after attending an assembly during her sophomore year.

“I wanted to try something new,” India said.

Like Ayden, though, she has other career aspirations. She wants to be an artist, and is interested in animation. When the conversation turned to some of the potential new CTE programs that would benefit Ypsilanti students, said she was interested in learning how to use animation to draw. She’s seen people doing so on YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok and has been intrigued.

“I’ve always wanted to do it.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

This story is part of an occasional look at career and technical education programs in Michigan. The reporting is supported with an Institute for Citizens & Scholars Higher Education Media Fellowship from the ECMC Foundation, a grantmaking partner of Educational Credit Management Corp. focused on improving higher education and career success among underserved populations.

Correction: Oct. 29, 2025: A previous version of this story said there are eight school districts in Washtenaw County. The story has been updated to say there are nine districts.

Trump gave the Labor Department more control over career-technical education. Will students benefit?

2025-10-03T22:58:16+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

Career and technical education is a lot more than learning to weld or draw blood.

It can expose kids to jobs they didn’t even know existed and help them figure out what they want to do with their lives.

It can also teach students concrete skills they can use on the job right after they graduate high school. But high school programs haven’t always lined up well with what employers are looking for, or prepared students for jobs available in their communities.

The Trump administration wants to see career and technical education, or CTE, focus more on preparing students for jobs. To do that, last month it took money and programs that have been under the Education Department’s purview for decades and moved them to the Labor Department, which has historically focused on short-term job training for unemployed adults.

Trump officials say the end goal is to boost participation in the labor force, especially for the millions of young adults who are not in school or working. The change, they say, will reduce the administrative burden on states and make it easier for states to centralize their own workforce development programs.

‘The kids everyone forgot’: The faltering post-pandemic push to reengage teens and young adults not in school, college, or the workforce

Jason Tyszko, a senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, said there could be some short-term disruption, as well as some hard questions to work through. But if the end result is more accountability for programs and more young people in jobs, that would be a “win for families and learners.”

“We think the more alignment, the better,” Tyszko said.

But many career-technical education advocates, as well as Democrats in Congress, say this move is another step toward dismantling the Education Department. They fear there are simply too few staff in both the Education and Labor Departments to manage the transition, and they worry the change will end up steering kids toward short-term job training with fewer paths to advancement.

High school CTE programs can help create “a springboard for lifelong opportunity,” said Amy Loyd, who served as the assistant secretary over career and technical education during the Biden administration.

For example, students who take advanced manufacturing classes in high school can set themselves up for admission to a trade school, while teens who take college-level health care classes can often earn credit toward an associate or bachelor’s degree.

“One of the challenges that we in the career and technical education community have been working to combat is the still-pervasive stigma of career and technical education being for ‘those kids,’” she said. “I think by focusing on the shorter-term credentials we are again rebuilding this narrative that CTE is for kids who are not college material.”

Two agencies in charge of career-technical education

The Education Department says this change is in line with the president’s April 23 executive order calling for the consolidation of “fragmented Federal workforce development programs that are too disconnected from propelling workers into secure, well-paying, and high-need American jobs.”

In May, Trump officials signed an interagency agreement that maintains the Education Department’s oversight authority for career-technical education, but hands over the day-to-day operations to the Labor Department. That includes distributing over $1 billion to states in Perkins funding, which pays for CTE programs in K-12 schools and community colleges, making compliance monitoring visits, and helping states and schools with technical questions.

High-ranking Democrats in Congress have said this transfer of funds and responsibilities is illegal, and the proposal should have gone to Congress. Others in the career and technical education field say the Education and Labor Departments already work closely together and this move isn’t necessary to improve collaboration.

Anna Chappelle, the executive director of the Alabama Workforce Board, hopes what happens at the federal level resembles the transformation happening in her state. The share of young people who were not working or in school in Alabama was the highest in the nation in 2019, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

In recent years, Alabama has worked to align its education and workforce programs, and has seen the share of people age 16 or over who are employed or actively looking for work tick up. In June, the Trump administration tapped Nick Moore, who led that work under Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, as the second-in-command for CTE at the Education Department.

Alabama launched a state apprenticeship agency that offers tools to connect young people to training opportunities. The state also developed a detailed system for identifying which job credentials and career pathways are most valuable in different parts of the state — whether that’s the space industry in the north or the maritime industry in the south.

“When we have this separation, that keeps states siloed,” Chappelle said. “Being able to have credentials of value and workforce pathways in Labor, that is going to help people get the education and training that they need.”

Philadelphia's Thomas Edison High School leads a welding demonstration at a CTE summer program. Skilled trades programs in high schools can set students up for apprenticeships or admission at a technical college.

She thinks the federal change will lead to more money for training and education programs, “rather than the bureaucratic red tape.”

But Loyd, who is now the CEO of All4Ed, a nonprofit that advocates for equity in education, worries there aren’t enough federal staffers left to provide the kind of “personalized and intensive” guidance her team of 80 once did.

The office “was really leaning into helping states think differently, to not just rubber stamp what always has been,” Loyd said. “I worry that all of that capacity-building, all of that partnership with the field, is ultimately hindered and gutted.”

The Education Department said it would send some staff to the Labor Department, but how many is unclear. The Education Department did not respond to questions. Chalkbeat received out-of-office automatic replies from multiple spokespeople due to the government shutdown.

Some advocates fear states and schools won’t get clear answers to questions about whether new ideas are allowable under the law or how to make sure CTE programs serve all students.

“If we had a question about kids with disabilities and CTE, we knew where to go,” said Braden Goetz, who served in the CTE office during the Biden administration and is now a senior policy advisor at the Center on Education and Labor at New America, a left-leaning think tank. “I’m concerned that in the Department of Labor they won’t have those resources.”

Some fear overemphasis on short-term job training

The Education Department has said its agreement with the Labor Department will integrate education and job training programs “with an employment first perspective, which places employers at the forefront of workforce development programs.” The document mentions “upskilling” students — a term that’s typically used to refer to retraining adults in the workforce, not kids in K-12 schools.

Some education advocates worry that sends the wrong messages to students about the purpose of career-technical education programs, and harkens back to a time when many low-income Black and Latino kids were tracked to lower-level vocational classes.

Loyd, the former Biden official, worries that folding CTE into the Labor Department’s work will lead to an overemphasis on helping students earn industry credentials that often don’t translate to higher wages in the workforce.

Federal law requires CTE programs to prepare students for jobs that are “high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand.” A heavier focus on short-term job outcomes could steer more students toward in-demand jobs that don’t pay very well, Loyd said, such as certified nursing assistants or home health care aides.

“I love programs like phlebotomy programs in high schools where students can earn meaningful certificates that can get them a job,” Loyd said. “But again, this should be a stepping stone,” she said, not the end game.

Tyszko, of the Commerce Foundation, says time will tell if kids get steered like that. He notes that the Labor Department does have experience connecting young people with apprenticeships, which generally do help workers earn more than their peers.

“They’re very capable of supporting a set of activities in the field that promote career awareness and aren’t directly tied to job placement,” Tyszko said, adding it would be wrong to assume the Labor Department’s focus on short-term job training “would entirely consume” career-technical education.

The Labor Department also may be better positioned to hold CTE programs accountable for their outcomes in the workforce, and whether they actually match what employers want and need, he said.

Chappelle in Alabama says what programs kids have access to also affects whether they can make an informed decision about their path. The kind and quality of CTE programs offered at schools varies a lot depending on where kids live, and states and businesses share in the responsibility of closing any gaps.

“We are all working together to make sure we have what’s available for our students and our citizens to go up in life,” she said. “We’re not trying to keep people down. That doesn’t serve anybody.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Philly is expanding one of its most effective dropout prevention strategies

2025-08-27T14:20:02+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia’s free newsletter to keep up with news on the city’s public school system.

A Philadelphia program focused on addressing the city’s student dropout crisis is expanding into four new district schools this year.

Philadelphia Academies Inc. — a longtime partner in dropout prevention efforts in the School District of Philadelphia — announced this month it is bringing its 9th Grade Success Network to Building 21, Franklin Learning Center, Philadelphia Military Academy, and Hill-Freedman World Academy for the 2025-26 school year.

The program focuses on schools that serve students from traditionally marginalized groups, particularly Black students, who have faced systemic challenges to persisting in their education, leading to higher dropout rates, research has shown.

School leaders and educators in the program get specialized professional training in adolescent development, relationship building, and intervention techniques. Ninth grade assistant principals also get regular coaching and assistance analyzing student data to ensure those most at risk of dropping out get the attention and support they need.

LaTrina Stewart, ninth grade assistant principal at Franklin Learning Center, will be participating for the first time this school year. She said she’s hoping her students feel “ultra supported” this year.

“I don’t want to have to dig a child out of a hole and I don’t want children to have to dig themselves out of a hole,” she said. “That safety net to catch them before they even get in the hole — that’s what the ninth grade academy provides for us.”

With this expansion, the 9th Grade Success Network will operate in 28 district schools, with a goal to reach 32 schools by next year, said Christopher Goins, the president and CEO of Philadelphia Academies Inc., or PAI. This is the first year the program will work in selective admissions schools like Franklin Learning Center and Hill-Freedman. The program is funded through 2027 with $2.6 million from the School District of Philadelphia and $8 million from the Neubauer Family Foundation.

Nadia Schafer, director of the 9th Grade Success Network at PAI, told Chalkbeat the program is expanding because it’s working.

The program served more than 4,500 students in the 2024-25 school year, according to Philadelphia Academies data. A ninth grade student is considered “on-track” to graduation by the district and PAI if they earn at least one credit in each of the core subjects English, math, science, and social studies, plus one additional credit in a subject of their choosing. Students who earn all As and Bs in their four core classes plus at least one additional class are considered “firmly on-track,” Schafer said.

For the students the program served last year, Latino boys and Black boys improved their “on-track” rates by 5 percentage points and 4.4 percentage points, respectively.

Thomas Murtaugh, ninth and 12th grade principal at the School of the Future, said his student on-track data “drastically improved” since being part of the program. The share of students on-track to graduation went up 27% in the second year of the program and has remained consistently high, he said.

District officials noticed too, Schafer said. In fact, district data shows the “on-track” strategy contributed to a 10.2 percentage point increase in the four-year graduation rate over the last seven years. Superintendent Tony Watlington has also reported the district’s dropout rate was down by more than a thousand students last school year, due in part, to the on-track program.

There’s evidence this approach is working in other large urban school districts. Philly’s strategy was built off of a blueprint initiated in Chicago, which has also reported all-time high graduation rates.

Ebony Hollingsworth-Lowery, ninth grade assistant principal at William Sayre High School is about to start her fourth year with the program, and she said it’s been a “roadmap for success.”

As a former athlete, Hollingsworth-Lowery said the leadership coaching and regular check-ins work for her because they form a kind of “playbook” to help keep her and her ninth grade team of counselors, community advocates, educators, school staff, and administrators all focused on the same goals.

“It forces you to really look at your students, your teachers, and what systems are in place to be able to be successful,” she said. The program instills a way to “know your students, know who they are, but also, most importantly, know their needs, because if we can’t meet their needs, they’re going to retract from school.”

But not every high school is equipped to take on the program, according to Schafer, and there’s a competitive application process for schools to be selected. Schools with lower graduation rates and lower on-track rates are given priority because “we think it’s important to spend our resources where they’re going to make the most difference,” Schafer said.

Schools must also have a ninth grade administrator and a ninth grade core team of educators dedicated to teaching solely ninth grade, “not someone who is teaching English 1, 2, 3, and 4,” Schafer said.

With the ongoing teacher shortage and funding constraints in the city, those requirements can be a challenge for schools. That’s why PAI opened applications to criteria-based schools for the first time.

“It’s tough when maybe it’s not quite time” for some of those neighborhood schools to join the program, Schafer said, but she said they are working with the district to get other neighborhood schools “ready to be able to take on this work in a future year.”

For Stewart, the resources that the success network provides, “should be a part of what high schools get without it being left up to what principals have in their budget,” she said.

But this year at least, she’s hopeful.

“We need this,” Stewart said.

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois lowers state test proficiency cut scores in math, English language arts

2025-08-13T18:11:16+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

The Illinois State Board of Education approved changes to the cut scores used to determine proficiency on state standardized tests Wednesday.

The scores needed to be considered proficient in math and English language arts on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness will decrease, while the cut scores will increase for the Illinois Science Assessment. High school juniors will need to score an 18 in English language arts, a 19 in math, a 19 in science on the ACT college entrance exam to be considered proficient. The ACT scores range from 1-36.

The new cut scores will be applied to assessments taken by students during the spring and reported publicly in October. Data shared in a presentation Tuesday indicates that more students will be labeled as proficient than were last year.

Comparisons to achievement in past years, including to pre-pandemic performance, now will be difficult due to the shifting benchmarks.

Under the new cut scores, 53% of students would be considered proficient in English language arts, up from 41% last year; 38% would be proficient in math, up from 28% last year; and 45% would be in science, down from last year.

Illinois State Superintendent Tony Sanders said the move is not a lowering of standards, but rather adjusting to better match the reality of students’ abilities.

Sanders said data showed that many students in Illinois who scored at the old cut score could have entered college without remediation and earned a C or higher in credit-bearing courses.

The measure passed unanimously and board of education members spoke briefly to praise Sanders and the agency’s staff for running a thoughtful process that engaged teachers and other school staff over the past 18 months.

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

Illinois proposes lowering scores students need to be deemed proficient on state tests

2025-08-12T20:15:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

More students in Illinois would be considered proficient on the state’s annual math and reading tests under a proposal to change cut scores, which the Illinois State Board of Education is set to vote on Wednesday.

Cut scores are the scores that separate students into broad categories of achievement, now defined as below proficient, approaching proficiency, proficient, and above proficiency.

Under the proposed changes, 53% of students would be considered proficient in English language arts, 38% would be proficient in math, and 45% would be in science, according to a presentation shared by state education officials Tuesday. Last year, 41% of students were proficient in English language arts, 28% were proficient in math, and 53% were in science.

But the numbers cannot be compared year-over-year because the cut scores changed.

For example, third grade students currently must score 750 out of 850 on the math section of the Illinois Assessment of Readiness to be considered meeting proficiency standards. But under the proposed changes, they would only need to score 732 to be labeled proficient.

On the ACT, a college entrance exam all Illinois high schoolers must take, juniors would need to score an 18 in English language arts and a 19 in math and a 19 in science to be labeled as proficient. In the past, students needed to score a 540 on the SAT in both math and English languages arts.

Illinois State Superintendent Tony Sanders said the current cut scores “do not reflect the reality of student progress.”

“We’ve told a whole generation of our students who were college ready that they were not, and we potentially identified the wrong students for additional support and missed students who could have benefited from acceleration,” Sanders said ahead of a committee meeting Tuesday.

Sanders said the state will not be providing proficiency data using the old cut scores in order for schools and families to make comparisons to previous years. For instance, local school district officials will not be able to compare the fourth grade reading scores of students in 2019 to those who took the exam in the spring of 2025.

Illinois is not the only state to change the cut scores of its standardized tests. States such as Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Alaska, and New York have made similar adjustments to their assessment systems, according to a report by The 74.

The overhaul comes as schools are still bouncing back from the achievement declines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, also known as the “nation’s report card” found most students across the country have yet to catch up with their pre-pandemic peers and the gap between high performing students and low-performing students has grown wider. The fourth and eighth graders who took the state standardized test in spring 2024 had their learning impacted by the pandemic in earlier grades.

Illinois elementary school students had been seeing progress in reading — even exceeding pre-pandemic proficiency levels — but math scores still lag behind past years, according to the state’s 2024 report card. Illinois’ scores on the most recent NAEP were stagnant.

Still, Sanders said Illinois had some of the highest cut scores in the nation — even exceeding the proficiency score for NAEP. He also emphasized that proficiency is not the same as being on grade level.

“Being not proficient does not mean a student can’t read or can’t do math,” Sanders said.

Illinois educators helped adjust cut scores

Illinois launched its effort to redefine performance after the state switched the high school exam from the College Board’s SAT to the ACT last year.

In the past, there were different proficiency levels for the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, taken by third to eighth grade students, the Illinois Science Assessment, taken in fifth and eighth grade, and the high school college entrance exam, taken by students in 11th grade.

The proposed changes would create consistency in the language used to measure performance on the various tests.

Illinois educators played a role in changing the cut scores and crafting performance level descriptors, or a rubric, for each grade and subject explaining what knowledge or skills students should have based on their proficiency level.

Comfort Agboola, a middle school English language arts teacher in Chicago Public Schools who participated in the process to change the cut scores, said the way the state labels kids based on test scores and performance “can shape the way students see themselves.”

“These updated proficiency standards and performance levels don’t lower the bar,” she said. “They more accurately capture the full spectrum of skills students are developing. They acknowledge growth in ways that can motivate rather than discourage.”

Tyler Chance, an assistant principal at Carbondale Community High School, worked on crafting the English language arts performance level descriptors for high school students taking the ACT. The former English and governance high school teacher said he wanted to get involved in the process to get students ready for college and career opportunities.

Justin Harrison, a 15-year eighth grade science teacher at Vandalia Junior High, worked on the eighth grade science cut scores for the Illinois Science Assessment. The process to create the new cut scores includes using the performance level descriptors and requiring teachers to take the exam. Harrison said the descriptors were helpful to understand what teachers should be assessing their students on.

“I hope that educators can take the time to see what these tools can do,” Harrison said. He really hopes the state provides professional development to educators on the new performance level descriptors.

Dale Chu, a consultant and senior visiting fellow at education think tank Thomas B. Fordham Institute, is not a “big fan” of states like Illinois lowering cut scores. He feels it can have consequences for students in the future. For example, a student could have been at the top of their class in high school, but then has to take remedial courses when they got to college.

“To me, state tests and having cut scores that are rigorous that actually do show whether kids are proficient or not are a big part of being honest with parents,” Chu said.

Chu said states and the federal government have to provide a “credible check” on schools and local districts.

State education officials said the Illinois Learning Standards, which provide educators with information on what students should know in each grade across different subjects, remain the same.

Sanders said the next step in this process for the Illinois State Board of Education is to change the labels the state uses to define school quality by 2026.

Based on students’ test scores and other metrics, such as attendance, schools are labeled as Exemplary, Commendable, Targeted, Comprehensive, and Intensive. How a school is labeled can determine what resources and support they will receive from the state. The state has yet to release more details on these changes.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

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

More Philadelphia high schoolers who plan to go to college don’t matriculate

2025-08-12T16:24:02+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.

At the end of each school year, school officials in Philadelphia ask graduating seniors what they plan to do after high school.

Thousands report that they plan to go to college.

But when the fall rolls around, hundreds of those students do not end up matriculating in a postsecondary program, according to a new report from the School District of Philadelphia.

District data shows that the phenomenon, called “summer melt,” has increased in recent years. In the Class of 2024, 40% of students who initially planned to go to college did not follow through on their plans, according to the district’s research, marking an increase of 10 percentage points from 2016.

In the report, district researchers say that’s important information for guidance counselors, school leaders, and college readiness partners to be aware of as they support students in completing tasks required for college matriculation.

But a major challenge, according to some advocates, is that the requirements and costs of matriculation can overwhelm students over the summer when they lose many of their school-based supports.

“There’s just so many young people that say, ‘This is way too much work,’ and it is … it’s an absurd amount of work,” said Bryan DeFoney, vice president of programs at the Philadelphia Education Fund. “If you have never navigated this, it feels like a Herculean task for a young person to complete.”

Around 44% of Philadelphia high school seniors in the Class of 2024 matriculated at a postsecondary institution last fall, according to district data.

DeFoney oversees federally funded programs in several public Philadelphia high schools that help support students to graduate and access postsecondary education. In his work with teens, he said he’s seen students who are initially interested in attaining a degree after high school get frustrated by the bureaucratic hoops they must jump through over the summer, or choose instead to work fulltime.

Problems with the financial aid system during the past two years have added to those challenges, DeFoney said. Since the pandemic, he said he has also noticed fewer students are interested in going to college.

“The entire tone around the college-going culture has just shifted, because school became optional for a lot of young people,” DeFoney said. “Part of our work is we try to help families and students understand why that investment is still worth it.”

The Philadelphia district’s analysis found that students who were male, English learners, or receiving special education services were more likely not to go to college after graduation even though they said they intended to.

Students who intended to matriculate at a four-year college were consistently more likely to matriculate than those intending to attend community colleges or other two-year institutions.

Nationally, between 10% and 40% of students who aim to enroll in college do not immediately do so after graduation, according to research from the Harvard Center for Education Policy Research.

Rebecca Redelmeier is a reporter at Chalkbeat Philadelphia. She writes about public schools, early childhood education, and issues that impact students, families, and educators across Philadelphia. Contact Rebecca at rredelmeier@chalkbeat.org.

Music education programs aren’t playing second fiddle to workforce development

2025-08-07T16:27:46+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

Nearly 40 Philadelphia teens toting drums half their size marched onto the Samuel Fels High School stage one day this summer. After performing covers of popular songs, what came next was unusual.

Some 20 musicians in the advanced group in the third annual Summer Drumline Showcase performed a rhythmic composition written not by a veteran professional musician, but by a fellow participant in the program, Christian Borges.

The program’s director and the school’s band director, Brian Morris, had asked Borges to compose a piece for the drumline. Borges — who had never composed his own music before and hadn’t played with a drumline prior to the summer — responded by handing in a first draft of “Redemption” in less than two days. Then he taught it to the other students.

Morris framed the assignment as real-world preparation for Borges, a recent Samuel Fels graduate who will be attending Temple University in the fall on a full scholarship to study music education.

If Borges hadn’t participated in Summer Drumline, a city school district program, he admits that he’d probably be working a typical summer job instead. But the program’s partnership with Career Connected Learning PHL meant some of the students were paid to participate in the program and learn about music as a career option. In short, they could treat drumline like a job.

Students close out the Philadelphia Summer Drumline showcase with Christian Borges' composition "Redemption" on July 23, 2025. Program Director Brian Morris said it was a unique experience for the other students in the program to be a part of the music composition process.

As high schools place more emphasis on preparing students for jobs after graduation, music education programs want to be viewed as part of the solution rather than merely an extracurricular activity. These programs are partnering more frequently with groups that help students explore different careers. These efforts give kids guidance about what it takes to be a violinist, DJ, or backstage producer. The approach could also help schools address a shortage of music educators and diversify the industry. But music education must also deal with new threats to its funding, as well as ongoing doubts about the importance of the arts to students’ career prospects.

The Biden administration issued guidance late last year encouraging schools to use federal money for career education to bolster their music programs. However, the Trump administration’s recent funding cuts threaten to further destabilize music education and limit students’ access to career pathways in music.

Career and workforce development initiatives for music take various forms and can have different goals.

Some programs, like Project STEP in Boston and the Philadelphia Music Alliance for Youth, are dedicated to equipping students from backgrounds historically excluded from classical music with instruments, private lessons, and skills to pursue instrumental music at colleges and conservatories. Project STEP works with roughly 60 students and aims to provide more opportunities to kids who are often underrepresented in music careers. About 60% of students in the program go on to careers in music, STEP says.

Students in Philadelphia's All City Orchestra Summer Academy rehearse on July 25, 2025. Music teachers from the Philadelphia school district staff the program, giving students the opportunity to develop strong relationships with their teachers outside of the classroom.

The Mann Center, a Philadelphia concert venue, is home to the All City Orchestra Summer Academy, a camp for young instrumentalists, that provides opportunities for students to work with professional musicians in the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Career preparation through the arts doesn’t necessarily mean career preparation for the arts. The program doesn’t expect most of the students to pursue careers in orchestral music, but connects them with resources to give them that option.

The Mann Center also runs an apprenticeship program that lets students work backstage at concerts and learn about behind-the-scenes aspects of the music industry.

“Not everybody’s going to be Beyonce,” said Catherine Cahill, the Mann Center’s CEO. “But we also know that in the music business, there’s an enormous amount of opportunities backstage. We want to give them a pathway.”

Music education is versatile career preparation, supporters say

In the face of growing competition for funding, those who run music education programs must constantly justify their importance not just to school administrators, but to the private donors who are often crucial.

Jamie Kasper, director of the Arts Education Partnership, said some policymakers are prioritizing subjects like reading, math, and maybe science and social studies, while also implying that “everything else doesn’t belong.”

That’s led arts educators to align themselves with the push to prepare students for college and careers.

At the same time, integrating music education and workforce development should be intentional and help students pursue their passions, said Frank Machos, former head of the Philadelphia school district’s Office of the Arts and Creative Learning. “We don’t want to just chase what’s popular,” said Machos, who now works at the Mann Center.

Joseph Coyners, principal bassist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, plays with students participating in the All City Orchestra Summer Academy. One of his former students, Dan McCain, now teaches in city public schools himself and is also an instructor at the academy. Academy students get chances to interact with professional orchestra members and build connections.

Coyners, who directs the city’s All-City Orchestra, founded Project 440, which provides students with after-school support to apply to college and pursue career pathways related to music. For some students, he notes, “The arts are part of their make-up, DNA. If we can provide a diversity of experiences for them, we can ensure their success.”

Music, he emphasizes, is “a right. When you take away those rights, you take the humanity away from young people.”

Dan McCain (left), an alum of the School District of Philadelphia, plays alongside his students at the All-City Orchestra Summer Academy on July 25, 2025. Evangelene Stanley (right) says that during the summer, she practices up to 11 hours a day. "The moment I heard the upright bass, I felt a spark in my heart," she said.

On a recent summer evening, as kids in the orchestra academy poured water over their heads to fend off the heat outside before their rehearsal got underway, one student decided he couldn’t wait.

He grabbed his saxophone, went under a tree, and practiced playing Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely.”

The connections between Coyners, his former student McCain, and McCain’s current students creates a “lineage” of music instruction, McCain said.

It also helps kids see music educators as role models, said Morris, band director at Samuel Fels High School. The Philadelphia school district makes a concerted effort to hire alumni like McCain who teach music education, and it offers instruction in DJing and music production to keep pace with students’ interests.

Funding climate gets tougher for music education

But those efforts have an uphill battle against federal funding cuts that signal broader concern about support for music education. There’s also increased financial pressure on private donations, philanthropy, and local grants that music programs have traditionally utilized to increase the accessibility of their music programs.

Buffalo String Works provides free music education to students — including refugee and immigrant children — in the Buffalo, New York, area. Its programming includes teaching children about sound production and recording.

In general, disparities in access to music training and resources in music education allows some children “to get a jump up from some of their peers,” said Amanda Karhuse, assistant executive director for advocacy and public policy at the National Associate for Music Education.

Still, the goal of Buffalo String Works “is not to create the next wave of accomplished musicians,” said Melinda Smith, the group’s executive director. “We’re really focused on meeting the social and emotional needs of students to make sure that wherever they go and whatever they do they have a core kind of foundation of skills that will support them to thrive.”

In the spring, the Trump administration began canceling grants funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Buffalo String Works’ $30,000 grant was one of them, and it estimates that its total budget next year will fall to 77% of its previous total. The group has laid off staff, eliminated one school-based program, and reduced another.

All-City Orchestra Summer Academy students rehearse on July 25, 2025. Most students attending ACOSA go to Title I schools, which rely on federal funds to purchase instruments and equipment. That can make learning expensive percussion instruments especially difficult, said band director Brian Morris.

The Mann Center lost a $25,000 NEA grant that supported collaboration between the Philadelphia Orchestra and students in the All-City Orchestra Summer Academy. Boston’s Project STEP lost funding too.

The Trump administration’s 2026 budget proposal does away with dedicated funding for both arts enrichment programming and career education in K-12 schools, raising longer-term concerns. So far, though, lawmakers have preserved this funding in their initial budget bill.

Meanwhile, widespread cuts are putting new demands on philanthropic organizations. Some may conclude that arts education is dispensable. “Competition is very fierce and people are receiving unprecedented requests for support,” Smith said.

Small amounts of money can make a difference to students. Career Connected Learning Philadelphia provides about $1,300 to each student who participates in the Summer Drumline Showcase. Borges, who wrote the original composition, said that initially, “college was not in my plans at all.”

But with Morris’ support, he plans to return to the district after studying at Temple and become a music teacher in Philadelphia public schools.

“At first it was corny,” he said of teaching peers in Summer Drumline his own percussion composition. “I tried not to be too stern on them because they were my friends, but I did have to tell them some things.”

Norah Rami is a Dow Jones business reporting intern on Chalkbeat’s national desk. Reach Norah at nrami@chalkbeat.org.

Report: Illinois graduates who earn college degrees make more money, but racial disparities persist

2025-07-16T05:01:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois high school students who went on to obtain a college degree earn more money than their peers with only a high school diploma, but those from low-income households, students of color, and women who graduate from college are likely to be paid less than affluent, white male counterparts, according to a new report.

Sarah Cashdollar, one of the authors of the report, said the researchers found that “education pays” regardless of how much a student’s parents earned. Other factors such as obtaining higher levels of education and what industry people go into matter as well.

“College and career choices do shape student outcomes,” said Cashdollar. “They do provide some opportunity for students to be upwardly mobile, but they don’t entirely erase those disparities.”

The report by the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative looked at education and employment outcomes for Illinois high school seniors who graduated between 2008 and 2012. It found disparities persist along race and ethnicity, socioeconomic backgrounds, and gender on who obtains a four-year college degree, what careers students go into, and how much people were able to earn.

The collaborative worked in partnership with the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research along with the Illinois Department of Employment Security, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, and the Illinois State Board of Education to analyze data from the Illinois High School 2 Career dataset, according to a press release. This data collects information on high school students, whether they enrolled and graduated from college, what industries they enter, and their wages.

The report found that students from low-income households were less likely to obtain bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, doctoral degrees, or professional degrees than their peers from higher-income households.

The report also found that the state’s high school students whose parents were among the highest earners went on to earn about 48% more than those whose parents were in the lowest-earning group. Among those who came from the same socioeconomic background, Black and Latino students earned less than Asian American and white students, the report found.

Students in the study’s sample from low-income families were underrepresented in high-paying careers such as computer information sciences and engineering. They were more likely to work in accommodations and food services.

Regardless of whether students had the same levels of education, degrees from the same type of program, or worked in the same industry, students from high-income households earned more than their peers who came from low-income households. On average, the gap in earnings between students from high-income households and low-income households was $5,815 even if they had the same degree.

Despite some of the disparities across race, class, and gender in education and employment, the report found that a student’s level of education was more related to their wages than their parents’ income. Students with higher degrees, such as a master’s or professional degree, earned 2.5 times more than students with only a high school diploma, with a gap of $39,966.

There are some limits to the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative’s report. For instance, many of the students in the study’s sample had higher rates of going to college and becoming employed. Also, the students in the sample graduated high school between 2008 and 2012, right after the great recession but before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cashdollar noted that higher education and the labor market have changed. However, she said, there is value in a college degree.

But getting students to enroll into college can present a challenge. Illinois’ postsecondary education enrollment rate slightly dipped after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, according to data from the state’s annual report card. Students who enrolled in college within 12 months after graduating high school went from 68.6% in 2018-19 to 66.1% in 2021-22 school year.

The report notes that more work needs to be done to expand access to education and employment opportunities for students to help aid upward socioeconomic mobility.

Over the years, Illinois has increased funding for state scholarship and grant programs and made changes to laws to help more students access higher education. This year, the state increased the Monetary Award Program grant by $10 million. The grant helps support students from low-income families to go to college. Students can receive an award up to $8,604.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker last month signed several bills to increase access to college, according to a press release. He signed the Public University Direct Admission Program Act, which allows public colleges and universities to offer admission to students based on their grade point average by the school year 2027-28. Two other measures ensure that high schools have a point person for students who are filling out the federal financial aid form known as FAFSA and require schools to set aside time for students to fill out the form; both bills take effect during the 2025-26 school year.

Another measure also increases access to dual credit programs, for students by requiring that school districts and community colleges work together to create the programs, which allow high school students to take college courses and earn credit for high school and college.

In previous years, student participation in dual credit programs in Illinois increased, but students from low-income households, students of color, English learners, and students with disabilities were less likely to take those courses.

Correction: July 16, 2025: This story has been updated to reflect that students from low-income families were overrepresented in the accommodations industry and food services, not that most students from low-income families worked in those jobs. Professional licenses were corrected to professional degrees.

Why the Trump administration grounded these middle schoolers’ drones — and other STEM research

2025-06-10T16:59:25+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

Give a girl a drone, and she might see her future as a scientist.

But if her teacher doesn’t have the training or resources to turn cool tech into lessons that stick, she’s likely to crash it, get frustrated, and move on.

Take Flight, a research project backed by $1.5 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation, aimed to solve that problem with a drone-focused curriculum for rural middle schools. The drones could fly in classrooms — no big outdoor space needed. The lessons were developed with teachers and easy for newbies to pick up. And the program placed a particular emphasis on girls, who often get frustrated by the handheld controller while their male classmates, who tend to have more video game experience, whiz by.

The lessons included real-world scenarios for using drones, like finding a lost child, that often appeal to young girls, and writing exercises to remind kids of what they’re good at before they try something hard.

A sixth grader from Conway, New Hampshire flies a drone as part of the Take Flight research program.

At first, Laurie Prewandowski wrinkled her nose at Take Flight’s approach. It seemed “touchy feely” to the digital learning specialist who works in a rural New Hampshire middle school and is known as the “drone lady.” But then she saw kids enjoying the lessons and getting a STEM confidence boost.

“All those little things matter,” she said. “It’s really for any kid with a barrier.”

For decades, the federal government believed getting more students interested in science, math, and technology was a national security priority. But in April, the Trump administration cancelled funding for Take Flight and over 800 other STEM education projects funded by the National Science Foundation. The agency said it primarily terminated grants related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as environmental justice and combatting disinformation.

It’s yet another way the Trump administration has sought to undermine efforts specifically meant to help women and girls and students of color. The administration has frequently claimed this work is, in fact, discriminatory, and has sought to withhold funding from schools that don’t comply with its civil rights vision, although that attempt is on hold for now.

Sixteen states sued to stop Trump’s NSF cuts, which represent a significant hit for STEM education research. NSF has long been a primary funder of this work, and one of the few institutions that helps researchers not only test new ideas in the classroom, but figure out what worked and why — which is key to replicating a successful program.

Researchers say these cancelled projects have broken trust, won’t be easy to revive, and left lots of data unanalyzed.

Seventh graders from Kearsarge Regional Middle School in New Hampshire participate in a Take Flight drone activity.

At the time Take Flight lost its National Science Foundation grant, its curriculum was being tested by 1,200 students and 30 rural middle school teachers across 10 states.

The research team had promising early data showing the program helped both boys and girls who weren’t interested in science or math before to envision working in a STEM field, said Amanda Bastoni, the lead researcher on the project.

That matters because rural students are less likely to go into STEM fields. They often attend under-funded schools and have less access to high-tech industries than their peers in urban schools. But now researchers won’t be able to follow up with kids to see if Take Flight altered their trajectory in high school.

“The government spent all this money but didn’t get the results,” said Bastoni, who is the director of career technical and adult education at the nonprofit CAST. Without funding, her team has to “turn in a final report that says: We have no idea if this really works or not.”

Why the government funds STEM education research

President Harry S. Truman signed the law that created the National Science Foundation in 1950, in part to recognize the key role scientific research played in World War II.

Congress has held that the agency’s support of STEM education and research are essential to the nation’s security, economy, and health. And, for decades, federal lawmakers have charged NSF with getting more people who are underrepresented in STEM into that pipeline to maintain a competitive workforce.

For example, a 1980 law calls for NSF to fund a “comprehensive and continuing program to increase substantially the contribution and advancement of women and minorities” in science and technology.

The law authorized NSF to create fellowships for women, minority recruitment programs, and K-12 programs to boost interest in STEM among girls.

The Trump administration’s approach runs counter to that. On April 18, the head of the NSF announced that any efforts by the agency to broaden participation in STEM “must aim to create opportunities for all Americans everywhere” and “should not preference some groups at the expense of others, or directly/indirectly exclude individuals or groups.”

Sixteen attorneys general, led by Letitia James of New York, are suing NSF to end that policy, arguing it does exactly the opposite of what Congress asked the agency to do. NSF has yet to file a response in court and a spokesperson for the agency declined to comment on the lawsuit.

It’s still unclear exactly how the Trump administration determined which grants to terminate.

In February, the Washington Post reported that NSF staff were told to comb through active research grants for keywords like “cultural relevance,” “diverse backgrounds” and “women” to see if they violated Trump’s executive orders. Some projects previously appeared on a list of “woke DEI grants at NSF” circulated by Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican chair of the Senate science committee.

According to emails shared with Chalkbeat, Jamie French, a budget official with NSF, told researchers who lost their funding that their work no longer aligned with NSF priorities, but did not give more details. French told researchers the decision was final and they could not appeal.

In response to questions from Chalkbeat about why NSF cancelled Take Flight and other research projects, a spokesperson for NSF reiterated that rationale, and said the agency would still fund projects that “promote the progress of science, advance the national health, prosperity and welfare and secure the national defense.”

For Frances Harper, an assistant professor of mathematics education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the change was jarring.

She received a $700,000 grant from NSF in 2021 to work with 10 Black and Latina mothers with children in Knox County Schools. Together, they were studying how parents can advocate for improvements in their children’s math education and what teachers can learn from them.

Some of the Latina mothers in the study, for example, saw that English learners had a lot of anxiety about taking high-stakes tests, so they created a peer study group for them.

When Sethuraman Panchanathan, the NSF director selected during Trump’s first term who also served under President Joe Biden, visited her university in 2023, Harper said, “he asked me to convey to the mothers how much he valued families being involved in NSF projects.”

But after Harper’s research appeared on Cruz’s “woke” list, her university asked her to pause her work. She lost her funding the same day NSF announced changes to its priorities. And Panchanathan resigned a few days later.

NSF cuts felt from elementary school to college

Some researchers are applying for emergency funding from private foundations to salvage what they can. But much of their planned work will no longer be possible.

The Chicago Children’s Museum was working with Latino families from McAuliffe Elementary School in Chicago on a program known as Somos Ingenieros, or We Are Engineers, to get kids interested in engineering early on.

The team ran two after-school programs for around 20 families, but now won’t have funding to reach dozens more, or to reach the museum and wider school community.

Parents and children met after school for six weeks to learn about building with various materials, including everyday items like sticks, pine cones, and rocks. That helped kids see engineering in their daily lives and it invited immigrant parents who played with those materials as kids to share their own experiences.

When Chicago students in the Somos Ingenieros program designed puppets, they learned about concepts like friction, elasticity, and trial and error.

Families also got to put their building skills to the test. One group chose to create puppets and had to figure out how to get the intricate pieces to move correctly. Another picked piñatas and had to strategize how to make them hold heavy candy and survive lots of whacks.

Already, the research team was seeing evidence that the program had boosted parents’ confidence to do engineering activities with their children, said Kim Koin, the director of art and tinkering studios at the Chicago Children’s Museum, who was also the lead researcher on the project.

For Ryan Belville, the principal of McAuliffe, the loss of the program means his students will have fewer opportunities to imagine a college or career pathway in STEM and the arts.

“It may be that moment that they made that puppet that makes them want to be an engineer or a scientist,” Belville said.

And for Karletta Chief, much of the harm is in the lost talent and broken trust caused by the abrupt NSF cancellation.

Chief, a professor of environmental science at the University of Arizona, was a lead researcher with the Native FEWS Alliance, which received $10 million from NSF to address food, energy, and water crises in Indigenous communities, and to develop pathways for Native Americans and other underrepresented students to pursue environmental careers.

A Baboquivari High School student feeds a cow as part of the school’s livestock and agricultural program. The Arizona school was among the partners of the Native FEWS Alliance.

The Alliance had built a vast network of research and mentorship opportunities over six years, Chief said. It was involved in dozens of projects across the U.S., from creating K-12 school curriculum to mentoring Native students as they transitioned from tribal colleges to four-year universities.

“Our partnerships are built on trust and long commitment,” Chief said. “These are relationships that we have built over years, and it was just really unfortunate that we had to say, ‘sorry!’”

Now Chief and others are scrambling to find funding to cover graduate student researchers’ outstanding tuition and health care bills.

She worries even if the cuts were somehow reversed, it would be difficult to put the project back together. Many of the students and staff they had to let go have already taken other jobs.

“There’s a lot of knowledge and expertise that will be lost,” she said. “We were stopped when we were going full force. … Now we just went to zero.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Amid Trump immigration crackdown, students weigh safety and politics in their college plans

2025-06-03T16:00:00+00:00

California Health Report spoke to four high school students. In order to protect the identities of the students who fear repercussions based on their immigration status, it has withheld their full names and the name of their school, in addition to generalizing the area where they live.

High school seniors around the country are graduating, a rite of passage that marks a profound shift. It can feel as if everyone is asking them what comes next. For immigrant students, these discussions have an extra layer of complexity this year.

At one northern California school, recently arrived immigrant students are thinking about safety, politics, and the culture of belonging — considerations that weren’t front of mind as they filled out their applications in the fall, before President Donald Trump took office.

In addition to fears about being deported or being separated from family members, the students now worry about financial aid complications and whether their immigration status will prevent them from getting professional licenses in the fields they hope to study. Some have changed their plans, deciding to stay close to home and attend community college instead of attending a four-year university. Others feel grateful they live in California, which has historically provided more resources and what many feel is a more welcoming environment for undocumented students than some states.

But all of the students interviewed expressed some concern about what their next steps could mean for their safety.

The stress of worrying about immigration issues can make it more difficult to focus in class, said Beleza Chan, communications director at Immigrants Rising, a nonprofit organization that helps undocumented college students in California. It can be hard to stay motivated when the future feels so uncertain, she said.

And yet, “continuing to pursue your dreams is one way to fight back,” Chan added.

A California safety net for immigrant students, interrupted

When A., who is 18, came to the U.S. alone four years ago, his eyes were set on college. To him, that meant enrolling directly into a four-year university. But for most of this year, A had started letting go of that dream. His legal protections are only temporary, and without a green card, he wondered if straying far from the home he’s built with his aunt and cousins was the best idea. “I have a lot of mixed feelings,” he said.

Then, A. learned that he had been accepted to California State University, Chico, and a local organization would cover part of the cost. With encouragement from his advisors, A. decided to enroll.

A. works at a computer at his northern California high school.

But just as A. was wrapping his head around the idea that his dream of attending college and living on campus was coming true, he learned that a special agent from the Department of Homeland Security had visited his old address, where the agent left his business card with a relative who still lives there. A. is working with his attorney to figure out his next steps, but in the meantime, his fears feel closer than ever.

S., 18, has similar concerns. She entered the country on a temporary visa with her mother, a green card holder, nearly three years ago. She immediately applied for her own legal permanent residence, but the application is still pending. In the meantime, her temporary visa has expired, leaving her in a delicate legal situation.

Her lawyer has recommended that if her green card doesn’t come through soon, she should go to her home country and wait. But that would mean putting her college dreams on hold and returning to a country where she has few family members left. According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the average wait time for this type of green card application is 7.5 years.

Before this year, S. had no problem talking to others about her immigration status. Her application was pending, and even though she knew she had overstayed her visa, she believed it would be fixed soon. But she’s felt the culture shift.

”I feel like now I cannot be really open and talk about my experience because of how things have changed,” said S.

Early on in her college application process, S. was thinking big. Determined to study public health and medicine, she applied to 30 colleges across the country, from schools in the University of California and California State University systems to private universities on the East Coast. But after the election, she started doing more research, trying to understand not just what financial resources each school offers, but how that school does — or doesn’t — outwardly welcome undocumented students. She also wanted to know more about how states have responded to Trump’s deportation agenda.

As the acceptance letters began to pour in, S. learned that she was being offered a full scholarship to the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her excitement has been tempered, however, by the looming question of her legal status. If her green card is approved before classes start in August, she’ll enroll. But she’s already booked a plane ticket home, realistic about her chances and seeing no other choice.

Community colleges offer solutions for immigrant students

When C., who is 17, crossed the southern border into Arizona with her mother two years ago, she was nearly nine months pregnant. After spending most of her life concerned for her safety, C. said, “I’m a huge fan of all calm places.”

She found that in northern California, where she made friends in her high school’s newcomer program. C.’s teachers helped her find daycare for her daughter and support with housing and food. “I would give anything so that my daughter doesn’t have to go through the same things that I went through,” C. said.

Going into her last semester of high school, C. had already decided on her plan after graduation: community college.

As many of her peers are excited to embrace their independence for the first time, C. is experiencing something that educators say many of their newcomer students feel: a hesitancy to uproot themselves after years, perhaps a lifetime, of seeking a safe, stable place to live. C.’s community college of choice has a Head Start program for her daughter, and staying at home means she can pursue her education while continuing to live in a community she knows and trusts. C. expects to be eligible for in-state tuition; in addition, she has received a scholarship from a local philanthropic organization that will help her with living expenses.

C. plans to eventually transfer to a university to complete her bachelor’s degree and become a teacher in her northern California town. One day, she hopes to teach at the same high school she’s enrolled in now and help other newcomer students feel welcome.

For some students, though, the decision to attend community college can feel like a bit of a disappointment.

J., 18, came to the U.S. with her parents when she was just a few months old, and growing up, she’d always felt like an American. She didn’t think much about her legal status until she needed a Social Security number — to hold a job, get a driver’s license, or apply for college. She dreamed of higher education, not just for herself but to make her parents proud.

“Even if I don’t know what I want to do yet, I know that I am going to get that education,” she said.

J. is one of approximately 14,000 undocumented students who will graduate from California high schools this year. Only 10% of those students will pursue higher education, compared with 63% of students statewide who enroll in college after high school, according to the California Undocumented Higher Education Coalition.

“Financial aid has always been a big part of undocumented students’ decisions,” Chan said. These students are not eligible for federal financial aid, but California and 23 other states allow some undocumented students to pay in-state tuition or access state financial aid. Now, those local decisions could be usurped by the federal government.

California schools provide resources for newcomer students, including information about their legal rights.

The Trump administration has said it will punish states that maintain these policies; on April 28, Trump issued an executive order pressuring California officials to cooperate with the administration’s agenda, though no changes have yet been made.

To navigate these complexities, J. and her classmates have been working with advisers through her school’s Upward Bound program, part of the federally funded TRIO programs, which provides resources and guidance to students from low-income backgrounds pursuing higher education. Oregon and California had waivers that allowed students to participate in the program regardless of their immigration status. But in late March, the U.S. Department of Education revoked that waiver.

All of the students interviewed for this story have been told they can keep participating because they’re already enrolled, but going forward, schools will need to verify all students’ immigration status and only enroll U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, and legal residents.

When J. was first accepted to California State University, Sacramento, she was thrilled, but then she began to worry about her safety. Her family worried that being hours away from home in a bigger city could put her at greater risk of deportation, and J. began considering her local community college as a safer and more affordable option. For now, J. has enrolled in her local community college, in the hopes that, by the time she finishes her associate degree, the doors to a bachelor’s degree will open for her.

Being undocumented is hard, but community helps

For A., the stress of entering the next phase of his life can feel isolating: “It’s really hard because you’re trying not to think about that, instead of just thinking about school stuff, you know?” he said. “You have a little bit more weight in your mind.”

Amid political uncertainty, educators still have the power — and the responsibility — to create a space that feels safe and welcoming for all of their students, said Xilonin Cruz-Gonzalez, deputy director of Californians Together, an advocacy group. In 2017, during the first Trump administration, Californians Together launched a project called Support for Immigrant & Refugee Students to train educators on immigration policy and ways they can create safe spaces for their students.

Chan says that a big part of creating that safe space is providing accurate, up-to-date information. Immigrants Rising has recently launched a new tool that helps college-bound immigrant students and educators wade through complicated eligibility information.

Chan has found that undocumented students’ mental health affects their academic performance. Immigrants Rising has been compiling research showing that depression and anxiety can lead to lower grades, higher dropout rates, decreased motivation, higher levels of self-harm and worse physical health among undocumented students. But despite the well-studied need for mental health services, a 2019 study from the University of California, Irvine showed that undocumented students in higher education use such services less frequently than their documented peers.

“Students expressed low perceived need because they normalized mental strain as a natural product of their unstable immigration status,” wrote the study’s authors. “Many viewed treatment as futile because it could not address underlying immigration-related issues.”

But that doesn’t mean students have to face those challenges alone. Immigrants Rising hosts regular virtual meetups for undocumented students around the country to share openly with one another. Many college campuses in California do similar work through UndocuAlly and UndocuLiaison programs that assign college staff members to be the official points of contact for undocumented students.

“We can’t solve all the aggressive immigration policies that are out there,” Chan said. “No amount of breathing exercises is going to get rid of that. But having community helps.”

This story is part of a partnership between the California Health Report and Chalkbeat, and is supported by the Solutions Journalism Network’s HEAL Fellowship on youth mental health.

Over 240 Indiana high schools exceed FAFSA completion target as state moves closer to 60% goal

2025-06-02T13:47:32+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.

When it comes to getting students to apply for college aid, Principal Jason Ridge thinks his school is ahead of the curve.

Two years ago, Indiana adopted a requirement for students to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, with some exceptions. The state set a goal for 60% of high school seniors to file the FAFSA by April 15, the deadline for preference for state aid — but in Blackford County, where Ridge leads Blackford Junior-Senior High School, 82% of students filed it.

Organizations such as Heavin College & Career Readiness Services and INvestEd provided significant help. They and school counselors were available to Blackford families throughout the school year to discuss the FAFSA process. And promoting broad awareness of the FAFSA requirement was also key, Ridge said, even though 70% of Blackford students ultimately don’t pursue higher education.

“If you’re going to get that many kids to complete it, you’re going to have to get buy-in from your superintendent. You’re going to have to get buy-in from classroom teachers. The best thing they did is they set it up as a graduation expectation that you’re going to get that done,” he said.

Blackford County is well above the statewide FAFSA completion average, but Indiana higher education officials are still celebrating the rise in FAFSA filings for the 2025-26 cycle.

The Indiana Commission for Higher Education, or CHE, reported that 55% of Hoosier seniors filed it before the state’s priority deadline of April 15, with 241 Indiana high schools exceeding the 60% statewide goal by that date. As of May 14, CHE’s dashboard showed 57.4% of students had filed it. And 68.6%of 21st Century Scholars — students who can receive free tuition at in-state public colleges and universities under certain conditions — had filed. Last year, as of mid-May, nearly 43% of all seniors had completed it.

“The completions we have achieved at this point in the cycle we typically wouldn’t even see at the end of June,” the commission said in a statement. “This year’s success has shown that achieving 60% overall by April 15 is possible.”

The federal deadline for this FAFSA cycle is June 30, 2026. As of May 23, Indiana ranked 11th for FAFSA completions nationwide. The commission and INvestEd, a free FAFSA assistance resource, credited a functioning form and continuous communication for the uptick. Unlike a year ago, the FAFSA hasn’t encountered a host of technical problems.

But higher education officials and advocates are tracking changes at the federal and state levels that could have an impact on financial aid, including President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, which oversees the FAFSA.

CHE said “states and institutions are awaiting federal budget updates to be finalized before knowing how the Pell Grant, other federal grants, Federal Work Study and federal student loans will ultimately be impacted.”

Bill Wozniak, vice president of communications and student services at INvestEd, believes that there will eventually be clarity about the federal situation.

“Every year, there’s something. The only constant in financial aid is change,” Wozniak said.

At the state level, lawmakers cut operating budgets for CHE and public colleges by 5%. However, Indiana’s two largest need-based financial aid programs, 21st Century Scholars and the Frank O’Bannon Grant, were untouched by legislators.

CHE’s estimated allocation for fiscal 2026 Frank O’Bannon grants will be $175 million, down from the estimated $225 million for fiscal 2025. But the commission reported that the $175 million would still be higher than the amount awarded three years ago.

FAFSA form free of big glitches this year

Higher education officials said the 2025-2026 FAFSA cycle has progressed much smoother than last year’s.

For example, this year, the form was available in November instead of December, and current data was accessible on the agency’s dashboard and ScholarTrack, according to CHE. The state, colleges, and universities received student data quickly and with only “minimal glitches” unlike the previous year, the commission said.

Wozniak said the latest version of the form, which is supposed to be easier and faster to complete than the previous document, is meeting expectations.

“The form was working most days, and the things that over the last couple of years were put in place to make the form filing simpler now were working,” Wozniak said. “The processing is happening. The schools are getting the information. The state is getting the information from Washington, and we’re back to normal business.”

Even though Indiana’s first-come, first-served deadline of April 15 for state funds has passed, Wozniak said families will continue to file, and the number of completions will keep increasing until this cycle ends at the end of June next year.

“We’d like everybody to have it all done on April 15, but that’s never the case,” he said. “There are people on June 20 that say, ‘I’ve changed my mind. I’m going, and I’m going to file that FAFSA,’ because they were certain they weren’t going.”

Reach Chalkbeat Indiana at in.tips@chalkbeat.org

Many states picked diploma pathways over high school exit exams. Did students benefit?

2025-05-27T21:10:05+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

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.

Literacy support, HBCU classes, health care careers: 7 new schools coming to NYC

2025-05-05T23:33:19+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

A new literacy-focused academy in central Brooklyn to help struggling readers. A health care-focused high school partnering with a hospital system in Queens. The city’s first-ever high school to offer early college classes through a historically Black institution.

Those are among the seven new public schools slated to open next year in New York City, part of a multiyear flurry of openings that city officials hope will reinvigorate the system at a time of faltering enrollment.

“Our new school strategy is designed to directly address that challenge,” Education Department First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg told reporters Monday at the Education Department’s downtown headquarters kickoff event. “This is really trying to be responsive to community need.”

The principals set up display tables stocked with flyers and trinkets related to their school’s specialties, which reflect some of the city’s biggest education priorities and challenges.

The Central Brooklyn Literacy Academy in Crown Heights is part of a larger push to revamp the way city public schools teach literacy and identify and support students with dyslexia. Several others are designed to equip students with specific skills and credentials to enter the workforce,part of a larger effort to rethink how schools should prepare students for life after graduation. Another geared towards newly arrived immigrants comes on the heels of a historic influx of migrant students whom the city’s education system is still straining to accommodate.

Officials have launched 16 new schools over the past two years — a pace that comes with some risk as the city is still reeling from the loss of roughly 100,000 K-12 students since the 2019-2020 school year. Many schools are struggling to sustain enough enrollment to even stay viable.

But officials say the new schools can boost enrollment citywide by attracting families who may have otherwise left the system.

“We are bringing students back into the New York City public school system,” said Asya Johnson, the principal of HBCU Early College Prep, set to open in Southeast Queens in the fall. “There are students who applied from Catholic schools, private schools, and parochial schools … We are a direct indication of what’s possible.”

Here are the schools set to open next year and how they fit into the city’s educational landscape:

Bronx STEAM Center:

Based on the Brooklyn program with the same name, the Bronx STEAM Center offers 11th and 12th graders at 10 partner schools specialized training in careers like health care and cybersecurity. Students will split their time between their home school and the Bronx STEAM center, which is equipped with specialized facilities and staff.

Students apply to the program in 10th grade and must be enrolled in “accelerated coursework” at their current school. Buses will shuttle students between their home school and the Bronx STEAM Center, and students will receive diplomas from both schools, said principal Maha Hasen.

Central Brooklyn Literacy Academy:

The bumpy road to opening the Central Brooklyn Literacy Academy showcases both the promise and pitfalls of the city’s new school efforts. To secure space for the literacy academy, city officials proposed closing M.S. 394, a shrinking traditional public school in Crown Heights, sparking intense pushback from that school’s families and educators that delayed the approval process by several months.

But supporters of the Literacy Academy, which offers specialized instruction for students lagging several grades behind in reading, say it’s sorely needed. The academy, modeled on a similar program that launched two years ago in the South Bronx, is an effort to offer the kind of tailored literacy instruction that has often historically been confined to private schools disproportionately accessible to wealthier families.

As part of the compromise that led to the school’s approval, Education Department officials agreed to give priority at the Literacy Academy to students from M.S. 394 as well as those from several surrounding districts. Students do not need to have a learning disability to enroll — and 60% don’t — said parent leader Naomi Peña.

Principal Jason Borges acknowledged that the rocky approval process has been a challenge, but said the school is working hard to recruit and staff up by this fall.

“It’s all cylinders at once,” he said.

HBCU Early College Prep High School:

The first-of-its-kind school in southeast Queens is among a growing number of early college programs that allows students to earn college credits and leave high school with an associate degree. The school will partner with Delaware State, a historically Black college, and expose students to the “rich traditions of an HBCU” by matching them with faculty mentors and setting up frequent visits, according to the school’s flyer.

The school, which admitted roughly 100 students to its inaugural class, screens applicants based on their middle school grades, two essay questions, and a video. The school is part of an effort by former schools Chancellor David Banks to open more “academically accelerated” schools in historically underserved neighborhoods. The school got roughly 1,000 applications for its inaugural class, Johnson said.

“The Southeast Queens community demanded to have a school like this, and they deserve it,” she said.

Middle School of Innovation:

The Middle School of Innovation will focus on technology and weave artificial intelligence into its curriculum, said principal Eileen Herusso, whose display table featured a virtual reality headset, turntable, and video game consoles.

Herusso said the middle school, located in Brooklyn’s chronically overcrowded District 21, will bring some of the specialized technology usually found in high schools to a younger crowd.

Banks, despite initial skepticism, became a vocal supporter of exploring the application of artificial intelligence in schools, teasing a sweeping plan that has yet to come to fruition.

Northwell School of Health Sciences:

City officials have been promoting the opening of the Northwell School of Health Sciences for more than a year.

Located in a gleaming new facility in Woodside, Queens, the school is supported by a $25 million startup grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to launch what officials say is a pathbreaking partnership between a city public high school and a major health care system.

Students can graduate with credentials that allow them to start work right after high school in roles like medical assistant, but many will also go on to college and higher degrees, said principal Erika Hurtado-Valentino.

Students will also get access to paid internships, and eligible graduates will get guaranteed job interviews at Northwell, school officials said. Banks touted the school as a crown jewel in his efforts to expand career and technical education citywide, efforts his successor, Melissa Aviles-Ramos, has continued.

Admission to the school is unscreened, though students living in Queens get priority. The inaugural class is expected to be between 200 and 225 students.

Queens International High School:

A part of the Internationals Network of public schools geared toward newly arrived immigrants, Queens International High School will be the first such school run from sixth to 12th grade. It’s also the first international middle school in Queens, the borough that’s absorbed the largest share of the roughly 48,000 newcomers who have arrived since summer 2022, according to city officials.

Starting in sixth grade will allow the school to begin work on language acquisition earlier than other international schools and put students in a good position to either continue on at the school in ninth grade or apply to other high schools, said principal Elizabeth Demchak, who previously founded and led Claremont International High School in the Bronx. Students who entered the country in the last five years are eligible to enroll.

The school’s approval wasn’t without friction. Parents from the I.S. 77, located in the same building, protested that opening the new school will strain building resources and draw students away from I.S. 77, which offers a Spanish dual language program.

Staten Island Rise Academy P.S. 89:

A K-8 school for students with autism and other complex disabilities, Staten Island Rise Academy is the first such public school to open in the borough in decades, said principal Denise D’Anna.

The school is a part of the city’s District 75 for schools that serve students with complex disabilities. Officials have pushed to open more District 75 schools in recent years to cut down on the often hours-long school bus commutes students in the district face to get to schools that can meet their needs.

D’Anna, who started her career as a school bus driver, said the new school will “alleviate a lot of the time that our students are sitting on buses and having to travel, making it easier for families to be … a part of the school.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Trump administration takes aim at in-state tuition programs for undocumented students

2025-05-05T22:38:31+00:00

Leer en español.

Beyond High School is our free monthly newsletter covering higher education policy and practices in Colorado. Sign up to get it delivered to your inbox early.

Undocumented students in Colorado have gone on to be teachers, nurses, and business owners thanks to a program that allows them to pay in-state tuition at public universities.

Now the future of that program and ones like it in 23 other states are in doubt after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that seeks to punish states and cities with so-called sanctuary policies.

The order, signed on April 28, also specifically calls out programs that provide in-state tuition for undocumented students who graduated from high school in that state or who meet other residency requirements.

Allowing in-state students who are not citizens to pay less tuition than out-of-state students who are citizens represents discrimination, according to the order, which says that the attorney general, in cooperation with the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, “shall identify and take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of state and local laws, regulations, policies, and practices favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful.”

Advocates for immigrant students say that without in-state tuition, many undocumented students will struggle to afford college. They don’t qualify for any federal financial aid and face other barriers to college.

“This is absolutely essential for immigrant students,” said Raquel Lane-Arellano, communications manager for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, which fought to pass Colorado’s in-state tuition law in 2013. “It’s not these students’ fault that our immigration system is so broken. They deserve the opportunity, just like all of their peers, to access higher levels of education.”

So far, Colorado universities are not making any immediate changes to their policies. “The executive order does not provide enough details to truly know what federal actions will be taken,” said Colorado Department of Higher Education spokesperson Megan McDermott.

The Trump order sets up a possible legal showdown over the state-supported tuition programs that immigrant rights and higher education-advising groups have called essential to help undocumented students access higher education and educate them to fill in-demand jobs.

Twenty-four states, including Colorado, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey, along with Washington, D.C. have programs that allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition. While the programs have received bipartisan support, Republicans in several states have recently filed bills to consider rolling back in-state tuition for undocumented students. Last week, Florida lawmakers ended the state’s decade-old program.

The order adds to an already uncertain environment for immigrant students, who worry about the risks of filling out financial aid paperwork while grappling with deportation fears. Denver Scholarship Foundation’s Natasha Garfield said the college-advising nonprofit will continue to provide students information about their options and allow them to decide whether college is right for them during a time when Trump’s immigration stance has brought incredible uncertainty.

“There are some who are very, very concerned about the state of things, and I don’t think there’s anything that DSF or anyone else could say to reassure them,” said Garfield, the scholarship organization’s director of scholarships and financial aid. “I think that’s completely understandable given some of the actions that we’ve seen coming from ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and the federal government.”

The order is part of Trump’s larger push to crack down on people in the United States without legal authorization. His directive to punish states with these programs also included several other enforcement actions such as punishing so-called sanctuary cities and states. The administration filed suit Friday against Colorado and Denver for its policies.

The administration argues in the order that some state and local officials use their “authority to violate, obstruct, and defy the enforcement of federal immigration laws. This is a lawless insurrection against the supremacy of Federal law.”

States have a long history of offering in-state tuition at public universities to youth who were brought as children and without legal status. Texas and California passed the first laws in 2001, and other states followed with similar laws. Each varies in how they approach granting in-state tuition.

About 408,000 undocumented students enroll in higher education each year, although not all benefit from these state programs, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal. However, even in states without these laws, some private schools in Tennessee and elsewhere may offer in-state tuition for all students regardless of their residency or legal status. And in Pennsylvania, at least one public institution provides in-state tuition to undocumented students.

Colorado’s Advising Students for a Stronger Tomorrow law, or ASSET, updated in 2019, says students must have attended a Colorado high school for at least one year before graduation or been physically present in Colorado for at least one year to qualify for in-state tuition.

New York’s law says students must have attended at least two years of high school in New York and graduate or receive a general education diploma. Students must also apply to a college or university within five years and show proof of residency. They must also sign an affidavit saying they will file for legal status.

Illinois’ law has similar requirements, while New Jersey requires three years of residency.

National student immigrant advocacy organizations FWD.us, TheDream.US, and the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration all criticized the order. Collectively, they said states, colleges, and universities shouldn’t overreact and that the order hurts states that need qualified workers.

“Blocking states from offering in-state tuition to undocumented students who have lived in these states for most of their lives would purposefully lock countless individuals out of the higher education system, waste years of educational investment, hurt local economies, and rob all Americans of future leaders,” said Todd Schulte, FWD.us president.

State leaders are still working to understand the impact of the order, and a spokesperson for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement the administration is looking into the impacts of this order. The state remains committed to ensuring the state remains a destination for all learners, the statement says.

The state has not filed any legal action against the order, but leaders have been willing to push back on Trump administration orders.

Colorado’s largest university system also doesn’t plan changes at this time. University of Colorado System spokesperson Michele Ames said its schools are committed to following applicable laws and will not make any changes at this time. Other universities, such as the University of Northern Colorado, are monitoring the actions.

Schools across the state have also said that they won’t release individual student information, such as information about undocumented students who attend schools through the ASSET program, to the federal government without a court order or warrant, per federal student privacy laws.

When filling out the FAFSA feels dangerous

2025-04-24T09:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Applying to college is stressful enough. Navigating the financial aid process adds a whole new layer. And for children of immigrants, including those with undocumented parents, the process comes with even greater hurdles and anxieties.

Producers Jasmyn Centeno, a senior at Uncommon Leadership High School, and Jojo Fofana, a senior at Fordham High School for the Arts, explore the frustrating and complicated experience many students — including themselves — have when navigating the FAFSA process.

For students like “Gabby,” whose mother is undocumented, applying for financial aid comes with very real fears at a time of heightened deportation concerns under the Trump administration.

Danielle Insel, a counselor at University Neighborhood High School, sheds light on the systemic barriers and technical glitches students face, along with the emotional support they need to get through it as they find their path to college affordability.

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Listen for new P.S. Weekly episodes Thursdays this spring.

Read the transcript below

News reporter: You’ve said roughly 14,000 migrants have been arrested in the first month of this administration.

Jasmyn: Welcome to P.S. weekly, the sound of the New York City school system. I’m Jasmyn Centeno

Jojo: And I’m Jojo Fofana, and today we’re thinking about immigration.

News reporter: The Trump administration did away with a long standing policy that largely kept ICE from making arrests in schools.

News interviewee: So then they come to school thinking that maybe they could be safe here, but that’s not something that we are able to guarantee anymore.

Jasmyn: Well, not just immigration. We’re thinking more about the children of immigrants.

Jojo: Oh, why?

Jasmyn: Because more of us are applying to college

Jojo: and we’re having a hard time being able to afford it.

News reporter: And for those with at least one undocumented parent, FAFSA applications are down 44%

Jasmyn: Today, Jojo and I will discuss the process of financial aid for first generation students who are children of immigrant and undocumented parents, and how they’re navigating the college application process, and when I say they, I actually mean we. Jojo, how’s your experience been with FAFSA?

Jojo: All right? Well, my mom is from Sierra Leone, and she wasn’t a citizen until not too long ago, so we had a lot to explain to FAFSA on why I couldn’t fill out certain things, and I felt like you have to fill out all these bells and whistles to even think about even affording college.

You have to prove a lot, such as what school your parents went to. That might not be able to be found on the search right, because, like, my mom’s from Africa, so that’s just, you’re not finding it, right. How much money you expected to make, or, like, your social security, if they’re even a legal citizen. And that was, like, definitely complicated for my mom to answer.

Jasmyn: Yeah, I had a similar experience proving that I’m even a low income, first generation college student, specifically when finding documents. For my dad, he didn’t even have experience sharing his 1040 or his W2 documents, and it kind of made him feel like he was being interrogated.

As high school seniors ourselves, we understand the college application process can be incredibly stressful. We write multiple essays and draft personal statements. But there are other thoughts that linger within the minds of most future college students, and that’s financial aid.

Jojo: For New York State residents, specifically, there are financial aid resources provided, such as TAP (the tuition assistance) program that helps New York State students pay for college.

Jasmyn: And on the federal side, there’s FAFSA. FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

Jojo: There’s a recent survey of 600 first generation FAFSA applicants from study.com. The study showed that FAFSA complications have not only delayed their college decisions, but in some cases, have derailed their educational plans altogether.

Almost half of first generation students have trouble filling out their FAFSA. 86% of those surveyed said they considered other options due to FAFSA uncertainties, such as additional scholarships or alternative loans. Some try to get even more work hours towards their college expenses, and some consider delaying their enrollment. So this is one of the many struggles we’ve had, but let’s hear another perspective on it from your friend, right?

Jasmyn: My best friend of five years has experienced firsthand complications when it comes to applying for FAFSA.

Jasmyn: So previously, you were already mentioning, hold on. She wanted to share her own story under the alias Gabby. I know that you said your mom was born in Trinidad. So while she was there, did she ever receive higher education in high school or through college?

Gabby: She did seek a higher education in high school, and she did go to college, but she never got to finish.

Jasmyn: What would you say is the hardest aspect is about being a first generation student

Gabby: Financial aid.

Jasmyn: And why is that?

Gabby: Because it’s a harder process. I mean, not because I’m a first generation student, but because she’s undocumented. I mean because she went to school in Trinidad, it’s not the same as the American process. So she doesn’t really know what common app and all the stuff are, but I also don’t share that stuff with her. It’s made the financial aid process hard. It was very stressful.

There was nights where I needed to ask my mom for a lot of information, and she didn’t have it or I–she didn’t know what it was. Yeah, some things I had to, the process was very long, longer than it should have been, because she’s undocumented. But, yeah.

Jasmyn: When you say she was unfamiliar with some documents, would you mind referring to which ones those were.

Gabby: For IRS, when you’re signing in, it asks you to do, asks you for a certain type of taxes, but you have to be a citizen to have them or pay taxes. My mother doesn’t pay that– well, she just started, but she didn’t pay taxes. You need a ID, a state ID, she didn’t have that. Well, she still doesn’t, and just stuff that you need to be a citizen in order to have those type of documents.

Gabby: At first, I thought I would have to use my aunt’s taxes, because my mom did put me on my aunt’s taxes, thinking that I would need it in the future. But thankfully, on FAFSA, I was able to just put that my mom doesn’t have her social security number, so it made it really easy, but it makes me question, like, have I put a target on my mom because of this? But also, like, would I be able to afford school? So even though it took, like, a very long process because she didn’t have, like, her socials, I did get the full thing, so I’m very thankful.

Jasmyn: So how did you feel when you realized you couldn’t answer your mom’s documents?

Gabby: I felt like it was time to move on. I didn’t want to dwell on it, because there wasn’t much I could do, and it’s scary time where telling your situation can backfire on you, because hearing that Trump was starting to deport people who didn’t have their papers, it was kind of scary, and I wanted to make sure that my mom was safe.

And I didn’t know if it was more important that I get my education than not knowing where my mom would be.

Jasmyn: Can you describe to me the moment when you initially realized that your mom being undocumented would have been an issue for you growing up?

Gabby: I didn’t really realize until high school, but my mom had told me she was–she didn’t have her papers when I was in elementary because I think she figured out herself that I wouldn’t be able to do a lot of stuff, or, like some things, would be limited.

Jasmyn: And that experience itself. How did that make you feel?

Gabby: I felt okay.

Jasmyn: Girl! And I know you didn’t. Why are you lying? Why are you lying?

Gabby: They don’t need to know that

Jasmyn: They don’t even know who you are, baby like,

Gabby: Ok but I don’t wanna put that out there

Jasmyn: No literally you’re acting like, it’s very chill.

Gabby: I’ve been living with it for a good long days,

Jasmyn: But you’ve been living with it. But like, when you initially found out, like, of course, like the feeling was gonna, like, dim down after a while, but like, how did you feel? Like you initially knew.

Gabby: You know what? Pass me the mic.

Jasmyn: What emotions did you feel at the moment?

Gabby: I felt sad at the moment, I felt sad. I didn’t really understand, like, what it would meant for the future, and I cried, and my mom didn’t even understand why I was crying. I didn’t understand why I was crying. But...

Jasmyn: How did your mom not understand why you were crying? If, like, she had just told you that she was undocumented.

Gabby: Because my mom is Trindadian she’s, she’s a very tough lady. So, like, crying isn’t really a thing in our, in our family. So whenever I cry, my mom doesn’t really understand why I cry.

Jasmyn: Did you talk to anyone about it?

Gabby: No.

Jasmyn: You didn’t reference like a friend or a counselor.

Gabby: No, this is the first time I’m ever talking about my mom’s situation to anyone.

Jasmyn: Did you talk to your mother about it?

Gabby: No, my mom doesn’t really talk about it, nor does she want to.

Jojo: That sounds really hard, especially when you take into account that the FAFSA Simplification Act passed in 2020 this act was supposed to help people like Gabby and minimize the amount of questions being asked on a FAFSA form, but more importantly, it was supposed to increase the accessibility by helping all kids get better access to financial aid no matter what the circumstances are. So the fact that she had to go through that is terrifying.

Jasmyn: But even if things got better with the Simplification Act, the application process was still a mess with tons of technical glitches and errors, and now, with all the budget cuts, the number of staff at the Federal Student Aid Office has been decimated. On the other hand, completed application numbers seem to be up from last year, but we won’t know for sure until June.

Jojo: Stories like Gabby are commonplace for first gen students, and thankfully, there are people who can help school counselors next after a break. A counselor in downtown Manhattan will shed some light on the inner workings of this problem.

Ad: We hope you enjoy listening to PS weekly as much as we enjoy making it. I’m Amy Zimmer with Chalkbeat New York. We spend a lot of time planning each episode, setting up and conducting interviews, cutting the tape, writing scripts. It’s a long process and totally worth it. But here’s the thing, we don’t have a bunch of money or millions of followers, so we’re counting on you loyal listener to help us get the word out. Take a few seconds and send this link wherever you’re listening to three friends so they too can enjoy PS weekly. Thanks for your support.

Ad: Inspiration. Comes from all kinds of places, a late night chat with a friend or a letter from a pen pal, a single comment can shape us, whether that’s from a mentor or a parent or your favorite author. On this season of “On Our Minds”, we are exploring who inspires us from PBS News Student Reporting Labs. “On Our Minds” is a podcast produced by teens for teens. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Jojo: Welcome back. We’re your hosts, Jojo,

Jasmyn: And Jasmyn. When we were last with you, we discussed my friend Gabby, who struggled with her FAFSA application. She’s like many other students of undocumented parents who either don’t have enough required information or are scared of mentioning their parents’ documentation status.

Jojo: I interviewed Danielle Insel. She’s a college counselor at the University Neighborhood high school in Manhattan, Lower East Side. I wanted to get her take on a financial aid process for first gen students with undocumented parents.

Jojo: So you’re a counselor, as you–

Danielle: Yes,

Jojo: How long have you been doing counseling for?

Danielle: This would be my like, 12th year.

Jojo: I was curious about how she helps first gen students. Once they walk into her office.

Danielle: I first just make sure that they know I’m like, a safe, trusted individual, and I know trust is built over time, but like, I’m not gonna disclose anything to anyone, letting them know, like I’m here to guide them through the process and recognizing from their end that, like, they may not have as much exposure to this process as their peers, but definitely like exposure, exposure, exposure to as many things as possible. So taking them on college trips, having them, bringing admissions representatives here, letting them know that, like they’re not alone, like there are so many first generation college students, not just in our school, not just in our state, but in our country there, you know, and reminding them that I’ll be with them through, like, the whole process. And also, I also would say, like talking to the families, I think it’s important to make that like connection, you know, like talking to their parents and explaining the best I can. And if they, if English is not their first language, finding an interpreter, like, that’s really important.

Jojo: Language barrier

Danielle: Yeah, language barrier is definitely a big one. You know, we have to pay attention to the news. Like, there’s a lot going on with immigration and and education cuts and federal cuts and like, how does that impact students? There’s just a lot. So I think a lot goes into it,

Jojo: Right, so what do you do for students whose FAFSA takes more time due to unique circumstances, like undocumented, some files might be there, because, as we know, FAFSA can be at times, very unforgiving.

Danielle: Yes.

Jojo: How that works? Do you have any thoughts, and ideas?

Danielle: I do. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of persistence. Persistence is key, and I think I’m not going to show outward frustration. I show them like, okay, this doesn’t work. All right, then we’re gonna contact FAFSA. We’re gonna call, we’re gonna use the chat, we’re gonna contact the college. We’re just gonna keep communicating and keep doing what we need to do. I did have a very frustrating experience today with a student whose parents are undocumented. There’s this thing, if your parents are living together, they’re undocumented, and they’re working.

FAFSA does not, it does not work to submit the parental information that is required, you have to submit both parents information. FAFSA thought that you could, and I had to go back and forth with them today and be like, we’ve tried every single thing. It doesn’t work, and then you have to do the paper, FAFSA, which I don’t know how many months that takes the process,

Jojo: Paper?

Danielle: Paper.

Jojo: Wow!

Danielle: And that only happens to students whose parents are both undocumented living together and unmarried? Yeah, that would certainly have some economic divide. Oh, absolutely. And like, I don’t try like I, we acknowledge it all, you know, we acknowledge all the systems at play and how unfair it is and inequitable it’s like, for today, like, we submitted a paper FAFSA. I don’t know how long that’s going to process. It may not process by the time the student graduates from high school, and that it’s summer, right? So, like, I may not be around to, to ensure that that student’s FAFSA processes and they get the financial aid they need to actually attend college their first semester. So absolutely,

Jojo: That’s painful.

Danielle: Yeah, it is.

Jojo: Yeah, wow, as you might have already known, there was a FAFSA Simplification Act, right? Have you felt any changes? Do you feel like your students have been better supported? Or was there no change?

Danielle: Um, okay, so if we get past the technical issues that have definitely surmounted. I do think it is easier. It is easier. It’s easier for students. Well, for the most part, who’s whose parents are undocumented, it’s easier. It used to be a different process for them. That part is actually simplified a little bit. The problem is that the people who work at FAFSA, which aren’t many anymore, are not I feel like 100% up to date with how to navigate each challenge that arises. For example, what I just said earlier about like students whose parents are undocumented live together but are not married, the people at FAFSA that I spoke to this morning kept telling me, like, delete the account or use a different browser. It’s like we’ve tried the browsers. We’ve tried different wi-fi’s. It’s not that, it’s that those who have a particular immigration status are discriminated against, whether intentionally or not.

Jojo: As a counselor have, and it’s been for 12 years, right? So do you feel like how we handle first gen students? Has it gotten better?

Danielle: Yeah, I definitely think it’s gotten better. I think you hear a lot more colleges talking about them and figuring out ways to provide support for them so they’re not just like these hidden people anymore. They’re definitely out in the forefront, and I think that they feel more empowered than ever to like, advocate for themselves and make themselves known. But from when I started, oh my gosh. Like, a world’s difference, yeah. Like, you can even tell by. For example, like, New York State has a Dream Act that is now accessible to undocumented students or students who may not qualify for as much aid, and so for our first gen students, like that’s huge, and that didn’t exist when I started.

Jojo: As you know, we are in a different presidency now.

Danielle: Yes.

Jojo: Do you have hope for the future. You know, with the news and everything, I guess you can’t really ignore it.

Danielle: Can’t ignore it, but I think I’ll always remain hopeful for the future, because I think things come and go in waves. I think that those of us who are from a place of privilege or power like to make sure that we use our voices, you know, because I think could be a little scary right now for certain groups of people to speak up, so to make sure that we’re on the front lines and like, speaking out and speaking up and yeah, like, I mean, we’re not going anywhere, right?

And I always say, like, I know it sounds so cheesy, but like, I have so much faith and hope in the young people you know, like in you and like your peers and people your age, like you don’t like, take. You don’t like, I don’t know how to say this, like, without cursing or whatever, but like you don’t just like, take, you know what I mean? Like you actually are. Like, no, that’s not okay. No, you cannot talk to me that way. No, like I, I demand respect, you know, when I enter a space like I’m gonna have a seat at that table, like I’m bringing a chair, you know, so there’s where my hope lies.

Jasmyn: As first generation students in the midst of a deportation crisis, it’s more important than ever to check in. Counselors like Danielle do their best to campaign for support, but it starts with you. Our stories won’t tell themselves, and it’s our duty to make sure that our needs are not buried under misunderstanding and documents.

Jojo: Hey, speaking of stories, whatever did happen to Gabby?

Jasmyn: Oh, she’s doing great. She just got into all her SUNY’s and her target California schools, which was the goal. She’s really excited about it.

Jojo: Well, the final deadline for FAFSA is June 30.

Jasmyn: You’ve been listening to P.S. weekly.

Jojo: P.S. weekly is a collaboration between the bell and Chalkbeat made possible by the generous support from the Pinkerton Foundation, the Summerfield foundation and FJC.

Jasmyn: Producers for this episode were me Jasmyn Centeno

Jojo: And me Jojo Fofana, with reporting help from Chalkbeat reporter Michael Elsen-Rooney,

Jasmyn: Our executive producer for the show is Ave Carrillo, and executive editors were Amy Zimmer and Taylor McGraw.

Jojo: Additional production and reporting support was provided by Mira Gordon, Sabrina DuQuesnay and our friends at Chalkbeat. Our engagement editor is Carolina Hidalgo.

Jasmyn: Music is from Blue Dot sessions, and the jingle you heard at the beginning of this episode was created by Erica Huang.

Jojo: Thanks for tuning in. See you next time!

We make transcripts available for our episodes as soon as possible. They are not fully edited for grammar or spelling.

NYC needs thousands more teachers. Can it grow them from the ground up?

2025-04-23T21:52:10+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

As a new principal at Brooklyn International High School struggling to get her footing, Kathleen Rucker frequently turned to the school’s recent graduates for guidance and support.

In the decade that followed, those informal conversations evolved into a full-fledged effort to train, develop, and hire the school’s alumni as teachers, paraprofessionals, administrative assistants, and in other roles.

Currently, there are 16 alumni working at the school, and the number has gone as high as 25, Rucker said. The push has changed how Rucker approaches hiring and has paid dividends for the school’s alumni, its staff, and its current students, Rucker said.

“It actually is transformative,” said Rucker. “The school becomes a stronger, more effective curriculum and program, and the alumni are also empowered.”

Now, Education Department officials are hoping that programs like the one at Brooklyn International can serve as a model for the city to creatively address a historic teacher hiring challenge. By cultivating future educators at city high schools and providing non-teaching staff like paraprofessionals more support in making the leap to classroom teaching — approaches often described as a “grow your own” teacher model — city officials hope to build a broader, more sustainable local teacher pipeline.

The push comes as the city expects to hire between 8,000 and 9,000 teachers by next fall — almost double its normal new hire rate — in order to comply with the state’s class size reduction law. The Education Department will have to maintain the heightened hiring levels for years to come as the law takes full effect.

Rucker’s home-grown teaching program got a big boost several years ago when the Education Department rolled out Future Ready NYC — a signature initiative of former schools Chancellor David Banks that provides schools funding and support to help prepare students for career pathways, including education.

With the support of Future Ready and CUNY’s College Now program, Brooklyn International now offers a four-year course sequence to dozens of high school students that gives them the chance to learn about child development, find paid education internships, and graduate with credits they can use toward a CUNY college degree.

There are now 24 schools across the city offering the Future Ready education pathway, reaching an estimated 1,800 students, officials said.

“The Future Ready education pathway is definitely a major piece of the puzzle of how we open up our talent pipeline,” said First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg, whose office oversees the program.

But it’s not just current students that officials are hoping to turn into the next generation of city teachers. Weisberg said the Education Department is also exploring ways to help the more than 23,000 paraprofessionals working in city schools obtain a teaching certificate at “no cost” and in a “relatively short period of time” — though he acknowledged any such changes will ultimately need support from the state and would require partnership with a college or university.

“There should be 5% to 10% of that pool [of paraprofessionals] that are becoming teachers every year,” he said. “That would be a sea change for us.”

‘Alumni in every classroom’

At Brooklyn International, school leaders recognized the value of cultivating future educators long before the Education Department launched its citywide initiative.

Students rarely enter the school with an explicit interest in education, but often form close relationships with staff and over time grow interested in doing the kind of work from which they benefited so much as students, alumni and staffers said.

“I went from, ‘I don’t want to go to school,’ to, ‘I want to become a teacher in a school,’” said Anunna Meem, a 2019 alum who now works at Brooklyn International as a history teacher.

Alumni staffers bring a unique ability to relate to students’ experiences and pick up on subtle signs from kids that other educators might miss, teachers and administrators said.

Erin Fleischauer, an 18-year veteran teacher at Brooklyn International who did not attend the school, said working alongside one of her former students as a co-teacher was eye-opening.

“I’m paying attention to how kids connect differently with him than they connect with me, and I’m noticing little moves that he makes that open up opportunities that I didn’t do,” Fleischauer said.

Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, who visited Brooklyn International on Tuesday to learn about the teacher preparation program, pointed out that recruiting future educators from international schools could also make a dent in the city’s longstanding shortage of bilingual teachers.

One Brooklyn International alum, now an education researcher, is doing research for her dissertation on the benefits of hiring alumni as teachers, and has found that it can increase students’ sense of belonging and connection in school, Rucker said.

For Rucker, the ultimate vision is having “an alumni in every classroom.”

Obstacles to teaching careers persist

Even with support from programs like Future Ready, there are still formidable obstacles standing in the paths of many prospective educators.

Meem, the Brooklyn International alum-turned-teacher, noted that many of her classmates pursuing a teaching degree at CUNY’s Brooklyn College struggled with the requirement to complete unpaid student teaching hours — facing pressure to earn money while they worked toward a degree.

And while the city’s in-house teacher preparation work offers promise, it’s a long-term investment at a time when the city’s hiring needs are immediate. That’s why Weisberg believes strengthening the paraprofessional-to-teacher pipeline can provide an immediate shot in the arm.

Paraprofessionals as a group are more reflective of the city’s student demographics than teachers, are more likely to live in the communities where they work, and often have deep experience supporting students with disabilities — another perpetual shortage area for city teachers.

Teachers earn roughly twice the starting salary of paraprofessionals, but the cost and burden of pursuing a certification keeps many paraprofessionals from making the leap, Weisberg contended. He argued that paraprofessionals should have a way to convert their work experience into credit toward a teacher certification, noting that “nothing predicts your future effectiveness as a teacher better than your current effectiveness as a teacher.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org

A new kind of high school diploma trades chemistry for carpentry

2025-04-09T10:00:00+00:00

This story about Alabama graduation requirements was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — In a corner of Huffman High School, the sounds of popping nail guns and whirring table saws fill the architecture and construction classroom.

Down the hall, culinary students chop and saute in the school’s commercial kitchen, and in another room, cosmetology students snip mannequin hair to prepare for the state’s natural hair stylist license.

Starting this fall, Alabama high school students can choose to take these classes — or any other state-approved career and technical education courses — in place of upper level math and science, such as Algebra 2 or chemistry.

Alabama state law previously required students to take at least four years each of English, math, science and social studies to graduate from high school. The state is now calling that track the “Option A” diploma. The new “Option B” workforce diploma allows students to replace two math and two science classes with a sequence of three CTE courses of their choosing. The CTE courses do not have to be related to math or science, but they do have to be in the same career cluster. Already, more than 70% of Alabama high school students take at least one CTE class, according to the state’s Office of Career and Technical Education/Workforce Development.

The workforce diploma will give students more opportunities to get the kind of skills that can lead to jobs right after high school, legislators said. But there’s a cost: Many universities, including the state’s flagship University of Alabama, require at least three math credits for admission. The workforce diploma would make it more difficult for students on that track to get into those colleges.

The law passed in 2024 alongside a spate of bills aimed at boosting the state’s labor participation rate, which at 58% as of January remained below the national rate of 63%. Simply put, Alabama wants to get more of its residents working.

The new diploma option also comes at a time when public perception of college is souring: Only 36% of U.S. adults have a lot of confidence in higher education, according to a 2024 Gallup poll. Just 43% of Alabama high schoolers who graduated in 2023 enrolled in one of the state’s public colleges the following fall.

“The world of higher education is at a crossroads,” said Amy Lloyd, executive director of the education advocacy nonprofit All4Ed and former assistant secretary for the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education. “Americans are questioning the value of the return on their investment: Is it worth my money? Is it worth my time?”

Counselors play key role as students weigh trade-offs

One recent afternoon in Huffman High School’s architecture class, a few students in bright yellow safety vests were measuring a wall they had built. At the end of the semester, the project will culminate in a tiny home.

Lucas Giles, a senior, started taking architecture his sophomore year as a way to “be able to fix things around the home without having to call other people,” he said. The new workforce diploma option won’t apply to him since he’s graduating this year, but he said he likely would have opted for it to fit more architecture classes into his schedule — that is, until he learned it would make it harder for him to attend college and study engineering.

“I wouldn’t have the credits,” Giles realized.

Students who earn a workforce diploma and end up wanting to go to college after all can enroll in community colleges, or aim for state colleges that have less stringent admissions requirements, said Alabama education chief Eric Mackey. The key to the new diploma will be ensuring school counselors are properly advising students, he added.

“That’s where the counselor comes in and says, ‘If you want to be a nurse, then yes, you need the practical stuff at the career tech center — taking blood pressure and trauma support — but you also need to be taking biology, physiology, chemistry and all those things, too,‘” Mackey said.

Because the diploma only makes sense for a specific subset of students — those who do not plan to go to a four-year college that requires more math or science and who cannot otherwise fit CTE classes in their schedule — counselors have a huge role to play in guiding students. As of 2023, there were 405 students for every counselor in Alabama’s public schools, well over the recommended ratio of 250 to 1.

Mackey said the state added career coaches in recent years to ease the counseling workload, but in many districts there is just a single coach, who rotates among schools.

Samantha Williams, executive director of the nonprofit Birmingham Promise, fears the workforce diploma may shut off students’ options too early. Birmingham Promise helps students in Birmingham City Schools pay college tuition and connects them to internship opportunities while in high school.

“Do you really think that all of our school districts are preparing students to know what they want to do” by the time they’re in high school, Williams asked.

States bet big on career education, but struggle to show it works

Williams also worries that lower-performing students might be steered to this diploma option in order to boost their schools’ rankings.

Students who opt for the workforce diploma will not have their ACT test scores included in their schools’ public reports. Legislators decided that schools should not have to report standardized test scores for students who did not have to take the requisite math and science classes.

“The concern a lot of people voiced was ‘Hey, isn’t everyone just going to place the kids who are underperforming in the workforce diploma so their ACT scores don’t bring down the whole?‘” Williams said. “There’s a strong perverse incentive for people to do that.”

Speaking to the state’s Board of Education last fall, Mackey warned the “furor of the state superintendent will come down on” anyone who tries to redirect students toward the workforce diploma because of low ACT scores.

Career and technical education courses already popular

At Headland High School in rural Henry County, Alabama, every student takes at least one CTE course, according to Principal Brent Maloy. The most popular classes, he said, are financial management and family consumer science.

“We don’t force them in — everybody registers themselves, they pick their own classes,” Maloy said. “But there’s just about a zero percent chance that a kid’s not going to have a career tech class when they graduate.”

The school has hosted information sessions for parents and students about the new diploma option ahead of next school year. In a poll of rising juniors and seniors, 20% said they would like to pursue a workforce diploma, and another 30% said they might be interested. Maloy is anticipating about 25% of students will actually opt in to the pathway.

Most graduates of Headland enroll in a two-year school after graduation anyway, Maloy said, and the workforce diploma won’t hinder that. But the high school has only one counselor for its 450 students, and making sure students fully understand this diploma pathway — and its limitations — is likely to add pressure and extra responsibilities on counselors with heavy workloads.

“There’s so much pressure on our secondary counselors already just to make sure that all of the boxes are checked before graduation. It’s going to put an extra box for them to check,” Maloy said.

Students hold up the wall of a tiny home they’re building in an architecture class at Huffman High School in Birmingham, Alabama.

Ultimately, state businesses and industries want this change, said Mackey, who started his career as a middle and high school science teacher.

“They were saying, ‘We really need students with skills over, say, calculus,‘” Mackey said. “That doesn’t mean some students don’t need calculus — we want to still offer those higher math courses and higher science courses.”

But, reflecting on his own experience as a high school science teacher, “I can tell you that every student doesn’t need high school chemistry,” Mackey said.

Career pathways don’t always align with industry demands

The chamber of commerce in Mobile, Alabama, is one group that advocated for the workforce diploma. Career tech classes are a good way for students to better learn what they want to do before graduating high school, and they are also an avenue for students to get skills in high-wage industries prevalent in Alabama, said Kellie Snodgrass, vice president of workforce development at the Mobile Chamber.

Less than half of high school graduates in the region end up enrolling in college after graduation, Snodgrass said, and only 20% of high-wage jobs in Mobile require a college degree. A large chunk of jobs in the state, and in Mobile in particular, are in manufacturing.

“It’s terrible when a student goes away to college and comes back and can’t find a job, when we have thousands of open jobs here,” Snodgrass said.

What happened when a South Carolina city embraced career education for all its students

In an emailed statement, Trevor Sutton, the vice president of economic development at the Birmingham Business Alliance, said the diploma option was a “win for the state of Alabama” that would allow students a chance to learn both “hard and soft skills like communication and time management.”

At least 11 states have embraced policies that give students flexibility to use career tech courses for core academic credits, according to a review from the Education Commission of the States.

Like Alabama, Indiana also made changes to its diploma requirements in 2024. After more than a year of public debate, the state created three graduation pathways that are meant to lead to college admissions, the workforce, or enlistment in the military. Those changes will be effective for students in the Class of 2029, or current eighth graders.

Having industry buy-in on career tech programs is important, said Lloyd with All4Ed, because most students will need either an industry or postsecondary credential to land a job with a comfortable wage.

“The reality is a high school diploma is not enough in today’s labor market to have a guaranteed ticket to the middle class,” Lloyd said.

The problem, Lloyd said, is most K-12 industry credentials have little use to employers. Only 18% of CTE credentials earned by K-12 students in the U.S. were in demand by employers, according to a 2020 report from the Burning Glass Institute.

The key in Alabama will be ensuring students are going into career pathways that line up with job demand, Snodgrass said. Out of the more than 33,000 CTE credentials Alabama high school students earned in 2023, only 2% were in manufacturing, which is one of the state’s highest need areas.

Still, attitudes toward high school CTE courses — once largely thought of as classes for students who struggled academically — have improved significantly over the years. And many schools offer CTE programs like aerospace, robotics, or conservation that could help students get into high-demand undergraduate programs at universities.

“We’re increasingly blurring the lines between what has been historically siloed in people’s minds in terms of career education versus academic education,” Lloyd said. “Those are very often one and the same.”

Contact staff writer Ariel Gilreath at gilreath@hechingerreport.org

This story about Alabama high school requirements was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

Turning passion into profit: NYC high school art students launch Etsy shops through new program

2025-03-19T22:49:30+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

As a freshman, Vivien McNab was already thinking about how to turn her passion for cartooning and fan art into something others could enjoy.

Attending events like New York Comic Con, she developed “a habit” of buying key chains and art, and started developing her own mock-ups, experimenting with art she might one day be able to sell.

“I absolutely adore collecting work from other artists, just because I love seeing all the different styles, and I love seeing people’s different interpretations of characters,” said McNab, a senior at Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design.

Now she’s receiving support to get her own store off the ground. McNab is one of the hundreds of high school juniors and seniors participating in Artist Youth Entrepreneurs, a pilot program Art and Design launched this year to help students build the necessary skills to thrive as working artists.

Throughout a 10-week course in the fall, students learned about key financial and legal concepts, like how to file taxes as a freelancer, price products in their stores, or make sense of relevant copyright laws. Starting in April, students will have the opportunity to launch their own online stores, selling their work directly to customers through the school’s partnership with Etsy, an online marketplace that allows users to create their own shops. Students can receive a stipend from the program and other support at school, like communal shipping supplies and assistance mailing out orders.

The youth entrepreneur program comes at a time when schools across New York City and the state have indexed heavily into career and technical education, offering students opportunities to jump start their careers before they earn their diplomas. At Art and Design, students major in one of eight artistic fields, with each CTE-certified program preparing students for higher education and careers in their industry.

Ella Alarcon-English, a junior majoring in cartooning at the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan.

Principal Maximillian Re-Sugiura said the idea for his school’s program came in part from concerns about the financial stability of artistic fields.

“When a lot of young professionals and young folks go to their families and say, ‘I want to be an artist,’” he said, “the response has historically been: ‘Don’t do that. You’re not going to make a dime.’”

Re-Sugiura hopes to shift that narrative for the city’s students.

“So now,” he said, “a young person goes to their family and says, ‘I want to be an artist, and here’s my plan on how I will design, sell, save, and iterate on my personal brand and concept.’”

Students see side hustle, potential careers in online stores

Across the nation, a growing number of young people are turning to side hustles to earn extra cash — with experts noting that online platforms have made them more accessible and effective.

Ella Alarcon-English, a junior majoring in cartooning, had already launched her own Etsy store last year, to connect with customers she met during her school’s annual Fanfaire convention. But through the new program, she’s gained valuable skills to help run her store, while being able to benefit from the program’s perks and curriculum.

Carolina Liang Li, a senior majoring in animation at Manhattan's High School of Art and Design.

“Some of the lessons that we’ve learned, like taxing and pricing, are tools that I wish I had when I first started my Etsy shop,” she said.

For Carolina Liang Li, a senior majoring in animation who plans to attend NYU in the fall, the program has meant gaining a platform to earn additional income and increase the reach of her artwork — one that will persist beyond her time in high school.

“If you have a store, you can also build a lot more connections, especially in an industry like this,” she said. “It helps you establish yourself.”

She said she’s hoping to sell items made from clay, like keychains, in addition to digital art and prints.

The program has helped ease some of the anxiety around the costs of higher education, with an online store offering one potential source of income during her time in college, said Daphnee Pascal, a senior majoring in fashion design.

Pascal hopes to sell bags, wallets, and other items she’s sewn once her store launches this spring. And longterm, she’s hopeful that she can one day transition the online store into her own brand for her designs.

Daphnee Pascal, a senior majoring in fashion design at the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan.

“A lot of us really wanted a way to sell our designs, because we make a lot of things throughout the year,” she said. “So it’s really helped in that aspect — letting us share what we do with everyone else.”

Artist Youth Entrepreneurs brings in legal, financial, and tech experts

To Re-Sugiura, the youth entrepreneur program not only provides an opportunity that didn’t exist for him and his peers growing up, but also helps better prepare students “for a world that seems increasingly geared towards freelance work and gig economics for artists.”

Parents and families have been involved in the program from the outset, with families helping students set up their accounts, and the school providing parents with resources and guidance for checking in with their students about their online stores.

In addition to Etsy, the program has brought in other partners from various industries to assist with instruction. Lawyers at Proskauer Rose LLP and MetLife talked about copyright law, while staffers from Ridgewood Savings Bank shared financial best practices — and gave students the opportunity to open free accounts at the bank.

Teachers developed lesson plans and other instructional materials with the help of nonprofit tech company PlayLab, which provided educators with AI-powered tools trained on Etsy materials and the school’s curricula.

Bethany Crystal, an AI, education, and workforce advisor to Tech:NYC, partner of the city’s FutureReadyNYC initiative that has helped with developing the program, noted teachers have been able to build their own AI-powered tools to help students.

One educator, for example, built a tool that helped students generate descriptions for their online stores and products. That tool then sparked a discussion with students about when and how to use AI.

Crystal added she’s been excited to see students engaging with the work in the program.

“It’s not to say every single kid is going to be an entrepreneur in this way,” she said. “But showing them how it begins, which is the hardest part of that journey, I think is so incredible.”

Re-Sugiura hopes the program’s model will serve as an inspiration for other schools — both CTE schools and others — who can adapt the materials and structure to serve their own communities.

“All of it is designed to showcase to the larger New York City community that this is something that you can do,” he said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Dual enrollment students’ classes could be disrupted by looming community college strike in Philly

2025-03-17T18:42:57+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia’s free newsletter to keep up with news on the city’s public school system.

Nearly 1,000 high school students at the Community College of Philadelphia’s dual enrollment programs could be affected by a potential strike at the city’s largest institution of public higher education.

Over the weekend, 97% of the community college’s staff and faculty union members voted to authorize a strike, should their union and the college’s administration fail to reach a contract agreement. The union is demanding pay raises that keep pace with inflation and class size reductions, the return of a child care center on campus, and subsidized transit passes for staff and students.

The vote means union members agreed to allow their leadership to call a strike at any time, but the faculty are not on strike.

In a statement Monday, representatives from the American Federation of Teachers Local 2026 union, which represents 1,200 full- and part-time faculty and other staff members, said a strike would be a “last resort if continued negotiations fail to produce meaningful progress” towards their proposals.

“Our members are the front lines of the college, in the offices, in the classrooms, on the ground and everywhere in between. We are tired of waiting and we are strike ready,” union Co-President Rainah Chambliss said in a statement.

There are 973 students currently participating in dual enrollment programs at the Community College of Philadelphia, and this school year, there have been a total of 1,366 students who’ve been enrolled in these programs. In addition, there are an estimated 600 students who study in dual enrollment programs over the summer.

The number of new dual enrollment students at CCP has increased 23% from last year, according to a report from the community college’s president.

The Philadelphia school district also partners with the college on a “Gateway to College” program. This serves students ages 16 to 21 who dropped out of high school and lets them earn their high school diploma and college credits simultaneously.

In the event of a strike, dual enrollment classes could be canceled and students and their family members would be notified via email and text, said Shannon Rooney, a vice president at the Community College of Philadelphia, in a statement. These high school students “may need to make up classes that are missed” if there’s a strike, Rooney said.

“As with all students at the College, dual enrollment students would be encouraged to remain engaged with their coursework by way of their course syllabi and any course materials, advance readings, and assignments,” Rooney said.

If the faculty go on strike, Philadelphia district students would remain at their high school, and complete their senior year projects and any other graduation requirements under the supervision of a counselor or teacher while they participate in “college and career readiness” lessons online, district spokesperson Monique Braxton said.

The union and the community college leadership have been bargaining since January 2024, and faculty have been working without a contract since their previous one expired in August 2024.

With graduation looming, the college said this month the administration filed a request for the appointment of a fact-finding panel with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.

The college said in a statement that it’s confident its proposals “provide fair terms and wage increases for all.” But union members, joined by several elected officials last week at the launch of the strike authorization vote, say there is money in the college’s budget to raise salaries, add more counselors and student advisers, and reopen a childcare center shuttered during the pandemic, among other proposals.

The union’s position has notable political support. Mayor Cherelle Parker’s proposed budget includes $15 million over five years for the college to “support its workforce,” on top of other funding for the school. Last October 2024, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution in support of the union’s demands, and several of its members joined union members on campus last week in a show of solidarity.

Among them was City Councilmember Kendra Brooks who studied at CCP as a single mother. Brooks’ daughter is now a dual enrollment student at Franklin Learning Center.

Dual enrollment is “an amazing opportunity,” Brooks said. “We have to rectify the strike situation so we don’t interrupt learning for our students. … We’re talking about how we can build the next generation of professionals in the city and CCP is an amazing start. So why not get them started early?”

This story has been updated with additional information about plans for district students in the event of a strike.

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org

Trump administration launches civil rights investigation into schools, including CU Colorado Springs

2025-03-14T22:40:00+00:00

Sign up for our free monthly newsletter Beyond High School to get the latest news about college and career paths for Colorado’s high school grads.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced investigations Friday into 45 colleges and universities, including the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, that partnered with an organization that provides mentorship and support for PhD candidates from underrepresented backgrounds.

The investigations appear to be the first tied to a “Dear Colleague” letter that said the Trump administration would punish colleges and universities if they don’t end scholarships, mentorship programs, and networking groups meant to create more opportunities for students of color. The letter interprets a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision barring the use of race in college admissions to mean that any opportunities geared toward people from one racial group violate the law.

“The Department is working to reorient civil rights enforcement to ensure all students are protected from illegal discrimination,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in a press release. “Today’s announcement expands our efforts to ensure universities are not discriminating against their students based on race and race stereotypes.”

The investigations are tied to partnerships with The PhD Project, a national organization that helps support and provide networking for diverse doctoral candidates. Universities under investigation include CU Colorado Springs as well as New York University, Rutgers University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Chicago, and Vanderbilt University.

In its announcement about the investigations, the Education Department describes The PhD Project as “an organization that purports to provide doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D. and networking opportunities, but limits eligibility based on the race of participants.”

The Office for Civil Rights sent a Thursday letter to CU Colorado Springs Chancellor Jennifer Sobanet that said it received a complaint against the school’s College of Business alleging discrimination against students on the basis of race, national origin, and ethnicity by supporting a PhD Project conference that was allegedly only available to university students who identify as Black, Hispanic, or Native American.

Sobanet said in a statement that she believes the school only used the PhD Project’s platform to advertise open faculty positions.

“Like universities across the country, we use various platforms to seek and recruit the best teaching and research talent for our students,” she said.

The school is in the process of gathering additional information about the complaint and will comply with the Education Department’s requests, Sobanet said. She added that the school does not discriminate in its recruitment or hiring practices.

A statement from the PhD Project said the network works to broaden the pipeline of business leaders and develop school faculty who can inspire, mentor, and support leaders.

The organization said on its website before the letter that it works with university partners committed to diversifying their campuses. Its work has increased the number of professors of color from 294 in 1994 to over 1,700, according to website archives.

“This year, we have opened our membership application to anyone who shares that vision,” the statement says.

The civil rights office is also investigating six universities for “allegedly awarding impermissible race-based scholarships” and one other university “for allegedly administering a program that segregates students on the basis of race.” The announcement did not provide further details.

The letter last month cited the 2023 Supreme Court decision that banned the use of race in college admissions as the basis for its enforcement actions. That decision was narrowly focused on admissions practices. But the letter expanded on that decision by saying it is illegal to use race or gender or sexual orientation as a factor in providing different levels of support for some students.

Antonio Ingram, who is senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said there is no legal justification for investigations into scholarships, programs that mentor Black or Hispanic students, or help certain groups of students feel like they belong on a campus.

No previous administration has launched investigations into programs that seek to help students who have historically made up a disproportionately smaller percentage of students on college and university campuses, he said.

He said the investigations are a way to reshape American higher education to bend to the administration’s political views rather than allowing colleges and universities to be places of free expression and an exchange of ideas.

“The investigations are a tool meant to create fear and compliance among universities,” Ingram said.

Other legal experts such as Ingram and higher education groups have called on colleges and universities not to overreact to the guidance by preemptively ending programs that make groups of students feel welcome on campus, especially because the Dear Colleague letter isn’t law.

Some colleges and universities nationwide and in Colorado have already responded.

Several colleges and universities nationwide removed references to diversity, equity, and inclusion after the letter. Schools such as the University of Cincinnati have announced they will eliminate DEI practices.

In Colorado, Colorado State University System officials, despite saying they believed they were in compliance with federal law, also made changes to school websites that mentioned diversity, equity, and inclusion. School officials also said they would begin to shift some employee job duties and human resources policies focused on DEI.

Other Colorado university leaders did not make changes but said they also believed they were in compliance with federal law.

The investigations are part of a significant shift in how the Education Department is handling civil rights enforcement under the Trump administration. The administration has said combatting antisemitism on college campuses, blocking transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports, and ending diversity practices it considers discriminatory are top priorities, even as it has slashed staff in the civil rights office.

And the administration has moved quickly to cut off federal funds after announcing high-profile investigations, rather than spending weeks or months gathering facts and working toward a resolution.

Last week, the Trump administration cancelled more than $400 million in grants and contracts at Columbia University because of last year’s pro-Palestinian protests on the campus. On Monday, the civil rights office accused 60 universities, including Columbia, of discrimination against Jewish students. The office cited Title VI in launching its investigation, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin.

The administration then demanded on Thursday that Columbia University cede control of its international studies department and make changes to campus policies, according to the Associated Press.

Scholarships for career-driven Indiana teens are growing and gaining fans, but lack transparency

2025-03-11T19:17:59+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.

This story is a partnership between Chalkbeat Indiana and journalists at the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism at Indiana University.

Three times a week, Milan High School senior Katherine Prifogle drives across the Indiana-Ohio border to Whitewater Aviation, trading her high school classroom for a cockpit.

The Indiana Career Scholarship Account, known as CSA, funds her trips to Ohio for aviation lessons. Prifogle hopes to eventually earn her pilot’s license.

The state-funded program started in 2023 to supplement career and technical education for Indiana sophomores, juniors, and seniors in public or private schools. For small schools like Milan High School, where funding is limited and opportunities for early career experience are rare, the CSA program fills a gap and enables students like Prifogle to gain creditable work experience based on individual students’ desires and interests.

“Our school is in a low-income area, so it’s an opportunity that most of the students wouldn’t be able to get otherwise,” said Zarah Hileman, a counselor at Milan High School.

The scholarship program is growing in more ways than one. Participation soared from around 200 students in the 2023-24 school year to 1,900 students this year, and the program is at full capacity. The Indiana General Assembly is considering boosting its funding from $10 million to $15 million in the next state budget. And new state graduation requirements could soon lead more students to using the program, and lawmakers are also moving toward making private school vouchers like the CSAs available to all Indiana families regardless of income.

But at the same time, the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism in collaboration with Chalkbeat found a glaring lack of transparency regarding how the CSA money is allocated and which employers get it.

Three state agencies jointly administer the Career Scholarship Accounts: the Department of Education, the Commission for Higher Education, and the Indiana State Treasurer’s Office. All three denied records requests for invoices related to spending and total distribution to each company receiving the funds in 2023 and 2024.

Startup Moxie students tour businesses, hear from business leaders, and prepare for careers through professional headshots and practicing their professionalism.

A representative from the Treasurer’s Office said the office was “unable to publish information requested externally.” The office also said: “Under state law, information on student funding allocations and spending is provided to the Indiana Department of Education and the Commission for Higher Education.”

Qualified expenses for CSAs, which lawmakers established in 2023, include everything from clothing and gas to business materials and technology, according to the state. But the lack of public records means it’s difficult to track what’s paid for and the price tag for various items.

The state’s CSA website lists 54 companies, 10 public schools, four private schools, and two charter schools as program participants. The Arnolt Center and Chalkbeat contacted all the listed participants. Only 10 of them responded, and five of those said they did not know why they were listed on the CSA website as a participating school or employer.

One such participant is Gaylor Electric, whose CEO is former GOP Rep. Chuck Goodrich, author of the CSA law. Gaylor is listed as a CSA partner. But Jeff Bryant, director of Gaylor University — Gaylor Electric’s training arm — said in an email that the company has not received or requested CSA funds, although it has hired students who have participated in the program.

Goodrich also did not respond to requests for comment about the program’s transparency and Gaylor’s role.

Students, businesses see benefits from Career Scholarship Accounts

Students can use the Career Scholarship Accounts to work on their broader business skills, not just to learn a particular trade or industry.

For example, some schools are using the CSA program to encourage students to join other programs like Startup Moxie, an entrepreneurship program located in Elkhart County that lets students use the CSA money on tools and materials.

Currently, 24 students are using Startup Moxie to tour local business facilities, get to know the owners, and develop their networking skills.

“I’ve seen students just year after year, student after student, that come into the program not extremely confident or not sure what they want to do after high school,” Startup Moxie Director Kris Weimer said. “It’s important for students to have this opportunity to help set them up for whatever’s next in their life.”

Concord High School has a list of career and technical education programs for their students to take on campus. However, Concord High School Principal Seth Mulnar said those courses cannot replicate networking opportunities with local business leaders or the diverse career-focused experiences that CSA programs like Startup Moxie can.

“I like the aspect of Startup Moxie that we are given an environment that fosters us to explore the entrepreneurship side of things and goes against the grain of traditional school,” said Max Malloy, a senior at Elkhart High School in the Startup Moxie entrepreneurship program. “It gives us a different path if we want to go out in our community and do something that is worthwhile.”

For companies, the CSA program is an opportunity to introduce a new generation of workers to the trades.

James Robertson, the owner of Armor Air, which offers HVAC, plumbing and air conditioning services, got set up with the Department of Education and partnered with Cardinal Ritter High School to teach students how to become HVAC technicians.

“We struggle to find people in the trades anymore,” he said.

While it’s the first year Armor Air has participated, Robertson said that some students are showing significant interest in the industry, enrolling in classes and asking for job interviews.

Cardinal Ritter High School Vice Principal Erik Longenecker said he had spent all of the 2022-2023 school year looking to fund career training programs for the juniors and seniors. When he found out about the CSA program, he encouraged students to apply for the 2024–2025 . Ultimately, the school received funding for 94 students.

In addition to the HVAC program, Cardinal Ritter offers CNA and cybersecurity training using CSA funding.

While there’s positive feedback about the scholarships, school administrators have acknowledged room for improvement.

The only criticism Longenecker has for the CSA program is their disbursement of funds throughout the year. While the program provides up to $5,000 annually, it is disbursed quarterly.

“It’s unique and makes it challenging when trying to pay for things upfront,” Longenecker said.

A student can roll over a maximum of $1,000 in funds into the next school year, and unused funds for an account are returned to the state once a student in the CSA program graduates high school.

Rather than paying students the full amount directly, scholarship funds are administered by the program directors to ensure that students’ needs are met. When students request funding to pay for specific needs, money can be taken from the account to cover the costs, according to Longenecker.

Concord High School Associate Principal Kendra Divine stressed that the program’s clear goal is to help students develop skills, and isn’t just a chance for teenagers to get “a wad of cash and then they go buy Skittles or something.”

“It’s more, this is the purpose of it, here’s what you’re going to use it for, and we are going to assist you while you use it. That’s how it works,” Divine said. “It’s not like you can do this and be $5,000 richer.”

But the limits on how the CSA money can be spent doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easy to learn notable details about how the program works.

Whitewater Aviation in Ohio, where Prifogle takes her flying lessons, sends a bill for them to Milan High School, which then works with the CSA program to pay the bill.

To facilitate this process, there is a third-party administrator of the program, ClassWallet. The State Treasurer’s Office sends the company quarterly payments to cover its expenses.

ClassWallet denied multiple requests for interviews about how the program functions. Several states have given ClassWallet contracts to help manage education choice programs, including Alabama, Arkansas, and North Carolina. The company has also expressed an interest in doing business with Tennessee to help oversee its recent school choice expansion.

New graduation requirements could boost prominence of CSAs

The Indiana Department of Education says the CSA program is designed to work in conjunction with — and not replace — the state’s dedicated career and technical education funding, which nearly 268,900 students used in the 2023-2024 school year.

The typical career and technical education approach backed by state funding “is providing that education in a school-like lab environment, where the CSA is allowing the education to take place at the place of business,” Jesse Webb, director of career and technical education for Fort Wayne Community Schools, said.

While CSA dollars can be used to attract students, schools cannot stack CSA dollars on top of the state’s grant funding for career and technical education, because schools can’t accept both.

The Indiana General Assembly is considering boosting Career Scholarships Account funding from $10 million to $15 million in the next state budget.

Mike Schimpf, superintendent of North Central Parke Community School Corporation, applied for his district to use CSA funding for students to enroll in a commercial driver’s license program, which is currently being funded through state career and technical education dollars.

Students who rely on career and technical education funding often take several courses on their graduation track. That means the funding those students can use from CSA can ultimately be less than the career and technical education funding available to them, Schimpf said.

Nevertheless, the Indiana General Assembly’s draft two-year budget that would increase the CSA’s funding to $15 million isn’t the only state policy change that could increase the scholarships’ prominence.

In December, the State Board of Education approved new graduation rules that allow students to earn seals from one of three “pathways” to enrollment in college, careers, or enlistment in the military.

Students can earn an Honors Employment seal on their diploma through 150 hours of work, which can now include a work opportunity paid for through CSAs.

Schools must implement the changes for diploma requirements by the 2028-29 school year. However, schools can choose to adopt the new graduation rules as soon as next school year, which could accelerate student interest in the CSAs and lead to increased state funding for them.

During the debate about revising Indiana’s graduation requirements, officials initially floated a plan to require more students to gain work experience in order to graduate. They backed off that plan in the final rules approved by the state board. State policymakers see CSAs as a means to help high school students get financial support so they can get jobs after graduating, similar to how financial aid helps college students pay for higher education.

“There is not a mechanism for high school students to receive financial aid for college classes, so the CSAs have been a game-changer,” said state Rep. Wendy McNamara, a Republican and director of Early College High School in Evansville.

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Chuck Goodrich is a former Indiana House Representative and correct the location of the school where Rep. Wendy McNamara is a leader.

Jon Eckert, Charlie Herman, Char Jones, Mitchell Lierman, Mackenzie Lionberger, Eva Remijan-Toba, Maddie Slepski and Jasmine Wright are reporters from the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism at Indiana University.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado’s graduation rate rose, and its dropout rate fell in 2024

2025-01-22T19:08:51+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.

Colorado’s class of 2024 had a higher graduation rate and a lower dropout rate than the previous class — a trajectory that the state education commissioner called “promising progress.”

Statewide, 84.2% of students graduated in 2024 within four years of starting high school, according to data released Wednesday by the Colorado Department of Education. That’s 1.1 percentage points higher than in 2023 and 3.1 percentage points higher than in 2019, before the pandemic.

The statewide dropout rate fell to 1.9% in 2023-24, from 2.1% in 2022-23. However, the dropout rate remained slightly higher than the state’s historical low of 1.8% in 2019-20.

Students in the class of 2024 were in eighth grade when the pandemic shuttered school buildings in 2020. Most of them missed out on a typical start to high school due to remote learning.

“I am encouraged by the momentum of our state’s multiyear improvements, especially in the gaps that are closing, and we also must do more to keep students engaged in meaningful learning experiences that prepare them for success after graduation,” state Education Commissioner Susana Córdova said in a statement.

The gaps refer to the differences in graduation and dropout rates based on characteristics such as students’ race, disability status, and whether they are multilingual learners, which means they are learning English as a second language.

In 2024, about 89% of white students graduated within four years. The four-year graduation rate for Black students was about 78%, and the rate for Hispanic students was about 77%.

White and Hispanic students posted higher graduation rates in 2024 than in 2023, but the gap between them remained the same. The graduation rate for Black students fell 0.3 percentage points from 78.6% to 78.3%, widening the gap between Black and white students.

The graduation rates of multilingual learners, students with disabilities, students experiencing homelessness, and students in the foster care system improved from 2023 to 2024, though the rates for those student groups remained below the statewide rate.

At a press conference Wednesday, state education officials highlighted two school districts — Greeley-Evans and Ignacio — for significantly improving their graduation rates. Ignacio’s four-year graduation rate jumped more than 11 percentage points from the previous year to 87.3% in 2024.

Ignacio Superintendent Chris deKay said partnerships, including with the Southern Ute tribe, are important for his small rural district in southwestern Colorado. About a third of Ignacio’s 650 students are Native American, he said.

“When we developed our mission statement, we started with this word: Together,” deKay said.

Greeley-Evans leaders cited a focus on ensuring ninth graders stay on track academically, which puts them on a solid trajectory toward graduation. The district has also increased the number of activities, such as band and theater, that it offers to keep students engaged, and boosted its career and technical programs so students can see the real-world value of their education, leaders said.

“Something I often say here in District 6 is that we are educating our children out of poverty,” Greeley-Evans Superintendent Deirdre Pilch said, “and that is what we do when we ensure children are college and career ready and graduate on time.”

State officials also spotlighted the small metro-area Englewood district for decreasing its dropout rate by 2 percentage points. Englewood leaders credited the work of the district’s alternative school, Colorado’s Finest High School of Choice, which serves students from Englewood and surrounding districts.

Among the 10 Colorado school districts with the highest percentages of students of color and more than 1,000 students, seven posted higher graduation rates in 2024 than in 2023. The Adams 14 district saw the biggest increase, from about 69% of students graduating within four years in 2023 to about 76% in 2024.

Denver Public Schools’ four-year graduation rate grew from 79% to 79.9%. Graduation rates in the Mapleton, Sheridan, Harrison, Pueblo City 60, and East Otero districts also rose.

Aurora Public Schools, Westminster Public Schools, and Weld Re-8 had lower graduation rates. Aurora’s four-year rate dropped from 74.9% in 2023 to 73.4% in 2024.

Look up your district or school’s four-year graduation rate below.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

School cellphone ban, early college, AI guardrails: Hochul’s 2025 education agenda

2025-01-14T20:38:34+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

Gov. Kathy Hochul will move to limit cellphone use in New York schools this year as part of a broader education agenda focused on improving student mental health, expanding opportunities for early college, and more.

The inclusion of a school cellphone policy in the governor’s 2025 agenda — outlined ahead of Hochul’s annual State of the State address on Tuesday — comes as no surprise. For months, Hochul has expressed concerns over student cell phone use, citing its potentially harmful effects on learning and mental health.

But the governor did not reveal further details about what a statewide cellphone ban in schools might look like in practice — or mention her cellphone proposal at all during her State of the State speech. However, her office released nearly 140 pages of proposed initiatives ahead of the address — with one proposal noting the specifics of her cellphone policy would be included in her executive budget later this month.

Much of the focus in Hochul’s proposals and State of the State address centered on affordability — a major theme in Mayor Eric Adams’ State of the City address last week.

“Many New Yorkers are struggling,” she said. “Inflation. Sky-high rents. Wages that just don’t feel like they can’t keep up. A changing economy. An influx of unexpected arrivals with great needs.”

But the fine print of Hochul’s proposed cellphone policy wasn’t the only thing absent in the governor’s education proposals. Her initiatives did not directly address a few key education issues, including ongoing efforts to update the state’s school funding formula and concerns from local and state officials over the threat of federal funding cuts from President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.

And though education was not the focal point of her 2025 agenda, Hochul’s proposals included expanding opportunities for high school students to take college-level classes, imposing guardrails on artificial intelligence-powered chatbots, rolling out mental health first aid training for teens, and more.

Specifics of state cellphone policy still unclear

New York is one of many states and school districts across the country that has considered adopting or taken steps to limit student cellphone use in schools.

Some state lawmakers previously told Chalkbeat that there’s general support in Albany to take action on student cellphone use, but any statewide policy should leave decisions in the hands of school districts.

In New York City, former schools Chancellor David Banks seemed poised to implement a citywide ban last year before Adams intervened. Instead, the Education Department has been working with the Health Department to conduct a study on best practices for cellphone use in schools.

Though Adams has expressed hesitancy over adopting a systemwide policy, he said last month that the city would comply with any state mandate.

State funding for early college programs

This year, Hochul wants to establish a “College in High School Opportunity Fund,” seeking to build institutional support for the model, which provides high school students with a chance to take college courses and receive additional mentorship opportunities while earning their diplomas.

Across the country and the state, the model has seen success at improving college matriculation rates and other measures of academic achievement among high school students. For example, participants in the City University of New York’s Early College program — which partners with 19 public middle and high schools across the five boroughs — graduated on time from the network’s colleges at higher rates than their peers.

Meanwhile, more than three-quarters of students in the early college program graduated high school with college credits and enrolled in higher education, according to CUNY. At one local school — Kingsborough Early College Secondary School in Brooklyn — more than 65% of graduates in 2023 left high school with an associate degree.

Hochul’s proposal seeks to create a consistent source of funding for early college programs. The program will be free for all students and focus on helping those with high economic need earn college credits, according to state officials.

In New York City, some schools are already using the model to help students prepare for higher education. And developing more opportunities for students to earn early college credits has been part of the city’s broader effort in recent years to bolster career and college readiness among young people.

Hochul also proposed other changes to expand college access, including making community college free for students between the ages of 25 and 55 who go on to work in high-demand fields after graduation — including education.

Protections against AI-powered chatbots, misinformation

During her State of the State address, Hochul raised concerns over the dangers posed by “harmful AI bots posing as friends.”

She warned warned that models that simulate human companionship could push users to form unhealthy relationships with the technology — potentially exacerbating mental health issues and pervasive loneliness among young people

Hochul will propose legislation requiring AI companies to implement safety features, including protections against self-harm and built-in reminders that users are interacting with machines, according to state officials.

And in a bid to foster media literacy skills in young people and defend against misinformation, she will direct the state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services to develop a guide for teachers — equipping educators with age-specific examples — as well as resources for parents and a public education campaign.

Expanded youth mental health programs, child care, and more

Hochul’s proposals also included new initiatives to improve youth mental health, a major focus of her education agenda last year.

Among her proposals are a teen mental health first aid program to train high school students in supporting themselves and their peers, an effort to connect licensed health care facilities with after-school programs to expand resources for students, and the development of “safe spaces for youth” where young people can access behavioral health support.

During her speech, Hochul vowed to dedicate $110 million to building and renovating child care centers, as well as to establish “a corps of substitute child care professionals so someone’s always on call.”

Hochul also proposed constructing new playgrounds and developing further opportunities for students to participate in extracurricular, recreational, and volunteer activities.

“To truly free our kids from social media we must give them safe places to simply be kids,” she said. “It’s just common sense.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Las amenazas de deportación de Trump pesan sobre los grupos que ofrecen ayuda con la FAFSA

2025-01-10T17:57:26+00:00

Read in English.

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.

These 30 NYC schools will get help starting student publications through Journalism for All

2024-12-20T19:13:40+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.

A first-of-its kind initiative to expand access to student journalism in New York City public schools announced its inaugural class of 30 high schools on Friday.

The high schools, which span all five boroughs, will receive professional development and a new curriculum to start journalism courses starting next year through Journalism for All. They will also get seed funding and ongoing support to launch school publications, and paid media internship opportunities for students in future years.

Journalism for All launched earlier this year to address long-standing gaps in access to journalism in city schools, after years of work from youth advocates and nonprofits.

Only a quarter of the more than 400 high schools across the city had an active student publication as of 2022, the survey from Geanne Belton, a journalism professor at CUNY’s Baruch College found. Schools with higher concentrations of Black, Latino and low-income students, and those located in Brooklyn and the Bronx were less likely than other schools to have publications.

Selecting the inaugural cohort marks the first major step towards closing the gaps — and an early test of the initiative’s theory that schools are eager to expand journalism offerings, but just need more support and guidance, organizers said.

“I think the application process really demonstrated how these opportunities are in such high demand across the city,” said CJ Sánchez, the director of the Youth Journalism Coalition, which oversees the initiative and is directed by The Bell, a nonprofit focused on youth audio journalism. (The Bell partners with Chalkbeat on the P.S. Weekly podcast.)

A total of 55 schools applied for the 30 available spots, Sánchez said. Another 60 expressed interest, but couldn’t satisfy the requirements of the application, including carving out the scheduling room and personnel to run a journalism class next year, Sánchez added.

Nineteen of the 30 schools selected for the first Journalism for All cohort are in the Bronx and Brooklyn, and the schools have an average student poverty rate of 84%, higher than the city’s average of 75%.

One of those schools is Park Slope Collegiate, a small high school on the John Jay campus in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Autumn Wynn is a junior at Park Slope Collegiate who’s been involved in journalism through outside organizations but hasn’t had a chance to take a journalism course or work for a publication at her school. She was overjoyed to hear the news.

“Journalism for All not only will not help writing skills overall, but it will also help with a necessary need as a human in the world: advocacy skills,” she said.

Wynn said her classmates complain all the time about things they want to change in the school, but often don’t feel like they have a forum or platform to act on it. With access to a publication, they’ll have an “opportunity to not only do something about it, but they get discovered. They can find their passions, and someone can see their talent.”

Journalism initiative will support internships, student curriculum

Organizers are particularly hopeful that the first cohort can expand journalism access to students with disabilities.

One of the participating schools, P.S.811M, the Mickey Mantle School in Manhattan, is part of the city’s District 75 for students with complex disabilities. And five others have specialized programs for students with disabilities, program organizers said. Several of the teachers planning to lead the journalism courses next year are special education teachers, Sánchez added.

Another participating school, ATLAS, formerly called Newcomers High School, is the city’s largest high school for newly-arrived immigrant students.

Journalism for All secured financial support from local lawmakers and several foundations, including the Charles H. Revson Foundation, and hopes to eventually get funding from the city. (Revson supports a CUNY journalism student summer intern at Chalkbeat.)

The funding, training and support for schools in this year’s cohort will last for three years. Organizers said that’s key to ensuring that schools can sustain the journalism programs they launch.

Journalism for All hopes to give students’ efforts staying power by creating publications that are “embedded in the school culture … where the faculty are getting interviewed by the students, where they’re reading the publication, where it’s widely accessible and distributed,” Sánchez said.

The initiative has several core components. First, a teacher at each school in the cohort will participate in regular training through this spring and summer with staff at CUNY’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, and get access to a curriculum to help launch journalism classes at their schools next year.

Principals in participating schools have committed to reducing those teachers’ course loads so that the new journalism course won’t come as an extra responsibility, said Sánchez. Some schools will offer the class five days a week and use it to satisfy English Language Arts requirements, while others will offer it as an elective less frequently.

In the second year of the program, City Council members have committed to providing seed funding to help schools cover the startup costs of launching a publication, including equipment and extra pay for teachers staying after school, Sánchez said. The council passed a resolution in August urging the city to expand youth journalism access.

Schools will then partner with nonprofits with expertise in print, audio, and broadcast journalism for youth to help build out their student publications.

The program will also fund paid student journalism internships at outside publications, organizers said.

Sánchez hopes the initiative can provide a template for the city Education Department to expand journalism access to all 400-plus high schools. Organizers are working with researchers at NYU to do an independent evaluation and plan to meet with Education Department officials next month to share their progress.

Wynn, the Park Slope Collegiate junior, is “so sad” that much of the initiative won’t come to fruition at her school until after she graduates. But she’s close with a number of freshmen and sophomores and said “so long as it’s good for them and the rest of the cohorts that come into the school, I can’t be that mad.”

Below is the full list of schools in the first Journalism for All cohort:

A School Without Walls

ATLAS High School

Bronx Haven High School

Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy

Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment

Brooklyn Institute for Liberal Arts

Civic Leadership Academy

East Bronx Academy for the Future

El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice

Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School

Gotham Collaborative High School

Gotham Professional Arts Academy

Gotham Tech High School

High School for Excellence and Innovation

High School for Global Citizenship

High School of Telecommunication Arts & Technology

John Adams High School

John Dewey High School

Laboratory School of Finance and Technology

Lower East Side Prep

Lyons Community School

P811M@499 The Mickey Mantle School

Park Slope Collegiate

Port Richmond High School

Teachers Preparatory High School

The Young Women’s Leadership School of The Bronx

Urban Assembly Maker Academy

Urban Assembly School for Music and Art

United Charter for the Humanities

West End Secondary School

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org

Muchos jóvenes inmigrantes persiguen un sueño universitario inalcanzable

2024-12-19T19:28:30+00:00

Read in English

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

Leer en español

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

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.

Trump deportation threats weigh on groups offering FAFSA help

2024-12-18T16:26:34+00:00

Leer en español.

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.

Interest in student apprenticeships is growing. Will Indy businesses step up?

2024-11-27T18:36:38+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.

This article was originally published by Mirror Indy.

When Cristina Llamas-Gonzalez landed an apprenticeship at Plastic Recycling two years ago, she was the only Spanish-speaker in the human resources department.

The Indy teen’s presence brought confidence and comfort to Spanish-speaking staff as they navigated their employee benefits, Chief Personnel Officer Chad Smith said. Now, as she enters her third and final year of apprenticeship, Llamas-Gonzalez is assisting a 22-year veteran of the company to set up a retirement account.

“She became the advocate voice for our Spanish-speaking employees,” Smith said. “When she walks into the plant — at any of the plants — they flock to her.”

Llamas-Gonzalez, who is now in college, secured her role through a program offered by Ben Davis High School and EmployIndy, a workforce development organization that helps a dozen Indianapolis schools place students with related education experience in apprenticeship positions with local businesses.

“It’s opened my mind to just how drastically different each person’s lives are,” Llamas-Gonzalez said. “You never know what somebody’s going through.

The paid apprenticeships through EmployIndy could serve as a roadmap of what’s to come for other Indiana high schoolers. Next month, members of the Indiana State Board of Education are expected to approve new high school graduation requirements that more greatly incentivize work-based learning.

However, as calls for more job training grows, EmployIndy says it needs more local businesses to participate. The organization has turned away students in past years because of a lack of available positions to fill.

How does EmployIndy’s apprenticeship program work?

Through the Modern Apprenticeship Program with area schools, the organization focuses on seven industries — advanced manufacturing, business operations, construction trades, education, financial services, health care, and information technology — and recruits students out of high school career and technical education programs.

To participate, students must be on track to graduate high school and able to coordinate their own transportation. Program coordinators will also consider a student’s school attendance, disciplinary record and teacher’s recommendation when deciding who is the right fit for an apprenticeship.

No other past work experience is required. Students accepted into the program receive coaching on how to build a resume, apply for a job and interview for a position.

Apprentices commit to spending three years in the program. In their first year — usually completed as juniors — students take a couple classes at school in the morning, then work 10 to 16 hours a week in their apprenticeship. As seniors, the time at their apprenticeship escalates to 20 to 24 hours. And, the program continues after high school, with some students choosing to divide time between their apprenticeship and college classes, if attending school locally.

Students are paid for the work. Companies cover the cost of their apprentice’s hourly pay, which starts at $13 and increases incrementally, along with a $2,000 annual support fee to cover backend costs for EmployIndy managers and any training affiliated with their student’s job.

For some students, the program may force a difficult choice. A regular apprenticeship schedule, for example, could run from 1:30-5 p.m. Monday through Friday, conflicting with after-school activities like clubs and sports.

Apprentices in the program, however, say the experience beats working other minimum wage jobs, and they encourage their peers to seek it out.

“Definitely take this,” said Liliana Valdez, a Ben Davis University High School senior working in Ivy Tech Community College’s finance department. “It’ll apply a little more than, let’s say, a fast food job in the future.”

As an apprentice, Cristina Llamas-Gonzalez works for Plastic Recycling, Inc.'s human resources department. The teen is now a freshman at Marian University.

How Indy businesses can start apprenticeships

EmployIndy runs two hiring cycles a year to place students in apprenticeships.

The next cycle opens in January, though EmployIndy staff say they’re looking to make connections with new or interested businesses now.

EmployIndy’s team works with partnering businesses to write job descriptions for each apprenticeship. Students then use a jobs board to apply for positions. Companies can interview multiple students before making an offer to the best fit.

EmployIndy assigns an onboarding manager to help companies design the apprenticeship experience and handle paperwork, such as registering the position with the U.S. Department of Labor. The organization also assigns a youth apprenticeship manager to check in regularly on progress and serve as a liaison between the company and high school.

EmployIndy organizers say partnering businesses can experience both short- and long-term benefits from investing in teens.

The program helps companies secure three-year employment commitments at a time when some industry leaders say they’re struggling to find enough skilled workers to fill open positions. The apprentices also help companies create a more diverse workforce — 88% of apprentices in the program are students of color and 44% are women.

And, for some businesses, the program is helping create a pipeline of future employees. At least one student has a job waiting for them when they finish school, said Wendy Parker, a business development manager with EmployIndy.

Some students, however, may choose to move on after their apprenticeship. Llamas-Gonzalez is starting her third year with Plastic Recycling while also taking classes at Marian University. She thinks she might want to travel or pursue law school next.

“I’d love to stay with (Plastic Recycling), but there’s a world to explore,” Llamas-Gonzalez said. “I don’t know if I want to travel or find new adventures somewhere away from Indiana maybe, but I definitely know I’m interested in HR and want to continue that.”

And Smith, her boss at Plastic Recycling, says that’s OK. Over the last two years, the company has already gained so much.

“She brings a whole different perspective to our department,” Smith said. “More perspectives allow us to make better decisions at the end of the day.”

Companies that are interested in learning more about the Modern Apprenticeship Program can visit EmployIndy’s website or email Parker at wparker@omplyindy.org.

Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her at carley.lanich@mirrorindy.org or follow her on X @carleylanich.

Rutgers-Newark collaborates with city on new Guaranteed Education program

2024-11-07T17:33:08+00:00

Yasin Atwoods had a good idea of what he wanted to be when he got older: a truck driver.

But that was mostly because he never thought he’d be able to afford a college education.

Then he heard about a new program through the City of Newark and Rutgers University that would provide a debt-free college education to 13 students whose lives have been touched by gun violence, incarceration, or other hardships.

It was an offer he couldn’t pass up.

Atwoods, who worked at Rutgers-Newark campus through the Abbott Leadership Institute, said his boss approached him about the new Guaranteed Education program.

“My boss asked me one day, ‘If I was able to get you into Rutgers for free, would you do it?’” he said. And through seeing the opportunities his coworkers were able to have as Rutgers students, he knew this was a chance he had to take.

The Guaranteed Education program provides full “last dollar” funding for students’ tuition and fees even after their financial assistance has been exhausted, according to city officials. The Brick City Peace Collective, a division of the city’s Office of Violence Prevention, will provide the extra funding.

Mayor Ras Baraka and interim Rutgers-Newark Chancellor Jeffery Robinson announced the launch of the program last month, alongside the leaders of the other Newark organizations involved, including Tyreek Rolon of Newark Works and the Summer Youth Employment Program, and Kyleesha Wingfield-Hill, executive director of the Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery.

In a statement, Baraka said that part of making progress in the country “requires changing the landscape of higher education.”

Thirteen students were selected for the program at Rutgers University-Newark, some from public and charter schools and a few who had completed their GED diploma.

There were unique qualifications to apply, said Rolon.

The program focused on Newark residents who were affected by the criminal justice system in some way, with a parent who was incarcerated, released in the last two years, or lost to gun violence.

Recipients also had to be a first generation college student who had applied to or participated in the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program or one of the city’s Vocational Certification Programs.

As part of the program, students have mandatory weekly group meetings, bi-weekly meetings with their mentor, and attend the university’s yearly convocation.

Students get assigned a mentor from the chancellor’s office and receive access to the school’s Honors Living and Learning Community, a section of the school that focuses on discussions and projects that have a more global impact.

Atwoods said his mentor has helped him in his first semester at Rutgers-Newark.

“My mentor, Miss Robin, she’s excellent, man,” he said. “She has a wonderful spirit, and I can tell she really cares about making me succeed.”

The city ran a similar program in 2022, with 40 Newark students receiving a debt-free education through Morristown’s St.Elizabeth University.

Rolon said that the 2022 program showed “If students are fully supported and placed into a healthy and safe environment, they will have a better opportunity to succeed and flourish into the best version of themselves.”

If any students are considering a similar program in the future, Atwoods said he recommends they make the leap like he did.

“If you really have a passion, and you know that this could possibly bring you a career in the future, go for it, the sky’s the limit,” he said.

Darius McClain is a Rutgers University-Newark reporting intern for Chalkbeat Newark covering public education in the city. Get in touch with Darius at dmcclain@chalkbeat.org or reach the bureau newsroom at newark.tips@chalkbeat.org.

‘You have a place at CUNY’: Schools Chancellor Aviles-Ramos makes a plug to NYC high school seniors

2024-10-22T20:40:20+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

Newly minted New York City schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos stopped by the nation’s largest high school on Tuesday to continue a push started by her predecessor: to encourage more students to apply to the City University of New York.

Aviles-Ramos, who took the helm of the nation’s largest school system last week, visited Brooklyn Technical High School to assure students they would have a spot at CUNY if they wanted one.

“As long as you finish strong, you have a place at CUNY,” Aviles-Ramos told a group of seniors gathered in the school’s library before she and CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez handed out “welcome” letters to the students laying out the fine print regarding CUNY admissions. CUNY’s four-year colleges are selective and require applications, while two-year programs guarantee admission to all high school graduates.

The 6,000-student Brooklyn Tech — one of the city’s eight specialized high schools that admit students on the basis of a single test — is among the largest school feeders to the CUNY system and sent some 400 students last year, CUNY officials said.

The letter distribution campaign is the continuation of an effort launched last year by Matos Rodríguez and former schools Chancellor David Banks, who recently departed amid a swirl of federal investigations into Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.

It’s part of a larger initiative to boost applications from city public school students to CUNY, which, like many colleges, has been affected by a pandemic enrollment slump and shifting norms around higher education. Along with waiving application fees for a larger percentage of city students, the letters helped spur a dramatic spike in CUNY applications, which multiplied nearly fivefold last fall compared to the year before. More than 80% of CUNY freshmen come from the city’s public high schools.

Schools are distributing an estimated 65,000 CUNY welcome letters again this year to all high school seniors. CUNY is waiving application fees for all city public school students from Oct. 21 to Nov. 15.

While CUNY’s fall enrollment numbers aren’t finalized, Matos Rodriguez is projecting a 2-3% increase compared to last year. That would be the second straight year of increasing enrollment for the CUNY system, which saw student numbers crater by about 17% during the pandemic, with the steepest drops coming in the community colleges.

Overall college enrollment among New York City public school students has also started to rebound. Around 73% of 2022 high school graduates enrolled in higher education within six months. That was down from a peak of 81% in 2018 but up from 71% in 2021, according to the most recently available city data.

How CUNY weathered last year’s FAFSA snafus

A spike in applications doesn’t always translate to increased enrollment, some experts have cautioned. Students also faced stronger-than-normal headwinds last year after the botched rollout of a new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form disrupted the financial aid process for students across the country.

CUNY was able to weather those issues better than some, Matos Rodriguez said.

The FAFSA snafu “was not more of a disaster” for CUNY because it had systems already in place to support applicants struggling to complete their financial aid forms, Matos-Rodriguez said. As a result, the number of new applicants who completed their FAFSA last year fell by about 5 percentage points at CUNY, compared to about eight percentage points statewide, officials said.

CUNY has also been trying to position itself as an antidote to one of a number of factors that drove down college enrollment, including mounting concerns about debt and shifting perceptions of whether college is a worthwhile investment.

Roughly three-quarters of students at CUNY, which costs roughly $3,500 a semester at its four-year colleges for New York residents, attend tuition-free. The same percentage graduates with no debt, both chancellors said.

Brooklyn Tech Assistant Principal Lourdes Cuesta said CUNY is a critical option for students who want or need to stay close to home.

“Where is a decent education that my parents know that is affordable, that I can attend? CUNY checks those boxes,” she said.

About 19% of 2023 Brooklyn Tech graduates enrolled in a CUNY four-year college, and another 3% went to a CUNY community college, according to city data.

Aviles-Ramos shares her own CUNY journey

Aviles-Ramos offered a personal plug for CUNY, citing her positive experience as a graduate student at City College after struggling as an undergraduate at Fordham University, a private college in the Bronx.

As an undergraduate, “I was working three jobs … and I was lacking a lot of the soft skills” like study strategies and time management, Aviles-Ramos told the seniors. “And so my GPA was actually really, really bad when I graduated,” leaving her concerned she wouldn’t get a job as a teacher, she said.

But staffers at City College’s teaching masters program saw her potential and helped her earn the degree that launched her career in education, she said.

That message resonated with 17-year-old Armani Maharjan, a Brooklyn Tech senior who attended Tuesday’s event.

“I know we’re supposed to be a specialized high school, but there’s still so many kids here that struggle,” she said. “The fact that they’re saying that we’re all welcome at CUNY is really nice. And how the chancellor was talking about how she had a low GPA but still got to finish as a teacher, that’s really inspiring.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org

Top NYC official running David Banks’ signature career education initiative to step down

2024-08-27T17:05:50+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

A top Education Department official overseeing Chancellor David Banks’ signature effort to expand career education is stepping down.

Jade Grieve, who was the department’s chief of student pathways and spearheaded one of Banks’ biggest initiatives, is leaving that role at the end of September, according to a letter to department staff.

“Jade’s decision comes after her family received an incredible international opportunity, and after nearly three years of dedicated service, Jade will transition into a strategic advisory role for the coming year,” Banks wrote. Officials did not elaborate further on her departure.

With Grieve’s exit on the eve of a new school year, the leaders of Banks’ top two initiatives have stepped aside. Carolyne Quintana, a deputy chancellor who helped oversee the department’s sweeping literacy curriculum overhaul, left last school year as Banks dissolved the division of teaching and learning, which she helmed. Other senior positions, including the department’s chief of staff and deputy chancellor for early childhood, have seen leadership turnover and reshuffling in recent months.

Widely respected inside the Education Department, Grieve was the public face of Banks’ efforts to connect more high school students to career opportunities before they left the system — a shift in strategy from the previous administration’s focus on “college access for all.” She helped launch a paid apprenticeship program that offers intensive work experiences to hundreds of students at companies including Bloomberg and Amazon.

Through a new effort called FutureReadyNYC, she was involved in rolling out career tracks in education, technology, business, and health care at about 100 high schools, including paid work experiences and opportunities for early college credit.

Many of those initiatives hinge on strong relationships with the private sector, and Grieve had connections to draw on, as she previously worked at Bloomberg Philanthropies and at America Achieves where she was involved with “education-to-employment efforts,” according to her LinkedIn profile. Her work at the Education Department helped secure $100 million “in additional public and private investments,” Banks wrote, adding that she also helped improve the college advising process and open the first new dedicated career and technical high school in over a decade.

Those successes impressed some observers.

“It’s a hugely challenging area trying to partner with the private sector unprepared to mentor high school students so the effort has not seen large-scale success,” said David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. “But her steady hand and prior experience working on this issue at Bloomberg Philanthropies had a positive impact.”

Others echoed that sentiment. “She has been an extraordinary leader in the field of career-connected learning,” said David Adams, the CEO of Urban Assembly, a network of 22 schools across the city that has embraced FutureReadyNYC. “It’s sad to lose such a talented person.”

Grieve’s departure sparked some concern about losing a leader who built connections with outside businesses that have recently partnered with the department, including Google and Northwell Health.

Melanie Mac, who served as a senior executive director in the office of student pathways, will take over on an interim basis. Officials did not offer a timeline for naming a permanent replacement.

One senior official said they are concerned that maintaining those relationships and continuing the expansion of apprenticeships and other career opportunities could be complicated by a leadership transition. “It’s not a thing that can run on autopilot,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. “My concern would be nobody’s filling that seat or there’s an interim, and that interim is solely internal. You’re just asking that person to do double duty,” referring to the leadership position and their original job.

An Education Department employee who worked under Grieve and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly said they were not concerned about disruptions related to her departure.

Grieve “was able to bring people in to start the engine, but the engine is running now and it’s running well,” said the employee.

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

How a Bronx program takes high school students inside cancer research labs

2024-08-26T21:41:56+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

Sumaiya Jessi, a rising senior at the Bronx High School of Science, was searching for summer opportunities that would help her pursue a career in medicine when she came across a program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Now, as the new academic year approaches, she’ll return to school with weeks of research experience behind her. For two months, Jessi worked in a lab at the Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center studying dormant lung cancer cells to help with earlier detection and more effective treatment for patients who experience relapse.

She’s had the chance to conduct cell culture work, analyzing how different drugs are used to treat cancer cells, all while earning a stipend of $2,500. And although Jessi hopes to attend medical school after graduating from college, she said it’s been “eye-opening” to see how the disease is studied through an academic lens.

“It’s really interesting to see how the textbook knowledge applies here, and how they’re able to create these treatments that are eventually given to patients,” Jessi said.

Researchers encourage students to ask questions

Jessi is one of 15 Bronx high schoolers helping with cancer research at Einstein College this summer. The BEYOND ALBERT program, which is supported by the Montefiore School Health Program and the Pinkerton Foundation, allows these students to earn a stipend while experiencing hands-on lab work and attending workshops to help prepare them for careers in academia and medicine. (The Pinkerton Foundation also supports Civic News Company. Learn more about our funding here.)

Since 2022, the program has helped local high school students get their foot in the door of careers in scientific research, offering students 40 hours each week, split between research in labs, scientific workshops, and other professional and academic development experiences.

The program is open to Bronx students who are rising juniors or seniors and who are at least 16 years old, according to Kristina Ames, assistant director for Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination at the Cancer Center. There are no prerequisite classes, Ames added, and the program is open to any student with a deep interest in science and a willingness to learn.

Over the past year, the program has more than doubled, growing from seven high school students in 2023. The 15 students this summer were each placed in a different lab at the Cancer Center, Ames added.

Hayley McDaid, an associate professor of oncology, medicine, and molecular pharmacology at Einstein College who oversees the lab where Jessi worked, said she hopes local students who come through the program will benefit from their exposure to science.

“In the Bronx, sometimes these opportunities don’t exist,” she said. “As a medical school and research center in the Bronx, it’s incredibly important that they’re able to appreciate what we do, experience it firsthand, and experience the joy of science.”

She added it’s critical to take a one-on-one approach with students, meeting them where they are as they enter the program and walking them through cancer terminology with simple, real-world explanations.

“What I’ve learned over the years mentoring students is not to assume they know what you’re talking about, because quite frankly, they won’t feel safe when they come in to say, ‘I don’t understand what that means,’” she said. “They feel that they have to be perfect at that stage in their education.”

This year, McDaid noted her lab paired its high school and undergraduate students with mentors attending graduate school, hoping that bonds between students would allow mentees to feel comfortable asking for help when they encountered subjects or terms they didn’t understand. For Jessi, that approach appears to have been successful.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned from this experience is not being afraid to ask questions,” Jessi said. “Growing up, for me, asking questions was always a sign that you don’t understand something you’re supposed to, or that you’re falling behind. Just being able to explore my curiosity and use my voice to ask questions and learn more about the world around me — it’s been really eye-opening and inspirational.”

Bronx program offers glimpse at scientific research careers

For Diana Plaza, a rising sophomore at Fordham University who participated in the BEYOND ALBERT program while attending high school in the Bronx, working in an Einstein lab helped her prepare to study science in college by giving her experience writing academic papers and presenting her research findings.

“Usually, these opportunities are found in other boroughs, like Manhattan or Brooklyn or Queens,” said Plaza, who attended the Bronx Academy of Health Careers. “It felt really nice to have a program here in the Bronx that gave us an opportunity to show our talents.”

This summer, Plaza returned to Einstein College, working alongside her mentor Gracia Bualuti, an M.S. candidate at Lehman College, to study how air pollutants affect the development of lung cancer in cells. Plaza’s experiences at Einstein in high school and as an undergraduate have helped solidify her plans beyond her undergraduate studies, she added.

“Until this program, I didn’t realize that research was an option for me,” she said. “I thought that everything science had to be medical. Once I started doing this program, and I realized that this was more focused on knowledge and understanding and developing the field, then I realized that I actually liked doing this type of work more than being on the medical side.”

To Plaza, the work was also personal, as her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer prior to Plaza’s time in the BEYOND ALBERT program. Though she recovered, her mother was recently diagnosed with uterine cancer, Plaza added.

“I just feel grateful that I’m pushing the field forward so that these things can happen less in the future,” she said.

Gracia Bualuti, an M.S. candidate at Lehman College, and Diana Plaza, a rising sophomore at Fordham University, at a lab at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

How the lab prepares students for graduate school and beyond

Nazia Jamil, a Ph.D. student in the lab and Jessi’s mentor for the summer, noted opportunities like the BEYOND ALBERT program weren’t around when she was younger. Jamil, who moved from Bangladesh to New York City as a teenager, graduated from John Adams High School in Queens.

“These kids, eventually, they’ll go to apply for graduate school, and this research will help them be a strong applicant,” she said. “I lacked those opportunities, and it was a really hard struggle. But obviously time is evolving, and it’s getting even more competitive, so they definitely need this kind of exposure.”

The experience has not only given Jessi a new perspective on the future, but also a supportive community.

“I’ve always thought of the science field as isolating,” she said. “But this is like a second home, and I love coming in every day.”

Jessi, who was born in Bangladesh and whose parents never attended college, added that the relationships she’s formed and the research she’s conducted have offered further insight into what a career in the sciences might look like.

“Being here, surrounded by so many motivating women who have accomplished so much, has been truly inspiring,” she said. “A Ph.D. was never something I knew much about, and just getting to explore that this summer has in some ways really opened up different pathways for me to consider.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org

‘Not waiting for people to save us’: Rural school districts combine forces to help students

2024-08-21T10:00:00+00:00

This story originally appeared in The Hechinger Report and is republished with permission.

DURANGO, Colo. — For three dozen high schoolers, summer break in this southwest Colorado city kicked off with some rock climbing, mountain biking, and fly-fishing.

Then, the work began.

As part of a weeklong institute on climate and the environment, mountain researchers taught the students how to mix clumps of grass seed, clay, compost, and sand for seedballs that they threw into burned areas of the Hermosa Creek watershed to help with native plant recovery. The students upturned rocks — and splashed each other — along the banks of the Animas River, searching for signs of aquatic life after a disastrous mine spill. They later waded through a wetland and scouted for beaver dams as part of a lesson on how humans can support water restoration.

Each task was designed to prepare them for potential careers connected to the natural world — forest ecologist, aquatic biologist, conservationist. Many of the students had already taken college-level environmental science courses, on subjects such as pollution mitigation and water quality, at local high schools and Fort Lewis College.

Other students in and around Durango were taking a summer crash course in the health sciences, and this fall can earn college credit in classes like emergency medical services and nursing. Still others were participating in similar programs for early childhood education and for teacher preparation.

“I like the let-me-work-outside model,” said Autumn Schulz, a rising sophomore at Ignacio High School. Every day this past school year, she rode a public transit bus, passing miles of high desert terrain, to take an ecology class at Bayfield High School, in another district. She’d already completed internships at a mountain research nonprofit and a public utility to explore environmental and municipal jobs in her preferred field.

“It’s my favorite subject,” she said. “It’s one of my favorite things.”

None of this would have been possible before 2020. Back then, the Bayfield, Durango, and Ignacio school districts operated largely independently. But as the pandemic took hold and communities debated whether to reopen schools after lockdown, a newly formed alliance of nine rural districts in southwest Colorado attempted to extinguish their attendance boundaries and pooled staff and financial resources to help more students get into college and high-paying careers.

Across the United States, rural schools often struggle to provide the kinds of academic opportunities that students in more populous areas might take for granted. Although often the hub of their communities, rural schools tend to struggle with a shrinking teaching force, budgets spread too thin, and limited access to employers who can help. Rural students have fewer options for advanced courses or career and technical education before entering the workforce.

But clustered near the Four Corners in Colorado, the coalition of nine rural districts has partnered with higher education and business leaders to successfully expand career and college pathways for their students. A nonprofit formed by the districts conducts job market analysis and surveys teenagers about their interests. Armed with that data, academic counselors can advise students on the array of new career and technical education and college-level classes in high-wage positions in the building trades, hospitality and tourism, health sciences, education, and the environment.

Ari Zimmerman-Bergin, left, and Waylon Kiddoo, both students at Dolores Secondary School, kick through rocks to look for signs of aquatic life in the Animas River.

Teachers working in classrooms separated by 100 miles or more regularly meet in-person and online to share curriculum and industry-grade equipment. More than five dozen employers in the region have created ways for students to explore careers in new fields, such as apprenticeships, job shadows, and internships. And some students earn a job offer, workforce certificate, or associate degree before they finish high school.

Collectively, the Southwest Colorado Education Collaborative has raised more than $7 million in private and public money to pay for these programs, and its work has inspired similar rural alliances across the state. The collaborative’s future, however, is uncertain, as federal pandemic relief funds that supported its creation soon expire. Advocates have started to campaign for a permanent funding fix and changes in state policy that would make it easier for rural schools to continue partnering with one another.

Jess Morrison, who stepped down at the end of July as the collaborative’s founding executive director, said the group — and others like it in Indiana and South Texas — demonstrates the strength of regional neighbors creating solutions of their own, together.

“It’s about our region not waiting on people to save us,” she said.

Alliance expands opportunities in rural communities

Nationally, more than 9.5 million U.S. students — or about 1 in 5 students — attend a rural school. The National Center for Education Statistics has found that, compared with the U.S. average, students in rural schools finish high school at higher rates and even outperform their peers in cities and suburbs. But only 55% of rural high schoolers enroll in college, a much lower share than their urban and suburban counterparts. Rural students make less money as adults and, compared to suburban students, are more likely to grow up in poverty.

In this part of southwest Colorado, where about half of students qualify for subsidized meals at school, employers have struggled to find enough workers but also to provide a livable wage. Hoping to steer more high schoolers into high-skill and high-wage jobs, educators and superintendents from five school districts — Archuleta, Bayfield, Durango, Ignacio and Silverton — started to meet with representatives from Fort Lewis College and Pueblo Community College. In early 2019, they began working with the nonprofits Empower Schools and Lyra Colorado to formally create a regional collaborative and visited a similar project in South Texas.

Waylon Kiddoo, left, and fellow Dolores Secondary School student Gus Vaughn classify insects they discovered in the Animas River for an environmental climate institute offered every summer to high schoolers in southwest Colorado.

COVID briefly disrupted much of that work, but in June 2020, tapping federal relief dollars for education, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced a nearly $33 million fund to close equity gaps and support students affected by the pandemic. Already poised to work together, the collaborative secured the largest award — $3.6 million — from the governor’s fund to help students explore environmental science and the building trades, two areas in which the number of jobs was projected to increase.

Despite that demand for workers, none of the school districts offered a single class in HVAC, electrical, or plumbing, according to Morrison, nor did any of the nearby higher ed institutions. “We were a complete desert,” she said.

Related: Rural Colorado students go to college at low rates. Tiny Fowler goes against the trend.

In 2022, the collaborative began piloting summer institutes, employers started hiring students directly from those programs and Pueblo Community College began offering electrical certification at its southwest campus. Woodworking instructors from different districts started to gather monthly, comparing lesson plans and creating wish lists for new classes and equipment. New CNC routers, laser cutters, and electric planers arrived at teachers’ classrooms. Soon, teachers will pilot an HVAC course for high schoolers.

Over time, the collaborative added four additional school districts: Dolores, Dove Creek, Mancos, and Montezuma-Cortez. It also formally partnered with two tribal nations, Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute, while expanding its college and career tracks to include education, the health sciences, and hospitality/tourism.

As of 2023, nearly 900 students across the nine districts — of about 13,000 total for the region — had participated in environmental, agriculture, and outdoor recreation courses, according to the collaborative’s annual report. Approximately 325 students have completed a building trades course, with 40 so far earning industry certificates. Another 199 students finished a welding course, and 77 students also took college-level classes in that field.

Joshua Walton just finished his 11th year teaching science at Bayfield High School. He’s seen the changes firsthand: His classroom today has clinometers, game cameras, and soil-testing equipment on its shelves. Walton often reserves the collaborative’s mobile learning unit, a 14-passenger van converted into a traveling science lab, so students can run experiments along the Animas River. He also prepares students to get their certification in water science.

“We’re giving students the opportunity where they can be an aquatic biologist or get a job doing water testing pretty much right after they graduate,” said Walton.

Tiffany Aspromonte, who works as academic adviser at Mancos High School, grew up in town and has raised her two children there. Her oldest son, a rising senior at Mancos High, regularly changes his mind about his future, she said.

Ari Zimmerman-Bergin, left, and James Folsom use peat moss, scrubbing pads and rocks to build an experimental wetland. They studied water restoration in Silverton, Colorado, as part of a field trip for students interested in environmental studies.

He already earned a mini-certification in welding, and he’s taken courses in drones and — when he wanted to become an eye doctor — medical terminology. Now, he’s in love with hands-on engineering classes, but hates the bookwork, Aspromonte said. This fall, her son will spend Friday nights at Pueblo Community College for a wildland fire class.

“He’s not the exception,” Aspromonte said. “Just in our small school, a lot of kids can go really in-depth so they can get an idea of what they do or don’t want to do.”

And, she added, the rural brain drain — of ambitious students leaving a small town for college or better jobs — seems less pressing.

“There’s no pressure to leave home, unless you really want to,” Aspromonte said.

Sharing money, sustaining partnerships presents challenges

Along the way there have been challenges. Since 2020, all but one of the founding five superintendents left their positions, reflecting the nationwide churn of school leaders during the pandemic. Deciding how to divide money among districts hasn’t always been easy, said Morrison, the collaborative’s former director.

Student enrollment in shared courses never reached a point that would justify added costs, such as transportation. This fall, the alliance will limit the classes that high schoolers can take across district lines to education and health sciences. (Students can still take the courses in the building trades, environment, and hospitality/tourism in their own high schools and at the local colleges. Each track will continue to include work-based learning.)

“We needed to simplify our approach,” Morrison said. “We started grand with all five pathways across all nine districts.”

And working with local business leaders has at times been challenging too, said Patrick Fredricks, the collaborative’s deputy director. Employers often want to give students tours of their businesses but, with the collaborative’s nudging, they can create real-world lessons: A popular bar and grill in Cortez reopened on a day off so students could host a pop-up restaurant. Dove Creek schools sent 20 kids to practice with staple guns and X-ray machines in the paramedic wing of the regional hospital.

Today, the collaborative regularly hosts career fairs with local businesses, matches students with employers to shadow on half-day visits to the workplace, and helps arrange longer-term internships as well. Last school year, more than 200 students shadowed business leaders at 16 different job sites, including the local hospital, ski resorts and a cattle ranch.

Related: MIT, Yale and other elite colleges are finally reaching out to rural students

The Colorado Education Initiative, a Denver-based nonprofit, has studied the impact of the pandemic relief money on students and plans to release initial findings this fall. In an early review of the data, released last Novembe r, the nonprofit found that projects funded by the governor’s office, including those of the collaborative, generally improved academic and social-emotional outcomes.

The collaborative model has started to spread. Three remote districts in eastern Indiana recently created a “rural alliance zone” to get students into IT, advanced manufacturing, marketing, and other career clusters. Last year, the Texas legislature overwhelmingly approved the creation of an annual $5 million pot of money to incentivize the creation of rural alliances in that state.

Gracie Vaughn and BreAnna Bennet, right, attend different high schools in different school districts. The teenagers roomed together during a summer program at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.

Back in Colorado, political allies of the collaborative have pitched the idea of dedicating state money for such partnerships or reducing the amount of bureaucracy and paperwork needed to share funds among school districts. Eric Maruyama, spokesperson for Polis, said in a statement that the Colorado governor “is committed to creating educational opportunities that give students the skills needed to thrive and fill in-demand jobs” but declined to say if he would take specific action.

Taylor McCabe-Juhnke, executive director of the Rural Schools Collaborative, a national network that operates in more than 30 states, said she’s optimistic that successful partnerships in rural communities like southwest Colorado will convince philanthropic and public funders to invest.

“It’s not very sexy to fund or make time and space for relationship building,” she said. “It’s also the right thing to do to benefit broader rural community vitality.”

In Silverton, an old mining town near the headwaters of the Rio Grande, kayakers called to the students sitting on rocks along banks of the Animas River. The teenagers circled around ice trays brimming with river water and tried to classify the swimming macroinvertebrates.

“Is that one squiggly like a worm?” BreAnna Bennet, a rising senior from Durango High School, asked her group.

At the start of the summer program, Bennet said she had no desire to do any job in the outdoors. By the third day, she often tailed the instructor and supplied a stream of questions about wetland restoration efforts and wildlife in the backcountry.

“This is fun. I like this,” Bennet said, looking up from the ice tray. “Your activity is my favorite so far.”

This story about Colorado rural schools alliances was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

Marion County schools will receive $600 million to improve academic, postsecondary success

2024-08-15T20:04:46+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.

Marion County K-12 schools will receive up to $600 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. by the end of 2025 to improve students’ academic achievement and help them succeed after graduation.

The endowment will award grants in three phases, with the third being competitive. Public schools in Marion County will be eligible to apply for the majority of the funding, $450 million, while private schools will be eligible for the remaining $150 million. More than 300 schools — public, charter, and private — have the opportunity to apply, according to a release from the endowment Thursday.

The guidelines for the grants are broad, so schools can tailor initiatives to their students. When considering postsecondary success projects, the endowment is especially interested in initiatives that enable students to earn college degrees or industry-recognized credentials and develop skills they need in their future careers, according to Judith Cebula, communications director at Lilly Endowment.

The Lilly Endowment has unveiled the grants as Indiana policymakers prepare to change high school graduation requirements and put more of an emphasis on preparing students for the workforce. Too many students in the county “are not achieving adequate educational success,” said Ted Maple, the endowment’s vice president for education.

The endowment wanted to address the barriers to educational success, Cebula said in an email to Chalkbeat, including the effects of the pandemic and mental health challenges. Since school leaders have a unique understanding of those problems, the endowment is encouraging proposals that would be “most effective in their own contexts,” she said. (Chalkbeat receives funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc.)

The endowment has allocated funding to educational and postsecondary success programs in Indiana before. In 2022, Lilly put $85 million toward phonics-focused literacy instruction and $28.8 million to youth camps on Indiana’s college campuses.

The $600 million grant program is roughly a third larger than the $456 million budget adopted by Indianapolis Public Schools for this year.

Some projects may focus on near-term improvements to student success, the release said, such as instructional programs. But the endowment is also open to projects addressing underlying challenges to learning like food insecurity and chronic absenteeism.

“We are encouraging school leaders to take full advantage of the opportunities under these initiatives to identify and implement promising, local, national or global, evidenced-based approaches to address the relevant educational challenges and opportunities of their students,” Ted Maple, the endowment’s vice president for education, said in the release.

The grants will be divided into three phases: planning, implementation, and competitive grants. Phase 1 will support applicants as they prepare proposals, and Phase 2 will help with the implementation of promising projects. In Phase 3, schools will compete for the largest grants.

Recipients will have five years to use the funding.

Schools can learn more about the grants here.

This story has been updated to clarify which phase of the grants is a competitive process.

Haley Miller is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Haley at hmiller@chalkbeat.org

For a second year, FAFSA will again be delayed in the fall

2024-08-07T23:25:04+00:00

Sign up for our free monthly newsletter Beyond High School to get the latest news about college and career paths for Colorado’s high school grads.

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.

What’s next for the proposed new Indiana high school diplomas that focus on workplace readiness

2024-07-17T19:41:49+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.

Hoosiers still have time to weigh in on the state’s proposals for new high school diploma requirements as the Indiana State Board of Education will likely vote on changes slightly later than expected.

The diploma proposals by the state board of education in March would take the emphasis off college-going as the pinnacle of education, and instead prioritize students’ workplace readiness. In June, the state board added three readiness seals – enrollment, employment, and enlistment – to the proposal.

Currently, the first round of public feedback is open, with online comments accepted through July 30 and a public hearing the same day. As of this week, the state has received more than 6,300 online feedback submissions.

Per state law, the state must adopt new diploma requirements by December.

The original plan was for the state board to vote on the new diplomas in September. But Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said at a board meeting Wednesday that part of the feedback so far was to slow down.

Jenner said the board will hear a revised draft proposal at the August meeting and follow that with a second round of feedback, including a public hearing. The board will then release a final proposal.

Schools could choose to opt in and start offering the new diplomas early (in addition to the current diplomas) beginning in the 2025-26 school year. The new diplomas will take effect for all students beginning with the Class of 2029 who are starting eighth grade this coming school year.

The proposed diplomas have drawn skepticism from educators and others who are concerned about courses that would no longer be required under the proposed diploma rules. They’re also worried about plans to eliminate the current Academic Honors diploma, which is linked to college-going.

Public comment at Wednesday’s state board of education meeting echoed many of those concerns including those about history and fine arts requirements as well as academic honors.

However, supporters stressed the proposal would give students flexibility in terms of how they earn high school degrees, and that it would give students “a recipe for success” in achieving their dreams, as Jenner put it.

Partner groups help develop enrollment, employment, enlistment seals

In the proposed diplomas, students would earn either the standard Graduates Prepared to Succeed (GPS) diploma, or the workplace-focused GPS Diploma Plus. A trio of transcript seals would allow students to show they are ready for enrollment, employment, or enlistment to add to their diplomas.

The seals would focus on readiness, not eligibility, and each would have required courses, said Ron Sandlin, the state education department’s senior director of school performance and transformation, at Wednesday’s state board of education meeting. He added that students could earn multiple seals and apply seals to both diploma types.

On Wednesday, state board members heard from leaders of organizations — Indiana Commission for Higher Education, Indiana Chamber of Commerce, and Indiana National Guard — that are helping develop the seals.

All three stressed the importance of ensuring students are prepared for life after high school and have the greatest opportunities possible within each path that the seals represent. The next step for each is a draft of required courses and experiences.

How to give feedback on Indiana’s proposed diplomas

To offer online feedback, go here.

To give in-person feedback, there will be a public hearing at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 30, in Conference Rooms Four and Five of the Indiana Government Center South.

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.

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

Read in English.

Inscríbete al boletín diario gratuito de Chalkbeat Detroit para estar al día con el sistema escolar público de la ciudad y la política educativa de Michigan

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.

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.

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.

Slow rollout of new FAFSA application delays financial aid offers for Newark students

2024-05-21T18:26:53+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.

Chanice Minnott knew she wanted to go to Syracuse University after going on a tour during her junior year of high school.

The senior at North Star Academy’s Lincoln Park High School had always dreamed of going to college outside of New Jersey and envisioned the experience she would have at a school like Syracuse in upstate New York. After being rejected on the first try, Minnott was finally accepted in January. She felt a sense of relief after fearing she would miss out on the experience she had imagined.

But nearly four months after receiving her acceptance letter, Minnott still hasn’t gotten her financial aid package. The delay could impact her decision to attend Syracuse next fall.

“I’m checking my portal every day hoping that something will pop up, but there’s nothing else I can do but just wait,” Minnott said.

Minnot is one of hundreds of Newark students who are anxiously waiting on financial aid offers after the botched rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

An updated application was supposed to make it easier for students across the country to receive their financial aid but the release was delayed. Nationwide, students have experienced trouble submitting the form and entering tax information, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The new form also presented challenges to immigrant families who didn’t have a Social Security number.

At Lincoln Park, students are experiencing long wait times to reach someone in the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid office only to be hung up on, said Mark Stulberg, director of college counseling at the high school. The delays are the biggest problem in this year’s college admission process, he said.

“Typically at this point, all students would have financial aid packages from all their schools so their families can make informed decisions about where they’re going to go for college,” Stulberg said.

In New Jersey, several colleges and universities were forced to extend their enrollment deadlines to June 1 after the Better FAFSA form opened at the end of December 2023, months after the form’s typical release in October.

Students like Shamar Thompson, also a senior at Lincoln Park, said filling out the application was glitchy and he would often have to retype information into the form. Other times, he had trouble signing back into the application after it crashed on the FAFSA website.

Like Minnott, Thompson is also waiting to receive his financial aid offer from his top pick, Stockton University in southern New Jersey. He applied to 13 other schools but remembers the tears of joy he cried when he received his acceptance letter to Stockton.

Thompson also applied to Rowan University and received his financial aid package from the school. It’s his second choice, Thompson said, but he’s holding out on Stockton to get back to him.

“I’m feeling very nervous because I have to make a decision in a couple of weeks,” said Thompson last Friday. “And I’m also feeling extremely disappointed because it’s taken a long time for me to receive my aid and help from my college.”

If Rowan offers him more financial aid than Stockton, “it would impact my decision in a big way” because he doesn’t want to place a financial burden on his family, Thompson said. But he can’t make that decision until he finds out all his options.

Currently, about 45% of Lincoln Park seniors are enrolled in college compared to 80% around this time last year, Stulberg said. In Newark, roughly 57.2% of graduating seniors completed the Better FAFSA, above the state’s average of 45.7%, as of May 10 according to the National College Attainment Network FAFSA Tracker. Last year, the rate was 70.1%, a 12.9% difference from this year.

That rate drops to 41% for the total number of seniors in Newark who have completed the application as of May 20, per the New Jersey Children’s Foundation FAFSA Tracker.

In Newark Public Schools, students are required to complete the FAFSA form before they graduate. Students who choose to opt out of the requirement, have to complete an exemption form and meet with their parents and counselor to discuss plans after graduation, according to Nancy Deering, district spokesperson. As of May, 1,620 seniors have completed the district’s FAFSA requirement, Deering said in an email on Tuesday.

Earlier this year, the Children’s Foundation launched a FAFSA challenge between Newark and Camden to drum up excitement over completing the form. They are set to announce a winner on May 31 but so far, Camden trails behind Newark with a 35% completion rate. Other organizations such as the Newark Opportunity Youth Network and the Newark City of Learning Collaborative have hosted financial aid workshops and troubleshooted problems with families.

The New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority also offers help for students seeking tuition aid grants and support through the College Promise Initiative, which provides aid to students headed to community colleges and four-year universities. The Learning Collaborative also hosts information on available scholarships to students.

Despite the delays, Minnott says she is thankful for her counselors who’ve helped her try to contact Syracuse and federal officials to find answers to her financial aid offers. She plans to double major in psychology and neuroscience – hopefully, at Syracuse next fall.

Said Minnott: “It’s kind of like an endless cycle of just waiting.”

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana’s college-going rate remains stuck at generational low

2024-05-10T18:09:06+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.

This article was originally published by Mirror Indy, and is republished through our partnership with Free Press Indiana.

Indiana’s college-going rate was unchanged for the third year in a row, matching the generational low reached in 2020, the Commission for Higher Education announced during a meeting May 9.

In 2015, 65% of Indiana high school seniors were going on to college. Five years later, that number had fallen by 12 percentage points.

Fifty-three percent of the Indiana class of 2022 enrolled in college immediately after graduation — roughly the same rate as in 2020 and 2021. The college-going rate measures long-term certificates, associate and bachelor’s degrees.

Indiana’s college-going rate was unchanged from 2020 and 2021, according to a screenshot from the Commission for Higher Education.

While Brooke Kile, the commission’s associate commissioner for business intelligence, framed stability as a positive, the lack of improvement is clearly a blow for policymakers who have been working to entice more Indiana students to go to college.

2023: Indiana’s college-going rate holds to previous year

Further, more high school students graduated in 2022 than in 2021, meaning less students actually went to college as compared to the previous year. Of the students who did go onto college in 2022, 8% went to schools outside Indiana — the highest number in several years. That increase is a concern for the commission which wants to promote Indiana as a place to stay to build a career.

“One year is not a trend, so we are not necessarily sounding the alarm,” Kile said, “but we are definitely looking at what sort of early indicator data we can get from 2023 and 2024 cohorts to see if we need to evolve or do any sort of special initiatives to encourage students to stay in Indiana.”

The data runs about two years behind, so class of 2023 results likely won’t be released for another year.

Chris Lowery, commissioner for Indiana Commission for Higher Education, delivers the State of Higher Education address April 15, 2024, at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis.

State leaders want to send more students to college

From 2019 to 2020, the college-going rate declined by five percentage points. Since then, the Commission for Higher Education has been working to get more students into college immediately following their graduation.

2023: Growth in Indiana college enrollment marks largest increase in 13 years

These efforts include sending high school students “pre-admission” letters that detail all the colleges in Indiana the students are eligible to attend based on grades and test scores and expanding state-approved college credit courses called the Indiana College Core.

Thanks to a 2023 law, the commission also now automatically enrolls income-eligible students in the 21st Century Scholars program by the end of eighth grade. Eighty-one percent of scholars from the class of 2022 went to college as compared to 30% of their low-income peers.

Scholarships, FAFSA, and transcripts: Three laws aim to help Hoosier students reach college

The first group of automatically enrolled 21st Century Scholars will graduate high school in 2027.

Despite the unchanged college-going rate, students who do attend college are staying in school, Kile said.

For the class of 2021, 77% of those students stayed enrolled in college for a second year — as compared to just 73% for the class of 2020. That’s the highest rate in over a decade, according to the commission.

Claire Rafford covers higher education for Mirror Indy in partnership with Open Campus. Get in touch with higher ed reporter Claire Rafford at claire.rafford@mirrorindy.org or on social media @clairerafford.

Christel House expands postsecondary support program to traditional public, charter schools

2024-05-10T11:00:00+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.

When JayLah Edmondson’s grades and mental health started to decline in the fall, the University of Indianapolis student reached out to the same counselor who helped her through high school.

She was failing her classes, she told Kara Moreland, a college and career administrator for the network of Christel House charter schools in Indianapolis. Edmondson remembers what she told her.

“‘You may be failing at this moment, but I’m glad that you reached out when you did so that way we can get the proper resources and help for the next semester,’” Edmondson recalled Moreland saying.

Moreland, the coach Edmondson had as a student at Christel House Watanabe High School, is part of Christel House International’s College and Careers program that follows students for five years after high school graduation. Its goal is to ensure that students are successful after they graduate high school. Now it’s expanding.

The Christel House International nonprofit network of schools — which runs schools internationally and charter schools in Indianapolis — will partner with four more Indianapolis schools to bring these coaches to their high school students.

The roughly $2.5 million investment — funded through Christel House International and other philanthropic support — will provide coaches at Lawrence North High School, Lawrence Central High School, Herron-Riverside High School, and Irvington Preparatory Academy.

The counselors will support students through at least August 2028.

The investment could help address students’ need for ongoing support after high school graduation in a state that has in recent years pushed to expand both college access and the postsecondary career pipeline.

“What we hope is that this is really building off the great work of these high schools and supporting these students and graduates — as well as supporting state and local goals for postsecondary completion as well as the needs that we see in the job market,” said Caitlin Teague, vice president of programming and services at Christel House International. “It’s really our holistic kind of contribution to be able to work across schools to do what works best for students and for the local community.”

Christel House hopes student counseling program replicates success

The College and Careers program began with Christel House’s school in Venezuela 18 years ago, and launched in its Indianapolis high school with the Class of 2014.

Coaches in the program check in periodically with students even after they leave high school. These check-ins can range from meetings over lunch to coaches visiting the students or students coming back to their high school.

Officials hope the program eventually reaches about 1,800 students. In Lawrence Township, one coach will work with students in the district’s AVID program at both district high schools. The other two participating schools will receive one coach each.

That could mean more support for students facing college or career crises like Edmondson, who worked with her coach to find mental health support and ensure someone on campus could hold her accountable. Because of the help, this spring semester has gone better for her.

“I passed all of my classes,” Edmondson said. “And the resources that we put in place ultimately helped me get to where I am now.”

The Class of 2025 will be the first cohort at these new schools to benefit from coaches that will guide them as they enter college or the workforce.

Christel House officials point to the positive outcomes of the program at Watanabe High School.

Officials point to state data showing that Watanabe graduates from the classes of 2014 through 2017 had higher average rates of employment five years after graduation than Indianapolis Public School graduates and the average for graduates statewide.

Watanabe High School graduates from the Class of 2016 who remain employed in Indiana five years after graduation also have a higher median income than graduates from all 11 Marion County school districts or statewide, according to state data.

The four schools partnering with Christel House are hoping it will help students post-graduation and provide a way to track the success of students long after they’ve left.

“When you’re focused on the day-to-day — we’ve got to get these kids across the stage, we’ve got to get these credits earned, we’ve got to get these tests taken — it can be hard to dedicate the time and the manpower that it takes to support students after graduation,” Deanna Dehner, chief academic officer for the Irvington Community Schools charter network, said at a kickoff for the initiative on Tuesday. (The Irvington charter network includes Irvington Preparatory Academy.)

“This is what we’ve been looking for — the thing we’ve been talking about for years, they’re doing it,” Dehner recalled telling her colleagues. “So let’s work with them and learn from them.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Latinx students in public schools face barriers to college, access to counselors, report finds

2024-05-09T10:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.

Latinx students in New Jersey make up over a third of the public school population but face educational inequities such as less access to school counselors, disparities in academic performance, and low college enrollment rates, a new study found.

Addressing the needs of these students is “an urgent matter,” said Dr. Vandeen Campbell, co-author of the report and associate director and assistant research professor at the Cornwall Center.

“This report couldn’t be more timely because it gave us the opportunity to zoom in and start thinking about solutions for the Latinx population,” Campbell added.

The report, “The Latinx Experience in NJ Schools: A Preliminary Overview,” released last week by the Latino Action Network Foundation and the Joseph C. Cornwall Center at Rutgers University, shows that the state’s Latinx student population is steadily increasing, with those students attending schools where they are less likely to be around students from different backgrounds and less likely to have access to advanced courses and basic resources like mental health professionals.

Latinx students are attending “increasingly hyper-segregated schools” and those schools are more likely to experience higher levels of poverty, the study found.

Latino Action Network, the policy arm of the foundation that co-commissioned this report, is also advocating for solutions through a legal route. The organization is part of the coalition of plaintiffs in a lawsuit against New Jersey, currently before a state Superior Court judge, that argues the state needs to fix its heavily segregated public school education system. That case has been on pause for six months as plaintiffs — who also include the state chapter of the NAACP, families, and other advocates — continue to engage in mediation discussions with state officials.

The report comes as Newark, the state’s largest school district, sees a steady increase in Latino students and expects more than 11,000 English language learners to enter the district next school year.

According to the report, the percentage of schools enrolling more than 75% Latinx students has gone up from 5% in the 2013-14 school year to 8% in 2022-23. Of those schools, on average, 77% of students enrolled received free and reduced-priced lunch, which low-income children are eligible for.

Compared to other racial groups, Latinx students have one of the lowest graduation rates at 85%, six percentage points below the statewide average of 91%. In Newark Public Schools, that rate is 83%, a data analysis component of the report showed. The state’s Latinx students are also graduating high school at a rate equal to the national average for public school students, but enrolling in college at a rate lower than the statewide average, the report found. Those trends point to barriers in the college admissions process and the student-to-guidance counselors ratio in public schools, co-authors of the report said.

During the 2019-20 school year, on average, a counselor in a heavily Latinx school was advising 166 more students than in a typical school, the report found. The statewide ratio of students to counselors has improved since and is now at 339 students per counselor and 491 students per counselor in heavily Latinx schools, according to the report. But those numbers represent a disparity with counselors in Latinx schools advising about 152 more students than the typical school in the state, according to the report.

“If this is their first time going to college, they need the infrastructure to help them complete applications and find funding to apply,” said Swati Dontamsetti, a co-author of the report and doctoral candidate at Rutgers-New Brunswick.

The higher the percentage of Latinx students in a school, the more English language learners in its student body, the report found. Dr. Claudia Castillo-Lavergne, a co-author of the report and post-doctoral associate at the Cornwall Center said it’s important to understand the needs of these students who are a subgroup within the Latinx population in schools.

In the last decade, the overall percentage of English language learners increased by around 5 percentage points, from 4% of the state in the 2013–14 school year to 9% in 2022–23, according to the report.

“There’s certainly a greater need, I think, for supporting and understanding how they’re learning,” Castillo-Lavergne said. “How do we think about cultural responsiveness in connection to what they already know?”

Despite sobering trends, the study also found positive outliers in student achievement and enrollment in career and technical education courses. The co-authors of the report say those outliers are important to learn from to improve the trajectory of students. In career and technical education, Latinx students seem to enroll at higher rates than other student groups, the report found.

Additionally, recent data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and the state’s learning assessments show that the pandemic wiped out academic progress made over the previous decade, the report says. But Latinx students in 36 districts closely met or outperformed the 2021-22 school year state average in English language arts proficiency, while 23 districts had these students performing better than the state average in math, the report found.

“I think this is really connected to our future workforce and that question of how exactly do we expect these families to come out of poverty and integrate into society if the systems are set up against them?” said Dr. Jesselly De La Cruz, executive director of the Latino Action Network Foundation.

The report is meant to inform policymakers about the state of Latinx students in New Jersey’s public schools and help create better policies to support them, report co-authors say. They will also hold an event on Saturday, May 11 at Rutgers-Newark to discuss their findings and possible solutions.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

College campus unrest has some NYC high schoolers rethinking their next steps

2024-05-02T00:48:48+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

As tensions reached a boiling point on college campuses in recent days over pro-Palestinian student protests and encampments, many New York City high schoolers were watching closely.

For juniors and seniors weighing their college plans, the events are offering critical information about the cultures of the campuses they may soon be joining — and in some cases swaying their decisions.

And some have been directly affected by the fallout from the protests and overwhelming police response at City College of New York and Columbia University.

The High School for Math, Science, and Engineering, known at HSMSE, is located on the Harlem campus of the City College of New York, steps away from a student-led tent encampment that NYPD officers raided late Tuesday night, sparking violent clashes with protesters and leading to nearly 200 arrests.

As the tumult arrived at their doorstep, the high school canceled in-person classes Wednesday, following the lead of City College.

“I think the way a college reacts to such a big issue like the protests right now can be kind of indicative of the way they react in the future,” said Gabriela Picazo, an 18-year-old senior at HSMSE, who plans to attend Brown University next year, one of the few colleges that reached a deal with protesters to end its tent encampment.

Students at HSMSE said the pivot to remote classes Wednesday posed some challenges, particularly for last-minute preparation for Advanced Placement exams that start this week. But they understood the decision was meant to keep them safe.

“It’s kind of dystopian seeing this area that’s supposed to be a safe space where we go eat and relax being flooded with cop cars and all the hostility there,” said one senior at the school, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share his opinion on the situation freely.

Students were expected to return to in-person classes Thursday, but were told not to enter the campus quadrangle during the school day, according to a notice from the school’s principal obtained by Chalkbeat.

New York City’s public school system has seen its own controversial student protests, including a raucous demonstration at Hillcrest High School over a teacher posting a photo holding an “I Stand With Israel” sign, and a citywide walkout in support of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Protests and backlash prompt reflection on college plans

The protests on campuses across the country, as well as the response from administrators and law enforcement at colleges, have been top of mind for New York City high schoolers preparing to enroll in college. Many have been particularly gripped by the response at Columbia and City College, prompting some Jewish and Muslim students, as well as other applicants, to reconsider their options.

Seniors at The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology in the Bronx (left to right): Kennedy Betances, Safa Al-Omari, and Hawa Fisiru.

Hawa Fisiru, a senior at The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology in the Bronx, plans to attend Columbia this fall. The university’s history of student activism was a selling point: Fisiru participated in Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and helped collect food for residents affected by a Bronx apartment building fire that killed 17 people in 2022.

Fisiru decided to enroll before pro-Palestinian student protestors launched an encampment, but said she’s “glad to be part of a student body that is, you know, really doing things.”

Despite the upheaval there, Fisiru is not having second thoughts about committing to Columbia. She received a full scholarship, and remaining in the city will allow her to stay close to family.

Still, Columbia’s response has left her concerned about what the mood on campus will be when she arrives this fall.

“I would have loved to, like, you know, have a calm freshman year, but I can’t help what’s going on, and I support what the students are doing,” she said. “I feel like they’re fighting for humanity and for what is right.”

But Safa Al-Omari, who is also a senior at The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, is still deciding where to attend college. She has been leaning toward attending City College, though she’s also considering Hunter College.

Al-Omari, who was born in Yemen and came to the United States in 2016, said she wants to do more research about City College’s response to pro-Palestinian protesters before making a final decision.

“Being Middle Eastern, I have a lot of feelings about what’s going on,” Al-Omari said. “I would not want to go to a college that is arresting students based on them speaking for people who are suffering.”

Meanwhile, a Jewish family told CNN they opted against Barnard College, which is affiliated with Columbia, even though it had been their child’s first choice.

Bronx senior Kennedy Betances is also trying to decide between City College, which offered a generous financial aid package, and Fordham University, which she feels might be a better fit, since she hopes to become an environmental engineer.

She wants to learn more about the reaction to student protesters on each campus before making a decision.

“I can also see myself involved in activism on campus, and I wouldn’t want the institution that I committed to, that I’ve worked at, that I’m taking out student loans for, to just like, essentially turn their back on me, and leave me in the dust,” Betances said.

Picazo, the HSMSE senior planning to attend Brown University next year, was disheartened by news that dozens of student protesters were arrested last December at the university. But she was encouraged to learn that Brown struck a deal this week with student protesters to end a recent encampment without police involvement.

“It does kind of reassure me about the community that I’m going to join in the future,” she said.

Her classmate, 17-year-old senior Orlena Fella, said being so close to the City College protests has made her realize she wants to be around some of that same political activism when she’s in college.

“I started to realize that I do hold some value in just having that space for discourse and having students that do take a side or share out their perspective and feel comfortable doing so,” she said.

For some high school juniors getting ready to apply to college next year, watching sharp backlash to pro-Palestinian student protestors at some colleges could also raise uncomfortable questions about how they should approach their own college applications.

One Brooklyn high school junior, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize her college applications, said she’s involved with the Palestine Club at her high school, but is wary of including that on her resume because she fears it will hurt her application.

“Everyone I’ve spoken to said to not because colleges may ‘throw my application out the window,’” she said.

The tumult on college campuses comes as the city school system faces its own ongoing questions about its handling of student protests and antisemitism.

Schools Chancellor David Banks is slated to testify next week before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce — the same Republican-led committee that recently grilled Columbia President Minouche Shafik on her response to campus protests.

In recent days, Banks has touted a number of efforts to address bias and educate students about the conflict, including an anti-hate crime curriculum, initiatives to teach Jewish and Muslim history, and a review of the discipline code with city principals.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amid growing calls to end legacy admissions, New York considers banning the practice

2024-04-29T15:36:56+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

Some New York lawmakers, students, and advocates are calling for colleges in the state to end the practice of legacy admissions, which grants additional priority to the relatives of alumni.

Proponents of the “Fair College Admissions Act” say giving preference to students whose relatives attended an elite institution overwhelmingly favors white, wealthy families. The bill would prohibit the use of legacy admissions for undergraduates by colleges and universities in New York, while establishing financial penalties for those who refuse to comply with the law.

The push for the bill follows a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that overturned affirmative action, significantly hindering the nation’s colleges and universities’ ability to consider race during admissions.

State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a sponsor of the bill, called legacy admissions “a form of affirmative action for students of immense privilege.”

“At institutions that do use legacy, the admissions rate at some of the most exclusive schools is four times greater for legacy students versus non-legacy students,” he said. “And 75% of all legacy students come from the top 10% of wealthiest families in the country.”

Nationwide, nearly 30% of higher education institutions consider legacy status — with that figure rising to over 40% in New York, according to a report by the advocacy group Education Reform Now. And in 2022, a study found a growing number of adults believed legacy status should not play a factor in admissions, including more than 70% of both Democrats and Republicans.

At schools where legacy admissions have long been the norm, opposition has continued to surface on campuses. At Cornell University, students have passed multiple resolutions calling for the university to end the practice.

“It’s a fundamentally wrong and unfair practice,” said Claire Tempelman, a senior at Cornell who helped introduce a 2021 resolution urging the university to end legacy admissions. The Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action last year only added to the urgency around the issue, Tempelman said.

“It’s ridiculous that even though you’re getting rid of affirmative action, you’re still keeping what is essentially affirmative action for the wealthy,” she added. “It’s this hypocrisy that makes legacy admissions just seem even more untenable.”

Jonathan Lam, a freshman at Cornell, said he’s been particularly concerned about the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision. As a child of Vietnamese refugees, he said he received significant help navigating college admissions from Thrive Scholars, a nonprofit organization that supports students of color from low-income communities.

“If we’re going to overturn affirmative action, and say that these DEI academic programs are problematic and controversial, then it also puts a lot of these organizations that supported students like me at risk,” he said. “It adds this urgency to the need to have a conversation about not just temporary solutions to supporting BIPOC and first-gen students, but also understanding the education system.”

It’s a cause that has earned the support of major advocacy groups in the state. The New York Coalition for Fair College Admissions — which includes the NAACP New York State Conference, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Education Reform Now, and other groups — has repeatedly called for the practice to end.

“The gutting of affirmative action makes ending this practice for New York even more of a racial-justice imperative,” said Jake Martinez, deputy director of NYCLU’s Education Policy Center. “When you think about the wealth that these families have … Low-income students, first-generation students don’t have those same resources.

“So wealthy families have not only the resources for college readiness, but also an upper hand through legacy admissions,” he said.

In May, high school and college students from across the state will travel to Albany, urging lawmakers to pass the legislation as part of a youth lobby day, Martinez added.

Other states are also considering changes to the practice. In Virginia, state lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year that barred public universities from giving preferential treatment to the relatives of alumni and donors. Meanwhile, in 2021, Colorado became the first state in the nation to ban legacy admissions — though the broader impact of that change remains unclear.

And in New York and elsewhere, some institutions have voluntarily stopped considering legacy status in admissions. Last year, NYU removed a question asking whether applicants were the children of alumni from its application — with the college affirming that legacy status does not play a role in admissions.

Under the proposed New York law, colleges that continue to consider legacy status in admissions would face a financial penalty — with the money collected being funneled into the state’s tuition assistance program for low-income students.

“All of these institutions benefit from New York state dollars,” Gounardes said. “We should not be funding exclusionary practices.”

With the state budget now enacted, he is hopeful that lawmakers will move to address legacy admissions. There’s been general support for the bill among colleagues in Albany, according to Gounardes.

“It may seem small, but it strikes at the notion of fairness and justice,” Gounardes said. “To allow a student to get into one of the most elite schools in the country just because their parents went there … That just seems inherently unfair.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Newark youth not in school or working nearly double the statewide rate, new report finds

2024-04-24T16:45:37+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.

Nearly 1 in 5 Newark teens and adults between the ages of 16 and 24, 7,500 young people, do not attend school or have a job – almost double the statewide rate and above pre-pandemic levels, a new study released Wednesday found.

The report, conducted in partnership by the Newark Opportunity Youth Network and Measure of America, a project of the Social Science Research Council, also found disparities among racial groups and geographic locations in Newark.

The disconnection rate for Black youth in Newark is 22.3%, the highest among the city’s major racial and ethnic groups, while Latinos have a rate of 16.9% and white youth 9.1%, the report found.

By neighborhood, most of Newark’s South Ward and southern parts of the East Ward, specifically, zip codes 07114 and 07106, have the highest rate of youth disconnection: Around 1 in 3 to 1 in 4 young people ages 16-24 who reside in these areas are disengaged, according to the study.

Areas in southern Newark, including the southern parts of the East Ward and South Ward, have the highest rate of youth disconnection.

Thousands of young people in Newark and across the country disengage from school due to various reasons, including violence, an unstable home life, trauma, poverty, or other barriers, according to the Social Science Research Council. Eventually, youth gradually stray from learning and, without the proper support and interventions, may drop out of school or leave the workforce entirely.

In recent years, New Jersey and Newark leaders have ramped up efforts to change the trajectory for these teens and young adults often called “opportunity youth.”

In Newark, city and public school leaders launched a new reengagement center aimed at targeting students at risk of being disconnected. At the state level, Gov. Phil Murphy in January signed The Disconnection Prevention Bill, a law that establishes an ombudsperson to work with the Disconnection Prevention Task Force to analyze the causes of youth disconnection and recommend best practices for reducing school disconnection to school districts.

In cities such as Detroit and Chicago, nonprofits and school districts are also working to tackle the issue in their areas.

Among the report’s findings:

Compared to other cities in the Northeast, Newark has roughly twice the number of young adults out of school and out of work. The New York City metro area, which includes Newark and Jersey City as well as Long Island and counties in the Lower Hudson Valley and Connecticut, has a disconnection rate of 10.6%.
More than 1 in 4 of Newark’s youth living in poverty are disconnected — 28.5% — compared to 14.1% of youth not living in poverty. Overall, the poverty rate for Newark youth is 23.6% but for disconnected youth, that rate is 38.3%.
Disconnection rates among mothers ages 16–24 is 34.8%, higher than that of young women without children, who make up 15%. Mothers in Newark make up 14.3% of disengaged youth but only 6.7% of youth overall.
In Newark, girls and young women have a higher disconnection rate than young men who are not incarcerated — 16.2% compared to 15.7%.
In Newark, 66% of disengaged youth — 4,800 young people — have not worked in the past five years.

Despite the troubling trends found in the report, Newark and New Jersey have experienced a sharp decline in youth disconnection rates since 2020. In New Jersey, the rate dropped from 11.3% in 2021 to 9.4% in 2022 and in Newark, it dropped from 22% in 2021 to 18.4% in 2022, according to Wednesday’s report.

Robert Clark, founder and chief executive officer of the Newark Opportunity Youth Network, attributes those gains to increased awareness of the issue and collaborative approaches to “develop strategies, not just programs.”

“One of the aims is to make sure that not only are we talking about the number of young people, but that we’re also talking about all of the supports that are necessary to support what is a broader community challenge, and also raise attention to the idea of equitable distribution of resources to support these young people,” Clark added.

The report found that Newark has “incredible resources” and strong community ties that have shaped racial and ethnic neighborhoods with thriving community-based organizations. But despite being the largest city in New Jersey, home to the largest school system in the state, an international airport, a sports arena, a performing arts center, government offices, and private-sector institutions and companies, “the local community does not often benefit from the economic bounty the city attracts and creates,” the report found.

The study also makes recommendations to reduce the barriers that perpetuate youth disconnection such as poverty, lack of health insurance, home life, teen births, and food insecurities.

Prioritizing high school completion, building high school to job pipelines, focusing on youth in poverty, supporting youth with disabilities, and helping young mothers pursue their educational and career goals are all objectives that “will have a positive effect on youth connection,” according to the report. The analysis also suggests that acting on “early-warning signs” such as low student academic performance or missing 18 days of school or more is key to helping teens stay in school until graduation.

Clark says the study released Wednesday is meant to continue to raise the issue among state and local leaders and “provide opportunities for all communities in New Jersey to be stronger.”

“In Newark, we’re going to roll up our sleeves and work with the collective array of organizations to figure out how we continue to communicate, get better, and create stronger networks of support for these young people,” Clark added.

Correction: April 30, 2024: A previous version of this story said 1 in 3 to 1 in 4 of the city’s disengaged youth live in zip codes 07114 and 07106. The young people who live in those zip codes are disengaged at a rate of 1 in 3 to 1 in 4.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

A ‘universal FAFSA’ law could be adopted in New York as budget negotiations continue

2024-04-17T17:57:25+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

T’Kai Harvey, a sophomore at the City University of New York’s Hunter College, didn’t see college as an option for most of her life.

“I come from a very low-income community in the Bronx,” she said. “So I wasn’t going to go to college and financially burden my family.”

But in her senior year of high school, Harvey learned about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, through her school, working with a counselor at her school who helped her complete the forms and secure the financial support she needed to fund her education.

Now, Harvey, along with other advocates and some lawmakers, is calling for a “universal FAFSA” law requiring all high school students to complete a financial aid application or submit a waiver opting out by the time they graduate.

The push has gained some traction in Albany, where a proposed law seeking to establish the requirement could be included in the state budget expected later this week. Gov. Kathy Hochul included a universal FAFSA policy in her budget proposal earlier this year, and on Monday, Hochul announced her administration would send letters to high school seniors with tips on completing the FAFSA, while urging principals to ensure students have the resources they need to access financial aid.

But some school districts have expressed concerns about taking on the added responsibility without additional resources, complicating the ongoing negotiations.

To Harvey, the proposed law is critical because she saw peers at other schools who were never informed about the FAFSA and missed out on significant financial aid as a result.

“I know I could have been one of the kids that didn’t have the opportunity to go to college, had I not been told,” said Harvey, a student advocate with uAspire, an organization that advocates for college access for students from underrepresented communities. “There’s a lot of federal aid that gets left behind because students aren’t filling it out.”

Calls for Universal FAFSA in New York follow the adoption of the policy in several other states. They come as recent data has shown local students losing out significant federal funding and as the fumbled rollout of a new version of the federal form this year has spurred headaches for students and counselors across the country.

In 2023, graduating students missed out on more than $225 million in potential Pell Grants by not completing the FAFSA, according to an analysis by the National College Attainment Network. And studies have shown students who complete the FAFSA are far more likely to attend college.

“So many students don’t even fill out the FAFSA, and as a result, they don’t even consider the possibility of pursuing higher education, because they think it’s out of reach,” said state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a sponsor of the bill. “The data that we saw in NY: Leaving $200 million on the table in eligible financial aid grants … That is a staggering number.”

Financial aid forms can be confusing for families

Under language put forward in a bill earlier this year by Gounardes and Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson, New York would require all public, charter, and private schools to enact “a universal financial aid policy,” meaning all students would be mandated to submit a FAFSA or Tuition Assistance Program, or TAP, application during their senior year. Students would also be able to submit a waiver opting out. (Those who do not complete an application or opt out would not be prevented from graduating.)

Proponents of a universal FAFSA law note that students can encounter barriers to filling out the complex financial aid forms, especially for those whose parents aren’t able to help.

“Many first-generation college students are navigating the financial aid process on their own,” said Anika Van Eaton, vice president of policy at uAspire. “Embedding this key step towards pursuing college and gaining knowledge of one’s financial aid eligibility within the high school experience is so crucial.”

Jacobson, the Assembly sponsor, noted many households haven’t encountered forms like the financial aid applications before.

“FAFSA is difficult — it’s difficult even if you’re a CPA,” he said. “There’s no question that students need help in doing this.”

For Melody Garcia, a senior at Hunter College who graduated from a public high school in Queens, their first experience filling out the form was difficult. Questions about assets, income, and other aspects of their financial situation quickly became confusing to Garcia and their mother, who does not have a college degree.

“There are so many different things that you need to fill out,” said Garcia, who uses they/them pronouns. “It looks like you’re doing taxes, and I just didn’t understand that.”

Garcia was able to get help from counselors at South Asian Youth Action, a community organization that works with schools in Queens and Brooklyn. But without that support, they would have felt lost, they said.

Still, Garcia is hopeful that a universal FAFSA policy would mean more students could find help at school.

“If it was mandatory, schools would have to set aside time for this, and really make sure that students know where to go,” said Garcia, who is an advocate with Young Invincibles, an organization that works to amplify youth voices and has called for New York to adopt a universal FAFSA policy.

Some schools concerned about FAFSA law

Some school districts worry, however, the bill would create an additional burden for them, particularly if it comes without any funding or other support. It’s become one of several issues that lawmakers and Hochul continue to discuss as negotiations over the state budget persist.

Bob Lowry, deputy director for the state’s Council of School Superintendents, said while they have supported voluntary efforts to encourage FAFSA completion, they remained concerned over the specifics of the potential new law.

Proposals from the Senate and Hochul would require school districts to obtain documentation from families that students had completed their financial aid applications or opted out — an added task for schools. Some school districts are also concerned about requirements to notify high school seniors about financial aid applications at least four times during the school year, as well as having to provide access or referrals for additional support in completing the FAFSA.

“Our greatest concern is with the potential expectation that schools will have the capacity to assist students and families with FAFSA completion,” Lowry said in an email.

Lowry instead favored language included in the Assembly’s budget proposal last month that does not make FAFSA completion a requirement, but directs the state to develop additional resources for students, including compiling lists of organizations that offer assistance with the FAFSA. Schools would be required to distribute those resources and conduct an annual presentation to students.

Gounardes said the goal is not to “take a prescriptive approach,” letting school districts determine how to approach the forms with their students.

“A lot of the other states that have done this have not required significant infusion of additional resources,” he added. “Though we are certainly very open to that conversation, were it demonstrated to be a necessity.”

Current FAFSA problems highlight bill’s need, lawmaker says

Gounardes believes the need for the proposed law has been heightened by nationwide issues with the FAFSA this year.

The “Better FAFSA” was intended to simplify the process through which students receive financial aid. But rollout of the new form has been plagued by glitches and errors, stoking fears that a significant portion of the Class of 2024 could ultimately end up not attending college.

Though Gounardes believes the issues will be solved for future application cycles, he added the impact of this year’s problems could be far-reaching.

“This debacle is proof as to why universal FAFSA is so important,” Gounardes said. “How many students are going to hear or assume that because it was a disaster this year, ‘Oh it’s not worth my time anymore. I’m not even going to bother.’

“That could not be further from the truth,” he said.

And while the city’s Education Department did not comment on the proposed law, it emphasized its commitment to ensuring students had adequate postsecondary support — particularly in light of issues this year.

“While there is continued concern about the impact of this year’s FAFSA difficulties, we have bolstered our support for students completing FAFSA,” Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said in a statement.

This year, the city has provided additional training to counselors, hosted remote advising sessions for families, partnered with organizations on FAFSA completion events, and distributed multilingual FAFSA guides, Tull said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

LISTEN: A high schooler working at Bloomberg — plus ‘shotgunning’ college applications

2024-04-17T09:00:00+00:00

As many seniors are making decisions about their post-graduation plans, this episode of P.S. Weekly profiles two students giving us an inside look at their approaches to preparing for life after high school.

For years, the Education Department has prioritized putting all students on a path to college. And while Chancellor David Banks says preparing students for higher education remains an important goal — as many jobs require a degree — he is placing greater emphasis on exposing students to the workplace well before graduation.

In the first segment, student producer Christian Rojas Linares explores a new apprenticeship program through the eyes of Heidy Torres, a high school junior who works 16 hours a week for Bloomberg, the finance giant and media company. City officials are hoping to offer about 3,000 slots over three years through the Career Readiness and Modern Youth Apprenticeship program, an ambitious effort to connect students to intensive work experiences that can stretch beyond high school.

For Heidy, the program is helping her think through what kind of career she might want. “Besides the fact that you’re earning money, you also know that, ‘Oh, I want to do this or I don’t want to do this,’” she says. “It gives you a new perspective.”

The second segment focuses on a student who has devoted enormous energy to getting into a top college — submitting 23 applications requiring 50 supplemental essays. Student producer Marcellino Melika spoke with Alex Calafiura, a senior at Manhattan’s East Side Community High School, about how he approached that daunting process and why he applied to so many schools.

Alex Calafiura, a senior at Manhattan’s East Side Community High School, applied to 23 colleges.

“You don’t really have any insight into what admissions committees [at] these schools are looking for,” Alex explains. “So you kind of just shoot your shot at as many schools as possible.” (Alex previously wrote an essay about his experience for Chalkbeat.)

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Be sure to drop a review in your app or shoot an email to PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org. Tell us what you learned in this episode or what you’re still wondering. We just might read your comment on a future episode.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell. Listen for new episodes Wednesdays this spring.

Read the full episode transcript below

Marcellino: Welcome to P.S. Weekly… the sound of the New York City school system. PS Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat New York and The Bell. I’m your host this week, Marcellino Melika. I’m a junior at Francis Lewis High School in Queens. On today’s episode: the college admissions frenzy, plus: a new program that’s putting high schoolers to work, literally. But first!... A Chalkbeat news bulletin…

Mike: I’m Mike Elsen-Rooney, a reporter from Chalkbeat. Here’s a recap of the week’s biggest education stories:

On May 8, New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks will testify at a U.S. House hearing on antisemitism. The committee overseeing the hearing is the same one that conducted the high-profile hearings last year with the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT.

Some school communities are pushing back on a mandated reading curriculum for elementary schools set to expand citywide next school year. They’re worried the changes threaten the things that make their schools unique, like teacher-created lessons. Meanwhile, the city is gearing up to overhaul curriculums for other grades and subjects.

And, New York City teens have launched a ‘Youth Civic Hub.” The new online portal aims to increase youth civic engagement and electoral participation. The platform is led by the nonprofit YVote and includes voter registration tools, internship opportunities, and more. You can find it at youthcivichub.org.

To stay up to date on local education news throughout the week, go to chalkbeat.org/newsletters and sign up for the New York Daily Roundup.

Marcellino: Thanks Chalkbeat!

Marcellino: This spring, seniors have been anxiously awaiting letters in their mail–or email. Letters that will shape the next 4 years of their lives, and beyond.

Reaction 1: I look like trash but I got into NYU

Reaction 2: Oh! I got into Yale!

Marcellino: This annual spring ritual is characterized by stress. And this year is even more stressful than usual…

ARCHIVAL TAPE:

This is the time of the year where many high school seniors choose their

college, but millions are still in limbo to hear how much financial aid they can

Expect…

SAT

Yale University tonight is the latest school reversing course, now requiring

standardized test courses for college admissions after 100s of schools shifted

to test-optional in recent years…

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

In the summer of 2023, the supreme court struck down affirmative action

in college admissions…

APPLICANTS

The race is on… the mad dash of applicants across America hoping to get into

the college of their choice… you’re going against a lot of competitive

Candidates…

Marcellino: The changes and challenges in college admissions have led to an especially stressful spring for many high school seniors. But we are also seeing new ways that the school system is trying to connect students to careers — sometimes instead of college.

CLIP: CHANCELLOR DAVID BANKS TAPE ON “CAREER PATHWAYS”

We’re going to create, career pathways. Where every young person that goes to our schools is going to be guaranteed that they’re going to have the skills, to go to college, to get a good job, they’re gonna understand what it means to take their place, in this American society.

Marcellino (Host): Chancellor David Banks has been steering the school system to focus more and more on introducing students to the workforce–well before graduation.

So with all of these changes in college admissions and a school system that’s talking more about careers than college, we wanted to know: How ARE high schoolers dealing with the age-old question: What’s Next?

Today, you’ll hear from two seniors: one who is putting the EARN in LEARN through a new career-focused program, and another who took the college application game to a new level.

With our first story, here’s P.S. Weekly producer Christian Rojas Linares.

HEIDY AUDIO DIARY: Good morning. It is currently 7:17 a.m.. I am picking out my outfit of the day and decided to go with my favorite grey flared pants and an oversized shirt.

Christian: This is Heidy Torres, a high school junior at the Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance.

HEIDY: I would get to school, go through daily school, routine my classes, and I would leave at 12:10 on the dot and then I would take the J train. And from there I would get to Bloomberg exactly around 1:00.

Christian: Bloomberg — the global financial and media giant, is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.

HEIDY AUDIO DIARY: Hello! It is currently 1:24 I am with my fellow apprenticee Keyla. Hi, guys. We are going to start work at exactly 1:30, which we will be taking on tickets and working with their issues.

Christian: Four afternoons a week, Heidy switches outfits — from student to employee — and works on Bloomberg’s internal Help Desk. Here’s how she explains her job:

HEIDY: I am in charge of basically, troubleshooting issues that employees have virtually. I don’t show up to their desk, I don’t troubleshoot myself. But virtually, you would help with, like installs for that employee or you would help them with like, oh, my PC isn’t working and you would like transfer that ticket to somebody who would actually go over there and help them with that issue.

Christian: I ask her THE important question…

Christian: How much does she get paid?

HEIDY: Currently I get paid 17 an hour

Christian: So you’re probably wondering,... how is a high school student working at Bloomberg? The short answer is: through an apprenticeship program her school offers.

HEIDY: At first I was skeptical. I wasn’t really into it. It was like taking a leap of faith, basically, and getting to be comfortable and knowing that you’re going to have to do some things that are out of your comfort zone, but then at the end it’s going to be good for you.

Christian: Heidy is one of hundreds of students citywide participating in the Career Readiness and Modern Youth Apprenticeship. It’s run by a nonprofit organization called CareerWise New York that partners with dozens of New York City public schools.

NOEL: CareerWise was founded in 2019 based off of an organization called CareerWise Colorado.

Christian: This is Noel Parish, Vice President of K-12 Partnerships at CareerWise.

NOEL: We wanted to get this started in New York because I personally had students who I know could be successful and wanted to be successful, but who also just wanted a job right out of high school. Sometimes they wanted to do some college, sometimes they just wanted to work a little bit and then go back to college. and there really weren’t many options. So we started career wise with the goal of creating an options multiplier for young people where they could take multiple pathways to a successful career.

Cristian: What are the main misconceptions that people may have about apprenticeships?

NOEL: I think a big one is often the apprenticeship is confused with an internship. So the apprenticeship has required instruction that you have to do. It has on-the-job training that has to be delivered by a mentor. It has a certification that you have to earn at the end of the apprenticeship, and then students can often get college credit for it. They’re also paid opportunities. You’re part of the company. You’re a real employee. And so you’re able to say, you know, I have worked at Amazon for three years by age 19. So I think that’s one of the misconceptions.

Christian: And there’s another big one:

It’s an alternative to college. Sometimes the apprenticeship can be an alternative to college. It can also be part of your journey in college. And sometimes the two are combined. Like in health care, you have to go to college you have to go to college to become a nurse. And so that’s part of the pathway. Other occupations, like a project coordinator, that doesn’t require a college degree. And so you can do that with just apprentice training. And there’s also certifications you can get, especially in the technology field, that allow you to do certain jobs without a degree. And so it creates so many options.

Christian: CareerWise is a key partner in the NYC school system’s shift from the previous administration’s “College for All” initiative to a focus on what they call Career Pathways — kind of like routes to professions that students can explore.

NOEL: Our main ones are in technology, business, finance, and then we launched health care last year. And so within each of those pathways are different occupations, which are very specific jobs, things like a junior coder, junior graphic designer. We have a pre-nursing program, a radiology program, project coordinator, marketing, human resources. I think we have about 28 different occupations that students can choose from.

Christian: How many students are participating in the apprenticeship program?

NOEL: We work with about 70 high schools. 58 of them are part of the Career Readiness and Modern Youth Apprenticeship Initiative that the DOE is currently running. There’s curriculum for ninth and 10th graders. So we have, you know, thousands of students taking that. But then in terms of apprenticeships, we’ve had over 650 students participate in a modern youth apprenticeship over the last five years.

Christian: CareerWise has high hopes to expand its apprenticeship program, and offer it to other schools on a waitlist. That will partially rely on having enough employer partners.

Christian: The NYC Department of Education has said they want to provide 3,000 apprenticeships over three years . It’s an ambitious goal, though the program would still reach less than 1% of the city’s public high school students.

Christian: I ask Noel how CareerWise evaluates success.

NOEL: The outcome that I’m most proud of is that it is truly an options multiplier. So we have a large percentage of young people who do decide to go on to college right after the program. We think that’s great. We’ve had a student who got accepted to, I think it was Yale, and he deferred his start of Yale for a year because he wanted to finish his apprenticeship at Amazon. We’ve had students who have gotten a job right out at 19, no college debt as a coder making like $109,000 a year. We have students that get hired as project cooordinators, that is the the successful outcome of the program.

Christian: So what is Heidy planning on doing after high school? Is she planning on going to college?

HEIDY: Um, yes, I do plan, but it’s going to be out of state. I don’t want to stay in here. I want to really explore and I want to see what there is.

Christian: what do you plan on studying?

HEIDY: I plan on studying forensic science. I love anything mysteries any true crime, but I would say I would go back to Bloomberg. If being a forensic scientist doesn’t work out cause they have so many other communities that I don’t know of yet, and I would love to be more on the production side of it, too.

Christian: Would you recommend the Modern Youth apprenticeship to someone who is undecided about their future?

HEIDY: I would say go for it, but you have to really stay committed to it like It’s going to take a leap of faith and it’s going to feel weird cause it’s new, but then you’re going to feel glad you did it because, besides the fact that you’re earning money, you also know that, oh, I want to do this or I don’t want to do this. It gives you a new perspective.

HEIDY AUDIO DIARY: Hello. It is currently 3:30 and I am about to enter my end-of-the-day meeting with my team. This is where we just talk about any tickets that we need help with So after that, I’m just going to finish up some of the tickets and like saving them for next week, and then that’s the end of the day.

Christian: The theme I heard from both Heidy and Noel?... Options. The program is designed to give students MORE options. A toolbox full of jobs to try out and see if you like… And the goal is that if you DO decide to go to college, you’ll have a better sense of why.

Cooking it up for P.S. Weekly, I’m Christian Rojas Linares.

Marcellino: Thanks Christian. Next up… producer Tanvir Kaur and I worked together on a story about a high school senior who knows his way around the college application process… After this quick break.

--

Alex: Uh, got to think about this. I always forget what I had for breakfast. Oh, This morning I had a croissant from my deli, and I went straight to school.

Tanvir: A few weeks ago, our host Marcellino spoke with Alex Calafiuria, a senior at Eastside Community High School in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Tanvir: We wanted to talk to Alex…because he wrote an article for Chalkbeat…about how he applied to TWENTY THREE colleges.

MARCELLINO: So, why did you apply to so many schools?

ALEX: I did it because I’m crazy. But actually, I did it because I really wanted to get the best shot possible at all of these amazing schools. And I’m really passionate about learning. And I believe there’s so many different colleges across the country, and I could see myself fitting in at so many of them.

Tanvir: But still… twenty-three?!

Alex: Okay, so there is this thing going around the internet for a while now. It’s called the “shotgunning” method.

Youtube Clip

And then there’s another strategy, one what I’d like to call the “shotgun

strategy” this is the one where you apply to many schools like fifteen or twenty

schools sometimes even more than …

ALEX: you don’t really have any insight into what admissions committees are these schools are looking for. So you kind of just shoot your shot at as many schools as possible.You should hope that one specific school has a need for someone with your application.

Tanvir: Okay, So… I have to admit. I also applied to a lot of schools. 26 of them…

Tanvir: I didn’t know what “shot-gunning” was–but that’s what many seniors are doing. As a first-generation student applying to college, I was anxious. I felt like by getting into a good university, my parents’ sacrifices would be worth it.

Tanvir: But… Applying to a lot of schools is not easy. How did Alex keep track of everything?

ALEX: Stay organized, because if you’re disorganized, everything’s going to fall apart really quickly. For me, I found that staying organized meant making spreadsheets, having documents of my essays, and just having a to-do list and making sure I was on track.

Tanvir: Alex had support throughout the application process from his school’s counselors. His school offered SAT prep, financial aid seminars, and helped seniors with other tasks. But ultimately, writing the 50 – yes FIFTY – essays came down to him…. alone…. tapping away at his laptop at the Seward Park Public Library… Spending HUNDREDS of hours in total.

ALEX: And knocking out one essay after the other after the other, and then somewhere halfway through you kind of just had this realization that what if this is all for nothing? Like, what if I’m sitting here writing these essays and nothing comes out of it? So those are tough times and I think they kind of make you lose motivation a little bit.

Tanvir: This is a reality for many seniors. While I was applying, I also wondered, what if it was all for nothing? What if I had spent more time with my family and friends–instead of spending days and nights working on college applications? But, you can’t fall into the rabbit hole of what if’s.

Tanvir: A week or so after Marcellino spoke with Alex, he sent me a voice memo.

ALEX: And this was my reaction, March 28th at 7 PM as I heard back from

Yale

VOICE MEMO ALEX:

[Multiple voices screaming yelling]…I made it. I made it!... YEAH! YEAH! Let’s go! My boy’s in Yale!… Alright!

Tanvir: Congratulations, Alex! Your hard work definitely paid off.

Tanvir: As for me, I am anxiously waiting for my FAFSA application to be processed. The process has been difficult but it’s important to remind yourself that your self-worth is not determined by acceptances or rejections. Admissions officers are looking at papers, not people. They don’t know your personality, that you are kind. Or, that you always brighten a room with your smile. College is not the only journey. It does not define who you are. There are many ways to achieve your definition of success.

Tanvir: If you don’t believe me–here’s Emmy-award-winning audio producer – Stephanie Foo – in her recent Instagram reel…

Stephanie Foo CLIP: I really wanted to go to Stanford. That was the plan. And I failed all of my classes and I graduated with a 2.9 GPA. So suffice it to say, I did not go to Stanford. Now I have one of these.

Tanvir: You can’t see, but Stephanie picks up her Emmy Award.

Stephanie Foo CLIP: And I also have this–which is a NYT’s best-selling book. And I have worked at places like This American Life, and I’ve written for like the NYTimes. And nobody ever really cared where I went to school. Who you are in high school and where you go to college do not define the rest of your life. You still have a lot of future ahead of you. And everything will be fine. I promise.

Tanvir: This is Tanvir Kaur reporting for P.S. Weekly.

Marcellino: If you are a high school senior, what was your experience applying to colleges? If you’re not going to college, what is the alternative path you are taking & been like? Email PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org.

Marcellino: That’s our show for today. We’re off next week for spring break, but we’ll be back with a new episode on May 1st. You won’t want to miss it. Our team sat down with Chancellor David Banks himself…

Episode BANKS Clip Preview:

Chancellor Banks: What is a fun fact that most people don’t know about Chancellor Banks? I would say watch this I’ve never said this to anybody …

Marcellino: Until then… class dismissed!

Marcellino: PS Weekly is a collaboration between The Bell and Chalkbeat, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation, The Summerfield Foundation, FJC, and Hindenburg Systems.

This episode was hosted by me, Marcellino Melika.

Producers for this episode were: Christian Rojas Linares and Tanvir Kaur, with reporting help from Chalkbeat reporter Alex Zimmerman

Our marketing lead this week was Salma Baksh.

Our executive producer for the show is JoAnn DeLuna.

Executive editors are Amy Zimmer and Taylor McGraw

Additional production and reporting support was provided by Sabrina DuQuesnay, Mira Gordon, and our friends at Chalkbeat.

Special thanks to our interns Miriam Galicia and Makenna Turner

And also thanks to our amazing team of volunteer mentors.

Music from Blue Dot Sessions.

And the jingle you heard at the beginning of this episode was created by the one and only:

Thanks for tuning in! See you next time!

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

Read in English

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.

A bungled FAFSA rollout threatens students’ college ambitions

2024-04-05T20:09:03+00:00

Leer en español.

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

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.

Want to finish the FAFSA before a key Indiana deadline? Here’s what you should know.

2024-04-02T11:00:00+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.

With a key deadline for Indiana students to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, less than two weeks away, roughly one-third of the Class of 2024 had finished the form as of late March.

The National College Attainment Network’s tracker shows that 32.6% of the class had submitted the form as of March 22, or roughly 29,000 Indiana high school seniors. That’s more than 6,000 fewer Indiana students than at the same time last year, and slightly below the submission rate of 33.7% for this year’s high school class nationwide.

Filling out the FAFSA is considered an indicator of college-going, and Indiana leaders are pushing ways to increase the number of students going to some form of postsecondary education. Students who submit the FAFSA by April 15 get priority for state financial aid.

This year, the FAFSA has changed in multiple ways and has been completed at lower rates across the U.S.. The federal rollout of the new FAFSA has been marked by delays and glitches, including for students who have undocumented parents.

Colleges have also pushed back enrollment deadlines and expressed concern over the amount of time needed to process delayed data from students to award aid packages.

And at the same time, a new state law requires students, with some exceptions, to fill out the financial aid form starting with this year’s graduating class. The Indiana Commission for Higher Education set a goal of 60% completion for the Class of 2024. Last year, nearly 48% of students in Indiana’s high school Class of 2023 completed the form, per a state dashboard.

But McKalaih Legault, director for postsecondary program implementation at the commission, said she’s still feeling optimistic about reaching the 60% goal as the state’s deadline approaches.

The state, schools, and nonprofits are working together to share resources with students and help, she said.

Still planning to fill out the FAFSA? Here’s what to know:

Why should I fill out the FAFSA?

The form is a “key that unlocks all different opportunities,” Legault said.

Filling it out is how students are considered for federal financial aid like grants, loans, and scholarships, as well as some state aid and aid from individual colleges. Plus, students can also access a Next Level Jobs Workforce Ready Grant for a short- or long-term credential.

More than $400 million in state aid is available to students, per the commission. Higher education advocates have stressed that students are leaving money on the table by not filling out the form and seeing their financial options.

What do I need to fill out the new form?

While students and families continue to struggle with the new form, commission leaders said they’ve also heard the opposite: that the new form can take 10 minutes to fill out.

One big change from last year is that students and parents need to create their Federal Student Aid ID, which serves as a digital signature needed for the FAFSA, in advance.

What happens if I miss the April 15 deadline?

State financial aid is on a first-come, first-served basis after that deadline, per the commission. However, it’s still possible to fill out and submit the FAFSA after that deadline, and there is an appeals process for those who missed the deadline and still want to be considered for state aid, Legault said.

Where can I go for help to fill out the FAFSA?

Community organizations and schools have ramped up efforts to help with the form.

Indianapolis Public Schools has two upcoming FAFSA Family Filing Nights from 5 to 7 p.m. April 3 and 10 in the cafeteria of Arsenal Tech High School.

Legault also recommended contacting the commission’s outreach coordinator in your area. You can find yours and send them a message here.

Additionally, InvestED helps students and families across the state with FAFSA. You can also reach out directly for free, expert help. Call 317-715-9007 or email outreach@investedindiana.org. InvestED also hosts FAFSA events at high schools around Indiana. See a full schedule here.

And the U.S. Department of Education has email and live chat help, as well as a helpline: 1-800-4-FED-AID.

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.

Newark’s new reengagement center connects city youth with career, educational opportunities

2024-03-27T10:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.

Stephan Young says he’s in his “grown-man stage” – and a long way since his release from federal prison last August where he served five-and-a-half years for a drug-related charge.

During his time in prison, Young says he reflected on the challenges that kept him from staying in school and the decisions that led him to choose a life on the streets. He also thought about his now 7-year-old son and the personal change he wanted to make for him.

After his release, Young knew he needed to find a safe and healthy way to provide for his son but didn’t know where to go or who to ask for help. That’s when the halfway house where he was staying referred him to Newark’s reengagement services. It was an opportunity that changed his life, Young said.

The 25-year-old Newark native told his story in front of dozens of city leaders at Tuesday’s grand opening of Newark’s new reengagement center located at the city’s One-Stop Career Center on McCarter Highway.

The new center, a partnership between the city of Newark and Newark Public Schools, is a one-stop hub aimed at addressing the barriers that prevent young people from reengaging in education or entering the workforce. The city will continue to partner with community-based organizations and other city departments to target students who may be at risk of dropping out of school, teens who require help to get on a better path, or others who may be referred from city departments.

The center will provide youth with local services such as school placement advising, access to academic enrichment, social support, and modified instructional programming. Young adults over the age of 21 will be referred to GED and high school equivalency program options to complete their education before entering workforce training programs.

Before prison, Young spent most of his teen years with his grandmother but he fell in with a bad crowd. His experience reflects that of thousands of youth in Newark and across the country who disengage from school due to violence, an unstable home life, trauma, or other barriers. Eventually, young people like Young gradually disengage from learning, and without adequate support and interventions, they may drop out of school.

Newark native Stephan Young sought help from the city's reengagement center after serving five years in federal prison.

In Newark, roughly 4,000 teens and young adults between the ages of 16 and 20 are not in school, and about 3,000 more between 15 and 21 are at risk of leaving school without a high school diploma, according to a 2018 report conducted by the Newark Opportunity Youth Network. The pandemic exacerbated those numbers, say city leaders, who are looking to change the trajectory for teens and young adults ages 13-24 who they call “Opportunity Youth.”

Young remembers his first visit with members of the reengagement center: “I was sitting there puzzled but happy on the inside looking at how many people wanted to help me and they didn’t even know me yet.”

But reenagement isn’t a one-size-fits-all effort, said Newark Mayor Ras Baraka during Tuesday’s grand opening ceremony. Using federal and city dollars, multiple state and city departments will work together on the third floor of the One-Stop Career Center, which is also home to the city’s youth career center.

“We are going to allow parents and kids to have options to be able to specify a program just for them or tailor it for them,” Baraka said. “It may be a charter school, it may be a Newark public school, or maybe neither of those.”

Tyreek Rolon is the newly appointed director of the center and director of NewarkWorks and the Summer Youth Employment Program. NewarkWorks will collaborate with the center as well as the city’s Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery and Workforce Development department to develop a plan for youth.

Karen Gaylord, the executive director of the Newark Workforce Development department, said Baraka has been clear in his mandate to provide academic and career support to young people.

At the reengagement center, teens and young adults will meet with career, educational, or social workers to determine what programs and department services fit best with their needs. Participants are then placed in one of three available tracks. Youth in need of completing their high school degree will be placed on an educational track, those needing career or employment assistance will be placed in a vocational training program, and others requiring more personal help will be placed on a social, emotional, and well-being track.

“We want to treat the whole person,” said Rolon on Tuesday. “The main goal that we want our young adults to understand is that we want to get you educated first. Then we will provide the resources, skills, and tools around employment.”

Young, one of the first participants of the reengagement center’s services, says he is blessed to have found support in his community. After spending a few months completing a GED program in prison, Young will attend Rutgers University Newark this fall where he will major in business. He will be the first man in his family to finish college, a goal he aims to achieve for his son.

Young says the streets “cloud up your mind up and thinking.” “But once you have a sit-down with someone, you open up about life and what you’re doing wrong and what you’re doing right,” Young added. “The reengagement center showed me a lot.”

Newark residents can contact the reengagement center by calling the department at 973-733-8500 or filling out a questionnaire form online.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Problema corregido en la FAFSA abre el formulario para muchas familias inmigrantes

2024-03-21T22:50:12+00:00

Read in English.

Muchos estudiantes sintieron alivio la semana pasada cuando los funcionarios federales de educación anunciaron correcciones críticas a la solicitud federal de ayuda financiera para permitir que los padres sin número de Seguro Social poder poner información en el formulario.

El cambio significa que decenas de miles de estudiantes ciudadanos de EE.UU. y otros que son elegibles para recibir ayuda financiera federal ahora pueden finalmente completar sus solicitudes FAFSA. Por otro lado, también significa que las familias y los orientadores universitarios están luchando para completar el proceso meses después que otros estudiantes. Y algunas familias todavía están teniendo problemas.

“Puede ser muy desalentador para los estudiantes y las familias, que sienten que están haciendo todo lo correcto y de todos modos siguen enfrentando obstáculos”, dijo Amanda Seider, a cargo de la oficina de Massachusetts del grupo de acceso a la universidad OneGoal.

Chalkbeat reportó en enero que un error técnico había impedido por más de dos meses que los hijos de padres indocumentados completaran sus solicitudes de ayuda financiera. Como resultado, a muchos educadores y grupos de acceso a la universidad les preocupaba que esos retrasos pudieran ser un impedimento adicional para los estudiantes que ya se enfrentan a mayores barreras para ir a la universidad — lo cual se sumaba a la ya complicada publicación de la FAFSA nueva y supuestamente más fácil de llenar. Algunas universidades y becas conceden las ayudas financieras por orden de solicitud, y por lo tanto los estudiantes que llenan la solicitud más tarde están en desventaja.

Durante ese tiempo, los estudiantes tuvieron que navegar por una variedad confusa de opciones, entre las que se incluía no hacer nada y esperar a que el problema se resolviera, o probar una solución parcial que podía ponerles en mayor riesgo de cometer un error en la solicitud o hacer que tuvieran que llenar más papeleo después.

Y aún quedan problemas pendientes. Mientras los funcionarios federales ponían en marcha la solución nueva, descubrieron otros dos problemas adicionales que afectan al mismo grupo de estudiantes y que todavía están por resolverse.

Esto significa que los padres que no tienen número de Seguro Social tendrán que poner su información financiera manualmente, en lugar de transferirla directamente del IRS. Y en algunos casos — por ejemplo, cuando uno de los padres pone un nombre o dirección que no coincide exactamente con la información que su hijo puso — los padres todavía reciben mensajes de error que les impiden llenar el formulario. Los funcionarios federales dijeron la semana pasada que trabajarían para solucionar el problema “en los próximos días”.

Los funcionarios federales calcularon que alrededor de un 2% de los solicitantes de ayuda financiera fueron afectados por el error original del número de Seguro Social, lo que sería equivalente a cientos de miles de estudiantes en un año típico.

El asunto llamó la atención de docenas de miembros demócratas de la Cámara, que enviaron una carta a Miguel Cardona, Secretario de Educación de EE.UU., pidiéndole al departamento que solucionara el problema rápidamente. En un comunicado de prensa publicado la semana pasada, el Rep. Jared Huffman de California dijo que el error técnico fue un “error completamente inaceptable” que había causado “miedo, estrés y pérdida de oportunidades para muchos niños de mi distrito y del país”.

“Espero que el Departamento tome las medidas necesarias para asegurar que nunca ocurran problemas como este”, dijo Huffman.

La publicación de la FAFSA nueva ha estado plagada de problemas y retrasos. Los funcionarios del Departamento de Educación le han echado la culpa a la falta de fondos y a retos técnicos significativos al actualizar los sistemas viejos. Los republicanos han acusado a la administración de estar distraída con la iniciativa de perdonar los préstamos estudiantiles. Según las noticias, observadores externos han dicho que todos estos y otros factores jugaron un papel.

Según datos federales rastreados por la National College Attainment Network, hay un 33% menos solicitudes de FAFSA en comparación con esta fecha el año pasado.

Por el momento, muchas universidades han retrasado las fechas límite mientras esperan por la información financiera de los estudiantes que les ayudará a preparar los paquetes de ayuda. Y las familias están esperando.

Ahora, los consejeros y orientadores universitarios dicen que están trabajando para asegurar que los estudiantes sepan qué hacer si siguen encontrando errores técnicos. También están tratando de mantener el ánimo de los estudiantes y prepararlos para comparar sus paquetes de ayuda financiera y aceptación cuando los reciban.

“Lo más importante que podemos hacer es compartir información sobre cómo poner la información manualmente, cómo asegurar que sean muy precisos al completar esos pasos”, dijo Seider. “Realmente queremos asegurar que los estudiantes y las familias estén siendo proactivos y no sientan que todo esto es por falta suya, sino que piensen: ‘Este sistema ha sido un poco confuso, necesitamos que nos ayuden’”.

Kalyn Belsha es reportera nacional de educación con sede en Chicago. Se habla español. Para comunicarte con ella, escríbele a kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por Milly Suazo-Martinez

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

Leer en español

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

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.

Community college can be a gateway to a 4-year degree. Indiana has one of the worst success rates.

2024-03-15T17:47:34+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.

This article was originally published by WFYI.

Community colleges are often touted as an affordable start for students who aim to earn four-year degrees. And it’s for good reason: The average annual tuition and fees for two-year colleges is less than $4,000.

But fewer than 1 in 10 Indiana students who enroll in community college go on to earn degrees from four-year institutions, according to recently released federal data. Indiana has the third-lowest success rate in the country.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Tyre’k Swanigan, a former Ivy Tech Community College student from Indianapolis. “It pisses me off honestly, because I was at Ivy Tech. And this is me. Like, this number — I’m a part of that.”

Community colleges offer two-year degrees and short-term certificate programs that can help students get good jobs. But bachelor’s degrees can ultimately lead to higher incomes. And about 80% of U.S. community college students say they plan to transfer to four-year schools.

Swanigan, 23, knew he wanted a bachelor’s degree when he enrolled. He started at community college because it was flexible and convenient. “I could still have my full-time job and then make it to my classes on time,” he said.

He did well at first, but Swanigan said he struggled when the pandemic pushed classes online, and he eventually withdrew.

Swanigan’s difficulties are part of a national problem. Last year, the U.S. Education Department released data from students who received federal financial aid. It found that just 13% of those who enrolled in community college in 2014 graduated from a four-year institution within eight years. The rate in Indiana is about 7%.

About 7 percent of Indiana community college students earned bachelor's degrees

Community colleges offer crucial access to higher education because they have open enrollment and low tuition. Nationally, community colleges educate about 40% of undergraduates. Those students are diverse — including first-generation college students, single parents, and adults returning to school.

“The community college transfer pathway has long sort of held this potential as a more affordable and accessible route to a bachelor’s and graduate degree,” said John Fink with the Community College Research Center. “More recently, with the sort of increasing costs of college generally, a lot of students have been turning to community colleges as that on ramp to a bachelor’s.”

About a quarter of recent high school graduates who enroll in an Indiana public college or university start at community college, according to the latest state data. The vast majority go to Ivy Tech, a statewide system that enrolled nearly 54,000 full- and part-time students last fall.

Students face challenges when transferring

While most community college students plan to earn bachelor’s degrees, fewer than a third transfer to four-year schools. Students who do transfer still face barriers, like struggling to get credit for classes they already took. And many students don’t get enough advising and support at four-year colleges.

These days Swanigan works in a K-12 school. He wants to help lead a school one day, and he needs a bachelor’s degree to do it. Still, he has struggled to find a college that works for him.

Last year, he briefly transferred to a private, four-year university. That school told him they wouldn’t accept all his community college classes.

Swanigan, who’s gay, didn’t feel welcome at the Christian college, and he withdrew. Now, he’s headed back to Ivy Tech.

Tyre’k Swanigan walks in the hall of the Indianapolis K-12 school where he works. He wants to work in school leadership one day, but knows he needs a bachelor's degree to do it.

Losing credits is a common barrier for transfer students. Neka Booth, 40, returned to school after years working in dialysis because she wanted to become a social worker. Ivy Tech was free for her. And it helped her transition and prepare for a four-year university, she said. “I would tell everybody they should start at Ivy Tech,” she said.

After Booth earned an associate degree in 2022, she transferred to a private college to pursue a bachelors. The new college required her to retake three classes, Booth said.

When students lose credits like Booth did, they’re forced to take extra classes, said Lorenzo Baber, director of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Office of Community College Research and Leadership. That’s time-consuming and expensive.

“That’s money,” he said. “That’s a couple thousand dollars, which matters.”

Indiana lags far behind other states

Experts say that policy can improve success rates for transfer students. Community college students in Illinois are more than twice as likely to earn bachelor’s degrees compared to Indiana, according to the federal data.

Illinois made improving transfer success a priority more than three decades ago. In 1993, higher education leaders created a statewide “articulation initiative” to help students transfer without losing credits. More recently, state law has pushed institutions to grant transfer credit and guaranteed admission to four-year public colleges for qualified community college transfer students.

Indiana has one of the lowest community college to four-year degree success rates in the nation.

But even in Illinois — one of the top states in the nation — only about 16% of community college students earned bachelor’s degrees, according to the federal data.

Experts say one reason why improving transfers is challenging is because many community college students have responsibilities outside the classroom.

If students need to care for their family or have a medical problem, that can derail their education. For states to improve college completion rates, they need to support people throughout their lives, Baber said.

“You could have the best designed programs,” Baber said, “but that gets rendered meaningless if somebody needs to stop out because they need to take a job to pay the bills of their household.”

State pushes to improve degree rate

Indiana leaders know there’s a problem, and they have made policy changes to make it easier for community college students to earn four-year degrees.

In 2013, lawmakers required state colleges and universities to create transfer pathways for students who complete associate degrees. If students earn associate degrees in nursing at Ivy Tech, for example, they can transfer to a public four-year university without losing credits, said Mary Jane Michalak, vice president of legal and public affairs for Ivy Tech.

“Whenever possible we direct students into those pathways,” Michalak said, “because by state law then those credits are supposed to transfer seamlessly as long as it’s within the same program.”

Ivy Tech Community College is a a statewide system that enrolled nearly 54,000 full- and part-time students last fall.

There’s a similar program, known as Indiana College Core, to help students who take a year’s worth of classes at community college or while in high school.

Ivy Tech has also worked with universities to make transfer easier. In February, Ivy Tech announced its latest partnership: dual admission to Indiana University in Indianapolis. The aim is to connect students to IU, with counseling and events, while they earn associate degrees at Ivy Tech. Similar models have been successful in other places.

During a recent interview with WFYI, Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Chris Lowery pointed to the Ivy Tech and IU Indianapolis partnership and the state’s focus on transfer pathways as examples of how the state is tackling this problem.

Because the new federal data followed students for eight years, the people it tracked started back in 2014. Michalak said it doesn’t capture the impact of the improvements the state has made.

“Ten years is a long time,” Michalak said. “There have been a lot of changes since then, both in state law and in the operation or in the administration of institutions.”

But the transfer system is still complicated and it can be hard for students to navigate.

A spokesperson for the Indiana Commission for Higher Education said the office plans to release data on transfer students in the near future. When that data comes out, it will be the first time in more than six years that the state publishes details on how many community college students transfer and complete four-year degrees.

Without that data, Indiana doesn’t know whether policy changes are working.

Contact WFYI education reporter Dylan Peers McCoy at dmccoy@wfyi.org.

Davis Aerospace school’s move back to City Airport remains in a holding pattern

2024-03-11T10:50:12+00:00

Detroit’s school district needs nearly $10 million to return the Davis Aerospace Technical High School to the grounds of the Coleman A. Young International Airport.

Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told BridgeDetroit that the district is looking to privately raise $9.6 million with support from the DPSCD Foundation or to obtain a one-time earmark in this year’s state budget.

Relocating Davis Aerospace to the airport on the city’s east side will also require the district to convert one of the terminals into a school building. That would require removing escalators and luggage conveyor belts, installing a fire suppression system and alarm, adding newer mechanical equipment, and replacing the roofing system, he said.

DPSCD does not yet have any leads or funding commitments. But the project remains a priority for the district, which is aiming to have the move take place during the 2026-27 school year, Vitti said.

“The school board and I are fully committed to making the relocation happen,” Vitti said. “So if private funding or separate state funding is not provided, then we will prioritize this commitment in future district budgets.”

The continued push to relocate the aviation school comes amid forecasts that the industry faces a national shortage of pilots, maintenance technicians, and cabin crew members. Advocates say Davis Aerospace — one of few training centers for student pilots in Michigan — is a critical component of helping to fill the void.

In 2019, DPSCD decided that ninth-graders participating in the aviation program would be bused to the airport for afternoon classes. While the aviation school is still offering afternoon classes for its 100 students, the long-term goal of fully operating Davis Aerospace at the facility has stalled, with airport advocates and community members wondering what happened.

The delay was discussed at a January school board meeting by Keith Hines, a 1973 graduate and former electrical inspector for the city. He asked why the district hasn’t valued the importance of aviation education and the school, noting that Davis Aerospace has supplied numerous qualified mechanics for the aviation industry for years.

“Why can’t $50 million be set aside from the $700 million (facility master plan) for aviation education, technology skills and advancement since the demand is growing?” Hines said. “We need to see the stamped, finalized, approved plans for the Davis relocation project.”

The school was relocated from the airfield, better known as City Airport, to Golightly Career and Technical Center in 2013 while the district was under state-appointed emergency manager Roy Roberts. Without access to the airport, the school could no longer help students obtain the federal certification in aviation mechanics that would give them an inside track to steady, high-paying jobs.

“We did place $5 million in the (facility master plan) for the Davis move to the airport,” Vitti said. “However, we learned that the city could not use grant funds to support the facility work needed for the school, and costs of the facility increased due to flooding damage to the terminal. In addition, code costs were higher than expected from initial walkthroughs.”

A Tuskegee Airmen monument sits at the entrance of the Coleman A. Young International Airport. The Detroit school district is looking for philanthropic dollars to cover the nearly $10 million it will cost to make repairs needed to move Davis Aerospace Technical High School to the airport.

There are several aviation and aerospace high schools across the country, but Davis Aerospace is the only school of its kind in Detroit and one of few in Michigan. The most well-known school outside of Detroit is West Michigan Aviation Academy in Grand Rapids.

Beverly Kindle-Walker, executive director of Friends of Detroit City Airport, doesn’t understand why DPSCD needs $9.6 million to relocate and rehab Davis Aerospace. The nonprofit was founded in 1990 to expose young people to the fields of aerospace, aviation, and STEM.

“Just to inhabit it as a classroom structure, there’s no way it’s going to cost that much money, so we’re wondering where they’re basing it from,” Kindle-Walker said. “If they’re going to go into the private sector to raise money, I don’t know why they’re not making an effort to work on that. There are many people in the aviation field who are looking for pilots and mechanics, avionics, and all sorts of people who will be willing to partner with the public school system to help train their workforce.”

School fills ‘a critical need’ in developing aviation talent

Keith Newell, a former member of the Coleman A. Young International Airport Education Association, said that Davis Aerospace provides Detroit kids with career exploration and preparation for the aviation industry. And the need for new talent is critical, he said, especially with the aviation industry experiencing a shortage of pilots and mechanics.

In Boeing’s 2023 Pilot and Technician Outlook, the company projects that commercial carriers will need significant personnel through 2042 to support the global commercial fleet, including 649,000 pilots, 690,000 maintenance technicians, and 938,000 cabin crew members. This comes as domestic air travel has fully recovered from the pandemic, and international traffic is near pre-pandemic levels, the aircraft maker said.

In addition, pilots and mechanics are aging out of the industry, said Newell, who is now the manager at Wexford County Airport in Cadillac. Commercial airline pilots are required to retire at age 65, and air traffic controllers at 56 years old.

“Davis Aerospace fills a critical need in pipeline management,” he said. “They’re training kids on the skills that they’re going to need in those careers and then, depending if they become pilots or mechanics, some might require some college, some might not. But there are definitely paths to continue going to get into those careers.”

Detroiter Bin Userkaf graduated from Davis Aerospace in 2020 and had a positive experience at the school. While he mostly studied graphics and printing technology at Golightly, he still participated in aviation classes.

“After middle school, I realized I was not going to high school to make friends,” said Userkaf, now 21. “I really wanted to feel like I was ready to take on the world and a career in the field that I wanted to go into, and Davis had that. They just had great programs for people who actually wanted to do professional work.”

However, he remembered visiting an airport only once, and that was Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus. During his sophomore year, Userkaf said, there was an aviation class he took where students worked on the frames of cars. He said it would’ve been more fun if they had the opportunity to work on planes.

“I feel like it’s a disadvantage, because it’s a school that’s called Davis Aerospace and it’s down the street from City Airport,” Userkaf said. “By not having that as an avenue, it’s cutting off an entire part of what could be a really cool curriculum, even for people who might not be into aviation. It can just be a cool thing to learn, because you never know, it could ignite someone who was not initially interested into feeling like, ‘Wow, I feel like I want to pursue aviation.’

“People who find the school should be given a full experience of what Davis specifically has to offer instead of a generalized experience of flight,” he added.

Brian Smith, president of the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum, also wants to see Davis Aerospace back at the airport. His organization, which hosts various programs and classes for children, teens, and young adults, is helping to fill a void for areas the school doesn’t have the capacity to teach, such as a flight academy and a full maintenance program, he said.

Roy Roberts “just took the teeth right out of what Davis was offering, which was a pathway to the middle class without college for our inner-city kids, the ones under-represented,” Smith said.

Sometimes, Smith gets asked whether he will open an aviation school. But his response is no, saying Davis Aerospace is still the best option for teens who want to pursue a career in the aviation industry.

“I want the school to be at the airport. I want it to succeed,” Smith said. “And I’ll go back to the role I had before the school at the airport was shut down, which was to take those students who could not attend Davis and give them the opportunity for flight.”

Leonard Shirley is one of the students enrolled in the Tuskegee Airmen’s flight academy. The 16-year-old is a 10th grader at Davis Aerospace and wants to become an airplane pilot. Shirley said he joined the Tuskegee Airmen program a few weeks ago to receive additional aviation instruction after school.

He said his class doesn’t come to City Airport often, and he believes he would have a better experience at school if Davis Aerospace was on site full-time.

“If someone is into being a pilot, they can actually take a test flight with an instructor,” Shirley said. “They’ve also got good mechanics and drone pilots, and we will actually be able to see the planes in front of us.”

Airport remains active, even after loss of a runway

David Tarrant has also advocated for the airport and aviation school.

Tarrant is the former executive director of the Coleman A. Young International Airport Education Association, a nonprofit made up of community advocates formed in 2017 when the airport was at risk of being shut down. But after the city announced its layout plan for City Airport in 2022, Tarrant stepped down as director, and the association has since become more of an informal organization, he said.

Coleman A. Young International Airport, as seen from French Street in Detroit in August 2023. The airport could soon house Davis Aerospace Technical High School, which was moved out of the facility in 2013.

One of the issues the association was fighting for was to keep the use of a smaller, crosswind runway used during windy conditions and for inexperienced pilots. However, the Federal Aviation Administration approved the decommissioning of the runway in 2022, freeing up 80 acres of land for new development.

Tarrant said the crosswinds runway was important for training pilots, such as the students at Davis Aerospace.

“Student pilots have a lot of wind restrictions … and if you take the other runway away, it limits training,” he said. We won the strategic battle; we kept the airport, but we lost the tactical battle, which was to keep that runway.”

Today, the airport is used by private fliers, with hangar space leased to private and corporate planes. Kindle-Walker said even though commercial services ended more than 20 years ago, City Airport is still active with general aviation and medical transit.

The next generation of pilots and mechanics can help the airport overall and bring in revenue to the city, Tarrant said.

“There are so many bright, young minds that are being wasted if you don’t have a way to take the next steps,” he said. “There’s a crying need to give young people inside Detroit a way to give back.”

Kindle-Walker said Davis Aerospace students deserve to be in the atmosphere of an airport and receive hands-on training. It’s part of the school’s history since its inception in 1943.

“People don’t recognize the benefit of that school in the Detroit area,” she said. “We have people from all over: alumni who have gone into the military or the private sector who have an education that’s untouched coming from Detroit Public Schools. We want to get back to that but sometimes, they (the school board) seem to be reluctant to do just that.”

Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.

The SAT is going digital. Here’s what to know.

2024-03-06T21:31:36+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

No more No. 2 pencils. No more bubble sheets. The SAT this year is entirely digital. And that’s not the only change for the test.

The new SAT is shorter — just over two hours compared with the roughly three hours for the previous SAT and its main competitor, the ACT. It’s adaptive, meaning students who score relatively low on the first half of the test will get easier questions in the second half. There are fewer questions. And students have more time to answer each question.

The College Board, which oversees the test, made all of these changes with the hope of creating a less stressful experience. But the SAT’s status is in flux.

The first U.S. students are taking the new SAT this week; the digital SAT launched internationally last year. The College Board is rolling out the digital test after hundreds of U.S. colleges and universities ditched test score requirements for admissions in recent years. More than 1,800 colleges, including large state systems in Texas and California, won’t require applicants to submit test scores for the fall of 2025, according to data tracked by FairTest, a research and advocacy group. At the same time, some of the country’s most elite institutions are bringing them back.

The test optional movement, as much as the spread of technology during the pandemic, shaped the College Board’s thought process.

“If we’re launching a test that is largely optional, how do we make it the most attractive option possible?” said Priscilla Rodriguez, the College Board’s senior vice president of college readiness assessments. “If students are deciding to take a test, how do we make the SAT the one they want to take?”

Rodriguez said the College Board feels confident that a score of 900 or a 1300 will tell the same story about a student that it did a year ago.

But critics of the test remain skeptical. They question how the SAT can purport to provide objective information about students while changing the test so much from previous years and giving different students different tests. They worry the College Board is essentially conducting an experiment.

“The College Board gets to do what they want, and we have to trust fall into it,” said Jennifer Jessie, an independent college counselor and tutor based in northern Virginia who is steering her students away from the SAT this year.

Digital SAT is shorter — but that’s not all

Rodriguez said the pandemic pushed the College Board to create a digital SAT after several years of internal discussion. Most students have school-issued devices, and they’re used to working on a computer, she said.

“We were hearing that this was the last high-stakes test students took on paper, and it wasn’t natural, and getting those bubble sheets was more stressful,” she said.

The digital test is not just the old test moved to a computer, though.

Reading passages are much shorter — a single paragraph — because the longer passages didn’t render well on the screen.
Students will read more than 50 short reading passages with a single question each, instead of nine long passages with multiple questions.
Students can use a built-in graphing calculator on the entire test rather than having separate calculator and non-calculator sections.
The test is adaptive. Based on their performance on the first section, students will get an easier or a harder second section.

Making the test adaptive is what allows the test to be shorter, Rodriguez said. Because it changes based on how students answer early questions, the test can hone in more efficiently on what students can do.

Students who get the easier second section won’t be able to get the highest score of 1600. Rodriguez said that’s because students need to get a lot of questions wrong in the first half to end up with the easier second section.

“The mechanics itself does not preclude you from getting a certain score, but the student performance might,” she said.

Students can take the test on a school-issued or personal device, but they can’t take it at home and they can’t take it on a cell phone. Rodriguez said the College Board will provide laptops for students who indicate at registration they don’t have access to a device.

Students must download and take the test in the College Board’s Bluebook app. It requires minimal bandwidth and can go offline without disrupting the test, Rodriguez said. If a device loses its internet connection as a student is submitting their test, their work should be saved and re-encrypted until the connection is restored.

Students should get their results in a few days, instead of waiting weeks.

Rodriguez said in addition to wanting a better testing experience for students, the College Board wants a test that’s easier for schools to administer, now that two-thirds of students take the SAT during the school day rather than at a Saturday testing site.

In addition, teachers no longer need to store and protect boxes of paper tests or monitor calculator use. And the test takes up less of the school day.

The testing landscape is shifting

The SAT has evolved a number of times since its origins as an aptitude test closely related to IQ tests, said Derek Briggs, director of CADRE, the Center for Assessment, Design, Research and Evaluation at the University of Colorado’s School of Education.

In the last decade, the College Board has pushed dual purposes for the SAT — as a predictor of college success and as a way for states to meet federal accountability requirements.

The ACT has also marketed itself that way. Now the SAT is notably shorter — and potentially less burdensome for schools to administer — than its chief rival.

“You can reframe all of these test changes in terms of this battle between these two companies,” said Sheila Akbar, president and chief operating officer of Signet Education, which provides test prep and college advising.

Briggs said a shorter, adaptive test makes sense when entire state populations of students, including those who aren’t thinking about going to college, are taking the test.

An option that includes easier questions might make for better testing experience, Briggs said, and “perhaps students who didn’t think they would go to college would think, ‘Oh, maybe I can’” after taking it.

But Jessie said she’s seen the other scenario as well, where a lower-than-expected score leaves a student feeling like they aren’t cut out for college when the reality is they could be successful at a lot of institutions.

The adaptive aspect of the test concerns skeptics like Akbar and Jessie. They worry students who take longer to warm up or who are prone to small mistakes on easy questions won’t get a chance to show they can answer harder questions correctly.

They’re encouraging students who have to provide a test score to take the ACT, which is available in both paper and digital formats and hasn’t changed much in recent years. They also feel more confident that ACT practice materials align with the test.

The College Board has said both versions of the SAT have a mix of easy, moderate, and hard questions, and there is significant overlap between the tests.

Students can take up to four practice SAT tests through the Bluebook app and get used to the interface before taking the test. Heather Waite, director of college admissions at Kaplan, a company that provides test prep services, said it’s important that students practice with up-to-date materials, not previous year’s prep books.

Waite said students have provided positive feedback about the shorter test.

College advisers expect more universities to bring back test score requirements, and a good score can boost an application at some test-optional schools.

“At Kaplan, our students are looking for an edge over other students, and submitting their scores is something that makes them more competitive,” she said.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@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.

¿No puedes llenar la FAFSA en línea? Esto es lo que debes saber sobre la solicitud impresa

2024-02-21T17:40:42+00:00

Read in English.

Como muchos estudiantes siguen teniendo problemas técnicos que les impiden presentar la solicitud de ayuda financiera federal en línea, existe una posible solución: un formulario en papel, como se hacía antes.

Pero las organizaciones de acceso a la universidad y los expertos en ayuda financiera advierten que para muchos estudiantes, ésta podría no ser la mejor alternativa.

Esto es lo que debes saber antes de llenar la versión impresa de la Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes, o FAFSA:

¿Qué es el formulario FAFSA impreso? ¿Dónde lo consigo?

Los funcionarios federales han publicado durante mucho tiempo una versión en papel de la FAFSA, aunque solo una pequeña porción de los estudiantes presentaron una copia impresa en los últimos años, razón por la cual es posible que no hayas oído hablar de ella antes.

La copia impresa de la FAFSA en inglés está aquí, y en español aquí.

¿Por qué podría considerar llenar un formulario FAFSA en papel?

Ahora mismo, los padres que no tienen número de Seguro Social no pueden añadir su información a la solicitud en línea de ayuda financiera universitaria de sus hijos, y en algunos casos, es posible que no puedan obtener credenciales para entrar al sistema en línea.

Esto se debe a un problema técnico y los funcionarios federales dicen que están trabajando para solucionarlo. Un alto funcionario del Departamento de Educación de EE.UU. le dijo a la prensa el lunes que los funcionarios se están reuniendo a diario para tratar de resolver el problema, pero en este momento no es posible decir cuándo se resolverá. Este problema ha impedido que miles de estudiantes cuyos padres son inmigrantes puedan llenar la FAFSA.

El formulario en papel permite que los padres y cónyuges sin números de Seguro Social llenen esa información con ceros, como podían hacer en años anteriores en línea, y que indiquen un número de identificación individual del contribuyente, o ITIN, si lo tienen. Los padres pueden llenar el formulario en papel sin pasar por el proceso de verificación de identidad que impide que algunos obtengan las credenciales de acceso en línea.

Si tu universidad, estado u organización de becas tiene una fecha límite estricta para presentar la FAFSA, y esa fecha se está acercando, quizás debas considerar llenar el formulario en papel como una forma de cumplir con esa fecha límite. Una vez que envíes el formulario en papel por correo, el día en que se reciba la solicitud en el correo se marcará como la fecha de recibo.

¿Debo esperar a que se arregle el formulario en línea en lugar de llenar el formulario en papel?

Si no tienes una fecha límite para presentar la FAFSA dentro de poco, podría ser mejor que esperes a que se arregle el formulario en línea, dijo MorraLee Keller, directora senior de la organización sin fines de lucro National College Attainment Network.

Esto se debe a que los formularios en papel se procesarán después de las solicitudes en línea, por lo que te arriesgas a estar más atrás en la cola de procesamiento si optas por enviar un formulario impreso. Esto es importante porque algunas universidades otorgan las ayudas por orden de llegada.

Los funcionarios federales anunciaron recientemente que no compartirán la información de los estudiantes en las solicitudes en línea con las universidades hasta marzo. Debido a los retrasos en el proceso de la FAFSA, las universidades tendrán menos tiempo para preparar los paquetes de ayuda financiera y los estudiantes tendrán menos tiempo para revisarlos y tomar decisiones. Si llenas un formulario en papel, es posible que la universidad no revise tu solicitud de ayuda financiera hasta abril.

El formulario en papel también deja más margen para cometer errores, ya que las instrucciones pueden ser más complicadas de seguir. Si estás pensando en llenar el formulario en papel, acude a un orientador universitario de tu escuela o a una organización de acceso a la universidad para que te ayuden, sobre todo si nunca has llenado una FAFSA.

“Se trata de todas esas familias que no tienen a nadie que les guíe y que podrían cometer errores en el formulario en papel, aunque haya páginas y páginas de instrucciones”, dijo Keller. “Hay mucha más orientación en el formulario en línea”.

Si lleno el formulario en papel, ¿puedo también llenar el formulario en línea?

Sí. Si envías una FAFSA impresa por correo y luego llenas la versión en línea, el gobierno federal se basará en la versión en línea y tratará la copia en papel como un envío duplicado.

Y si cometes un error en la FAFSA, no te preocupes: también hay un proceso para enviar correcciones.

“Sólo queremos animar a las familias a seguir adelante”, dijo Keller. “No renuncies a la idea de ir a la universidad solo porque el formulario está siendo una barrera ahora mismo”.

Traducido por Milly Suazo-Martinez

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.

Partial FAFSA fix lets students from immigrant families apply for financial aid

2024-02-21T01:24:04+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

Students whose parents lack a Social Security number can finally fill out federal financial aid forms after the Biden administration announced a workaround Tuesday for one of the most glaring problems with what was supposed to be a simpler, easier form.

U.S. Department of Education officials say these students can leave their parent or spouse’s Social Security number blank for now, and manually enter the person’s income and tax information. The department provided details about the workaround to Chalkbeat, and plans to post them online Wednesday.

Chalkbeat first reported in January that the Social Security glitch was preventing potentially tens of thousands of eligible U.S. citizen students from applying for financial aid.

The workaround is meant to help students meet fast-approaching deadlines for certain state, college, or scholarship applications. The department promised a permanent fix is coming next month. It is also urging students who don’t have an urgent submission deadline to wait until then. Those who use the workaround will need to take additional steps in March to fully submit their application.

This puts significant pressure on school counselors and college access organizations to guide families through the process on a compressed timeline.

The Better FAFSA, as the new version of the Free Application for Federal Financial Aid is known, was supposed to make it easier for students to apply for aid for college. While more than 4 million students have completed the form successfully, the rollout has been plagued by glitches and delays. Far fewer students have completed the form than in previous years, and frustration and anxiety is mounting among parents, counselors, and college administrators.

Department officials said they intend to fully resolve FAFSA submission issues for parents without Social Security numbers “in the first half of March.” After that, students won’t need the workaround.

The education department is also working to fix a separate problem that’s made it difficult for parents without Social Security numbers to create a login for the FAFSA website. Officials said they will automate that process this month and add more Spanish-speaking staff to the call center that’s helping families navigate that issue.

Department officials estimate that 2% of federal financial aid applicants are experiencing issues due to the Social Security number glitch.

The announcement came the same day that over 90 Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, led by U.S. Reps. Jesus “Chuy” García of Illinois, Colin Allred of Texas, and Jared Huffman and Nanette Barragán of California, sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona expressing concerns about the “flawed rollout” of the FAFSA.

They urged the department to quickly resolve the technical issues preventing students whose parents don’t have Social Security numbers from submitting their applications.

“Students eligible for financial aid have the right to access that aid, regardless of their parents’ citizenship status,” García wrote in a press release. “But because of a technical error in the new FAFSA form, many of my constituents from immigrant and mixed-status families were left without answers and no path forward as college financial aid deadlines crept up.”

García added that he and other lawmakers “spent weeks” urging the department to fix the issue, and that while the temporary fix was a good first step, “The Department must continue to rectify these errors in rollout so no student is blocked from the aid they need.”

The letter notes that federal officials identified the issue affecting parents without Social Security numbers on Jan. 4. Tuesday marked the first update. On past calls with reporters, top education department officials said only that they were working to fix the problem.

A paper version of the FAFSA still exists, but officials have not widely publicized it and there are downsides to using it, such as greater chance of making mistakes.

The letter writers also call on the department “to conduct outreach to proactively inform students, counselors, and other stakeholders about when families with undocumented parents can expect a solution and how to submit their forms once it’s resolved.”

Department officials said Tuesday evening that they would set up a new email list to keep students and families who’ve been affected by this issue in the loop on updates.

Without a fix, American high school students whose parents are undocumented could end up at the back of the line for financial aid, especially in the states — including Illinois, Indiana, and Tennessee — that distribute aid on a first-come, first-served basis, the lawmakers note.

Justin Draeger, who heads the nonprofit National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said in a statement that he worried the temporary solution would be “confusing and burdensome” to many students and families and that it was imperative that the department met its mid-March deadline for a permanent fix.

“Any further delays would be disastrous for both students and schools,” Draeger wrote.

The Better FAFSA’s brief, rocky history

The rollout of the new federal financial aid process has been troubled from the start.

The form didn’t become available to families until January, which cut months off the normal timeline for students to fill out the form. Students experiencing homelessness, students in foster care, and students whose parents are undocumented immigrants — all students for whom financial support is critical to their college decisions — have faced major problems even completing the form.

As of mid-February, just 22% of high school seniors had completed the FAFSA, according to an analysis of federal data by the National College Attainment Network, compared with 41% of the Class of 2023 by this same time last year. Completion rates are down more than 50% at high schools serving large numbers of low-income students and students of color.

Spurred by Republican lawmakers, the Government Accountability Office has opened two investigations into the FAFSA launch, Politico reported.

Meanwhile, the education department has said it won’t be able to share student information with colleges until mid-March, a delay that means colleges aren’t able to share financial aid packages with students until later in the spring. That’s left school staff and advocates worried that students will rush to make decisions before they have all the financial information they need.

Already, a slew of colleges have announced they’re pushing back their deadlines for students to commit, a delay that has implications for those institutions’ own planning for the next academic year.

Advocates for first-generation college students and those from low-income backgrounds fear that a lack of accurate information about financial aid will cause many students to put off higher education or opt for community college.

Recent data suggests fewer than half of students who transfer from a community college to a four-year program go on to complete their bachelor’s degree, and the rate is lower among students from vulnerable backgrounds.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@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.

Film, health care, and Bard early college: New high schools coming to Brooklyn and Queens

2024-02-02T20:34:39+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

Attention, New York City families: Three new high schools may soon join the hundreds of secondary school options across the five boroughs.

A Bard High School Early College may be coming to Brooklyn, while Queens is getting a career and technical school focused on the film industry as well as a school aiming to create a pipeline to health care jobs.

Schools Chancellor David Banks previewed the schools at a budget hearing in Albany this week, holding them up as examples of strong partnerships with outside organizations, as well as the many career pathways offered to the city’s students.

“This is not your father’s vocational ed stuff — this is not shop class,” he said during the Thursday hearing. “These are highly rigorous, credentialed programs. When kids come out with these kinds of credentials, they can step right into the 21st century workforce and put themselves in a position to be on the track to the middle class and beyond.”

In Brooklyn, Bard is poised to launch a new campus, offering families in the borough access to the network of coveted public high schools that allow students to earn an associate degree by the time they graduate.

The Bard model gives students an opportunity to take courses with college instructors, as well as engage in small, writing- and discussion-based seminars. Its Manhattan and Queens locations are highly sought-after, and it just opened a site in the Bronx in September.

“The demand to get into the school is simply overwhelming,” Banks said of the new Bronx location during the hearing. “And we have plans to open up a Bard in Brooklyn as well.”

The proposed expansion into Brooklyn is slated to be considered at a Feb. 27 meeting of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, a board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

If approved, the new Bard location at 301 Vermont St. in East New York would open in the 2024-25 school year, taking on a ninth and 11th grade class, according to city documents. The new school would serve roughly 150 students in its first year, scaling up over time to reach a full enrollment of approximately 500 students — with admissions priority given to students in East New York’s District 19, Brownsville’s District 23, and other neighboring Brooklyn school districts.

Meanwhile, in Queens, two new schools will offer students a chance to explore career pathways before graduation.

Motion Picture Technical High School will allow students to wade into the film and television industry. Opening in September at a temporary site in northern Queens, the school comes as a collaboration with the Roybal School of Film and Television Fund and offers students a chance to explore aspects of the industry, such as cinematography, editing, sound design, set construction, special effects, and post-production, according to the city’s admissions portal.

The school will open with about 100-200 ninth graders for its inaugural year, giving priority to students who live in Queens, according to its website. It follows an educational option admissions process, meaning the school sets aside seats for students at different academic levels to promote academic diversity. (It is hoping to move into a new building in Woodside, at 53-16 Northern Blvd. in the 2025-26 school year.)

The school aims to create pathways into the industry for underrepresented communities, and notes its proximity to the city’s film and television studios will help students obtain hands-on experience.

Queens will also see the addition of a health careers high school in the coming years through a partnership with Northwell Health, according to Bloomberg Philanthropies. The school comes as part of a Bloomberg initiative to establish public high schools across the country that graduate students directly into health care careers.

Expected to open by 2026, the school will offer students “robust academic programming, specialized healthcare classes, work-based learning at the partner health system and the opportunity to earn industry-valued credentials and certifications,” according to a Bloomberg press release last month. The Queens program will be one of 10 established across the country by the $250 million Bloomberg initiative.

The new schools come as Banks has described expanding career and technical education options for students across the city’s schools as a major focal point of his administration.

A spokesperson for the city’s Education Department said details about the new schools would be released at a later date.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@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

Leer en español.

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

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.

Newark and Camden square off in 2024 FAFSA challenge

2024-01-23T20:32:10+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.

Newark is going head-to-head against Camden in a first-ever competition to see which city can achieve the highest federal student aid application rate.

The city with the highest completion rate for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, or FAFSA, will receive a cash prize for their class of 2024 seniors and high schools, education leaders from both cities said Tuesday at dueling press conferences in Newark and Camden.

The friendly contest is meant to motivate students to pursue higher education, said Barbara Martinez, executive director of the New Jersey Children’s Foundation and sponsor of the competition along with the Camden Education Fund.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a former teacher, wished students and families good luck during the press conference in his city as he teased Camden with “friendly competition.”

“This gives us an opportunity, in a fun way, to push our young people, push our teachers, our educators, the leaders of our institutions to get folks to work,” Baraka said.

In total, $70,000 will be awarded to high schools in both cities with the New Jersey Children’s Foundation and the Camden Education Fund each contributing $30,000 in prize money for the schools with the highest completion rates in their respective cities. In addition, the organization in the losing city will pay an extra $10,000 to the winning city’s organization to be distributed to participating schools.

Newark, New Jersey’s largest school district, made completing the FAFSA application a graduation requirement in 2022. State leaders are hoping this year’s seniors will tap into federal funds by requiring that high schools in the state provide graduating seniors with the FAFSA form before they receive their diplomas.

Gov. Phil Murphy signed that mandate into law last week. It applies to high school juniors this school year who will be required to fill out the form online when it becomes available in October 2024. Other states, including Louisiana and Illinois, also have similar requirements.

FAFSA is the only way students can apply for federal financial aid, Pell Grants for low-income families, state aid packages, work-study programs, and money directly from colleges. Graduating seniors who are undocumented must complete the New Jersey Alternative Financial Aid Application (HESAA).

FAFSA helps many states and colleges determine financial aid for qualifying students, but tens of thousands of dollars go unclaimed yearly for undergraduate and associate degrees and technical or career schools.

Newark Superintendent Roger León, who was at the press conference in Newark, said getting students to complete their application is part of the district’s “ongoing process” to ensure students are financially prepared for college, trade school, or other eligible certificate programs. The district is also working to provide information to students and families about FAFSA, the most critical part of their work in this process, León added.

“Obviously, the Office of Student Life, which was created in 2018, when I started, is a big part of the catalyst of making sure that students are aware of different scholarship opportunities that are available,” León said

During Tuesday’s press conference, Macai Fields, an Eagle Academy graduate and senior at Saint Elizabeth University, said he felt thankful he learned about FAFSA and completed the form despite how overwhelming it seemed. Currently, he works with Eagle Academy seniors to help them navigate the process.

“When I was in their shoes looking for schools, I quickly realized that the cost of tuition and other expenses could be quite overwhelming,” Fields said. “But FAFSA provided a sense of relief by helping me understand that financial aid was available based on my family resources and circumstances.”

Shayaka Wilson, a West Side High School alum and 2022 Rutgers University graduate, said as a first-generation college graduate and immigrant, she knew how important it was to get that aid. Wilson always knew she wanted to go to college, but when she first moved to the country, she was concerned about how she would be able to afford it without taking on significant debt.

“I know there are families here in the city who have a similar concern as I did and they think college is out of reach or not even an option,” Wilson said. “I want you as a young person to think of it as an application that the government uses to determine your family’s financial strength and whether they would be able to fund your college education.”

In New Jersey, roughly $92 million in unclaimed Pell Grant money was left on the table by the class of 2022, according to data from the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit, National College Attainment Network. In 2021, roughly $90 million was left by Garden State graduating seniors, according to the same data.

In 2022, the state’s graduating class had a 57.4% FAFSA completion rate. But rates vary among cities, states, and school districts – with the lowest performing below 50% and the highest over 70%, according to a Rutgers University Cornwall Center report.

As of 2022. 24.9% of Newark residents aged 25 and older hold an associate degree or bachelor’s degree, said Robyn Brady Ince, executive director of the Newark City of Learning Collaborative, during Tuesday’s press conference. She said initiatives such as the FAFSA contest “will provide what we need to galvanize more people toward achieving those goals.”

The winner of the competition will be announced in April and results will be uploaded on a tracker online daily, Martinez said.

This year, the FAFSA process opened on Dec. 31 rather than Oct. 1 after the U.S. Department of Education said the delays were due to the launch of a shorter, more simplified version of their form now called the Better FAFSA.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@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.

New lawsuit targets program to diversify NY’s college STEM majors

2024-01-17T22:11:19+00:00

A prominent conservative legal foundation is backing a new lawsuit challenging a New York state program that seeks to increase the enrollment of “historically underrepresented” students in college science and technology programs on the grounds that it excludes some white and Asian American students, according to legal filings.

The Pacific Legal Foundation is taking aim at the state’s 39-year-old Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP), which offers eligible students in seventh through 12th grade extra summer courses at local colleges and admissions help.

The lawsuit claims the program violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause by making Black, Hispanic, and Native American students automatically eligible, regardless of their family income, according to the federal suit filed Wednesday in New York’s Northern District. White and Asian American students are only eligible if their families fall below the income threshold.

“All students of all races should have equal rights based on their merit to participate in programs like New York State’s STEP,” said Wai Wah Chin, the president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York and a plaintiff in the case, in a statement.

Plaintiffs and lawyers in the new case say their argument fits squarely with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to strike down race-based admissions at the college level.

The court “reaffirmed that racial discrimination in admissions is unacceptable, and ‘eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,’” added Chin, who is also slated to speak Thursday at a New York City event for Moms for Liberty, a parent group that’s sought to restrict access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth and block LGBTQ-focused books and curriculum.

The program in the crosshairs of the new lawsuit is a nearly four-decades-old initiative codified in state law to offer extra support to “students who are either economically disadvantaged or minorities historically underrepresented” in the STEM fields. The law leaves it up to the Board of Regents to define which students fit in those categories.

Fifty-six colleges and universities across the state got state money during the 2021-22 school year to offer extra summer courses, counseling, and research and internship experiences to more than 12,000 qualifying middle and high school students. More than 80% of the program’s graduates said they planned to attend college, according to the state Education Department.

The plaintiffs argue that the racial criteria unfairly discriminates against white and Asian American applicants who are above the income threshold.

“The Hispanic child of a multi-millionaire is eligible to apply to STEP, while an Asian American child whose family earns just above the state’s low income threshold is not, solely because of her race or ethnicity,” the suit states.

Yiatin Chu, a parent activist and plaintiff in the suit, said her seventh-grade daughter wants to participate in the NYU STEP program this summer, but is ineligible because she doesn’t meet the race or income criteria, according to the suit.

The state Education Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit or how the eligibility criteria was determined.

The state’s definition of “underrepresented” groups in STEM majors and careers appears to align with both state and national data. As of 2015, both Asian American and white workers in New York were overrepresented in STEM jobs relative to their share of the population, while Black, Hispanic, and Native American residents were underrepresented. That pattern also holds true nationally, according to a 2021 report from the National Science Foundation.

The plaintiffs are asking a federal judge to block the state from using any “racial classifications or criteria” as a part of the STEP program.

The suit isn’t the Pacific Legal Foundation’s first attempt to block New York’s efforts to diversify selective institutions.

The group previously filed a lawsuit against the Discovery program that offers admission at the city’s specialized high schools to disadvantaged students who scored just below the cutoff on the admissions test and complete a summer course. A federal judge ruled against the plaintiffs in the Discovery suit in 2022.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the name of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Few students signed up for career scholarships, as lawmakers look to expand the law

2024-01-10T19:19:06+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.

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.

Mental health, literacy, college access: Hochul’s 2024 education agenda

2024-01-09T20:11:06+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

Improving student mental health services, urging school districts to adopt new literacy curriculums, and expanding access to the state’s public colleges and universities are among the education initiatives that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul hopes to accomplish this year.

Hochul outlined her priorities for the year on Tuesday during her annual State of the State address — a speech that governors deliver each January. She pointed to a series of key policy proposals, including those that could impact children across the state, while emphasizing the need to strengthen public safety and mental health services in particular.

But some critical education issues were absent from the more than 200 initiatives outlined by state officials on Tuesday. Hochul noted her plans for addressing “the toughest fiscal issues” facing the state — including providing care for the influx of asylum-seeking and other migrant families — would come when she presents her budget proposal next week.

Here are the education policy highlights from Hochul’s State of the State address:

More school-based clinics and limits on social media

On Tuesday, Hochul referred to mental health as “the defining challenge of our time,” blaming pandemic isolation and the “toxic algorithms that govern social media” for fueling a crisis among the state’s young people.

“When schools closed during the pandemic, kids turned to social media to stay connected with friends and families,” she said. “But a darkness lives on those platforms.”

Hochul’s proposed initiatives would take a two-pronged approach to addressing student mental health — bolstering access to resources at schools, while seeking to limit the potential negative impacts of social media.

The governor wants to make on-site mental health clinics available to any school that desires one. The clinics offer students a place to receive services from mental health professionals. The proposal would build on past efforts by her administration to increase the availability of such clinics. In November, Hochul announced more than $5 million had been awarded to support 137 school-based mental health clinics across the state, including more than 80 at high-needs schools.

Hochul has also called for expanded funding for youth-driven peer support programs, as well as intensive care programs that support students who need daily treatment.

State officials, including Hochul, have also pushed for legislation that would impose restrictions on how social media companies interact with minors. Under two proposed bills, social media companies would be unable to offer algorithmically devised “addictive” content to minors by default, while giving parents the ability to block access to the sites between certain hours, and limiting the companies’ ability to collect and sell the personal data of minors.

Guaranteed college admissions for top students

To expand access to higher education across the state, Hochul has proposed automatically admitting top-performing high school students to the state’s public colleges and universities.

Under the proposal, students graduating in the top 10% of their high schools would be guaranteed admission to one or more selective colleges in the State University of New York system. A similar proposed program at City University of New York campuses would further expand access.

Other higher education priorities included increasing completion rates of federal financial aid applications, broadening outreach around food stamp benefits at public colleges, and driving up voter participation on college campuses.

A reading curriculum shakeup

During her Tuesday speech, Hochul referred to her recently announced plan to change how students across the state learn to read. The governor hopes to move schools toward embracing the “science of reading,” an established body of research about how children learn to read.

As part of her plan, the state will support programs that emphasize phonics lessons, which explicitly teach the relationships between sounds and letters and are backed by research.

Hochul has also proposed investing $10 million to partner with the state’s teachers union, training 20,000 educators and expanding efforts from the city and state university systems to help educators learn about the science of reading.

New York City has already adopted its own sweeping literacy curriculum mandate that is largely in line with Hochul’s proposal. Curriculum overhauls can be difficult to enact, and it remains unclear whether the governor’s proposal will prompt significant changes statewide.

Swimming safety, food insecurity, and other initiatives

Outside of the classroom, Hochul has also prioritized programs that seek to support families and young people across the state — including efforts to prevent drownings, tackle food insecurity, and expand access to child care.

State officials said drownings have reached record highs in recent years, becoming one of the leading causes of death among children. Racial disparities have persisted in drowning deaths, with Black children experiencing drowning death rates roughly three times higher than their white peers, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To address this, the state will provide funding to renovate and construct pools in high-need neighborhoods, build “pop-up pools” during the summer months, and offer reimbursements to municipalities for costs related to hiring and staffing lifeguards, among other initiatives.

The city has also aimed to expand access to swimming facilities and programs, with a “floating pool” set to open next year.

The state has also opted into a federal meals program that provides families who usually receive free meals at school with funds to help cover food costs during the summer. That program is estimated to provide more than $200 million in federal benefits to about 2 million children in the state, officials said.

Hochul also called for continued investments in child care programs, noting the state will continue to use underutilized federal pandemic funds to provide grants to help such programs retain and hire staff.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

For Colorado’s class of 2023, the graduation rate was up and the dropout rate was down

2024-01-09T18:00:00+00:00

Colorado’s graduation rate ticked slightly up for the class of 2023, continuing a long-running trend of rising graduation rates except for a brief dip during the pandemic.

The dropout rate for the class of 2023 was slightly down, which was more good news. But the 2023 dropout rate, which counts how many seventh through 12th grade students disenroll from schools, was still higher than the historic lows the state saw just a few years earlier.

The Colorado Department of Education released graduation and dropout rates for the 2022-23 school year on Tuesday. Statewide, 83.1% of the class of 2023 graduated on time last spring, meaning within four years of starting high school. That was up from 82.3% in 2022.

In a statement, Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova called the 0.8% graduation rate increase “modest.” She credited the hard work of educators, families, and students and nodded to the educational difficulties of the pandemic.

“Given the challenges that our students and educators have faced over the last four years, I am glad that in Colorado we continue to see an improved graduation rate and a decreasing dropout rate,” Córdova said. “It shows students know the value of staying in school and receiving a quality education.”

The statewide dropout rate dipped to 2.1% in 2022-23, down from 2.2% in 2012-22. That’s higher than the 1.8% dropout rate in 2019-20 or the 2% rate in 2018-19, before the pandemic.

Black, Hispanic, and white students all posted higher graduation rates in 2023 than in 2022. But wide gaps by race remain: In 2023, about 90% of white students in Colorado, 80% of Black students, and 77% of Hispanic students graduated in four years.

The class of 2023 were freshman in their second semester of high school when the pandemic began in 2020 and schools were closed. Experts have said that the worst impact on graduation rates may be years ahead, as students who were in elementary school during the pandemic, or switching from elementary into middle school, or middle school into high school, make their way through high school. That’s unless schools are successful in helping students get back on track.

This coming spring, the graduating class will be made up mostly of students who missed out on a typical start to their high school years due to remote learning.

Among the 10 largest Colorado school districts with the highest percentages of students of color, just three districts — Mapleton, Aurora, and Adams 14 — saw a decrease in graduation rates compared to the previous year. Both Aurora Public Schools and Adams 14, in Commerce City, are on a state watchlist for persistently low student achievement.

The largest increases among these 10 districts were in East Otero, Pueblo 60, Weld Re-8 in Fort Lupton, and Denver. East Otero had the highest increase of 6.6 percentage points, rocketing from an 85% graduation rate in 2022 to a rate of 91.6% in 2023.

Rick Lovato, the superintendent for East Otero in southeast Colorado, said he attributes the jump in graduation rates to the district’s alternative education school, which is in its third year.

The school has worked with around 30 students that may not have graduated otherwise, and that “has made a big difference,” he said. East Otero offered some online programs before opening its own campus with in-person courses and workforce readiness programs that help students connect their learning to the workforce.

Denver Public Schools’ graduation rate rose from 76.5% in 2022 to 79% in 2023, the highest rate for the state’s largest district in at least a decade. Its dropout rate remained the same at 3.8%, which meant that about 1,680 students left Denver schools in 2022-23.

Although the graduation rates for white students and Hispanic students in Denver both rose, the gap between the rates widened to more than 13 percentage points in 2023, worsening a problem that has plagued the district and the state for many years. More than half of the students in DPS are Latino, and about a quarter are white.

In Boulder, where gaps by race have also historically been among the largest in the state, the graduation rate for Hispanic students decreased to 81% in 2023 from 81.8% in 2022. By comparison, 94.3% of Boulder’s white students graduated in 2023, which is more than 13 percentage points in difference, a larger gap than in the previous year.

The graduation rate for Latino students at Adams 14′s main high school, which has often been higher than the state rate for Latino students, decreased significantly in 2023 compared to the previous year. Adams City High’s graduation rate for Hispanic students was 84.8%, down from 86.8% in 2022.

Look up your school or district’s four-year graduation rates below:

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Education stories we’re watching in 2024

2024-01-02T14:22:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

This spring, the students who spent most of their freshman year of high school on Zoom will walk across the graduation stage. This fall, schools will face the expiration of billions in pandemic aid that allowed them to reenvision what schools could do for students.

This is a critical year as the nation grapples with the long-term effects of the pandemic amid a technological revolution, a still-unfolding refugee crisis, and a presidential election that could intensify political tensions.

These are some of the education stories we’ll be watching in 2024:

School districts confront the ESSER fiscal cliff

This is the last year school districts will have access to federal pandemic relief, an unprecedented influx of money meant to mitigate the effects of COVID disruptions and support student recovery. Schools received a total of $190 billion in three waves. So far, roughly $122 billion has been spent or committed, and schools still need to spend an additional $68 billion.

Some schools have spent this money on programs directly related to pandemic recovery, such as tutoring and counseling. Some have stood up or expanded programs that help families find housing or provide more intensive mental health support.

Running those programs often meant hiring more people, workers whom districts might not have the money to employ after this year. And while the money is going away, students still have significant needs.

Already major districts, such as Detroit and Montgomery County, Maryland, have announced cuts to services like college transition planning and summer school that were funded with pandemic dollars.

Districts that want to maintain these programs will face tough decisions about where to find the money and what else to give up.

“There was a clear need and with the extra funds, in many cases, really hard-working people responded,” said Marguerite Roza, the director of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab. “But you can still say, from the outside, this was really a precarious model. It relied on one-time funds that we knew were going to go away, and we didn’t build anything to last beyond that.”

In some communities, districts have used pandemic aid to shore up budgets amid declining enrollment and to delay painful cuts and school closures. For these communities, 2024 could bring a difficult reckoning.

The expiration of pandemic aid will prompt a larger conversation about what students and schools got from that investment and whether the money was spent well or poorly.

Jennifer Reczkowicz assists a student during a typing lesson at Lincoln Elementary School in Dolton, Illinois. Max Herman for Chalkbeat

Schools must adapt to serve migrant students

Last year, many school systems across the country — but particularly New York City and Chicago — enrolled thousands of asylum-seeking students from Central and South America.

Some of these children have been out of school for months or even years. Some carry emotional wounds from things they saw and experienced on their journeys. Some are sleeping outside in tents. All are navigating a new country and a new school system with few financial resources.

In 2024, schools will need to rise to the challenge of serving these students over the long haul. Bilingual teachers were already in short supply — and bilingual counselors and school psychologists even more so. Some school districts are stepping up international recruitment to bring in more Spanish-speaking educators.

There are so many new students that cities as different as New York and Denver are seeing enrollment increases after years of declines. Increased enrollment could result in more state funding, but it’s not clear if the additional money will be enough to meet students’ needs or whether these students will stay in the cities where they first arrived or disperse to suburbs and smaller cities.

Many of these students’ needs — for mental health counseling, for academic recovery, for housing assistance — mirror those of students who were already here but at a larger scale or with greater intensity.

Even children who seem OK now may need significant support down the road, said Kevin Dahill-Fuchel, executive director at Counseling in Schools. The nonprofit provides counseling services to about 70 schools in New York City and is trying to expand its bilingual staff. Younger children, especially, may be in a honeymoon period now that they’re physically safe, getting meals at school, and making new friends, he said.

“That’s going to shift as they go from 8 years old to 12 years old. Those pains are kind of festering over time,” Dahill-Fuchel said. One smiling child his organization works with crossed the Rio Grande with about a dozen people who drowned. “That’s PTSD-kind of stuff that’s going to come up later.”

Advocates say schools need to think beyond the immediate crisis. They need to accurately assess where students are academically and think about how to serve older students with limited English skills who may be at higher risk of leaving school entirely. They also see a greater role for state education departments in offering guidance and helping school districts learn from each other.

Will our schools rise to the challenge?

AI will play a larger role in American classrooms — we’re still figuring out the ground rules

ChatGPT is a little more than a year old. In the education space, the new technology’s ability to produce an eerie mimicry of human thought and writing initially prompted fears that students would cheat widely and with impunity.

But a recent Stanford study found that cheating among high school students hasn’t increased much. And while most respondents thought it would be acceptable to use ChatGPT to generate ideas, few thought it would be OK to have AI write an essay for them. “It shows that a majority of students truly want to learn,” the lead researcher told CNN.

In the meantime, ChatGPT and other AI-powered technologies are showing up in the classroom in all kinds of ways. Students recently told Chalkbeat that they’ve used such programs to better understand concepts in history texts or to identify problems in the code they wrote for computer science class. Some schools are using AI to tutor students. The National Education Association has a guide for using ChatGPT to create lesson plans.

Given that the technology isn’t going away, K-12 schools and colleges will need to grapple with what constitutes cheating and what constitutes legitimate use that might even enhance students’ learning experience.

Researchers, meanwhile, are experimenting with using AI to read students’ college essays and grade student papers. Some observers are optimistic about the potential for AI to reduce bias and notice trends, while others worry about inaccuracy and outsourcing human judgment.

The culture wars are dead. Long live the culture wars.

November’s school board elections were generally seen as a setback for cultural conservatives, with Ballotpedia estimating that more than half of candidates endorsed by Moms for Liberty lost their races. The right-wing advocacy group itself is in disarray amid associations with white supremacists and rape allegations against the husband of one founder. The founder acknowledged she had participated in a threesome with her husband and the woman who accused him of assault in an unrelated incident.

But conservative candidates still picked up seats on school boards around the country, where some are reshaping what students learn about U.S. history and how LGBTQ staff and students are treated.

Conservative concerns about progressive ideologies in public schools have also been used to justify the expansion of private-school choice in states, such as Tennessee, Florida, and Arizona.

Even as education politics remains intensely polarized, surveys find that most parents report they’re pretty satisfied with their kids’ schools — and the most negative opinions come from those without children in the schools.

This year could see some of the most intense debates recede into the background or take on new forms. The presidential election has the potential to exacerbate divisions even if education isn’t a dominant issue.

The biggest question is how these debates and policy shifts affect students and families.

Students are reconsidering the value of college — for better or for worse

This spring’s graduating class was in eighth grade in March 2020 when schools shut down, and many of them spent their freshman year — a critical year for students’ academic and social development — mostly online or bouncing in and out school due to quarantines.

These students are applying to college in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision banning racial preferences in admissions. They’ve had to rethink how they talk about themselves in college applications. The federal government has delayed the release of a new federal financial aid application, raising fears that fewer students will fill out the form and creating more uncertainty for families waiting on financial aid packages.

Colorado School of Mines in Golden is the most selective public university in Colorado. The science- and engineering-focused school historically has enrolled few students from low-income backgrounds.

Recent surveys show high school students are interested in education after high school but unsure about the value of a four-year college degree. They’re worried about taking on debt and not being able to pay it back. And they want to start earning money sooner.

Conservative parents, too, are less keen on sending their kids to college as they increasingly see higher education institutions as being at odds with their own values.

At the same time, Americans with college degrees still outearn those without.

The most recently available national data on college-going covers the high school class of 2022 and shows overall college enrollment increasing or stabilizing after a sharp dip during the pandemic. But enrollment is down for white, Black, and Native American students.

Meanwhile, colleges are putting more effort into retaining the students they have. High school counselors are rethinking how they support students interested in careers that don’t require a four-year degree.

The decisions the class of 2024 makes could tell us a lot about the lingering impacts of the pandemic and what students need from their schools to be successful.

Senior Reporter Kalyn Belsha and New York Bureau Chief Amy Zimmer contributed.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado.

Dual credit courses growing in Illinois, but students of color less likely to take them, report says

2023-12-08T12:59:53+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

To help students get a head start with college credits without having to pay college tuition, Zion-Benton Township High School District 126 lets its students take college-level courses on everything from history and political science to culinary arts and cybersecurity.

The courses are a part of the small suburban district’s dual credit program, in which the district’s two high schools partner with College of Lake County to offer courses to students. And there’s significant demand for it: Melissa DiGangi, executive director of academic excellence at District 126, said that the district set up the program because more than half of its students say that they want to attend a two- or four-year college after high school.

“We can provide that first college experience in a safe supportive learning environment,” said DiGangi.

Zion-Benton is far from alone. Due to recent changes in state law in 2021, Illinois high schools were encouraged to expand their dual credit courses. And the share of students who are taking these advanced classes has been on the rise over the past several years: Participation in dual credit courses grew from 10.2% of high school students in the 2017-18 school year to 14% for 2021-22, according to a recent report from the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative.

A separate Chalkbeat analysis of Illinois’ high school students’ participation in dual credit courses between the 2017-18 and 2022-23 school years also found disparities in participation rates between different student demographics

However, the report also found that in Illinois, students of color, students from low-income families, and English learners do not have the same level of participation in dual credit courses as their white, Asian American, and affluent peers. (The report was funded by the Joyce Foundation, which provides funding to Chalkbeat.)

Even within school districts, on average, white and Asian American students have higher participation rates than other racial and ethnic groups, students with disabilities, English learners, and those from low-income families the report found.

Sarah Cashdollar, the report’s author, said that often when schools take steps to expand access, participation increases but gaps along racial and socioeconomic lines tend to widen. She said there are benefits for all students taking advanced coursework in college, but they can be especially helpful for students of color and low-income students.

“There is some evidence suggesting that impacts are especially beneficial for students who historically have been underrepresented as college attendees and college graduates,” said Cashdollar.

Meg Bates, director of Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative, said one reason for disparities could be that school counselors and teachers used to frequently recommend to students that they take advanced courses. Since state law changed in 2021 to automatically enroll students in advanced courses, those disparities might change, but it is too early to tell, Bates said.

State law requires public universities and colleges to accept the credit if a student passes the course. For students from low-income families, this could help them save money on college tuition or prevent them from borrowing student loans. Research also shows that high school students who take college level courses are more likely to attend college in the future.

The report found some bright spots in the state’s participation data between school years 2018 to 2022. For instance, participation rates for Native American, Latino, and English learners grew over that time.

Cashdollar’s research also uncovered a geographic divide. On average, school districts in southern Illinois had a large number of students participating in dual credit courses in comparison to districts in Northern and Central Illinois. Also, there was higher participation in districts located in rural areas and towns than in urban and suburban districts.

State data indicates Chicago Public Schools, the state’s largest district, offers fewer dual credit courses than Advanced Placement courses. A spokesperson for the district said CPS is working to expand opportunities to advanced courses for all high school students, but it is easier for the district to offer Advanced Placement courses.

“There are significant cost and instructional preparation differences between AP and Dual Credit courses with AP courses being more accessible, established, and affordable and still offering students more depth and rigor than traditional high school classes,” said the spokesperson.

Through partnerships with community colleges, high schools can offer dual credit courses in multiple models.

Dual credit courses can be taught by qualified high school teachers, college professors, or college adjuncts at a local high school, on a college campus, or virtually. “In Illinois and nationally, over two-thirds of (dual credit) students attend courses located within their high schools,” the report says.

Sometimes high school teachers are teaching dual credit courses and are labeled as “adjunct college professors.”

DiGangi said that finding teachers with a credential to teach a dual credit course is difficult for school districts. To teach dual credit, a teacher may need to go back to school for additional graduate-level credentials.

“For a math teacher that teaches AP Calculus, they don’t need that,” said DiGangi. “For a math teacher to teach dual credit math, they need to get around 18 graduate hours of mathematics coursework completed.”

Right now, Zion-Benton is working with the College of Lake County to prepare an educator to teach a dual credit math course next fall.

In the past, the district worked to credential three teachers to teach dual credit courses in English and History. Providing these opportunities is easier when school districts partner up with local community colleges.

Zion-Benton’s community college partner, College of Lake County, has found that dual credit courses can be beneficial to institutions of higher education as well. For example, students are more likely to return to the college where they took classes in high school.

The community college with five locations throughout Lake County, works with 24 schools, and provides dual credit courses to about 3,000 high school students.

Sarah Stashkiw, the director of P-20 educational partnerships at Colleges of Lake County, said that of the class of 2022 seniors who took a dual credit course, 30% of those students came back to take at least one course from the community college.

“The more early exposure we can give students to a college experience and college coursework, the more likely they are to be successful long term,” said Stashkiw.

How Indianapolis-area students can earn college credit in high school

2023-12-07T16:10:41+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.

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

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.

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.

Colorado poll finds voters skeptical of college, more supportive of career education

2023-12-05T12:46:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.

It’s more important for Colorado schools to prepare students for the workforce than to prepare them to attend college.

That’s the opinion of more than 60% of respondents in a recent poll of education attitudes among Colorado voters. Magellan Strategies surveyed a representative group of 1,550 Colorado registered voters in September. The survey has a margin of error of 2.5%.

Magellan Strategies has done regular polling about education attitudes for several years. This is the first time the firm has included questions about CTE and higher education attitudes.

Respondents cited the high cost of college and questioned how useful college is to helping graduates get jobs, even though the majority of the respondents had a bachelor’s degree or higher themselves. Registered voters as a group have higher education and higher income levels than the general population.

Magellan Strategies CEO David Flaherty said some Republicans and conservatives brought up ideological concerns — such as colleges being hotbeds of “woke” thinking — but across the political spectrum, respondents wondered about the value of higher education, sometimes citing their own experiences of high student debt and low-paying jobs. Others worried about increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence systems doing away with jobs.

“You can feel that skepticism about the availability of a white-collar job at the other end,” Flaherty said.

Magellan’s findings echo those of a national poll of Gen Z students earlier this year that also found growing skepticism among young people of the value of a four-year degree. Those respondents still thought education after high school was important, but they were more interested in trade schools, industry certificates, and two-year programs that would help them get good-paying jobs with less debt.

Flaherty said colleges should take note of the findings, especially as they brace for declining enrollment. They need to get costs under control and show families and policy makers that an education is worth the investment of time and money, he said.

The flip side is that career and technical education scores very well with voters and helps counter concerns among conservative voters that schools are on the wrong track, Flaherty said.

Magellan found that more than half of respondents weren’t sure if their local school districts offered career and technical education, but more than 86% would have a more favorable view of their school district if they knew about such programs, which can range from auto mechanics and cosmetology to health sciences and graphic design.

The poll showed that nearly half of voters think that schools are on the wrong track, and less than a third think they’re on the right track. That’s a worse view of education than voters had before the pandemic but similar to more recent polls.

Among conservatives, negative views of schools appeared to be shaped by national conservative media, Flaherty said, with respondents noting concerns about how schools handle gender identity and whether books in school libraries contain sexual content. Progressive voters are concerned about low funding and what they see as conservative attacks on public education.

Compared to last year, more Colorado voters said schools would provide a better education if they had more money — 61% compared with 56% in April 2022. But nearly half of respondents said they doubted their local school district was managing its finances wisely.

Asked about their top priorities, respondents said schools should focus on attracting and retaining high-quality educators, raising pay to keep pace with inflation, and preparing students for the workforce.

Magellan also asked respondents how they feel about the prospect of closing schools. With lower birth rates, many Colorado school districts are seeing fewer students, which in turn means less state funding. Jeffco Public Schools, the state’s second largest school district, closed 21 schools in the last two years, despite pushback from parents. Others, such as Denver Public Schools, have balked at widespread closures in the face of community backlash.

When the downsides of small schools — such as offering fewer students services and less arts programming due to budget constraints — were explained to respondents, more than half said that school districts should consider closing schools.

See the full poll results, including regional breakdowns, here.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@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.

CUNY sees ‘enormous’ October application spike, as efforts to boost enrollment continue

2023-11-20T21:47:21+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

An effort to bolster enrollment numbers at the City University of New York is seeing early signs of success, as the number of prospective students applying to schools in the system more than quadrupled last month.

Applications for the fall 2024 semester reached nearly 41,000 in October — a roughly 386% jump from the same time last year, when 8,420 students had applied, CUNY officials said last week.

Of those, more than 34,000 applications — or roughly 83% — came from New York City public school students.

The figures come as both city and state officials have worked to increase enrollment in the city’s network of public colleges, which saw dramatic downturns in student numbers during the pandemic, like many institutions across the country.

Systemwide, the number of enrolled students at CUNY schools fell about 17% over the course of the pandemic, with even steeper losses at the network’s community colleges. Overall, the number of students dropped from roughly 271,000 in the 2019-20 school year to about 226,000 last school year, though preliminary enrollment data shared last month indicated that decline had begun to level off.

To combat those trends, officials sent each senior expected to graduate from one of the city’s public high schools a personalized acceptance letter indicating they had a spot at CUNY and encouraging them to apply.

CUNY’s community colleges have open admissions for high school graduates, and the letters aimed to motivate those on the fence about applying to the network’s schools.

The college system also waived application fees for all NYC public school students for the entirety of October, while eliminating the cost for other high school seniors in the state between Oct. 16 and Oct. 31. The personalized letters included information about the fee waivers, which were also promoted via social media and an ad campaign, officials added.

About 88% of applicants during October received a fee waiver, up from about 52% at the same time last year, officials said.

It isn’t the first time the city’s network of public colleges has waived application fees for local students, but this year, the move came much earlier in the application process.

Schools Chancellor David Banks said he was “thrilled” by the application figures.

“The dramatic increase in applications tells us that our students heard the message: higher education is within their reach, and we have a place for them at our city’s university,” he said in a statement. “We look forward to seeing the impact of a CUNY education on the long-term outcomes for both our students and our city.”

CUNY application spike ‘an outlier,’ expert says

Though college applications have risen across the country this year, CUNY’s October jump in applicants was “enormous, and absolutely an outlier,” said Joshua Hyman, an economics professor at Amherst College who has studied higher education.

The two policy changes at CUNY appeared to complement one another, potentially amplifying the impact that either could have on their own, he said.

“The massive outreach in the letters by themselves would have had some impact,” Hyman said. “But there would have been those students who would have been excited about this, but for whom the application fee is a real barrier.”

And even among those who can afford them, fees can discourage potential applicants, said Philip Oreopoulos, an economics professor at the University of Toronto.

“Even a small fee, where you have to whip out your credit card or you have to get your parents to do that, can cause delays, can cause like, ‘Oh, I’m going to do this later,’ and then it just never happens,” he said.

Applications were up last month even when compared to pre-pandemic figures, with the network receiving roughly 18,000 applicants as of the same time in 2018 and 2019, according to officials.

Any efforts to streamlining the application process can have significant impacts.

“When you make the process of applying easier, it can make the difference between someone going and not going,” Oreopoulos said.

Still, Hyman added, “There’s a big difference between applying and then ultimately enrolling.”

Though he expects to see enrollment increase next year after the spike in applications, Hyman said any growth would likely occur at a smaller scale.

Affordability can be major draw on whether to enroll

For students deciding whether to enroll in the network’s colleges, affordability can be a major draw.

Tuition at CUNY costs about $3,500 a semester for state residents at four-year colleges and $2,400 a semester for New Yorkers at community colleges, though roughly two-thirds of in-state students pay no tuition because of a combination of state and federal financial aid, according to the university.

Among graduates, 75% leave with no debt, officials said. CUNY forgave roughly $100 million in debt accrued during the pandemic.

With more students potentially enrolling next year, experts said it’s critical to ensure new students receive the support they need. Across the country, colleges saw more students dropping out since the onset of the pandemic, and traditionally disadvantaged students who may have been swayed to apply by CUNY’s outreach efforts could be at especially high risk.

Oreopoulos pointed to CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs initiative as one example of strong support systems. The program offers additional financial resources, academic structure, and direct support services to students seeking associate degrees within the network — aiming to help them graduate on time.

“It’s nice to see that CUNY is doing this combination of not only trying to help more get in, but also help more stay,” he said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools graduation rates hit record high, data show

2023-10-31T19:01:51+00:00

A greater share of Chicago Public Schools students graduated last school year than in 2022, reaching a new record, officials announced Tuesday.

The graduation rate of 84% — representing students who graduated in four years — was 1.1 percentage points higher than the graduation rate for the Class of 2022, when 82.9% of high school students graduated on time. The dropout rate for the Class of 2023 was slightly higher at 9.4% than it was for the Class of 2022, which saw 8.9% of students drop out between freshman year and graduation.

Chicago Public Schools’ five-year graduation rate for the Class of 2022 — which includes students who take extra time to finish their diploma either at a traditional or alternative school — was 85.6%, 1.6 percentage points higher than for the class of 2021 when it was 84%.

District officials announced the numbers with fanfare at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts, with CPS CEO Pedro Martinez flanked by Mayor Brandon Johnson and joined virtually by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.

Martinez said the rising graduation rate was a sign that the district is continuing to recover from the pandemic, reminding the audience that the students in the Class of 2023 were freshmen as the pandemic started in 2020, followed by two school years of remote and hybrid learning.

“When you think about their last year, their senior year, was probably their most normal year, I want you to take these results and put them in that context,” Martinez said.

Cardona described the graduation rates as “promising signs for the future of education in Chicago.” He highlighted the district’s use of federal COVID relief dollars, which CPS has put toward several purposes, including covering teacher salaries and hiring more instructional staff.

The announcement came one day after Illinois state education officials released statewide data, including graduation rates that had also increased across Illinois. (The state and Chicago Public Schools calculate graduation rates differently, so Chalkbeat is unable to provide direct comparisons.)

Chicago’s graduation rate has steadily increased over time, hitting a record high in 2022 even as students have faced academic challenges connected to the pandemic. Tuesday’s announcement comes on the heels of another report that found a rising share of CPS students are enrolling in college.

Racial disparities among graduates still remain, though they are narrowing. Graduation rates increased for Black, Hispanic and Asian American students, while dropping slightly for white students — by .4 percentage points — compared to the Class of 2022. Rates also dropped for multiracial students by 5.7 percentage points.

Nearly 75% of Black boys graduated in four years, up from roughly 65% five years ago, according to district data.

Despite higher graduation rates, SAT scores dipped for the Class of 2023, to an average composite score of 914. The average score for the Class of 2022 was 927, according to district data. Separately, the district also saw slightly fewer ninth graders — 88.7% — who were on track to graduate by 2026. That’s compared to 88.8% of the class that’s one year older than them.

As the pandemic set in, the district relaxed some grading policies, as did other school systems across the nation — raising questions about how such policies may have contributed to CPS’s rising graduation rates. Martinez argued that an increase in students completing college-level credits was a sign students were held to a high standard. Just under half of the Class of 2023 earned early college credits, a 5% increase from 2022, according to the district.

One of those students is Zaid Orduño, who said at Tuesday’s press conference that he took college-level courses at Daley College during his time at Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy, through the district’s Early College Program. His classes at Daley included English, math, sociology, and psychology, and he ultimately earned an associate’s degree alongside his high school diploma.

Taking those classes, he said, inspired him to pass up his original plan of joining his family’s construction business and instead pursue a civil engineering degree at Illinois Tech, he said.

A wall at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts is dedicated to remembering a hunger strike held in 2015 to demand for the reopening of Dyett, which was closed at the time.

Dyett, located in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side, saw its graduation rate tick up by more than 3 percentage points, to 86%. Johnson noted how far the school had come since he and other community members participated in a highly publicized hunger strike in 2015 to demand that Dyett, then shuttered, reopen. He also recognized fellow hunger striker Ald. Jeanette Taylor, who now represents the neighborhood nearby in City Council and serves as the chair of the Committee on Education and Child Development.

“A hunger striker can turn into a mayor and an alderman, and more importantly, a hunger strike can lead to the success that we are experiencing with our students right here at Dyett High School,” Johnson said.

He also used the moment to once again advocate for expanding the Sustainable Community Schools Initiative that Dyett and 19 other schools are a part of. The program partners schools with a nonprofit that provides wraparound services for students and families.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.