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Christian Rojas Linares can’t finish his financial aid forms because he’s been blanketed with error messages. The New York City high school senior has even received incorrect emails telling him his application was canceled.

In Philadelphia, Yasmeen Mutan had better luck: Finishing the form only took her an hour. But the federal government has been so slow to process and share her data that, four months later, she still doesn’t know how much she’ll get in financial aid. Without that, she can’t decide where to go to college. And that means she can’t apply for state financial aid either.

“I’m logging in every couple of days, just to make sure I didn’t miss out on anything,” Mutan said. “I just don’t know what to do.”

With college decision deadlines looming, thousands of high school seniors have been stuck in limbo due to the bungled rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The so-called Better FAFSA was supposed to make it simpler for students to receive financial aid. Yet the mistakes have been numerous and serious enough that high school counselors and advocates for college access now fear that promising students from the Class of 2024 will end up not going to college at all.

As of late March, just over a third of high school seniors had successfully submitted the FAFSA, according to data tracked by the National College Attainment Network. In previous years, nearly half of seniors would have done so by now. Students who complete the FAFSA are far more likely to go to college, so the low completion rates raise concerns about the long-term impact on this year’s graduating class.

And the decline tracked by the network is much greater at schools serving a lot of students from low-income backgrounds and students of color.

Closing off routes to financial aid creates “enormous issues,” said CJ Powell, director of advocacy for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, especially for students whose families have fewer resources. These students, often students of color and children of immigrants, are especially reliant on Pell grants and other aid to afford college. And when they delay college, Powell said, they are less likely to go at all.

“That people will walk away is keeping me up at night,” said Bill Wozniak, vice president for communications and student services with INvestED, a nonprofit that promotes postsecondary education in Indiana. “The people who are most vulnerable and they do everything right and it’s not working, I do worry about that.”

Cascade of problems with new FAFSA form

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Completing the FAFSA is the gateway to grants, scholarships, and subsidized loans that make college affordable for millions of students. But for years, students and parents found the form to be complicated and stressful.

In 2020, Congress passed legislation to simplify the form, with far fewer questions and more family financial information pulled directly from tax returns that the federal government already has. But the transition proved to be far more technically difficult than anticipated and fell to a U.S. Department of Education that was also tasked with overseeing complicated student debt forgiveness programs, according to numerous reports.

The launch of the new form was delayed, and when it finally came online in late December, it was riddled with technical glitches.

Students from mixed status families, in which one or both parents don’t have a Social Security number, faced some of the biggest hurdles. Workarounds that these students have used for years, such as entering all zeros in place of a Social Security number, no longer worked. And for weeks there was no way for these students — most of them U.S. citizens — to add their parents’ financial information.

In March, the education department announced that the problem was fixed. But many students are still encountering problems even attempting to verify their parents’ identities.

That’s the case for several of Danielle Insel’s students at the Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women in Brooklyn. They are “still going back and forth with just getting their parent’s identity recognized so they can finish the parent section of the FAFSA,” said Insel, the school’s director of postsecondary readiness.

“After five, six, eight attempts, they want to give up,” she said. Students are already telling her, sometimes jokingly, and sometimes less so: “I’m not going to college, I’m not going to get financial aid.”

“It’s demoralizing, frustrating, and yes, I can see it having a direct link to a decrease in enrollment. If not enrollment, then definitely matriculation,” she added.

In group chats and on message boards, college advisers trade tips for getting students past technical hurdles. At times they can sound like a retro gaming cheat code.

On a recent afternoon at Denver’s West High School, Denver Scholarship Foundation college adviser Federico Rangel shared a hack with student Rene Torres, who was getting an error message every time he tried to add his parents to his account, a necessary step.

“You press the backspace button twice,” Rangel said to Torres. “It should take us back to the original page and then we can move forward. It then should allow us to make the account.”

At first, the trick didn’t work, but then Torres got a new screen for the first time.

“Oh,” Rangel said. “You got the identity verification page.”

“It’s a step in the right direction.”

Rene Torres, 18, works on his financial aid application in the Future Center at Denver's West High School. College advisers continue to work with seniors late into the spring when they would normally be shifting their focus to juniors.

Many students don’t have financial aid packages

The federal education department has also been slow to share student data with universities and recently announced it would be reprocessing many forms to correct discrepancies in tax data. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that college financial aid officers are encountering a lot of mistakes, leading to more delays and frustrations. Colleges don’t want to send out financial aid packages that they later have to change.

In a typical year, students would get financial aid packages alongside college acceptance letters and would have weeks or months to compare offers and weigh their options. This year, students have acceptance letters from colleges but in most cases no financial aid awards.

“Students decide where to go and whether to go on the backs of these award letters,” said Bill DeBaun, the National College Attainment Network’s senior director for data and strategic initiatives. “You’re looking at these various pathways with no idea which ones are accessible to you.”

For counselors, this means they’re still working with seniors instead of starting to work with juniors on their college essays like they normally would. It’s harder to hold in-person “complete the FAFSA” events when families might just leave frustrated. And keeping track of shifting deadlines has become its own headache.

For students, not being able to decide on a college can delay or complicate other decisions.

Mark Stulberg, director of college counseling at Newark’s Lincoln Park High School, said students’ attempts to line up housing, internships, and other aspects of college life for next year are all “kind of on pause right now.”

Lincoln Park is part of the North Star Academy Charter School system, where most students are Black and from low-income families. The schools emphasize college-going starting in kindergarten.

This year, 85% of students have completed the FAFSA, a rate far above the state average but still 5 to 10 percentage points lower than in a typical year for North Star.

Stulberg said teachers and counselors are doing everything they can to encourage students to have patience and see the delays as a relatively small bump in a long journey. So far, families are sticking with the process.

Yet he’s worried some of his students “will have put in the last 10 to 12 years worth of work to prepare themselves to be successful in college” only to choose another path that won’t set them up for success like higher education can.

Counselors tell students: focus on long-term goals

Wozniak in Indiana said his team of college advisers, who staff hotlines and events, want parents and students to know they’re not alone, and it’s not their fault. Many colleges and state financial aid systems are pushing back deadlines to accommodate the delays, and financial aid offers will come.

Powell said counselors can help students apply for other scholarships while they’re waiting, or go over how to read a financial aid offer so they can compare options in a shortened time frame.

Rojas Linares is trying to remain upbeat. He has been accepted to a number of public and private universities, though he’s in limbo until he can find out his Pell grants, work study, federal loans, and his award through the New York State Tuition Assistance Program.

“How much longer do we have to wait to get the results of financial aid?” Rojas Linares wondered. “I’m just hoping this will all be over so we don’t have to stress about it any more.”

Mutan is determined to go to college but may end up waiting a year if she doesn’t get financial aid information soon, she said. Her parents are Palestinian immigrants who mostly speak Arabic, and her father provides the household’s only income. She doesn’t want to put financial pressure on her parents, and she doesn’t want to take on debt.

“I want to be able to put myself through college, and FAFSA is a big part of that,” she said.

Chalkbeat journalists Amy Zimmer and Michael Elsen-Rooney in New York, Catherine Carrera in Newark, Carly Sitrin in Philadelphia, and Jason Gonzales in Colorado contributed reporting.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Long-awaited FAFSA fix means students from immigrant families can finally finish aid applications

2024-03-18T20:41:17+00:00

Leer en español

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Many students breathed a sigh of relief last week when federal education officials announced critical fixes to the federal application for financial aid that allows parents without Social Security numbers to contribute information to the form.

The change means tens of thousands of U.S. citizen students and others who are eligible for federal financial aid can finally complete their FAFSAs. But it also leaves families and college counselors scrambling to get through the process months after other students. And some families are still encountering problems.

“It can be very discouraging for students and families who feel like they’re doing all the right things and yet are still coming up against barriers,” said Amanda Seider, who oversees the Massachusetts branch of the college access group OneGoal.

Chalkbeat reported in January that a technical glitch had blocked students with undocumented parents from completing their financial aid applications for over two months. That left many educators and college access groups worried that students who already face higher barriers to college would be deterred by the delays — piled on top of an already difficult rollout of the new, supposedly easier FAFSA. Some colleges and scholarships award aid on a first-come, first-served basis, so students who apply later are at a disadvantage.

During that time, students were left to navigate a confusing array of options, including whether they should just sit tight and wait for a fix, or try a partial workaround that could put them at a higher risk of making a mistake on their application or would require them to come back and fill out more paperwork later.

And there are still outstanding issues. As federal officials put the new fix in place, they uncovered two more issues affecting the same group of students that still need to be resolved.

That means parents without Social Security numbers will have to enter their financial information manually, instead of having it pulled directly from the IRS. And in some cases — when a parent enters a name or address that doesn’t exactly match what their child put down, for example — parents are still getting error messages that block them from filling out the form. Federal officials said last week they would work to fix the issue “in the coming days.”

Federal officials estimated that around 2% of financial aid applicants were affected by the original Social Security number glitch, which would equate to hundreds of thousands of students in a typical year.

The issue caught the attention of dozens of Democratic House members, who sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona urging the department to fix the problem quickly. In a press release issued last week, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman of California said the glitch was a “completely unacceptable error” that had caused “fear, stress, and missed opportunities for many kids across my district and the country.”

“I hope to see the Department take the steps necessary to ensure issues like this never arise again,” Huffman said.

The rollout of the new FAFSA has been riddled with problems and delays. Education department officials have blamed insufficient funding and significant technical challenges in updating old systems. Republicans have accused the administration of being distracted by dealing with student loan forgiveness. Outside observers have said all these factors and more played a role, according to news reports.

FAFSA applications are down 33% compared with this time last year, according to federal data tracked by the National College Attainment Network.

In the meantime, many colleges have pushed back deadlines as they wait for student financial information that will help them assemble aid packages. And families are waiting.

Now, college counselors and advisers say they’re working to make sure students know what to do if they continue to encounter glitches. They’re also trying to keep students’ spirits up and getting them ready to compare their financial aid and acceptance packages when they come in.

“The most important thing we can do is to share information about how to go about entering information manually, how to make sure that as they are completing those steps that it requires a lot of precision,” Seider said. “We really want to make sure that students and families are being proactive, and not experiencing this as their shortcoming, but rather saying ‘Hey, this system has been a little confusing, we need some help with it.’”

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

Problema corregido en la FAFSA abre el formulario para muchas familias inmigrantes

2024-03-21T22:50:12+00:00

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

Want to finish the FAFSA before a key Indiana deadline? Here’s what you should know.

2024-04-02T11:00:00+00:00

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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

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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.

¿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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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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.

Partial FAFSA fix lets students from immigrant families apply for financial aid

2024-02-21T01:24:04+00:00

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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.

¿No puedes llenar la FAFSA en línea? Esto es lo que debes saber sobre la solicitud impresa

2024-02-21T17:40:42+00:00

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.

A glitch blocks thousands of immigrant families from a new, simpler FAFSA. The fix is TBD.

2024-01-25T22:20:06+00:00

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Update as of Feb. 21: There are now two workarounds for the Social Security number problem, one a paper form and the other online. Federal officials promise a permanent fix is coming in March.

Like many high school seniors, 18-year-old Jocelyn is trying to get through her college application to-do list.

She’s applied to 10 colleges so far. Northeastern University in Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago are her top picks. She’d like to study veterinary medicine and work with animals like her two cats, Strawberry and Copito.

With the help of her sibling, Jocelyn completed her portion of the federal application for financial aid in around an hour. But now she’s stuck. That’s because her mom doesn’t have a Social Security number, so she hasn’t been able to add her financial information.

The new Free Application for Federal Student Aid that debuted last month was supposed to be easier for students and families to complete. And in many ways it is: It’s shorter, and it pulls tax information directly from the IRS instead of asking families to enter it themselves. The goal is to get more students to apply for aid and attend college.

But the form was released months later than usual, leaving students much less time to complete it and schools scrambling to offer help. On top of that, many families have experienced glitches. One of the biggest issues is that parents who don’t have a Social Security number can’t enter their information right now, and workarounds from prior years are gone. Potentially tens of thousands of U.S. citizen students and others with legal status — who are eligible for federal financial aid regardless of their parents’ immigration status — could be affected.

Federal officials say a fix is on the way, but can’t say when. Education advocates say there needs to be a stronger sense of urgency to resolve the issue, as some colleges award aid on a first-come, first-served basis.

Eighteen-year-old Jocelyn shows the Instagram video she watched to make sure she filled out her portion of the FAFSA correctly.

“We need to be working around the clock,” said Amalia Chamorro, who directs the education policy project for UnidosUS, a civil rights group that advocates to improve educational opportunities for Latino students. “We do worry that this is just another hurdle, another barrier, another way that they’re getting the message that they don’t matter, that they’re not as deserving of pursuing post-secondary education. That’s not the message that we want them to get.”

Jocelyn, whose last name Chalkbeat is withholding so as not to jeopardize her mother’s immigration status, is feeling stressed. But she’s trying to stay optimistic that she’ll be able to check this off her list soon, too.

“I didn’t want to turn in the FAFSA form late, and now I’m going to have to wait,” she said. “I know that my other friends have turned it in already, and I feel like I’m a little behind.”

Why some students are getting stuck on new FAFSA

Jocelyn isn’t the only one of her classmates having trouble.

On a visit in mid-January to Kelvyn Park High School in Chicago, just two of the 15 students in her class that helps students prepare for and apply to college had managed to complete the FAFSA. The high school serves predominantly Latino students from low-income families, many of whom will be the first in their family to attend college.

Some students got tripped up trying to add their parents as “contributors” to the FAFSA, a new step that requires them to sign up for an account and verify their identity. In the past, students could more easily fill out their parent’s portion for them.

That has presented challenges especially for families who are unfamiliar with the financial aid process, who have language barriers, or who worry about sharing personal information with the federal government.

When students are the first in their family to attend college, or there are immigration concerns, “You’re going to have a lot of paranoia, you’re going to have a lot of anxieties around it,” said Josh Kumm, who teaches Jocelyn’s class in partnership with OneGoal, a nonprofit college access organization that works in over 30 high schools in Chicago.

Eighteen-year-old Breann Sanford was one of the lucky ones who got through.

It helped that her mom was familiar with the FAFSA — she filled one out when she took a few college classes — and Sanford’s college and career coach knew just what to do when Sanford accidentally entered her email instead of her mom’s in one instance.

“It was a big help,” she said. “I knew I had a lot of different support options that I could go to if I needed help.”

Breann Sanford, 18, was able to submit her FAFSA successfully by mid-January. In her class at Kelvyn Park High School in Chicago that helps students apply to college, only a few completed the form without challenges.

Others are struggling for other reasons. During the recent visit, 18-year-old Ángel Serrano said he was still trying to tell his mom that he’s applying to college and needs her help with the financial aid form. His window to do that is on Wednesdays — the only day she’s not exhausted or working, Serrano said.

Another student in the class needs financial information from his mom, but they’re no longer living together or on speaking terms.

“You’ve got all these other things going on,” Kumm said. “It’s not just socioeconomic, it’s also the social-emotional parts of the family dynamics … That’s complicated.”

One-on-one help is key, but some FAFSA issues need federal fix

One-on-one support has been crucial for students to navigate FAFSA hiccups, though school counselors and college coaches have been swamped with requests for help. Sometimes the fix is to sit on hold with the U.S. Department of Education for hours — a step that’s impossible for many working parents.

Elve Mitchell, the senior director of program operations for College Possible in Chicago, a college access organization that works with a half-dozen high schools in the city, said one big thing his organization’s coaches are working on is making sure students and parents know the right questions to ask when they finally do get through to a live person on the department’s helpline.

Another way school staff and coaches are trying to help is by finding other ways students can work on their applications, such as fine-tuning a personal essay or using a federal student aid estimator to do some rough comparisons of college costs.

But for students whose parents do not have Social Security numbers, there isn’t much a school counselor can do right now.

When Jocelyn met with her school’s college and career coach this week, the advice was to sit tight, keep checking the federal government’s website, and wait for “the green light on what to do.”

Schools like Kelvyn Park High School in Chicago have been stepping in to offer students help when they've struggled to complete the new FAFSA form.

In the past, parents without a Social Security number could enter all zeros and sign a paper form.

The education department set up a new process for these parents to verify their identity through a credit agency, but educators say it’s not working consistently. Parents have had to call the federal helpline, open a case, and then share documents that prove their identity.

“For someone who’s undocumented, it’s very scary to give the federal government any documentation,” said Tony Petraitis, a college and career curriculum specialist for Chicago Public Schools, who’s been assembling how-to guides with screenshots to support school counselors. “For one of our most vulnerable populations, it’s a pretty big deal.”

Even if the credit agency produces a correct match, these parents still can’t share additional information on the FAFSA until the federal government comes up with a fix.

Chamorro, of UnidosUS, hopes the added delays and frustrations don’t deter students from applying to college.

“We don’t want them to give up,” she said.

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

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.

In the IB track, I learned persistence, patience, and the power of community

2022-05-12T12:00:00+00:00

During my first two years at Science Park High School in Newark, I knew very little about the International Baccalaureate, or IB, program.

The program’s coordinator explained how “high-level thinkers” and “self-motivated students” would excel in this environment. It would involve rigorous academic classes, including a philosophy course called Theory of Knowledge, or TOK; multiple lengthy research papers; 50-plus hours of community service, and a roughly 4,000-word “extended essay” on the topic of your choice.

Two years ago, I was one of 14 rising juniors to enroll in our school’s IB program. I felt highly motivated to excel academically, but in the beginning, I didn’t know how I would survive the seemingly never-ending papers and exams, being with the same small group of students for all of my main courses, and fitting in so many volunteer hours. It felt daunting to know how many deadlines were ahead.

But I did more than survive. I adapted and thrived. I learned how to conduct in-depth research, write analytical and compelling papers, and pace myself. I learned about patience, persistence, and the power of community (my committed teachers and my supportive classmates). I learned how interconnected different subjects can be.

Spoiler alert: The extended essay that was so nerve-wracking two years ago is now complete. I chose to write about Toni Morrison’s, “The Bluest Eye,” as it was one of the most memorable and powerful novels I have read.

As soon as I began preparing for the extended essay, I recognized that this was not going to be an average book report. My EE, as the extended essay is called, needed to be a meaningful exploration of “The Bluest Eye,” as seen through my chosen academic and philosophical lenses. It would require me to learn more about feminism, racism, colorism, intersectionality, and even existentialism. That meant dozens of books — including works by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a legal scholar who helped develop critical race theory, and activist Mikki Kendall, who wrote “Hood Feminism” — and many more hours in the library and in front of my computer.

Luckily, I was prepared. One of the main benefits of the IB program is the quality writing skills students develop. From creating a comprehensive outline to conducting research at my local public library to identifying reliable sources, I had learned the skills needed to complete the most complicated assignment of the IB program. Moreover, I had developed the ability to manage my time and complete assignments promptly. (Not all of my peers in Newark have the same access to advanced courses like IB or Advanced Placement: While more than 50% of 11th and 12th graders at Science Park take advanced classes, less than 10% do at some other Newark high schools.)

Daniela, top row, second from right, with a group of her IB classmates.

But IB is more than courses to pass, papers to write, and transferable life skills to learn. It is a community. When I started the program my junior year, all of our classes were remote due to the pandemic. Even in the virtual space, I bonded with my 13 fascinating and passionate IB classmates. Since we all take the same academic classes with the same teachers at the same time, we not only learned together; we learned about each other. Each of us adds something to our “IB group” with our unique interests and backgrounds.

Since coming back to school in person this year, our bond has grown even stronger.

It is crazy to think many of us didn’t know each other during the first two years of high school. IB provided this necessary foundation for our unique journey together, and we have developed genuine connections.

Since coming back to school in person this year, our bond has grown even stronger.

In our IB Physics class, for example, students often attempt problems on the board. If someone does the problem incorrectly or misses a step, we don’t criticize that person. We remind them of the missed step and uplift their efforts. Given our strong emphasis on academic excellence, we want each other to do well and offer support.

This spring, as our IB exam season approached, my peers and I would go to our school’s library after we ate lunch. There, we reviewed practice exams, tested each other on terms and concepts, and answered each other’s questions. For certain classes, we have created comprehensive study guides and shared them with each other. These group sessions have helped me hold myself more accountable for reviewing the necessary material.

We also share in each other’s joys. In late April, Science Park seniors celebrated College Signing Day, when students decide which college to attend. (All of my IB classmates are headed to four-year schools.) It was a bittersweet moment. It was thrilling to see my classmates in their college apparel and gear. Their hard work had paid off. But it also felt like the beginning of the end of an era — one that bonded us and brought us to this moment.

I am currently in the final stretch of my senior year, and I am thankful that I accepted the challenge to join the IB program. As I move toward higher education, I will keep with me fond and long-lasting memories of my peers and teachers who were fundamental to my high school journey.

Daniela Palacios (she/her) is a senior at Science Park High School. She will be attending Columbia University in the fall. Daniela is the creator of Para KIDS!, a media company that publishes bilingual children’s stories with immigrant characters. She is the author of a forthcoming Spanish bilingual children’s book, “Sara’s New Country and New Friend/ El nuevo país y la nueva amiga de Sara.” Daniela is a Chalkbeat Student Voices fellow. Read her recent Chalkbeat piece in English here or en español here.

Why I see myself at an HBCU

2022-02-01T15:34:11+00:00

In May 2018, my eighth grade class flew to Atlanta, Georgia, which some have called “The Black Mecca,” for a trip marking the end of our middle school years. We were about to start high school.

True to my Newark charter school’s precocious image, the educators who staffed the trip took us to visit colleges around the city. We were able to see Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College — three historically Black schools that make up the Atlanta University Center.

Chimdindu Okafor

Being there on a beautiful spring day — the sun shining down and the trees blooming— reminded me of my visit three years earlier to Howard University. Though I was young at the time, I vividly remember the warmth I felt there. The students looked like me. They seemed so happy and independent; they seemed like they belonged. I wanted to belong, too.

As an immigrant and a child of West African parents, I’ve long felt pressure to attend an Ivy League university or the like. But in the physical presence of HBCUs, I could reimagine what college could look like for me: the comfort, the beauty, and the welcoming atmosphere. I envisioned myself walking through their yards, talking and laughing with my friends. Visiting a lecture hall at Howard and seeing students joyously enter a class and eagerly dive into the material inspired me.

The students there looked like me. They seemed so happy and independent; they seemed like they belonged.

I’ve since learned that early HBCUs were founded to provide educational liberation for the newly freed, formerly enslaved Black people. The first HBCUs, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania and Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, were founded before the Civil War in 1837 and 1854, respectively. They were followed by the so-called “Black Ivies” Howard, Morehouse, Spelman, and Hampton University in the 1860s and 1880s. Today, HBCUs offer so much more than cultural markers of African American resilience and steadfastness. They are forces of real change and social markers for upward mobility, even amid an uneven playing field. (Black students, for example, have comparably more college debt than their white counterparts.)

Even today, Black students may feel othered or marginalized at Predominantly White Institutions. Some 52% of Black people who attended college said they had been treated as if they weren’t smart, according to the Pew Research Center.

That is why I think it’s so important to acknowledge those Black students who are accepted at HBCUs but ultimately must choose schools with larger endowments and, therefore, able to provide them with more financial aid. They should not have to compromise their dreams to fit into spaces where they feel at odds. Making sure HBCUs have the resources they need to support admitted students who see themselves at these illustrious, historically Black institutions must be a priority.

As for me, I owe it to myself to join the legacy of Black changemakers who graduated HBCUs and altered the course of our world for the better. Changemakers like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who attended Morehouse College and advocated for a world of equality. And changemakers like Zora Neale Hurston, a celebrated writer from the Harlem Renaissance whose work captured the joys and pains of the Black American experience; she graduated from Howard University.

I hope to work in medicine, possibly as a healthcare administrator focusing on the technology side of medical practices. I believe that attending an HBCU would put me directly on that path to that work. I love the thought of learning from professors and faculty who care deeply about my success.

The thrill of opening up my acceptance letters these last couple of months — from schools including Howard, Hampton, Spelman, and Morgan State — has been like none other. It gave me a glimpse into the excitement that I would experience attending one of these institutions.

HBCUs are some of the last-standing safe spaces where Black students from across the diaspora can enjoy academic rigor while celebrating the beauty in their identities. To me, it means a chance to explore my Blackness deeply as I encounter different identities across the diaspora and am embraced by a community of love.

Chimdindu Okafor is a senior at North Star Academy Lincoln Park High School in Newark, New Jersey. She has been accepted to 23 colleges so far. Chimdindu is a Chalkbeat Student Voices fellow.

There’s more than one way to write a college essay

2021-12-23T13:00:00+00:00

“You’re smart, you’re Asian, you’re queer and nonbinary, and you were raised by a single mom. Colleges will love you.” That’s the message I heard from friends even years before applying to college. In high school, advisers chimed in, too; they made it seem like it was a cool thing to be from a marginalized background.

When it came time to do my college applications, I think they assumed that I’d write about the challenges I faced growing up in an immigrant family with limited means, with minority racial, gender, and sexual identities. I knew that I could tell a phenomenal story about all the struggles I had overcome. I was, after all, applying to college through QuestBridge, a national nonprofit that connects low-income youth with colleges and opportunities. My peers initially encouraged me to use the hardships to my advantage. Tell them how you adapted and thrived through it all, even the pandemic, they urged me.

Lin Lin

I drafted an essay, then I discarded it and tried again. And again. One was about growing up in a neighborhood that is slowly being gentrified. Another was about living in a world that perceives me as an Asian woman and the violent consequences that come with it. Another still was about coping with my weight. None of them felt right. I knew some of what I went through was tough, and some saw my ability to persevere as remarkable. But is that all I had to offer? Is that all I am worth?

It felt like an exercise in proving my worth to college admissions officers.

And what, exactly, was I trying to prove? That despite the disadvantages I faced, I am still at the same academic level as those who didn’t face such adversity? That I can handle college because I grew up handling so much?

I resented the expectation that I lead with my trauma.

When I focus only on the worst things that ever happened to me and on the challenges and pain that come with my racial, gender, and sexual identity, it feels toxic and takes away from my humanity. Trauma is not the only thing that defines me, and it’s not the only reason I deserve to go to college.

I drafted an essay, then I discarded it and tried again. And again.

Of course, if other applicants want to open up about their hardships, they should tell their stories. I would never want to take this away from them. It’s just that I refuse to believe that it’s the only way to write a college essay.

Conflicted, I reached out to a fellow community organizer Van Sam, of VietLead. They were a great help. While overcoming challenges is character-building, Van reminded me that I have many other things to contribute. They urged me to question what actually makes up my identity.

Here’s what I came up with:

I am funny with a contagious laugh. I am loud. I like talking to people and always want everyone to feel included. I love urban green spaces and spending time outdoors, especially running or hiking. I’m addicted to romantic comedies and Chipotle. I’m someone who is growing constantly.

So what did I end up writing about? My love of nature, how much I adore analyzing the world around me and reveling in that same world. I also wrote about being non-binary through the lens of my liberation. Specifically, I wrote about buying my first chest binder. “When I put it on, it was euphoric,” I wrote. I compared the experience to eating candy without consequences. I compared it to flying.

The essays I submitted were more reflective of my character than my earlier drafts because they were rooted in the joy that defines me as much as anything else.

I felt good about what I had turned in, but as early decision day approached, I was overcome with doubt. I thought of all of the reasons they would reject me. I hadn’t submitted my SAT or ACT scores, which were optional. I worried that my essay wasn’t good enough and that I couldn’t compare to other high-achieving students who did more than I did in high school.

I tried to calm my nerves. I prayed to my ancestors. My hands were stained with the reddish color of the incense I’d been burning. My fingers were the color of sangria. It wouldn’t come off, no matter how much soap I used.

When I finally worked up the nerve to go log on, the “Dear Lin” letter waiting for me began: “Congratulations!” I had been accepted to Dartmouth and, thanks to QuestBridge, I would receive a full scholarship.

In the days since, I’ve spent time scrolling through Dartmouth’s website. I’ve decided I want to double-major in government and sociology. I want to join campus clubs and take part in Greek life. I want to study abroad. I want to learn how to swim and how to ride a bike and how to drive a car. Maybe I’ll get a tattoo of a rabbit and a tiger after saving up money. There’s so much joy ahead. I’m going to lead with that.

Lin Lin is a senior at Central High School in Philadelphia, the president of the citywide student newspaper the Bullhorn News, and a Chalkbeat Student Voices fellow. They will be attending Dartmouth in the fall.

Career and technical education needs a mental health revolution

2023-04-11T12:00:00+00:00

As a longtime public school occupational therapist, I know what students look and sound like when they’re ready to transition from the work lab to the workforce.

In recent years, I’ve personally witnessed more of my students struggle to make that transition or not make it at all. It has nothing to do with a lack of technical skills, as I’ve seen them master complicated vocational concepts and tasks — graphic design, woodworking, 3D printing, and CNC programming. The struggle has everything to do with skyrocketing anxiety, depression, and trauma experienced by my students as they prepare to enter the workforce.

Michele Morgan

Our students are experiencing a mental health crisis across our state and country, and that’s something all of us can and must work to address. That’s why I’m focused on helping our general education and special education students develop job skills and strengthen their mental health while still in our hallways.

Starting about six years ago, I worked with my colleagues at Warren Woods Public Schools in Warren, Michigan, to launch a new approach to student mental health and wellness to complement our existing emphasis on pre-vocational skill development. The program, available at our district’s two high schools, includes an OT lab that combines technology-driven and traditional machines, a reset room where students can process emotions in a calming environment, and an after-school program called Scratch the Surface.

This curriculum helps students process uncomfortable feelings, such as loss, grief, or anger.

When we first launched the after-school program, it served only as an alternative to traditional disciplinary measures for students who were skipping school or getting behavior referrals in class. But nearly all of the students referred to the program voluntarily continued attending well past what was required.

I also collaborate with our school social worker to provide students with a series of weekly sessions that center on mindfulness, self-compassion, and the principles of psychological flexibility. This curriculum helps students process uncomfortable feelings, such as loss, grief, or anger, and recognize that painful thoughts will pass and do not define them. My program has reached up to 82 students year-round, including programming offered over spring break and during summer.

Some of the artwork produced by Michele Morgan’s CTE students.

In our OT labs, students use raw materials (donated by a local kitchen and bath manufacturer) and machines, such as lathes, 3D printers, CNC routers, laser engravers, and wood burners to make functional art infused with meaning and messages related to mental health. Student art has included granite memorial markers, engraved wood cutlery, mosaic art, candles, jewelry, and more.

The results speak for themselves.

Attendance has gone up and behavior referrals down to near zero for every Warren Woods-Tower High School student who has participated since the program began. At Enterprise High School, the principal of our alternative education program says the OT lab has given students a supportive outlet when they need it most since they can choose when during their school day to visit. Through the power of mindfulness, my students have learned to process their feelings in a constructive way at school. This has allowed them to refocus on developing job skills and preparing for career success.

As our program has evolved, we have gained partners at the local and state levels, including Michigan Works! and Michigan Rehabilitation Services, which support program costs and pay students an hourly wage during spring break and summer sessions. I’ve also worked with interns from occupational therapy programs at Eastern Michigan University, Macomb Community College, and Wayne State University, developing a pipeline of prospective OT lab practitioners. It’s been exciting to see professional and community partners recognize the value of our work and help keep it going.

I’m not a psychotherapist. The good news is that occupational therapists, too, can have a long-lasting impact on student well-being. The key to our success has been making a personal investment in their health, welfare, and happiness — not just one focused on grades or performance.

Michele Morgan is an occupational therapist at Warren Woods Public Schools. Learn more about her work at makeitworkprogram.com.

Film, health care, and Bard early college: New high schools coming to Brooklyn and Queens

2024-02-02T20:34:39+00:00

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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.

Newark and Camden square off in 2024 FAFSA challenge

2024-01-23T20:32:10+00:00

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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.

Mental health, literacy, college access: Hochul’s 2024 education agenda

2024-01-09T20:11:06+00:00

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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.

Supreme Court affirmative action cases could bolster attacks on school integration

2022-10-28T21:53:35+00:00

Monday could mark the beginning of the end for affirmative action in higher education.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments that day in two cases challenging the use of race in college admissions. The court’s decision earlier this year to hear the cases, which seek to overturn prior rulings that upheld affirmative action, suggests the longstanding policy might be on its way out.

The case doesn’t directly involve schools that educate kindergartners through 12th graders, yet its outcome could alter those students’ post-grad trajectories: If selective universities can no longer consider race in admissions, they are likely to enroll fewer Black and Latino students.

But the higher-ed cases could also portend changes to K-12 schools, where efforts to promote racial diversity already face legal challenges. Advocates fear that if the Supreme Court ends race-conscious admissions in higher education, K-12 integration efforts could be next.

“I think anybody who cares about preserving any semblance of diversity in educational institutions, be they K-12 or higher ed, is paying attention to this case,” said Stefan Lallinger, a desegregation expert who helped form a peer-support network for districts pursuing integration.

As the closely watched case begins, here’s what you need to know:

The ruling shouldn’t immediately affect K-12 schools

The central question before the court is whether colleges and universities should be able to use race as one of many factors in selecting students and pursuing educational diversity.

The cases stem from lawsuits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina brought by Students for Fair Admissions, a group led by conservative legal activist Edward Blum. The group alleged that the admissions process at Harvard discriminates against Asian American students by holding them to a higher standard than other applicants, and that UNC’s process discriminates against Asian American and white students by giving preference to Black, Latino, and Native American applicants.

The institutions denied the allegations and lower courts ruled in their favor, saying the universities had met the strict standards for race-conscious admissions policies established through four decades of Supreme Court decisions. The plaintiff appealed the rulings to the Supreme Court, which agreed in January to hear the two cases.

Because the cases turn on legal precedents specific to higher education, their outcome should not directly affect K-12 schools with programs meant to increase student diversity, said Genevieve Bonadies Torres, an attorney at the the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which is representing some students and alumni in the Supreme Court cases.

However, she warned that opponents of race-conscious admissions might use the higher-ed ruling to attack K-12 integration efforts.

“The ultimate goal of these groups is to scare and chill and litigate against diversity programs,” she said.

Colleges and K-12 schools follow different rules about race

Colleges and universities have more leeway than K-12 schools to use race in pursuit of diversity.

In rulings stretching from 1978 to 2016, the Supreme Court has set a high bar for race-conscious admissions in higher education, or affirmative action. Institutions may not set racial quotas, they must consider race-neutral approaches, and they may only use race as one factor among many in a holistic review of each applicant.

In the majority opinion in Grutter v. Bollinger, a 2003 case in which the court upheld affirmative action by a 5-4 vote, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor cited two reasons for allowing the “narrowly tailored use of race in admissions:” Students benefit from diversity, and courts should defer to universities on academic decisions, including whom to admit.

Because of the “expansive freedoms of speech and thought associated with” higher education, O’Connor wrote, “universities occupy a special niche in our constitutional tradition.”

Four years later, the court declined to grant the same leeway to K-12 schools.

In a landmark 2007 ruling, the court ruled 5-4 to strike down two school districts’ voluntary integration plans. The goal of diversity, or “racial balance,” is not a sufficient reason for public school districts to assign students to schools based on their race.

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” Chief Justice John Roberts memorably wrote.

In a concurring opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy agreed with the judgment but insisted that districts can take some voluntary steps to combat segregation. Whether by redrawing attendance lines or strategically locating schools, districts can try to promote diversity through race-conscious policies so long as they operate at a general but not individual level, Kennedy wrote. (The ruling did not affect court-ordered desegregation plans.)

But even though Kennedy’s concurrence left room for some voluntary integration, the threat of lawsuits has made most districts wary of walking that line.

There are more than 13,000 districts nationwide, but a 2020 report could identify only 119 districts with active integration plans. (The researchers also found 66 charter school organizations with plans.) The vast majority of the plans consider students’ socioeconomic status but don’t factor in race — even in the general way that Kennedy allowed.

For that reason, even if the Supreme Court one day banned any consideration of race in district diversity plans, relatively few schools would be affected.

“My first instinct is that this decision wouldn’t necessarily change the landscape that much for K-12 school districts,” said Halley Potter, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation think tank, who co-authored the 2020 report. “Frankly, there are so few voluntary race-based integration plans in K-12 already.”

The end of affirmative action could lead to K-12 legal challenges

Still, if the Supreme Court’s conservative majority rules against affirmative action, as is widely expected, advocates worry it could invite challenges to the few remaining K-12 integration plans.

The most likely targets are elite public high schools with selective admissions policies. Many such schools have historically admitted few Black or Latino students, prompting some school districts — including Boston, New York City, and San Francisco — to adopt diversity plans.

Critics have attacked the high school diversity plans and affirmative action along similar lines. They say the schools have improperly tried to engineer a “racial balance” of students, failed to consider other ways to pursue diversity, and discriminated against Asian American and white applicants.

The “pernicious practice of racial balancing has spread to K-12 education, where it is now depriving children of spots at some of the best public schools in the nation solely because of their race,” reads a friend of the court brief supporting the challenge to affirmative action. Submitted by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative group that has won more than a dozen Supreme Court cases, the brief argues that race should play no role in either college or K-12 admissions.

Several K-12 education groups filed briefs supporting affirmative action, arguing that students at every level benefit from diversity. One brief urged the court to allow colleges and school districts to continue using race to promote diversity according to the standards set in prior rulings.

“The Court need not, and should not, revisit either longstanding precedent,” said the brief submitted by national associations representing school boards, principals, and counselors.

But even if the court’s affirmative action ruling does not address K-12 schools, future rulings might.

A case currently in federal court challenges the diversity plan at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology, a selective public school in Fairfax County, Virginia. The prestigious school overhauled its admissions policies in 2020 following years of complaints that it enrolled very few Black and Latino students.

Last year, the Pacific Legal Foundation helped Coalition for TJ, a group that includes parents and alumni, file a lawsuit against the district. Similar to the Harvard case, the lawsuit accuses the district of discriminating against Asian Americans, whose enrollment dropped sharply after the admissions change. But unlike Harvard, the high school did not explicitly consider each applicant’s race, instead using other measures — such as admitting the top-performing students from each middle school — to boost diversity.

“That is still every bit as much of a violation of someone’s Equal Protection rights as if you sit in front of an audience and said, ‘I’m discriminating on the basis of race,’” said Erin Wilcox, a lawyer at the Pacific Legal Foundation, who called the school’s diversity plan “proxy discrimination.” (The district says its admission system is based on merit, not race.)

Lallinger, the integration advocate, called the foundation’s argument extreme because it suggests that even the goal of racial diversity is suspect.

“Essentially they’re arguing that any effort to address historical discrimination against Black and Latino students is inherently unconstitutional,” he said, “because, they argue, admissions is a zero-sum game.”

In oral arguments last month, a federal appeals court appeared skeptical of the case against the district.

If the group behind the challenge loses, it could appeal to the Supreme Court. And if the high court rules against affirmative action in higher education, that could bolster the case against diversity efforts in K-12 schools, Wilcox said.

“It will take away this reliance on diversity as a compelling government interest,” she said, adding that in her group’s ongoing legal campaign against school diversity plans, “That will certainly be a supporting precedent that we will use.”

Patrick Wall is a senior reporter covering national education issues. Contact him at pwall@chalkbeat.org.

Education stories we’re watching in 2024

2024-01-02T14:22:00+00:00

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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.

Presos de Colorado podrían ser liberados temprano si asisten a la universidad

2023-02-23T12:00:00+00:00

Chalkbeat Colorado es un noticiero local sin fines de lucro que informa sobre las escuelas públicas en Denver y otros distritos. Suscríbete a nuestro boletín gratis por email en español para recibir lo último en noticias sobre educación.

Las personas encarceladas por delitos no violentos en Colorado podrían obtener una reducción de su sentencia si obtienen un grado o diploma universitario.

Los que apoyan el Proyecto de Ley 1037, que el Comité Judicial de la Cámara aprobó por 11 -2 votos, dicen que ayudará a los presos de Colorado a encontrar nuevas oportunidades, reducirá la probabilidad de que reincidan después de ser liberados, y también le ahorrará dinero al estado.

El proyecto de ley les ofrecería incentivos a los presos del estado para que aprovechen subvenciones (grants) federales que tendrán disponibles a partir de este próximo verano. El gobierno federal también ha ampliado el número de universidades que pueden educar a estudiantes encarcelados, lo que abre la puerta a más oportunidades.

El Representante estatal Matthew Martínez, demócrata de Monte Vista que auspicia el proyecto de ley, le dijo al Comité Judicial que la ayuda financiera elimina la mayor barrera a la que se enfrentan los estudiantes encarcelados que quieren ir a la universidad.

“Estamos consiguiendo que vuelvan a la normalidad y realmente marcando una diferencia en sus vidas”, afirma Martínez, que anteriormente dirigió el programa de educación penitenciaria de la Adams State University. La senadora estatal Julie Gonzales, demócrata de Denver, también apoya el proyecto de ley.

Bikram Mishra, que testificó ante el comité, dijo que durante sus 10 años en un centro penitenciario de Colorado su familia le ayudó a pagar sus estudios universitarios. Eso le cambió la vida, dijo, y quiere que otras personas en prisión tengan acceso a la universidad.

“Queremos ayudar a las personas a mejorar y estamos tratando de asegurar que estén listas para la sociedad,” dijo Mishra.

Si se convierte en ley, Colorado les permitiría a los estudiantes condenados por delitos no violentos reducir seis meses de su sentencia a cárcel si obtienen un diploma o certificado universitario. Esta ley también les permitiría descontar un año de su sentencia si se gradúan con un título de dos años (asociado), cuatro años (BS/BA) o maestría.

Algunos legisladores republicanos y demócratas, sin embargo, abogaron durante la audiencia por aumentar la cantidad de tiempo que los estudiantes encarcelados obtendrán a fin de ser liberados temprano. A algunos les preocupa que un año menos de sentencia no fuera suficiente para atraer a los estudiantes a los programas universitarios y que, en su lugar, buscaran programas de corta duración.

El proyecto de ley dividiría el dinero que el estado ahorraría liberando a los estudiantes encarcelados temprano entre las instituciones de enseñanza superior y el Departamento Correccional de Colorado.

Los representantes republicanos Matt Soper de Delta y Stephanie Luck de Penrose votaron en contra del proyecto de ley, en parte porque quieren que el Departamento de Correcciones de Colorado se quede con mayor parte de los ahorros.

Pero todos los miembros del comité, incluso los que querían ver cambios, dijeron que apoyan la idea de motivar a las personas encarceladas a obtener una educación. Ellos dijeron que el testimonio de los presos que se convirtieron en graduados de universidad les hizo apoyar el proyecto de ley.

Martínez dijo que los datos muestran que los graduados tienen menos probabilidades de reincidir, especialmente si obtienen un diploma de cuatro años o una maestría. Eso también significa menos costos para la sociedad, dijo. En 2018, Colorado tuvo una de las peores tasas de reincidencia del país — La mitad de todas las las personas previamente encarceladas regresaron a la cárcel en los primeros de tres años. Los estudios nacionales, sin embargo, muestran que las personas encarceladas reinciden menos si tienen acceso a una educación.

Christie Donner, directora ejecutiva de la Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, dijo que permitir que las personas encarceladas puedan aprender mientras están en la cárcel va más allá de los ahorros para el estado. El proyecto de ley representa el inicio de más conversaciones para asegurar que las personas encarceladas vean un futuro para sí mismas, dijo ella.

“La educación te ayuda a verte a ti mismo de otra manera”, dijo Donner, “Cambias tus ambiciones, tus esperanzas, tus sueños, y todas esas cosas buenas. Es realmente profundo. Y es mucho mejor que trabajar haciendo placas de matrícula para autos o barrer el suelo o trabajar en la cocina. La gente puede encontrar una vida totalmente nueva”.

Jason Gonzales es reportero que cubre temas de educación superior y la legislatura de Colorado. Chalkbeat Colorado colabora con Open Campus para cubrir temas de enseñanza superior. Para comunicarte con Jason, envíale un mensaje a jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

Muchos estudiantes en Colorado van a la universidad mientras crían a sus hijos. Con frecuencia se sienten como extraños en la escuela.

2023-09-13T18:16:01+00:00

Deysi Parga Macias enfrentó un dilema el otoño pasado durante la primera semana de clases en la Universidad de Colorado en Boulder (conocida como CU Boulder).

No podía encontrar cuidados infantiles para su hijo, Ramiro, y sus abuelos, quienes supuestamente lo iban a cuidar, estaban enfermos.

Macias, en ese entonces de 19 años de edad, entró en pánico. Su laboratorio de bioquímica solo permitía cuatro ausencias antes de reprobar la clase—pero faltar a solo una de las clases la haría sentirse como un fracaso. Desesperada, le envió un mensaje electrónico a su profesor antes de la clase preguntándole si podía traer a su hijo, quien en ese momento tenía un año y medio.

“Dije: ‘Lo siento, y sé que esto no es profesional’”, Macias dijo.

Ese día, los estudiantes del laboratorio iban a recolectar muestras en el arroyo de Boulder y analizar los resultados. Por suerte, su profesor aceptó que Ramiro viniera ya que era un entorno más seguro que en el laboratorio. Mientras Macias trabajaba, Ramiro jugó con rocas, tirándolas al agua.

“Pensó que era solo un día más [jugando] afuera”, dijo.

Deysi Macias lleva a su hijo al automóvil para dejarlo en la casa de sus abuelos.

Macias, quien ahora tiene 20 años y está estudiando su tercer año en CU Boulder, hace todo lo posible por mantener separadas su vida de madre y sus clases universitarias, aun cuando les menciona a sus profesores durante los primeros días de clase que tiene un hijo.

Usualmente no ve otros niños pequeños en CU Boulder. Muchos estudiantes no se identifican con la vida que ella tiene.

Es una experiencia aisladora.

“Cada vez que les digo a mis profesores que soy madre y que estoy estudiando una carrera me dicen: ‘Eres mi primera [madre-estudiante]’”, dijo.

¿Cuántos padres-estudiantes hay en los colegios y universidades de Colorado?

Muchos colegios comunitarios y universidades públicas en Colorado no saben cuántos estudiantes son padres en sus instituciones.

Datos censales de la Encuesta sobre la Comunidad Estadounidense 2021 analizados por la oficina demográfica de Colorado sugieren que los padres constituyen un poco menos de un tercio de los estudiantes universitarios de grado (undergraduate, en inglés) en todos los colegios comunitarios y universidades del estado.

Esas cifras son similares a los datos nacionales reunidos por el Instituto para la Investigación de Políticas sobre la Mujer en 2016: alrededor del 22 por ciento de todos los estudiantes de grado eran padres. El instituto encontró que el 42 por ciento de todos los estudiantes en colegios comunitarios y solo el 17 por ciento de los estudiantes en universidades públicas de cuatro años eran padres.

Colorado, como muchos estados, no requieren que los colegios y las universidades mantengan estas cifras. Algunas universidades, incluida la Universidad Estatal de Colorado (CSU, por sus siglas en inglés) en Fort Collins, han usado encuestas voluntarias para tener una mejor idea. Pero sigue siendo un cálculo aproximado.

“No sabemos si tenemos 50 padres-estudiantes o 5,000”, dijo Lisa Chandler, subdirectora de servicios para estudiantes adultos y veteranos en CSU Fort Collins.

A algunos administradores les preocupa que preguntarles a los estudiantes si tienen hijos pueda ser una violación de reglas federales diseñadas para prevenir la discriminación. Defensores dicen que la falta de datos concretos puede limitar los servicios y esfuerzos de alcance para que los estudiantes reciban ayuda durante su carrera universitaria, especialmente porque este es un grupo que no tiene mucho tiempo para buscar ayuda.

La fotografía de Ramiro aparece en el gorro de graduación de high school de Macias en su hogar en Arvada, Colorado.

Los padres-estudiantes mantienen calificaciones promedio más altas, pero tienen una probabilidad 10 veces menor de graduarse, según el instituto de investigaciones de políticas sobre la mujer. También tienen mayor probabilidad de ser estudiantes negros y con bajos ingresos, asumir más deudas de préstamos estudiantiles y enfrentar desafíos para encontrar vivienda.

Para los padres-estudiantes es importante triunfar porque quieren ganar salarios más altos que les permitan mantener a sus familias. Y Colorado tiene el objetivo de que más de sus residentes—especialmente aquellos de comunidades diversas—obtengan la capacitación postsecundaria que necesitan para conseguir trabajos que paguen bien. Macias, por ejemplo, estudia bioquímica y quiere ser médica.

En años recientes, los colegios comunitarios de Colorado, con más padres-estudiantes, han proporcionado recursos alimenticios y conectado a estudiantes con vivienda, cuidados infantiles y apoyo financiero. Mientras tanto, las universidades de cuatro años ofrecen menos servicios.

Los cuidados infantiles son la prioridad para muchos de los padres-estudiantes

Antes que Macias se inscribiera, investigó qué escuelas ofrecían más ayuda para padres-estudiantes. CU Boulder le dio becas, y Macias logró reunir suficiente dinero para pagar por sus estudios universitarios. También planeó usar la vivienda para estudiantes de posgrado y familias en la universidad con el objetivo de tener más espacio para ella y Ramiro, vivir en el campus, conocer amigos y ser independiente.

Hubo mucho que no se esperaba como la primera estudiante en su familia en asistir a la universidad y como madre primeriza.

El alquiler en la vivienda para familias terminó siendo más de lo que podía pagar. Tuvo momentos difíciles durante su primer año para pagar por los muebles y otros artículos para el hogar—hasta cosas tan pequeñas como una cortina de baño y artículos de aseo personal. Macias calcula que un mentor de high school gastó alrededor de $1,000 para ayudarla a amueblar su apartamento. Su mamá le cocinaba y también traía comida y otros productos para la vida diaria. Su hermana ayudaba a cuidar de Ramiro cuando Macias tenía clases.

Macias trata de encontrar ropa para vestir a su hijo en su hogar en Arvada, Colorado.

Macias ahora está viviendo con la abuela paterna de su hijo. La ubica a pocos minutos de parientes que la ayudan a cuidar de Ramiro porque dijo que no puede pagar por la guardería en CU Boulder. También hace que sea más fácil cuando ella y el papá de Ramiro comparten la crianza del niño.

En Colorado, los cuidados de un niño pequeño que ya camina pueden costar en promedio cerca de $1,360 al mes en un centro y alrededor de $960 en un hogar que funciona como guardería, según el libro de datos Kids Count 2023 de la Fundación Annie E. Casey.

Los estudiantes de CU Boulder pagan según la edad de su hijo y la frecuencia con que asisten a la guardería. Un estudiante puede pagar hasta alrededor de $1,900 al mes por la atención cinco días a la semana para un bebé. El horario diurno no abarca las clases nocturnas ni las sesiones para estudiar.

La universidad realizó una encuesta entre estudiantes de grado en 2021 para entender mejor cómo ayudarlos a todos. Solo un tercio de todos los estudiantes contestaron la encuesta, y alrededor del 3 por ciento de los participantes dijeron que eran responsables de cuidar a niños u otros adultos, según dijo la universidad.

Otros servicios para padres en el campus incluyen un centro de salud y bienestar y apoyo para la salud mental, espacios para que los estudiantes cansados duerman una siesta y salas separadas para la lactancia.

Macias dijo que ya no usa la mayor parte de los servicios que CU Boulder ofrece. Los cuidados infantiles siguen siendo su mayor desafío. En un mundo perfecto, dijo que la escuela proporcionaría cuidados gratis, porque los estudiantes universitarios no tienen mucho dinero.

La estudiante universitaria de bioquímica trabaja en una clase virtual, “Recursos de habilidades académicas”, en una sala de estudios en el Edificio Duane de Laboratorios Físicos en la Universidad de Colorado en Boulder.

Los colegios comunitarios ofrecen más apoyo integrado

Las instituciones que atienden a estudiantes mayores suelen pensar más sobre las necesidades de los padres. Aurora Community College envió encuestas voluntarias a estudiantes y aprendió que cerca del 35 por ciento tienen responsabilidades como padres, dijo Reyna Anaya, directora principal de asuntos estudiantiles y decana de éxito estudiantil.

Las encuestas ayudaron a que la escuela desarrollara más ayuda. La escuela tiene estaciones con refrigerios para niños, un mercado gratis para que padres obtengan comida y áreas con juguetes. Hay consejeros disponibles para dar apoyo.

El campus de Colorado Mountain College (CMC) en Rifle organiza Viernes Familiares donde los estudiantes e integrantes de la comunidad pueden traer a niños al campus para aprender mientras sus padres toman clases, dijo Tinker Duclo, vicepresidenta y decana del campus en CMC Rifle.

Pero las instituciones universitarias de cuatro años también están haciendo más para ofrecer servicios a padres en sus instalaciones. Por ejemplo, la Universidad Estatal de Colorado en Fort Collins cuenta con una guardería sin necesidad de hacer cita en su biblioteca que se paga con las cuotas de los estudiantes. Y como muchas otras escuelas, CSU ofrece fondos federales para subvencionar los cuidados infantiles.

El cambio de un colegio comunitario a una universidad

Zeke Dominguez, 41, está nervioso de transferirse a la Universidad Estatal de Colorado de Front Range Community College el próximo año. Como un padre soltero de una niña autista de 11 años, su segundo intento de cursar estudios universitarios le ha proporcionado mucho de lo que necesita como padre, pero no sabe bien qué pasará en una institución más grande.

Dominguez estudió ciberseguridad en 2012 en la Universidad de Phoenix, una institución con fines de lucro. Su hija nació alrededor de esa época. Pasó meses en el hospital, y Dominguez tomó una pausa de sus estudios por un semestre pero se sintió abrumado cuando regresó a estudiar. Tuvo que salirse de la escuela.

“No tenía ningún sistema de apoyo”, dijo. “No era para nada como lo que tengo ahora”.

Los colegios comunitarios han aumentado sus servicios en años recientes para los padres-estudiantes.

Front Range reúne a los padres-estudiantes para que se apoyen entre ellos. Dominguez también se conectó con el programa TRIO de la escuela, un programa federal para guiar a los estudiantes desfavorecidos que se usa en muchos colegios comunitarios y universidades. Aunque el programa no es solo para padres-estudiantes, lo ha conectado con tutores y ayudado a aprender cómo abogar a favor de sus necesidades como padre, por ejemplo al comunicarse con profesores o decanos para que no tenga que abandonar clases cuando se retrasa.

La escuela también ofrece subsidios federales para los cuidados infantiles, dijo, y si Dominguez tiene algún problema, el personal de Front Range trata de ayudarlo a conectarse con recursos comunitarios.

Es importante para Dominguez completar sus estudios. Quiere obtener un título en bellas artes que le permita la flexibilidad de trabajar y cuidar a su hija. Las demandas de su trabajo anterior como chef no fueron compatibles con sus responsabilidades de padre.

Planea ampliar su trabajo en fotografía—solía tomar fotos de comida cuando era chef. También quiere explorar sus opciones profesionales, como al vender los cuadros que pinta.

Mientras se prepara para CSU Fort Collins, le preocupa perderse en una institución tan grande.

“Realmente somos un fantasma”, dijo. “No nos ven”.

Estudiantes caminan por el campus de la Universidad de Colorado en Boulder el 30 de agosto de 2023.

El creciente enfoque de la educación superior en los padres-estudiantes

En otros lugares, algunos estados han logrado dar seguimiento a los padres-estudiantes. Oregón e Illinois obligan a los colegios comunitarios y universidades a recolectar datos sobre padres-estudiantes para ayudarlos a que reciban lo que necesitan, según dijo Nicole Lynn Lewis, fundadora y directora ejecutiva de Generation Hope. Esta agencia sin fines de lucro aboga a favor de políticas que apoyen a los padres-estudiantes y respalda a las escuelas en sus esfuerzos.

Las instituciones también quieren aumentar el apoyo que ofrecen. La Universidad Estatal de Norfolk, una universidad históricamente negra en Virginia, ha estado trabajando con Generation Hope este último año para aumentar sus servicios, como salas de lactancia y grupos de padres. La escuela ofrece cuidados infantiles por las tardes/noches. Los líderes de la universidad también están desarrollando pautas sobre la presencia de niños en el campus y cómo los profesores y el personal administrativo pueden ayudar a los padres-estudiantes.

Los padres-estudiantes quieren sentir que forman una mayor parte de la vida en el campus y que los tomen en consideración, dijo Andrea Neal, vicerrectora adjunta de la Oficina de Participación Académica en la Universidad Estatal de Norfolk. Pequeñas cosas como espacios para estacionarse o acceso fácil a pañales en el campus los hacen sentirse incluidos, dijo.

Universidades más grandes como la Universidad Estatal de Ohio también están tratando de encontrar maneras de atender a los padres-estudiantes.

Traci Lewis, directora del Programa de Experiencia Universitaria Integral para el Éxito de los Padres-Estudiantes, dijo que la Universidad Estatal de Ohio hace que los padres y sus hijos sean parte de la vida universitaria. La escuela organiza una semana de bienvenida para padres-estudiantes con casas inflables (también conocidas como brincolines) para sus hijos, ofrece cuidados infantiles durante reuniones de clubes, y permitirá que los estudiantes caminen con sus hijos en el desfile de homecoming este año.

Los padres-estudiantes en la Universidad Estatal de Ohio reciben una guía integral con recursos de apoyo, pero la universidad también proporciona consejeros que ofrecen ayuda más personalizada. Además, la escuela ofrece asistencia financiera de emergencia.

Los padres-estudiantes necesitan abogar por sí mismos

Macias se siente agotada, pero raramente deja que eso detenga su actitud positiva.

Ha encontrado maneras de sentirse como una parte mayor del campus. Quiere ser un ejemplo para otros estudiantes de primera generación y otras estudiantes latinas en las ciencias. Ha encontrado amigos que la apoyan. Se ha unido a clubs como la Organización de Colorado para Oportunidades y Derechos Reproductivos de la [Mujer] Latina.

Se toma los días difíciles con calma porque está decidida a terminar sus estudios.

Macias, izq., escucha mientras America Ramirez, directora de programas en la Organización de Colorado para Oportunidades y Derechos Reproductivos de la [Mujer] Latina (COLOR, por sus siglas en inglés), habla durante la “Feria para involucrarse” en el campus.

“La vida no espera a que tú estes bien”, Macias dijo.

Macias trabaja en la Oficina de Alcance y Participación Preuniversitaria de CU Boulder y ofrece visitas guiadas a estudiantes de high school. El programa también organiza visitas con una noche de estadía.

Ha conocido a cientos de estudiantes, dice. Pero durante el verano, una joven la contactó para que leyera el ensayo que había preparado para ingresar a la universidad.

La adolescente, quien estaba por iniciar su penúltimo año de high school, había escrito que estaba embarazada. Quería estudiar ciencias igual que Macias. Documentó sus temores de decirle a su familia sobre el embarazo y de nunca entrar a la universidad.

Lagrimas corrieron por las mejillas de Macias mientras permanecía sentada frente a la estudiante. Las dificultades de la joven eran las suyas. Finalmente no se sintió tan fuera de lugar.

“Le dije que se mantuviera enfocada y siguiera avanzando. Que terminara con fuerza, con tanta fuerza como pudiera porque habrá mucha ayuda”, dijo. “Desafortunadamente, no van a venir y encontrarte como madre. Tienes que encontrar la ayuda tú misma”.

Jason Gonzales es un reportero que cubre la educación superior y la legislatura de Colorado. Chalkbeat Colorado se asocia con Open Campus para cubrir la educación superior. Comunícate con Jason enviándole un mensaje electrónico a jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado cuenta con grandes brechas de quién termina la universidad. ¿Puede un esfuerzo pospandémico cambiar esta tendencia?

2022-09-15T11:59:00+00:00

Reginaldo Haro-Flores sabía que terminar la universidad iba a ser una batalla cuesta arriba.

Ya que fue el primero en su familia en asistir a la universidad, enfrentó desafíos para pagar la colegiatura, comprar libros y otros materiales y balancear un trabajo mientras seguía ayudando a mantener a sus padres, quienes cuestionaban el valor de una educación universitaria.

Haro-Flores se inscribió en la Universidad del Norte de Colorado (UNC, por sus siglas en inglés) en 2016, junto con una creciente cantidad de coloradenses latinos que se encaminaron a la universidad en la última década. Pero como muchos en su generación, Haro-Flores nunca completó sus estudios, lo cual contribuyó a una brecha persistente en la graduación universitaria.

Aunque un grupo más diverso de estudiantes se inscribió en la universidad, las brechas étnicas y raciales de Colorado entre los estudiantes con licenciaturas y estudios de posgrado casi no cambió entre 2010 y 2020, según datos del Censo.

Las brechas son aún mayores entre las personas que están cursando estudios superiores. En 2020, casi el 60 por ciento de los residentes blancos tenía algún tipo de certificación universitaria, incluidos certificados industriales. Pero solo el 38 por ciento de los residentes negros y 25 por ciento de los residentes latinos lo tenían.

Aunque otros estados también muestran brechas, el Estado Centenario cuenta con algunas de las mayores en el país entre los estudiantes negros y latinos y sus compañeros blancos.

La diferencia probablemente aumentará cuando el impacto total de la pandemia se entienda claramente debido a que estudiantes se salieron de la escuela o eligieron no seguir asistiendo a la universidad. Un mercado laboral próspero también ha causado que las personas se cuestionen si vale la pena endeudarse a largo plazo por un título universitario.

Haro-Flores nunca pensó que su experiencia imitaría estas tendencias estatales. En 2018, enfrentando dificultades para pagar la colegiatura, dejó de asistir a la universidad. El estatus migratorio de sus padres significaba que tenía pocas opciones para obtener asistencia financiera. Se volvió a inscribir en UNC en 2019, pero la pandemia lo obligó a salirse otra vez. No le gustaban las clases virtuales y quería encontrar un trabajo de tiempo completo para ayudar a sus padres, quienes habían perdido sus trabajos temporales en bodegas y viveros por recortes de personal.

Durante cierto tiempo, Colorado ha querido cambiar su estrategia de importar una gran cantidad de trabajadores con estudios universitarios para producirlos aquí mismo. Parte de su estrategia este año incluye invertir $49 millones de fondos de asistencia federal por la pandemia con el objetivo de ayudar a los residentes que nunca completaron sus estudios para que regresen a la universidad y se gradúen.

La necesidad es urgente, ya que la demanda de más trabajadores con capacitación universitaria, junto con el creciente costo de vida en Colorado, han complicado los esfuerzos de los empleadores para contratar y retener empleados.

El exsenador estatal Mike Johnston dijo que el estado ha dependido por mucho tiempo de atraer talento de otros lugares.

“Le hemos sacado provecho a esta estrategia lo más posible”, Johnston dijo. Johnston es presidente y director ejecutivo de Gary Ventures, una organización filantrópica dedicada a promover una mejor preparación escolar, el éxito entre los jóvenes y la movilidad económica.

“Ahora vamos a tener que equipar a nuestros propios jóvenes con las habilidades que necesitan para ingresar a los trabajos que tenemos, que les darán el ingreso que necesitan para pagar por la vivienda que tenemos”, dijo.

Reginaldo Haro-Flores levanta la mano durante una clase sobre administración deportiva este mes en la Universidad del Norte de Colorado en Greeley.

Los antiguos desafíos chocan con los nuevos

Chalkbeat Colorado examinó las tendencias de la asistencia a la universidad como parte de Chasing Progress, un proyecto de Colorado News Collaborative sobre la equidad social, económica y en salud de los coloradenses negros y latinos.

Las bajas tasas de asistencia a la universidad en Colorado tienen antecedentes profundos y causas complicadas. En general, solo la mitad de todos los graduados de high school se inscriben en la universidad. Los estudiantes negros y latinos que se gradúan de high school, quienes con frecuencia asisten a escuelas con menos recursos y reciben menos apoyo, asisten en porcentajes mucho menores. Cuando sí van a la universidad, muchos no completan sus estudios. Y, por años, el estado no ha invertido suficientes fondos en la educación superior, lo que significa que las universidades tienen menos dinero para apoyar a los estudiantes hasta que se gradúan.

Datos censales publicados este año muestran que en 2020 el 48 por ciento de los residentes blancos tenían una licenciatura o estudios de posgrado. Ese porcentaje es 21 puntos porcentuales mayor que el porcentaje de adultos negros y 31 puntos porcentuales mayor que el de los latinos.

Datos estatales muestran que esas desigualdades aumentan cuando se comparan otros tipos de estudios superiores, como los certificados industriales y títulos asociados.

Colorado está buscando apoyar a 700,000 residentes con estudios universitarios parciales pero sin un título para que regresen a la universidad.

La pandemia todavía presenta desafíos. A nivel nacional, la tasa de inscripciones en universidades se redujo en casi 1 millón de estudiantes desde que COVID empezó.

El estado necesitará convencer a más residentes de que los estudios universitarios importan, aunque trabajos de nivel básico ahora ofrecen salarios más altos que nunca.

Más gente se cuestiona si un título universitario vale la pena y el riesgo de endeudarse mucho para pagarlo, dijo Iris Palmer, subdirectora de colegios comunitarios en New America. Este instituto de investigaciones aboga a favor del acceso equitativo a la educación.

“Eso está empezando a degradar lo que la gente piensa sobre la educación superior”, dijo.

El estado busca equipar al 66 por ciento de los residentes con un certificado universitario o superior para 2025, pero la combinación de problemas hace que este objetivo parezca más difícil de alcanzar que nunca.

Sin acceso a trabajos que paguen más, se está dejando atrás a la mayoría de los residentes negros, hispanos e indoamericanos de Colorado, dijo Courtney Brown, vicepresidenta de impacto y planeación con Lumina Foundation. La fundación promueve el acceso más equitativo a la enseñanza superior y ha ayudado a estados para que fijen metas. (Lumina proporciona respaldo financiero a Chalkbeat. Haz clic aquí para ver una lista de otras entidades que nos respaldan y lee nuestra norma de ética.)

Reginaldo Haro-Flores se despide de Alexis Vallejos-Diaz después de una sesión de mentoría en la biblioteca de la Universidad del Norte de Colorado.

Cómo hacer que los estudiantes terminen lo que empezaron

Líderes en Colorado están dando pasos para crear más oportunidades.

El estado ha estado animando a las escuelas de high school para que agreguen cursos de nivel universitario que ayuden a sus estudiantes a obtener certificados. Creó una beca en 2014 para ofrecer asistencia con la colegiatura y otros recursos para estudiantes que los necesitan.

En los últimos dos años, el estado nombró a un director estatal de equidad para que se enfoque en reducir las brechas persistentes y reunir a los legisladores y líderes comunitarios en la creación de un plan que aproveche fondos de asistencia por la pandemia para conectar a estudiantes universitarios con oportunidades laborales.

Aunque esos programas han tenido éxito, el estado sigue quedándose corto, dijo Angie Paccione, directora ejecutiva del Departamento de Educación Superior de Colorado.

Por eso el estado agregó más programas. Parecen prometedores, Palmer dijo. Por ejemplo, 30 universidades y colegios comunitarios adoptaron el programa Termina lo que Empezaste, el cual se diseñó con base en una exitosa iniciativa del Colegio Comunitario de Pueblo. El estado busca beneficiar a más de 9,000 estudiantes para 2026.

El programa proporciona ayuda financiera para que los estudiantes regresen a la escuela y asesoría para crear planes individuales, además de maneras de cumplir con los planes y encontrar un trabajo después de que terminen sus estudios. Los asesores también ayudan a los estudiantes para que encuentren ayuda en el colegio o universidad, o fuera de ellos, que ofrezca apoyo para poner comida sobre la mesa o cuidar a sus hijos.

Aunque el dinero es un enorme incentivo, es crucial ayudar a los estudiantes para que crean que pueden terminar la universidad, dijo Richie Ince, director del programa de Pueblo: Regreso para Ganar. Él y su equipo se comunican con cada estudiante cada dos semanas para aconsejarlo, animarlo o conectarlo con recursos.

“Creo que somos muy exitosos debido a ese toque personal y solo porque estamos pendientes de ellos, realmente desde el momento en que regresan hasta el momento en que terminan”, Ince dijo.

El programa de Termina lo que Empezaste hizo que Haro-Flores, ahora de 24 años, regresara a la escuela. Se enteró del programa a través de uno de sus exconsejeros de high school. La asistencia financiera y asesoría que ha recibido casi parecen demasiadas buenas para ser verdad, dijo.

No hubiera regresado a la escuela por tercera vez sin el programa y sus fondos, dijo. Los coordinadores de Termina lo que Empezaste en UNC le dijeron que lo ayudarían con lo que necesitara. Así ha sido, Haro-Flores dijo. Ahora se siente seguro de que podrá terminar su licenciatura en ciencias del deporte.

“Este es el momento”, dijo.

Espera graduarse en 2024 y trabajar en la industria del deporte o en administración.

La ayuda que Reginaldo Haro-Flores ha recibido a través del programa Termina lo que Empezaste en UNC lo ha motivado a terminar su licenciatura en ciencias del deporte.

¿Puede mantener Colorado este esfuerzo?

Quienes abogan a favor de la educación superior dicen que Colorado también debe terminar lo que empezó al promover que los estudiantes terminen la universidad. El estado, el cual subfinancia seriamente la educación superior en comparación con otros estados, según demuestran estudios, debe seguir invirtiendo más dinero para mantener el buen camino.

A Paccione, la directora ejecutiva de educación superior del estado, le gusta decirles a los legisladores que “inviertan en los estudiantes ahora o páguenles después”.

“Si no inviertes en los estudiantes ahora, estos son los mismos estudiantes que terminarán en nuestro sistema público de seguridad social”, dijo. Estudios confirman esto.

Estudios también demuestran que vale la pena que un estudiante invierta en una educación universitaria. Michael Itzkowitz, quien trabaja para el centro intelectual de izquierda Third Way, dijo que los datos en años recientes permiten que las escuelas destaquen qué tan buenos son sus programas para que los estudiantes obtengan un trabajo y cuánto valen la pena. Cerca del 86 por ciento de todos los programas universitarios públicos producen, en cinco años, una ganancia en lo que los estudiantes gastan en su educación, dijo.

Y también hay beneficios sociales. Alfred Tatum, vicepresidente de asuntos académicos en la Universidad Estatal Metropolitana de Denver (MSU Denver, por sus siglas en inglés), dijo que la universidad ayuda a los estudiantes a conectarse con servicios de salud, participar más cívicamente y contribuir más a los impuestos estatales. En lugar del objetivo general de educar a la población en general, los líderes estatales deben tomar en cuenta cómo las personas que se gradúan de la universidad mejoran sus comunidades, dijo.

Pero comunicar esos beneficios a los estudiantes puede ser difícil cuando a algunos les preocupa el costo.

Durante las últimas dos décadas, la carga de pagar por la educación universitaria en Colorado se ha transferido más a los estudiantes y sus familias. Los ingresos de la colegiatura financian el 74 por ciento de los presupuestos universitarios para títulos de cuatro años y el 38 por ciento de los presupuestos de los títulos de dos años. Esos porcentajes son más altos, en promedio, que en la mayoría de los estados.

Janine Davidson, presidenta de MSU Denver, y John Marshall, presidente de Colorado Mesa University, dijeron que los legisladores deben invertir adecuadamente en las universidades para que puedan reducir los costos de sus estudiantes y mejorar los servicios de apoyo para aquellos estudiantes que necesitan más ayuda para terminar la universidad.

Sin una fuente constante de ingresos, a los administradores y al personal de las universidades les preocupa que los esfuerzos de Colorado se debiliten cuando los fondos federales únicos se acaben.

Esperan que las historias de éxito, como la de Darryl Sharpton, destaquen la importancia de seguir invirtiendo.

Sharpton, de 46 años, ha intentado varias veces en tres estados terminar la universidad. Ahora piensa que finalmente lo logrará. En el Colegio Comunitario de Aurora, ha encontrado más apoyo que nunca.

Está estudiando para obtener su título en ciencias de la computación. La educación superior le ha permitido desarrollar una perspectiva diferente, sobre su propio potencial y lo que vale.

“Quiero [tener] una carrera, no solo un trabajo”, Sharpton dijo, quien anteriormente trabajó entregando productos farmacéuticos.

“Hay tanta gente que quiere que triunfes”, dijo. “Mi escuela realmente me está cuidando ahora”.

Tina Griego, una periodista de Colorado News Collaborative, contribuyó a este reportaje.

Jason Gonzales es un reportero que cubre la enseñanza superior y la legislatura de Colorado. Chalkbeat Colorado se asocia con Open Campus para su cobertura sobre la educación superior. Comunícate con Jason a jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

En Colorado, una ciudad rural espera que su universidad comunitaria les ayude a sobrevivir el fin de la era del carbón

2021-02-24T21:59:06+00:00

Hasta en la oscuridad de la noche, el pueblo de Craig está cubierto por el denso humo de la planta de carbón.

Por generaciones, el carbón ha sido una presencia constante en este pueblo al noroeste de Colorado. Pero para el 2030, las calderas de Craig Station se apagarán cuando Colorado cambie a energía renovable.

El carbón no solo fue combustible para el estado de Colorado, sino que también para la economía de Craig. El cierre de la planta dejará sin trabajo a 600 trabajadores y costará un montón de empleos de apoyo.

Los líderes de Craig, que está a unas 40 millas al oeste de Steamboat Springs, ven una pequeña ventana de oportunidad para fomentar una nueva base económica, ofrecerles empleos de reemplazo a los residentes, y asegurar que la ciudad sobreviva.

La planta de carbón Craig Station fue construida a fines de la década de 1970.

Ellos tienen la esperanza de que la universidad comunitaria Colorado Northwestern Community College tenga un rol clave reeducando a los trabajadores desplazados y fomentando una base laboral diversa. Los líderes de la institución han adoptado el optimismo de la ciudad. Pero los límites en fondos para la universidad amenazan esa visión de impulso.

Los líderes de la ciudad y de la universidad están apostándole a un futuro que podría no suceder. Pero mantienen la esperanza aunque las probabilidades sean desalentadoras.

Ya han empezado los cambios en la universidad comunitaria, donde talleres de costura y cursos de CPR una vez atrajeron a los estudiantes. Ahora la institución quiere ofrecer capacitación y cursos como paleontología, ciberseguridad y enfermería para atraer tanto a estudiantes jóvenes como a adultos a mitad de su carrera que están buscando un futuro alejado del pasado de Craig.

Hasta ahora, algunos trabajadores del carbón se han matriculado con la esperanza de tener nuevas oportunidades. Pero agregar programas nuevos y reclutar más estudiantes requiere dinero y socios comerciales que ahora no existen, y no hay un plan claro todavía para llenar esas brechas.

Si la universidad y la ciudad no logran sus metas, Craig podría terminar como esqueleto de lo que antes era. Y como pueden testificar muchos que entienden la vida en esta área, el final de este estallido puede incluir la amenaza de que desaparezca completamente.

“Había un pueblo donde me crie, no lejos de Livingston, Montana,” dijo Kathy Powell-Case, la decana de educación profesional y técnica del colegio universitario. “Era un pueblo de mineros. Ya no existe. Y yo pienso, ¿se estará convirtiendo esto en algo como que hay edificios aquí y allá y nada más? Eso es lo que me pregunto.”

Una economía nueva y diversa en Craig

Por décadas, el carbón ha ayudado a definir a Craig.

Los residentes dependían de eso para ganarse la vida. Los empleos pueden empezar en unos $60,000 anuales y no se requiere una educación universitaria. Todo el mundo conoce a alguien que ha trabajado en la planta o en las minas de carbón. Eso va a terminar pronto.

Los residentes han dependido del carbón para ganarse la vida. Por toda la comunidad hay letreros de apoyo para la industria de carbón, mientras que los líderes locales esperan que la energía renovable sea parte del futuro de la ciudad.

La Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc. anunció a principios de 2020 que irá cerrando Craig Station en fases para cumplir la visión del estado de reducir las emisiones de carbón, que la primera unidad cerrará para el 2025 y que la planta cerrará por completo en el 2030. La planta abrió sus puertas en 1979.

Craig Station y las dos minas de carbón cercanas que la suplen emplean casi un 10% de la fuerza laboral del Condado de Moffat. Las compañías también representan un 44% del total en impuestos sobre la propiedad pagados en el condado.

Peter Brixius, Administrador de la Ciudad de Craig puede ver el precipicio económico que se avecina.

Cuando él fue contratado en 2018, dijo que pensaba que la ciudad de 9,000 residentes necesitaba diversidad. Craig, que es una ciudad de tamaño grande para el noroeste de Colorado, es la cabeza del Condado de Moffat y un oasis moderno. Tiene los únicos dos supermercados en el condado - un Wal-Mart y un City Market.

Dos autopistas estatales intersectan en Craig, aunque hay más probabilidad de detenerse porque un venado está cruzando la calle que por el tráfico.

El Noroeste de Colorado es un área famosa por la caza, y los residentes de Craig comparten sus aceras y patios con los venados de la región.

La mayoría del año, el turismo pasa la ciudad por alto. Pero en la autodenominada “capital de la caza de alce en el mundo,” cada otoño la temporada de caza causa un revuelo momentáneo.

Sin carbón, por otro lado, el futuro parece incierto.

El Gob. Jared Polis ha dicho que las comunidades rurales no estarán solas cuando el estado cambie a fuentes de energía renovable.

Craig es una de las 11 comunidades de Colorado cuya base de impuestos y trabajos mermará para el 2030 cuando se deje de usar carbón. La Oficina de Transición Justa del estado creó un plan que pide que los gobiernos federal y estatal apoyen a las comunidades rurales de Colorado a redefinir su futuro y a reclutar inversiones comerciales.

Sin embargo, el plan no cuenta con financiamiento, y no está claro de dónde provendrán las nuevas inversiones, especialmente ahora que la pandemia de COVID-19 está afectando a las comunidades y gastando los impuestos en todos los niveles.

Planes para una nueva economía

No esperando por ayuda externa, Brixius y otros funcionarios de la ciudad están definiendo cómo transicionar su economía. La ciudad contrató a una compañía que se especializa en planificación de ciudades a largo plazo.

“Afortunadamente, esto no va a ser una situación en la que estamos abiertos un día y cerrados el próximo,” Brixius dijo. La ciudad no va a poder reponer los impuestos que recibe de la planta y las minas de una sola vez. “El programa es en fases — necesitamos que sea así porque de otro modo no podremos aguantar el golpe.”

Los funcionarios tienen la esperanza de crear una ciudad más atractiva para el turismo. El monumento nacional al dinosaurio está a pocas millas en auto al oeste, y Craig tiene sus propios tesoros paleontológicos, que incluyen un programa y una exhibición en la universidad comunitaria. La ciudad está embelleciendo los varios bloques del centro y muy pronto tendrá un área recreativa renovada en el Río Yampa — uno de los últimos ríos de flujo libre en Colorado.

Además del turismo, el plan incluye adoptar la energía renovable, por ejemplo las fincas solares, agregando cosas atractivas como un centro recreativo, mejorando el tránsito público en la región, y buscando usos alternativos para el carbón. Los funcionarios también le ven potencial a extraer otros minerales preciosos para uso en electrónica y manufactura.

Craig también expandirá la señal de Internet de alta velocidad este año. De hecho, ya las conexiones de banda ancha han abierto la posibilidad de trabajo remoto para personas que siempre han vivido en Craig y ha aumentado la esperanza de que compañías de tecnología consideren ubicarse allí.

La ciudad puede presumir de su buen costo de vida: Las casas son más baratas que en las montañas Front Range de Colorado y que en Steamboat Springs. Y la cercanía de Craig a la naturaleza también podría atraer nuevos residentes.

Sentado en su oficina, el Administrador de la Ciudad Peter Brixius discute su futuro económico mientras se aleja de la industria de carbón.

“No estamos caminando por ahí con las cabezas bajo la arena diciendo ‘Tranquilos, que todo va a funcionar bien,’” dijo el Alcalde Jarrod Ogden . “Nosotros nos vamos a encargar de que así sea.”

El plan también busca promover y expandir los programas en el Colorado Northwestern Community College. Pero industrias como la solar todavía no están en la región. Y agregar programas universitarios requiere dinero, y es posible que no se materialicen los nuevos trabajos en industrias nuevas.

Un rol grande para un pequeño campus satélite

Justin Duzik, de 42 años, ha trabajado en maquinaria pesada de las minas y en la planta eléctrica toda su carrera laboral. Pero no va a jubilarse antes de que cierre la planta.

“Con la incertidumbre que se avecina, la empresa Tri-State tiene un programa en el que ellos pagan para que uno vaya a la universidad,” Duzik said. “Yo recientemente empecé a aprovecharlo porque no se sabe cómo va a ser el futuro.”

Duzik representa una de las primeras olas de trabajadores que están en camino a la universidad para volverse a capacitar. Duzik va a obtener dos grados universitarios, un diploma asociado en tecnología aplicada y otro en administración de empresas.

Tiene esperanza de trabajar en energía solar si esa industria llega a Craig, o ayudar con maquinaria en los ranchos, o unirse a uno de los negocios que quizás se traslade a esa área — porque no se quiere ir.

Estudiantes de enfermería del Colorado Northwestern Community College Jade Prophet, a la izquierda, y Cami Gardetto trabajan en el laboratorio de simulaciones de la universidad.

Duzik creció en Craig y ha pasado la mayor parte de su vida ahí. Está casado y tiene tres hijos varones.

“Me encantan los espacios abiertos”, Duzik dijo. “No todos prefieren el ritmo acelerado de una ciudad, y este lugar te da oportunidad de relajarte, de disfrutar el campo abierto y no tener que estar en tráfico.”

Él tiene la esperanza de que la universidad atraerá a otras personas. “Eso es algo que pudiera realmente ayudar a nuestra comunidad, recibir esa educación,” dijo Duzik, “y quizás algunas de estas otras compañías o empresas nuevas o algo así vendrán a nuestro área, porque aquí tenemos una tremendamente capacitada fuerza laboral.”

Las universidades comunitarias siempre han moldeado el área donde prestan servicios, dijo Cecilia Orphan, profesora asistente de estudios superiores de la University of Denver.

“Su misión es realmente alinearse con las necesidades de su comunidad, sean las que sean,” ella dijo.

Esas instituciones podrían ofrecer programas similares a su misión de reeducar a los soldados después de la II Guerra Mundial, o podrían educar a estudiantes para que continúen sus estudios en una institución de cuatro años.

Para que Craig sobreviva, la universidad necesita involucrarse más en el futuro de la ciudad, dijo Sasha Nelson, directora de capacitación para trabajadores y programación comunitaria de la institución.

Nelson adornó orgullosamente su oficina con un edredón morado y blanco que ella misma diseñó y cosió. A ella le apasionan las clases de enriquecimiento que siguen siendo muy populares, como la de costura de colchas y edredones (quilting).

Pero a Nelson le quedó muy claro que las clases de enriquecimiento no van a fomentar la nueva economía de Craig. Como la anterior asistente del jefe de redacción del periódico Craig Daily Press, Nelson dijo que siempre ha observado lo frágil que puede ser el futuro de la ciudad.

Los cambios que Nelson ha ayudado a traer les ofrecen a los residentes un un grupo de cursos a prácticos a corto plazo en temas como programación de computadoras y salud que les ayudarán a adquirir destrezas nuevas.

Opciones en expansión

Y para quienes necesiten capacitación nueva, la escuela ha expandido sus opciones.

Este año la universidad agregó un programa de ciberseguridad con un grant de $500,000 de la Oficina del Fiscal General de Colorado. El estado considera que los empleos en tecnología son una industria en crecimiento que las comunidades del estado pueden aprovechar.

Pero agregar programas cuesta mucho dinero. Se espera que el programa de ciberseguridad cueste unos $175,000 anuales, y mientras más equipos y pericia requiera un programa, más cuesta iniciarlo. Una posible expansión a un programa de capacitación para pilotos, ubicado en el campus Rangely de la universidad, podría costar tanto como $1.5 millones.

La Conservadora de Paleontología del Colorado Northwestern Community College Liz Johnson describe el trabajo que los estudiantes están llevando a cabo para recuperar huesos de dinosaurios en el campus de la universidad en Craig. La universidad se convirtió en un Depósito de Fósiles Federal de la Oficina de Administración de Tierras en Colorado después de que un instructor encontrara huesos de un hadrosaurio en 2014.

Las universidades comunitarias reciben la mayor parte de sus fondos del estado, el cual asigna dinero para los programas existentes, no para iniciativas nuevas. El campus de Craig tiene un presupuesto de operaciones de solo $6.2 millones que incluye costos como ayuda financiera, administración y seguros, según el estado.

El Vicepresidente de Servicios a los Estudiantes John Anderson dijo que lanzar programas nuevos requiere comprar equipos, desarrollar cursos, y contratar instructores calificados. En palabras sencillas, dijo, “se requiere dinero para asegurar que tenemos todo eso”.

La universidad no tiene un modelo para empezar un programa desde cero y sin respaldo financiero. Hace dos años creó un programa de paleontología, que continúa operando con fondos que provienen estrictamente de la matrícula.

Este programa de paleontología, uno de los pocos programas en EEUU que brinda capacitación práctica sobre excavaciones para buscar dinosaurios — y uno de los pocos lugares en el mundo en el que uno puede sentir las frías y suaves escamas de la piel de un hadrosauro fosilizado — graduará sus primeros tres estudiantes este año. No obstante, para expandir el programa la universidad probablemente tendrá que hacerlo por sí sola.

No quiere terminar como los dinosaurios

En cierto modo, Craig tiene la esperanza de que su pasado será la clave de su futuro.

Los dinosauros podrían ser una fuente de trabajos y turismo, y también el aura del Lejano Oeste de una región en la que se dice que Butch Cassidy y la Pandilla Salvaje solían pasear por sus estepas y barrancas.

El Museo del Noroeste de Colorado ha comisionado una pintura en acuarela de 16x10 pies y se espera que sea la más grande del mundo, por lo que asegura estar en el Guinness World Records. La pintura de Israel Holloway, que está casi terminada, incluye un vaquero a caballo casi a tamaño real.

Paul Knowles, a la derecha (Director Asistente del Museo del Noroeste de Colorado), con el artista local Israel Holloway en el museo de Craig. Con el declive en la industria de carbón local, y en un esfuerzo por ayudar a poner a Craig de manera positiva en el mapa, el museo comisionó a Holloway para crear la pintura de acuarela más grande del mundo. La pintura está protegida con un toldo de plástico hasta el momento de revelarla.

Estos proyectos tienen el potencial de atraer visitantes y dólares, y la universidad comunitaria puede capacitar a los trabajadores para una nueva industria turística. Craig sobrevivirá si puede identificar el factor de impulso de su próximo auge económico y se prepara para ello, dijo Dan Davidson, director del museo.

“Todos los auges y declives con el paso de los años han sido el producto de un recurso natural,” dijo Davidson, cuya familia se mudó al Noroeste de Colorado como granjeros. “Ninguno de esos se ha manejado. “Ninguno de esos ha sido manufactura. “Ninguno de esos ha sido turismo.”

Vic Updike, un comerciante exitoso de la ciudad, dice que entiende la urgencia de crear un flujo sostenible de empleos en Craig.

Updike había anticipado trabajar en fincas en Craig, igual que su papá. Un declive en la economía local en los años 80 lo hizo imposible. Para crear una mejor vida en su ciudad, Updike primero tuvo que irse. Estudió calefacción, ventilación y aire acondicionado en el Denver Institute of Technology.

Más tarde regresó a Craig y compró la empresa Masterworks Mechanical, que ya tenía 30 años de operaciones.

Vic expandió su negocio hasta Steamboat Springs y Baggs, Wyoming. Mientras más dinero llegue de afuera, mejor, él dijo.

“Yo no soy especial y no soy tan inteligente,” dijo Updike. “Pero les digo esto porque cuando si uno está buscando quién reemplace la planta, no va a encontrar otra planta de electricidad. Lo que necesitamos es otros 15 negocios como Masterworks, quizás no haciendo exactamente lo mismo que nosotros, pero vendiendo lo que hacemos en Craig para que los dólares de Denver, o de donde sea, lleguen acá.”

Su compañía trabaja con la universidad comunitaria cada dos años para ofrecer capacitación avanzada a los trabajadores. Él dice que cada dos semanas también ofrece sesiones para empleados nuevos, muchos de ellos sin experiencia.

Craig tendrá que adaptarse para sobrevivir, dijo Updike. Eso es lo que la gente de la ciudad siempre ha hecho durante épocas difíciles. Updike cree que los líderes de la ciudad, la universidad, y la gente misma van a dar un paso al frente. Pero la determinación no importará si los dólares no llegan.

“Hay una razón por la que los dinosaurios ya no están caminando por ahí,” añadió Updike. “Cuando la dieta cambió, ellos no pudieron cambiar y por eso se extinguieron.”

Este artículo es el segundo en una serie de dos, producidos como parte del Higher Education Media Fellowship at the Institute for Citizens & Scholars. El Fellowship respalda artículos nuevos sobre temas relacionados con carreras postsecundarias y educación técnica.

Milly Suazo ha traducido este reportaje.

Pensó que la universidad estaba fuera de su alcance. Aquí te contamos cómo lo logró.

2023-02-14T17:00:00+00:00

La madre de Sabastian Ortega lloró cuando él le dijo que había sido aceptado en la Colorado School of Mines. Él pensó, mientras hablaban por teléfono, que ella estaba llorando de alegría. No lo estaba.

En cambio, a su mamá le preocupaba que la familia pudiera pagar sus estudios: sin ayuda económica del estado, solo la inscripción es $20,600 anuales para estudiantes residentes. Y vivir en el campus puede costar unos $40,000.

“Me afectó mucho”, dijo Ortega. “Acabé llorando cuando colgué la llamada, porque me preguntaba: “¿Cómo voy a pagar por esto?” Se preguntaba después de la llamada: “¿Qué voy a hacer?”

Gracias a un consejero de la secundaria, Ortega solicitó numerosas becas y finalmente consiguió una beca completa para asistir a la Colorado School of Mines, una escuela de ciencias e ingeniería ubicada en Golden. Pero Ortega, de 21 años y ahora estudiante de tercer año, es uno de los pocos habitantes de Colorado con bajos ingresos que ha podido asistir a la universidad pública más selectiva de Colorado.

Entre las universidades públicas, la Mines tiene la sexta tasa de inscripción más baja de estudiantes con beca Pell del país según un análisis de Education Reform Now. En 2020, más de una cuarta parte de todos los estudiantes universitarios de primer año de Colorado recibieron becas Pell, pero en la Mines, solamente un 13.4% tenía esas becas.

Para calificar para una beca Pell, los estudiantes tienen que demostrar necesidad financiera. Entre los beneficiarios del programa Pell, los datos federales muestran que cerca de un 93% son de familias que ganan $60,000 o menos al año.

La proporción de estudiantes que reciben becas Pell en una universidad se ha convertido en un indicador indirecto de cuántos estudiantes de bajos ingresos asisten a una institución. La cantidad de estudiantes con becas Pell es importante porque muestra el grado en que esa institución está ayudando a estudiantes de todas las clases sociales a encontrar oportunidades.

Cómo pagar por la universidad

¿Necesitas más información sobre ayuda financiera? La Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes, conocida como FAFSA por su nombre en inglés, ayuda a los estudiantes a obtener dinero gratis para pagar la universidad. La FAFSA te dirá si tienes derecho a una beca Pell, por ejemplo.

Aquí te mostramos por qué debes llenar la FAFSA — aunque todavía no sepas con certeza si vas a ir a la universidad.

Para obtener más información sobre la ayuda financiera en la Colorado School of Mines, los estudiantes o los padres pueden llamar a la oficina de ayuda financiera al 303-273-3301 o al número sin cargos 1-888-446-9489. También puedes enviar un correo electrónico a finaid@mines.edu.

Y habla con tu consejero de universidad en la secundaria. Él o ella te puede ayudar a encontrar más apoyo y a entender cuáles son tus opciones.

Los líderes de la universidad quieren que la Mines sea más representativa de la composición económica y demográfica del estado. Muchos de sus esfuerzos para conseguirlo — por ejemplo, presionando para que las escuelas K-12 ofrezcan más clases avanzadas de matemáticas y ciencias, estableciendo un programa federal para ayudar a los estudiantes a asistir a la Mines y animando a los estudiantes de pocos ingresos a unirse como comunidad — están todavía en sus inicios. Los administradores dijeron que hubo conversaciones durante años sobre lo que había que hacer, pero que fueron lentos en actuar.

Una lista de metas que la universidad espera lograr en 2024 y más allá incluye llegar a ser “accesible y atractiva para estudiantes calificados de todos los orígenes.” La cantidad de becas Pell ilustra lo lejos que está la escuela de lograr esa meta, y los administradores reconocen que hay trabajo por hacer para conectar a los estudiantes de bajos ingresos con una educación que ofrece una de las inversiones con más retorno económico del país.

El presidente Paul Johnson, que ha dirigido la universidad desde 2015, ha enviado un mensaje a los administradores para “redoblar los esfuerzos para resolver esto”, dijo Sheena Martínez, vicepresidenta adjunta de vida estudiantil para equidad y participación. El puesto de Martínez es nuevo y tiene por objeto elaborar estrategias para ayudar a los estudiantes de minorías raciales y a los que de bajos ingresos. Ella dijo que universidad la escuela está construyendo los cimientos que ayudarán a los estudiantes en los años venideros.

“Estamos trabajando para ser de elite, pero no elitistas”, dijo Martínez. “Y si hablas con estudiantes que provienen de áreas poco representadas, te dirán que históricamente no han visto a la Mines como un lugar disponible para ellos”.

Sabastian Ortega ganó una beca completa para asistir a Colorado School of Mines.

La preparación para una escuela como la Mines empieza desde temprano

Ortega empezó a interesarse por la ciencia, la tecnología, la ingeniería y las matemáticas (STEM) en la escuela intermedia. La secundaria Odyssey Early College and Career Options de Colorado Springs le preparó bien, dice. Cuando se graduó, ya tenía suficientes créditos para un título asociado de universidad.

Su experiencia en la secundaria no es la que tienen todos los estudiantes, dijo.

“La cuestión es que, si no tomas ninguna clase universitaria durante la secundaria, ya estás atrasado”, dijo Ortega.

Los líderes de la Mines saben que esto es un problema. La Mines requiere que los estudiantes tengan conocimientos previos en clases avanzadas como trigonometría, precálculo y química.

Muchos estudiantes de Colorado nunca toman esas clases, y los administradores de la Mines se están comunicando cada vez más con las escuelas secundarias para animarlas a incluir clases rigurosas y que otorguen créditos universitarios en matemáticas o ciencias, dijo Lori Kester, vicerrectora asociada de manejo de inscripción.

“Estamos tratando de comunicarnos con los orientadores de las escuelas secundarias y asegurar que encaminen bien a los estudiantes desde temprano para que puedan ser admitidos en la Mines”, dijo Kester. “Eso es realmente crítico para nuestro éxito”.

Los líderes de la Mines han creado algunas oportunidades para preparar a los estudiantes de pocos ingresos y lograr que se interesen por la universidad. Pero tienen limitaciones.

Programas como The Challenge Program preparan a los futuros estudiantes con clases de matemáticas y ciencias y seminarios sobre el manejo del tiempo y el estrés. La universidad ofrece programas de tutoría en la escuela intermedia DSST: College View Middle School, en el suroeste de Denver y donde casi todos los estudiantes proceden de familias de minorías raciales, y envía a estudiantes de la Mines a trabajar como voluntarios en escuelas de todo el estado.

La universidad también cuenta con un programa de verano que les permite a estudiantes de undécimo y duodécimo grado de minorías raciales, de primera generación o de bajos ingresos vivir y aprender en el campus.

Las iniciativas más recientes incluyen el programa Upward Bound Math Science Program en la escuela Alameda International Jr./Sr. High School. Se trata de un programa financiado con fondos federales en el que muchas universidades de todo el país han participado por décadas para ayudar a los estudiantes en desventaja.

Incluso cuando las escuelas empujan a los estudiantes hacia los programas STEM, es difícil conseguir que ellos persistan en ese campo, dijo Analise González-Fine, directora de iniciativas universitarias de la red de escuelas chárter DSST. La escuela se enfoca en desarrollar las destrezas en el campo STEM, pero muchos estudiantes quizás nunca terminen en una universidad como la Mines, dijo ella.

Alrededor de un 55% de la clase graduanda de 2022 de la escuela tenía intenciones de ir a una universidad STEM. Y un 25% de los estudiantes de familias de pocos ingresos dijeron que irían a una universidad STEM, dijo González-Fine.

Sabastian Ortega trabaja durante una clase sobre los procedimientos estándar de operación para los parámetros de calidad del agua. Él sabía que quería estudiar en la Colorado School of Mines y convertirse en ingeniero medioambiental, pero el alto costo de asistir a la universidad era un problema.

Ortega estuvo a punto de tomar un camino diferente — como tantos otros

Cuando llegó el momento de solicitar admisión a las universidades, Ortega no tenía otra opción — solamente solicitó admisión a la Colorado School of Mines. Él sabía que quería ser ingeniero medioambiental especializado en recursos de agua.

Participó en los programas de la Mines, por ejemplo, el Challenge. No obstante, las finanzas no funcionaron. Consideró unirse a la Guardia Nacional o dejar la universidad por un año para trabajar y ahorrar.

“Sentía que era la única forma de pagar la universidad”, dijo Ortega.

El costo de asistir a la Mines es sin duda el mayor factor decisivo para los estudiantes que quieren asistir a esa universidad, dijo Ortega.

Jill Robertson, directora de ayuda financiera, dijo que la universidad tiene programas de grants para los residentes de Colorado basadas en mérito (no en necesidad económica). La institución también ha redoblado sus esfuerzos para encontrar donantes que ofrezcan becas y ayudas para esos estudiantes.

La universidad también se ha asociado con las universidades comunitarias del estado, donde los estudiantes pueden obtener créditos para un diploma de la Mines pero sin tener que pagar la matrícula de la Mines.

Robertson dijo que la universidad ha tratado de limitar los aumentos en la matrícula anual para que coincidan con la tasa de inflación. Sin embargo, el estado gastado menos en educación superior en las últimas tres décadas, y por lo tanto todas las universidades del estado han aumentado sus precios de matrícula.

Hace diez años la universidad les cobraba alrededor de un cuarto menos por semestre a los residentes del estado. Los aumentos han perjudicado aún más a los estudiantes de bajos ingresos del estado, especialmente cuando las becas Pell solamente pagan hasta unos $6,900 al año, mucho menos que el costo anual para asistir. Por otro lado, las ayudas estatales solamente cubren una parte del costo para los residentes.

“Realmente tratamos de mantener el costo en un nivel razonable”, dijo Robertson. “Pero educar ingenieros realmente buenos es caro.”

Sabastian Ortega hace una pregunta durante una clase de ingeniería civil y medioambiental en la Colorado School of Mines. Él ha visto cómo sus amigos de orígenes similares a los suyos abandonaron la universidad en mayor proporción que sus otros compañeros.

No basta con admitir estudiantes. También necesitan apoyo.

La mayoría de los estudiantes de la Mines se gradúan en seis años, alrededor de un 83%, según datos federales. Pero en ese mismo plazo, la cifra de estudiantes de bajos ingresos que se gradúan de la Mines es menos, cerca de un 75%. Y la Mines no es la única universidad en la que eso ocurre. Las tasas de graduación de los estudiantes con becas Pell son más bajas en las universidades de todo el estado.

Ortega dijo que vio cómo amigos con antecedentes similares abandonaban los estudios en mayor proporción que sus amigos con mejor nivel económico. Muchos no podían equilibrar sus trabajos con la pesada carga de estudios, dijo. Los estudiantes de minorías raciales que quedan son mayormente estudiantes internacionales.

“Uno de mis amigos, su papá es dueño de una empresa petrolera”, dijo Ortega. “Por eso es difícil establecer una conexión cuando se trata de esa parte de su vida”.

La universidad ha empezado a reunir a estudiantes de primer año de orígenes similares para que puedan formar una comunidad que entienda sus luchas, dijo Martínez. La esperanza es que los estudiantes tengan un grupo de compañeros que les ayude en el camino.

Ortega dijo que ha visto que la escuela también se enfoca más en su Programa Multicultural de Ingeniería, que comenzó en 1989. Desde que él empezó en la Mines, ha visto más eventos y más administradores que aparecen para hablar de servicios financieros, de tutoría o de consejería, dijo.

“Creo que por fin se han dado cuenta de que tienen realmente que ayudar a estos estudiantes”, dijo Ortega. “Creo que se han dado cuenta de que para ayudar de verdad a estos estudiantes, tienen que lograr que ellos por fin sientan que pertenecen aquí”.

Ortega también intenta poner de su parte. Trabaja en la oficina de ayuda financiera varias veces a la semana. Su objetivo es que los futuros estudiantes de entornos como el suyo sepan que tienen un sitio en la Mines.

No quiere que ninguna mamá se preocupe o llore por el costo de la universidad, porque hay opciones. También intenta decirles a los estudiantes y padres que Mines ayudará a los estudiantes a conseguir trabajos que les darán dinero y contribuirán a cambiar el mundo.

“Es algo que me hubiera gustado que mi mamá tuviera”, dijo Ortega, “que alguien le dijera ‘todo va a salir bien’”.

Jason Gonzales es reportero que cubre temas de educación superior y la legislatura de Colorado. Chalkbeat Colorado colabora con Open Campus en periodismo sobre el tema de educación superior. Para comunicarte con Jason, escríbele a jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

Éxito y sacrificio: una década de grandes avances en las tasas de graduación de estudiantes hispanos en Colorado

2022-06-02T09:58:00+00:00

Cuando Rosa Beltran estaba en high school a finales de los años 1990 en un pequeño poblado en el sur de Colorado, nunca pensó que se graduaría.

“Mis padres estaban muy preocupados por trabajar y poner comida sobre la mesa. Creo que tampoco tuve ese apoyo en la escuela”, Beltran dijo sobre su high school en Center, una comunidad agrícola mayormente hispana en el valle de San Luis.

Beltran dejó de ir a la escuela y se convirtió en madre adolescente. Pero decidió que sus hijos terminarían la escuela.

“Siempre me lo inculcaron; voy a graduarme, voy a ir a la universidad”, dijo Marisa, su hija mayor ahora de 25 años. “Nada de peros.”

Antes del noveno grado, Marisa descubrió que podía tomar clases universitarias como estudiante de high school. La escuela la transportaba en autobús a y desde el campus universitario.

“Era una escuela muy pequeña y alentadora”, dijo.

Marisa Beltran se graduó de Pueblo en 2015, durante una década en la que la tasa de graduación hispana en Colorado aumentó casi 20 puntos porcentuales, el doble de lo que aumentó la tasa entre todos los estudiantes, y más rápido que entre cualquier otro grupo demográfico.

Las tasas de graduación hispana aumentaron radicalmente por múltiples razones, incluidas nuevas estrategias escolares, mejores condiciones económicas y la intensa determinación de las familias. Sin embargo, las tasas de graduación de high school y universitaria entre los hispanos siguen siendo más bajas que las de los estudiantes blancos. Y con la pandemia generando un alto costo en el bienestar de las familias hispanas, muchos se preocupan de que también reduzca gradualmente los recientes avances en educación.

Chalkbeat examinó las tasas de graduación de high school como parte de “Buscando Avances”, un proyecto de Colorado News Collaborative sobre la equidad social, económica y en salud de los coloradenses negros e hispanos. Graduarse de high school es clave para continuar con una educación superior, obtener mejores trabajos y ganar mayores salarios.

Entre 2010 y 2020, las tasas de graduación de high school entre los estudiantes hispanos, quienes ahora constituyen más de un tercio de todos los estudiantes de kindergarten a 12º grado en Colorado, subieron del 55.5 al 75.4 por ciento, un marcado aumento.

“Definitivamente debieron haber subido; había mucha oportunidad para que aumentaran”, dijo Jim Chavez, director ejecutivo de la Latin American Educational Foundation.

Otra señal del progreso alcanzado fue que la tasa de estudiantes hispanos que abandonaron sus estudios se redujo casi por la mitad, al 2.8 por ciento, y la tasa de estudiantes universitarios hispanos que necesitaron clases compensatorias disminuyó.

Pero sigue siendo menos probable que los estudiantes hispanos asistan a la universidad, y dos veces más probable que necesiten clases compensatorias, en comparación con los estudiantes blancos.

Por lo tanto, aun cuando los estudiantes se gradúan de high school, con frecuencia enfrentan una difícil trayectoria, Chavez dijo.

Y la pandemia amenaza una década de avances, ya que las familias hispanas se han visto muy afectadas por la pérdida de trabajo, muerte y enfermedad grave debido a COVID, y por interrupciones en el aprendizaje. La tasa de graduación hispana disminuyó 1.2 por ciento el año pasado, mientras que la tasa entre estudiantes blancos aumentó. Las pérdidas podrían continuar conforme los estudiantes más pequeños, quienes se vieron más afectados durante la pandemia, se abren camino hacia high school.

Para entender los cambios, Chalkbeat habló con más de una docena de educadores, activistas, padres y estudiantes y analizó datos de los distritos escolares para encontrar a aquellos distritos en los que los estudiantes hispanos ahora tienen una tasa de graduación más alta que el promedio estatal para ese grupo. La tasa de graduación hispana disminuyó en solo un distrito grande entre 2010 y 2020, el Distrito 49. Este distrito no le dio una entrevista a Chalkbeat.

Políticas estatales y federales impulsaron las tasas de graduación

Para identificar las causas de estos recientes avances, algunos atribuyen políticas establecidas hace más de una década en Colorado. Cuando el exgobernador Bill Ritter fue elegido en 2006, estableció una meta de reducir la tasa del abandono escolar por la mitad en 10 años. Luego, en 2008, legisladores en Colorado establecieron nuevas metas para la educación pública y en 2009 empezaron a evaluar cada high school en parte según su tasa de graduación.

Eso puso presión en los distritos escolares para que aumentaran sus logros y tasas de graduación, y generó un sistema de organizaciones no lucrativas y consultores para proporcionar ayuda.

Factores sociales también contribuyeron. Por ejemplo, en la década que terminó en 2020, la tasa de embarazos entre adolescentes hispanas de 15 a 19 años en Colorado disminuyó radicalmente, de 66.8 por cada 100,000 adolescentes a 24.4 por cada 100,000, lo cual ayudó a que más adolescentes continuaran sus estudios.

Las familias hispanas obtuvieron avances económicos en la última década que quizás hayan disminuido la presión de trabajar y estudiar al mismo tiempo entre los adolescentes. Los ingresos medios por hogar entre las personas latinas, según datos del Censo, fueron de $57,790 en 2020, un aumento del 26 por ciento cuando se ajusta según la inflación.

Además, un aplazamiento federal contra la amenaza de deportación quizás haya aumentado el valor de la educación entre los estudiantes indocumentados. En diciembre, Colorado tenía 13,720 beneficiarios de lo que se conoce como el programa DACA, según el Migration Policy Institute.

En la familia Beltran, mamá Rosa ha notado que las escuelas de sus hijos son más alentadoras que cuando ella fue a la escuela. Ha visto a sus hijos hablar con reclutadores universitarios y tener múltiples oportunidades para pensar sobre un futuro después de high school.

Sin embargo, su hija Marisa dijo que ella y su hermano necesitaron más ayuda.

“Tuvimos que encontrar [servicios de] tutoría, ayudarnos entre nosotros y pedir ayuda externa”, Beltran dijo. “La encontramos, pero tuvimos que descifrarlo nosotros solos”.

“Siempre me lo inculcaron; voy a graduarme, voy a ir a la universidad”, dijo Marisa Beltran, quien se graduó de la Universidad de Grand Canyon y ahora está estudiando una maestría.

El noveno grado es un año crucial

Steve Dobo, fundador y director ejecutivo de Zero Dropouts, atribuye los avances en las tasas de graduación a la habilidad de las escuelas para analizar minuciosamente los datos, lo cual antes no era una práctica común.

Dijo que las organizaciones no lucrativas ayudaron a los distritos a separar subgrupos de estudiantes con dificultades, según su grupo racial, género, nivel de grado u otros factores, para diseñar soluciones específicas.

“Los distritos con los que trabajamos verdaderamente empezaron a entender que realmente necesitas mejorar en el noveno grado”, Dobo dijo.

Varios distritos se enfocaron en estudiantes que entraban a high school. Después de que el superintendente Rico Munn llegó a Aurora en 2013, encontró que muchos estudiantes de noveno grado no estaban recibiendo horarios completos con clases obligatorias.

“Si empiezas a desviarte del camino en el noveno grado, eso es un problema”, Munn dijo.

El distrito examinó datos para identificar problemas y a los estudiantes que necesitaban ayuda, y luego trabajó para cambiar sistemas y la cultura escolar, Munn dijo. Aurora también abrió un centro de orientación universitaria y vocacional en cada high school. Los más nuevos se inauguraron el otoño pasado.

En 2010, Aurora tenía una tasa de graduación hispana de solo 34.2 por ciento, pero la tasa casi se duplicó, el mayor aumento entre los distritos más grandes de Colorado, a 76.4 por ciento en 2020, antes de bajar un poco el año pasado.

El distrito de las Escuelas Pública de Aurora abrió centros universitarios y vocacionales en cada high school como parte de una estrategia para mejorar la tasa de graduación y los resultados de la educación postsecundaria.

Las intervenciones con frecuencia tienen que ver con “enseñarles cómo ser un estudiante de high school”, mantenerse organizados y pedir ayuda a sus maestros, dijo Susannah Halbrook, una intervencionista de noveno grado con Zero Dropouts.

En Greeley, la intervención temprana significa dar seguimiento a los estudiantes de noveno grado para crear planes individuales que los ayuden a evitar el fracaso.

“Hace años, la mayoría de nuestros recursos se invertían en estudiantes que ya tenían tres o cuatro efes en su expediente académico”, dijo Deirdre Pilch, superintendenta de las escuelas de Greeley-Evans en el Distrito 6.

Ahora, dijo, “tan pronto una calificación empieza a bajar a D, intervenimos”.

Ayuda cuando se necesita

Andy Tucker, director de preparación postsecundaria y laboral en el departamento estatal de educación, dijo que ha visto a distritos ser “mucho más intencionados” en el trabajo de equidad, “en incluir a aquellos estudiantes que quizás caigan en esas brechas”.

Greeley, por ejemplo, promueve su programa de verano enfocado en niños hispanos, el subgrupo con menos probabilidad de graduarse.

A Saul Sanchez, de 18 años, lo invitaron a unirse después de que reprobara algunas clases su primer año de high school. Dudaba que terminaría la escuela.

“No me gustaba la escuela para nada”, dijo Sanchez, quien se acaba de graduar de Northridge High School en Greeley. “Odiaba el hecho de tener tarea”.

Consejeros y otras personas intentaban preguntarle cómo andaban las cosas cuando no le iba bien, pero Sanchez no creía que les importara.

Pero el Programa de Recuperación para Estudiantes le abrió los ojos. Recibió ayuda para ponerse al día con sus créditos. Los consejeros dieron seguimiento a su progreso.

“Siempre estaban encima de mí”, dijo. Le preguntaban si se había acordado de entregar sus tareas o estudiar para exámenes. “En ese entonces pensaba que era una molestia que siguieran insistiendo”.

Pero en algún momento durante su experiencia escolar, Sanchez se dio cuenta de que era todo para su beneficio. Y se hizo amigo de los otros estudiantes, quienes se ayudaban entre ellos. Sanchez se convirtió en el estudiante a quienes todos acudían para pedir ayuda con matemáticas. La ayuda mutua rindió frutos. Casi todos los estudiantes de último año en el programa se graduaron.

Preparándose para el futuro

Otro factor quizás sea que más estudiantes están tomando cursos que ofrecen créditos tanto de high school como universitarios. Los cursos pueden ofrecerse en un colegio comunitario o universidad, o en una high school. Los distritos escolares cubren los costos.

Conocido como matriculación simultánea, este programa reemplazó opciones más limitadas en 2009. Datos demuestran que más estudiantes de todos los grupos están tomando cursos de matriculación simultánea, pero es menos probable que los estudiantes hispanos aprovechen el programa en comparación con los estudiantes blancos.

Alexandra Reyes Amaya, quien se graduó de Hinkley High School en Aurora en 2020, dijo que el programa le dio la seguridad de que estaba preparada para la universidad. Pero solo se enteró del programa a través del hermano mayor de una amiga, apenas con suficiente tiempo en su último año de high school. Tomó clases por la noche para incluir más en su horario.

Ahora, ya en la universidad, está en camino a graduarse un año antes.

Pero la universidad solo es una vía hacia el éxito, y los distritos deseosos de mantener a los estudiantes interesados en regresar a la escuela también están ampliando oportunidades para cursar estudios vocacionales y técnicos.

Chavez de la fundación de becas advirtió que los mensajes que dicen que la universidad no es para todos están limitando el progreso de los estudiantes latinos.

“Se han enfocado y escuchado muy desproporcionadamente entre los adolescentes negros y latinos”, Chavez dijo. “Quizás ganen un buen salario, pero los están limitando de una carrera con mayores ingresos potenciales. Realmente los están limitando de un puesto donde tomen decisiones, un puesto de liderazgo”.

Cambiando las definiciones del éxito

El aumento en las tasas de graduación también refleja una reevaluación de cómo las escuelas definen el éxito. Varios distritos escolares han estado considerando nuevamente lo que se necesita para aprobar una clase. Conocidas en conjunto como la calificación basada en estándares, nuevas pautas animan a los maestros a que tomen en cuenta toda evidencia del aprendizaje de un estudiante.

Mark Cousins, un director regional con Zero Dropouts y exdirector de una high school en Greeley, dijo que con frecuencia habla con maestros que no otorgan ningún crédito por tarea que reciben tarde. Cree que dar un crédito parcial disminuye la probabilidad de que el estudiante fracase.

“¿Me estás diciendo que una tarea no vale nada?” Cousins dijo.

Algunos distritos han creado opciones que establecen una meta diferente, a veces menos alta, para que los estudiantes se gradúen. Colorado no requiere que los estudiantes tomen un examen para graduarse, como lo hacen otros estados. En lugar de eso, cada distrito puede establecer sus propios requisitos de graduación.

Para la generación que se graduó en 2022, el estado amplió la meta al requerir que los distritos demuestren que sus estudiantes dominan el inglés y las matemáticas. Como evidencia, los distritos pueden usar múltiples factores, como los resultados del SAT, la aprobación de un curso universitario o un proyecto estudiantil.

Thompson y Pueblo crearon nuevas opciones para que sus estudiantes obtengan su diploma de high school. Desde el año pasado, Thompson ha estado permitiendo que sus estudiantes se gradúen con menos créditos optativos si ya aprobaron los requisitos principales, como inglés, matemáticas y ciencias.

“Igual sabemos que estamos proporcionando un diploma sólido”, dijo Theo Robison, director de estudios secundarios en Thompson.

Los diplomas de Pueblo requieren la misma cantidad de créditos, pero diferentes clases, como un curso técnico de matemáticas, para ciertas carreras profesionales.

“Solo son diferentes vías que llevan al mismo camino”, dijo Charlotte Macaluso, superintendenta del distrito escolar de Pueblo.

Sin embargo, a algunas personas les preocupa que las escuelas estén aprobando a los estudiantes sin educarlos bien, solo para mejorar las tasas de graduación.

“Reducir los estándares es algo que se ha hecho a lo largo del tiempo”, dijo Joe Molina, un defensor latino en el norte de Colorado. Dice que cuando se graduó en 1992, solo podía leer a nivel de tercer grado, y luego aprendió más por sí solo. “¿Realmente estamos proporcionando más oportunidades?”

Un factor que los líderes escolares toman en cuenta para asegurar que sus avances sean reales son las tasas de estudiantes que toman clases compensatorias. En Colorado la tasa de estudiantes universitarios hispanos que necesitaron clases compensatorias disminuyó 16 puntos porcentuales al 43.8 por ciento.

Permitir que los estudiantes visualicen varias posibilidades para su futuro los ayuda a seguir participando y en camino a graduarse, dijo Jordan Bills, una consejera en los centros vocacionales de Aurora. Bills ha llevado a estudiantes para que visiten universidades y los ha conectado con profesionales o con reclutadores militares. También ha ayudado a las familias para que sepan sobre las diversas formas de pagar por la universidad.

“Nuestro trabajo es reducir la brecha de los conocimientos”, Bills dijo. “Tiene que haber un poco de autonomía y opciones, darles más, la autonomía de ser quienes conducen su vida”.

Jordan Bills, la consejera en William Smith High School en Aurora, habla con Eli Garcia, de 17 años, centro, y Jeffrey Forbis, de 18, derecha, mientras los dos estudiantes se preparan para asistir a la Universidad de Colorado el próximo otoño.

La pandemia presenta nuevos desafíos

Con vistas al futuro, lo que más les preocupa a los líderes de los distritos son los estudiantes ausentes y desinteresados.

“El principal factor que ahora estamos tratando de entender familia por familia es por qué un estudiante se ausenta continuamente”, dijo Munn, el superintendente de Aurora. “Estamos escuchando más y más que ‘están trabajando’, o que están cuidando a alguien mientras sus parientes trabajan”.

Charlotte Ciancio, superintendenta del distrito escolar de Mapleton, está pensando en ofrecer aprendizaje virtual o híbrido para estudiantes que ya no consideran valioso pasar todo el día sentados en un salón de clases.

“¿Es un día escolar la cantidad adecuada de horas?” Ciancio dijo.

En Pueblo, la superintendenta Macaluso dijo que los estudiantes que estaban viviendo en la pobreza ahora también deben lidiar con el aislamiento, el trauma, el dolor y la pérdida.

“Cuando ya estás enfrentando dificultades, esas cosas tienen un gran impacto”, dijo.

“Todos se han visto afectados, de una u otra forma”, Molina dijo, lo cual afecta la forma como los estudiantes participan en su educación. “Hay mucha gente sin esperanza y solo tratando de vivir en el momento”.

Marisa Beltran se benefició al estudiar en un ambiente escolar más alentador que el de sus padres, pero igual tuvo que buscar oportunidades por sí misma.

Avanzando

En medio de ese desafío diario, el avance académico continuo en general es difícil de apreciar. Pero es evidente en historias individuales.

Rosa Beltran dijo que está orgullosa de sus tres hijos, incluidos dos que fueron a la universidad.

“Mi mamá fue la que presionó a mi papá para que viniera a los Estados Unidos, ese fue su sacrificio por nosotros”, Beltran dijo. “Yo sacrifiqué mucho al no poder estar tanto con mis hijos porque tuve que trabajar”.

“Ahora es solo este orgullo que llevas contigo. Mis esperanzas para ellos son que tengan una carrera para que puedan mantener a sus familias y no tengan que preocuparse”, dijo. “Que tengan un trabajo estable y [que] tengan seguro. Mis padres siempre se tuvieron que preocupar. Mi esposo y yo siempre nos tuvimos que preocupar”.

Esos sacrificios y esperanzas son el motor que impulsan lo que los estudiantes llaman “ganas”: su fuerza de voluntad.

“Si no fuera por los sacrificios de mis padres, no estaría aquí”, Marisa Beltran dijo. “Por eso me aseguraré de que todo su trabajo no haya sido en vano”.

Yesenia Robles es una reportera de Chalkbeat Colorado dedicada a cubrir temas sobre los distritos K-12 y la educación multilingüe. Comunícate con Yesenia enviándole un mensaje a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

La tasa de graduación entre los varones hispanos de Colorado no compara con la de sus compañeros. Las universidades de Colorado pueden hacer más para sacarlos adelante.

2021-12-13T15:01:00+00:00

Las diferencias son sorprendentes.

Cada año, por ejemplo, miles de estudiantes de la Universidad de Colorado en Boulder inician el camino para obtener un diploma universitario de cuatro años. Seis años después, cerca del 69% lo ha conseguido.

¿Pero qué tal con los varones hispanos? Solo el 58% se graduó.

La historia es la misma en la universidad Colorado State, donde se gradúa el 70% de todos los estudiantes, pero solamente un 58% de los varones hispanos.

Y en la Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver), las cifras son devastadoras. De cada cinco varones hispanos que empezaron sus estudios universitarios en 2013, solamente uno obtuvo un diploma de cuatro años.

Las cifras en bruto nos muestran la realidad. En 2013, 249 varones hispanos se matricularon en MSU Denver con la meta de obtener un diploma de cuatro años. Para el 2019, solo 46 de ellos lo lograron. Y 203 de ellos no.

La gran diferencia en la obtención de diplomas de universidades en Colorado por parte de los varones hispanos no ha mejorado mucho en la última década, incluso con el aumento en la matrícula de estudiantes hispanos en las universidades.

El porcentaje de varones hispanos que van a la universidad es el más bajo de todos los grupos de estudiantes en Colorado, y todos los factores que hacen más difícil llegar al campus — falta de presupuesto, obligaciones familiares, rutas poco definidas y falta de mentores — les persiguen en la universidad.

“Estamos en un punto en el que una parte valiosa de nuestra comunidad está en un agujero negro”, dijo Nathan Cadena, director de operaciones de la Denver Scholarship Foundation, una organización que ayuda a los estudiantes de Denver a matricularse y graduarse de la universidad. “Y da miedo. Tenemos que hacer algo al respecto”.

La falta de acción amenaza los sueños de los estudiantes jóvenes — y la prosperidad económica del estado. Los líderes de Colorado quieren que un 66% de los residentes tengan un diploma de universidad o un certificado universitario para 2025. Pero a pesar de ser la segunda población más grande del estado, solamente una cuarta parte de los hispanos tiene más que un diploma de secundaria. Los varones hispanos, incluso más que las mujeres hispanas, enfrentan mayores barreras para obtener una educación.

Estos resultados no son inevitables. Alrededor del país, algunas instituciones han eliminado estas brechas casi por completo desarrollando sistemas que ayudan a los estudiantes antes de que tropiecen, recompensando a los profesores por hacer más para conectarse con los estudiantes y creando comunidades que acogen a los estudiantes en el campus. Los esfuerzos comienzan con un mensaje claro de los líderes: que este trabajo es una prioridad y no una idea que se les ocurrió después.

5:51 a.m: Luis Hernández, a la derecha, mira las noticias mientras su mamá, Mariela Hernández, limpia la cocina antes de que ambos se vayan a trabajar a una fábrica de cartuchos de tinta y tóner. Su mamá y Luis trabajan en el primer turno del día para que él pueda ir a la Universidad Estatal Metropolitana de Denver.

Las instituciones University of Colorado-Denver, MSU Denver, Adams State University, y Colorado State University of Pueblo han sido designadas como instituciones de servicio a los hispanos, lo cual significa que al menos una cuarta parte del estudiantado está compuesta por estudiantes hispanos.

Sin embargo, Wil Del Pilar, vicepresidente de política universitaria en The Education Trust, dijo que el hecho de matricular más estudiantes hispanos no significa que las universidades estén haciendo lo correcto con ellos, especialmente cuando son tan pocos los que llegan a graduarse.

“Yo diría que la mayoría de las instituciones, incluso en Colorado, no están sirviendo a los hispanos, sino que están matriculando a los hispanos”, dijo Pilar. “No están atendiendo las necesidades de esos estudiantes porque no están invirtiendo en los servicios necesarios para asegurar que lleguen a graduarse”

Los estudiantes hispanos se pasan por alto

Tras dos años terribles en la Colorado State University, Carlos Fernández-Pérez estaba dispuesto a tirar la toalla y abandonar Fort Collins antes de su tercer año. La universidad había sido un reto duro a pesar de que él había obtenido buenas notas en la secundaria. Luego, el cambio a clases virtuales del año pasado por la pandemia de COVID estuvo a punto de descarrilarlo.

Se mudó a su casa en Denver y se las arregló para tomar clases en línea, trabajar a tiempo parcial en DoorDash y cuidar a su hermanita menor de 4 años. Fue demasiado, y pensó que tendría que dejar la universidad.

“Iba a tomarme un descanso”, dijo Fernández-Pérez.

Los estudiantes que hacen una pausa en sus estudios universitarios a menudo no regresan. Por eso, cuando Fernández-Pérez no volvió a solicitar su beca de la Latin American Educational Foundation, Jim Chávez, director ejecutivo de la organización, se preocupó. Se puso al teléfono y convenció a Fernández-Pérez de que siguiera estudiando.

Nadie en CSU le tendió la mano como lo hizo Chávez, dijo Fernández-Pérez.

Fernández-Pérez dejó sus estudios en CSU y entonces se matriculó en MSU Denver. Eso le permitió lograr un mejor balance entre los estudios y la familia. La matrícula también era menos costosa.

El apoyo de Chávez y de la fundación de becas le ayudó a superar una época difícil y de transición.

“Es importante que los estudiantes sepan que alguien realmente se preocupa”, dijo Chávez, “alguien que dedica tiempo y quiere que el estudiante tenga éxito y está ayudando a asegurar que persiste y continúa estudiando.”

El porcentaje bajo de graduación entre varones hispanos es un problema de todo el estado

En MSU Denver, Fernández-Pérez siente que ha encontrado un mejor espacio para él. La institución es un 30% hispana — el doble de la proporción de Colorado State o University of Colorado Boulder — y se enorgullece de atender a estudiantes no tradicionales cuyas vidas son a veces complicadas.

Aun así, las opciones de los estudiantes en las instituciones son un tema importante. Fernández-Pérez dejó una universidad que tiene una de las tasas de graduación más altas para los varones hispanos y se matriculó en la institución que tiene uno de los porcentajes más bajos. En 2019, un 58% de los varones hispanos en Colorado State se graduaron en seis años, en comparación con solo el 18% en Metro.

Estadísticamente, ese traslado pudo haber puesto en riesgo la educación de Fernández-Pérez.

En ambas instituciones — y en casi todas las universidades de cuatro años de Colorado, grandes o pequeñas, selectivas o de acceso abierto — existe una brecha de aproximadamente 10 puntos en la tasa de graduación de los varones hispanos y la tasa de todos los estudiantes.

Los líderes de educación superior dicen que están trabajando para reducir la brecha. Colorado State ha aumentado sus servicios de apoyo y alcance a los estudiantes de secundaria en un intento por convertirse en la próxima Institución de Servicio a los Hispanos en el estado, lo cual significa que está matriculando al menos un 25% de estudiantes hispanos.

La universidad ha empezado a pensar más en cómo conseguir que los estudiantes se gradúen, dijo Mary Pedersen, directora académica de la universidad.

Los funcionarios de la universidad ofrecen servicios de tutoría adicional y apoyo diario, como por ejemplo comidas y ayuda financiera.

CSU Pueblo, Colorado Mesa University y Adams State University también tienen programas que ayudan a los estudiantes.

CSU Pueblo recientemente abrió un centro para conectar a los estudiantes con recursos. La universidad capacita a los profesores sobre cómo ayudar a los estudiantes y ofrece programas de mentoría por profesores y estudiantes.

MSU Denver ha ampliado sus iniciativas y ofrece ayuda financiera, orientación académica y mentorías. Las tasas de graduación de todos los estudiantes aumentaron y se duplicaron para los varones hispanos en una década, del 9% al 18%. Pero la tasa sigue estando muy por debajo de la de otras universidades.

Luis es un estudiante de primer año en MSU Denver, y espera convertirse en dentista después de graduarse de universidad. Trabaja tres días a la semana mientras asiste a clases a tiempo completo.

Reconociendo la función que desempeñan los campus como MSU en la educación de los estudiantes en desventaja, Colorado ha modificado la forma de enviarles dinero a esas instituciones. Pero dado que Colorado financia la educación superior con una de las tasas más bajas de la nación, ese cambio aún no cubre las necesidades (dicen los funcionarios de la universidad), especialmente en las instituciones más pequeñas que reciben menos fondos por estudiante que CU Boulder y CSU.

Los programas limitados generalmente atienden a cientos de estudiantes, no a las decenas de miles que podrían beneficiarse.

¿Qué pasaría si el tipo de apoyo individual que ayudó a Fernández-Pérez a recuperar el rumbo existiera para todos los estudiantes? ¿Y si estuviese disponible dentro de la universidad? Fuera de Colorado, algunas instituciones han demostrado que pueden cambiar la trayectoria de los estudiantes muchísimo prestándole atención a los pequeños detalles.

Georgia State lleva cuenta del éxito de los estudiantes

Al igual que MSU Denver, Georgia State es una universidad urbana — en Atlanta — que atiende en su mayoría a estudiantes de color, entre los cuales muchos son los primeros de sus familias en ir a la universidad y corren el riesgo de no graduarse nunca.

Para llegar a un mayor número de estudiantes que necesitan apoyo, la escuela usa un sistema de análisis predictivo para determinar si un estudiante podría estar enfrentando problemas y ha ampliado drásticamente la cantidad de reuniones de orientación con los estudiantes. La escuela gradúa cerca de la mitad de sus estudiantes, y durante una década ha reducido la brecha en las tasas entre los grupos raciales.

Georgia State invierte unos $2.5 millones anualmente en este esfuerzo, pero los funcionarios han encontrado que la universidad gana mucho más en matrículas reteniendo a los estudiantes que de otro modo hubiesen abandonado los estudios.

El personal universitario se comunica con los estudiantes cuando sus sistemas tecnológicos muestran que podrían estar teniendo problemas, ya sea porque las calificaciones están bajando o si no se han inscrito en una clase, dijo Timothy Renick, director del National Institute for Student Success at Georgia State.

La universidad también brinda apoyo financiero de manera proactiva, dijo Renick. Antes de que ocurra una dificultad económica, la escuela depositará dinero en la cuenta del estudiante para que no se preocupe por las finanzas, dijo.

“Nuestra filosofía es que el apoyo a los estudiantes sea la norma y no la excepción”, dijo Renick.

UC Riverside desafía el status quo

En las principales universidades públicas de Colorado, Colorado State University y University of Colorado Boulder, las tasas de graduación son más altas para todos los estudiantes que en las instituciones menos selectivas, incluso para los varones hispanos. Los estudiantes de todos los orígenes llegan más preparados y a menudo tienen menos obligaciones familiares y más estabilidad financiera. Las universidades también gastan más por estudiante en su educación.

Un conjunto de investigaciones también sugiere que asistir a una universidad más competitiva está asociado con una mayor probabilidad de graduarse.

Pero a diferencia de en algunas de las universidades públicas menos competitivas del estado, en CU Boulder y Colorado State las tasas de graduación de los varones hispanos se han mantenido estables durante la última década, aunque han aumentado levemente para los demás estudiantes.

Las universidades con admisión selectiva, como University of California, Riverside, son un ejemplo de cómo mejorar las tasas de graduación.

Sus funcionarios trataron de cambiar la cultura del campus para ayudar a todos los estudiantes a sentirse más conectados con la universidad. Kim Wilcox, Presidente de UC Riverside, dijo que la primera prioridad de todo el personal debe ser ayudar a los estudiantes.

“Una universidad está formada por personas con mucho talento, pero muy competitivas”, dijo Wilcox. “Si se destaca a alguien que hizo algo realmente bueno, todos los demás querrán hacer lo mismo para obtener el mismo reconocimiento.

“Como líder, hay que destacar el éxito. Y cuando los tienes, tienes que amplificarlos.”

La universidad gradúa un 77% de sus estudiantes y solamente tiene pequeñas brechas en las tasas de graduación entre ciertos grupos, como los estudiantes hispanos.

Wilcox dijo que los estudiantes de primer año a menudo toman clases en su primer año con los mejores profesores de la institución. La universidad también ofrece muchos clubes y actividades extracurriculares en las que los estudiantes pueden encontrar pequeñas comunidades que los harán sentir bienvenidos y cómodos.

Wilcox dijo que los programas pequeños por sí solos no pueden aumentar el éxito de los estudiantes.

“Hay que trabajar según la escala”, dijo. “La escala en una universidad pública grande no tiene nada que ver con ningún programa. Casi la mitad de la institución somos latinos — eso es 13,000 estudiantes — ¿cómo vas a crear un programa para 13,000 estudiantes?

“Se llama universidad.”

Los mentores hispanos lideran el camino

Muchos de los que están presionando para aumentar las tasas de graduación son hombres hispanos. Inevitablemente, el trabajo se siente personal. Sin embargo, son muy pocos. Es una de las razones por las que los retos que enfrentan los varones hispanos en los campus siguen siendo tan amplios y persistentes, dijo Pilar, de The Education Trust.

“Es difícil crear el ímpetu necesario para que la gente quiera enfocarse en esta población porque estamos muy poco representados”, dijo Pilar.

Ante la escasez de financiamiento y la inercia institucional, los hispanos que se han graduado de universidad han desarrollado redes a fin de abrirles puertas a los estudiantes de hoy y ayudarlos cuando tengan dificultades. Ellos aconsejan a los estudiantes sobre retos, como por ejemplo irse lejos de casa, lograr un equilibrio entre trabajo y estudios, o cómo encontrar una comunidad de amigos.

Alonso Chávez Gasca, de 24 años, dijo que al principio se sintió desconectado cuando se matriculó en Colorado State University. Pero rápidamente se unió a una fraternidad latina, encontró mentores, trabajó en el campus ayudando a otros estudiantes, y después de graduarse se convirtió en mentor con INSPiRE, una organización con sede en Denver que ayuda a los estudiantes a realizar sus sueños de ir a la universidad.

“Para mí, los mentores hacen que la graduación se sienta asequible y alcanzable”, dijo Chávez Gasca. “Y soy mentor porque me veo a mí mismo en esos muchachos. Sus historias son mi historia. Ayudarles a ellos me ayuda a reabastecer a mi comunidad, y les da a los estudiantes la inspiración de que gente como yo se puede graduarse y tener éxito”

¿Qué impide que los varones hispanos vayan a la universidad?

2022-05-06T20:00:44+00:00

¿Qué barreras enfrentan los varones hispanos al entrar a la universidad y graduarse?

Esa es la pregunta que los líderes de la Denver Scholarship Foundation le hicieron a varones hispanos. Ellos contestaron con una lista que incluye falta de fondos, información, apoyo y atención individual, además de responsabilidades familiares.

Nada de esto fue sorprendente. Sin embargo, a los líderes de la fundación les llamó la atención el fuerte sentido de obligación que los estudiantes sienten por su comunidad y familia, y cómo éste bloquea la ambición individual.

“No es fácil para los jóvenes latinos,” dijo Nate Cadena Jefe de Operaciones de la fundación. “Hay ciertos roles, ciertas expectativas, ciertas normas culturales... que no necesariamente invitan al individualismo, especialmente si eso los aleja de su familia extendida o comunidad. Hay un lenguaje no hablado de su cultura — su comunidad — que no necesariamente alienta el individualismo ni la exploración.”

La fundación, que ayuda a os estudiantes del área de Denver a navegar la universidad, ha enviado aproximadamente un 82% de sus becados a la universidad. Por otro lado, aumentar los porcentajes de asistencia a la universidad y graduación de los varones hispanos ha demostrado ser difícil. Por ejemplo, el porcentaje de mujeres hispanas que han recibido ayuda de la fundación y llegado a la universidad es el doble de los varones.

Para entender mejor el problema, los líderes de la Denver Scholarship Foundation encuestaron a hombres hispanos con una variedad de experiencias en tema de universidad. La fundación habló con gente que nunca ha asistido a la universidad, con quienes dejaron de asistir, y con los que se graduaron.

“Ellos mencionaron que es importante sentir que les están hablando de manera individual,” dijo Cadena, “De sus respuestas se puede extraer muchísima información. Pero gran parte reforzó lo que ya pensábamos y sabíamos”.

La lucha por lograr que los varones hispanos vayan a la universidad es un importante tema para el estado.

Aproximadamente dos de cada cinco varones hispanos que se gradúan de una secundaria de Colorado irán a la universidad. Una vez en la universidad, la mayoría no se gradúa. En las universidades públicas de Colorado con programas de cuatro años, solo se gradúa un 41% de los hombres hispanos. En las universidades comunitarias más pequeñas, se gradúa menos de una tercera parte.

Estas cifras determinan las grandes brechas en Colorado de quién tiene una educación universitaria y quién no. Aproximadamente un 61% de todos los residentes de Colorado tienen una credencial universitaria, en comparación con solo una cuarta parte de los residentes hispanos.

Cadena dijo que es necesario resolver ese problema, especialmente porque 1 de cada 5 residentes de Colorado se identifica como hispano.

Cadena agregó que lograr que más varones hispanos vayan a la universidad es un asunto de oportunidad y libertad para ellos individualmente y para sus familias. Esto rompe los ciclos de pobreza generacional. Se han hecho estudios que demuestran que las personas con educación universitaria tienen mejor acceso a atención médica. Los residentes que tienen un grado universitario también tienen un mayor potencial de ingresos y más habilidad para hacer lo que quieren en su vida.

“Si permitimos que esto continúe, es como si nos resignáramos a ello. Estamos diciendo que eso está bien”, dijo Cadena. “Eso es inaceptable”.

La fundación encontró que los estudiantes que nunca fueron a la universidad escucharon en algún momento de su niñez que no tendrían dinero suficiente para eso. Nadie les dijo que un buen desempeño académico les podía ayudar. El informe compilado por la fundación dijo que muchos de los encuestados sintieron que ir a la universidad no era algo que ellos podían lograr.

Los que nunca terminaron su carrera con frecuencia tomaron decisiones basadas en malos consejos recibidos desde la niñez, según el informe. Algunos fueron a universidades lejos del hogar, nunca se conectaron a la comunidad universitaria, y no recibieron la información, o los servicios de salud mental necesarios para terminar la carrera.

Los varones hispanos que sí se graduaron reportaron haber contado con apoyo de la familia. O que decidieron continuar la universidad a pesar de los costos, y tuvieron profesores o mentores que vieron su potencial. Esos estudiantes tuvieron el beneficio de haber sido alentados desde temprana edad.

Cadena dijo que los encuestados sabían que la universidad les daría acceso a una mejor vida.

Los que fueron a la universidad hablaron de expandir su red de colaboración y sus prospectos de empleo. Los que nunca asistieron a la universidad dijeron que harán lo posible para que sus hijos vayan para así tener más oportunidades. Ese grupo predominantemente se convirtió en empresarios con trabajos de esfuerzo intenso, pero a un costo para su salud y su tiempo.

Cadena dijo que el hecho de que todos los grupos reconocen el valor de una educación universitaria amerita que se les ofrezca ayuda personalizada a los estudiantes. También dijo que la encuesta indicó la posibilidad de sacar a las personas de sus normas.

“Hubo un reconocimiento de que la universidad rompe ciclos,” dijo Cadena, “y rompe ciclos generacionales.”

Mamás latinas en Boulder abogan a favor de la equidad en clases avanzadas

2023-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

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Cuando Adriana Paola y su familia llegaron a Boulder en 2017, a su hijo, quien estaba iniciado sus estudios de high school, le encantaban las matemáticas.

Poco a poco, Paola vio cómo la pasión de su hijo por la materia fue desapareciendo, y se dio cuenta de que su clase de matemáticas era demasiado fácil. Así que fue con su hijo a la oficina del consejero escolar y le pidió que lo inscribiera en una clase más avanzada.

Recuerda que el consejero cuestionó su solicitud, diciendo que su clase era “la clase donde van los latinos”. Tuvieron que hablar con el director de la escuela para que les aprobaran su pedido. Cuando empezó a tomar la clase avanzada de matemáticas, su hijo notó que era uno de solo dos estudiantes latinos.

Paola recuerda la experiencia como un shock para ella y su familia.

“Allí fue como nuestra primera alerta de decir que el sistema está mal”, dijo. “Veíamos que no había equidad”.

Esfuerzos para inscribir a más estudiantes de color en Colorado en cursos avanzados a veces se enfocan en animar a los estudiantes para que vean su propio potencial. Las experiencias de estas mamás de Boulder muestran cómo el prejuicio de los educadores puede moldear las oportunidades de los estudiantes.

Un informe reciente de un grupo de distritos escolares del nordeste de Colorado que recibió un subsidio estatal para aumentar la diversidad de las clases avanzadas encontró de manera similar que muchos de los maestros subestiman las habilidades de los estudiantes.

Además, obtener acceso a cursos avanzados en high school puede ser un factor importante para entrar a la universidad, estar preparados para ella, y hacer que los estudiantes se sientan seguros de que pueden triunfar.

Los padres señalan problemas sistémicos

En años recientes, Paola ha conectado con otras mamás hispanas cuyos hijos han tenido experiencias similares en múltiples high schools en el distrito.

La hija de Noemi Lastiri llegó a su clase avanzada de ciencias el primer día del año escolar pasado y el maestro le preguntó si estaba en la clase equivocada. En otra clase, a su hija la sentaron junto a los pocos estudiantes latinos que había, y le dijo a su mamá que cuando levantaban la mano nunca los elegían para hablar.

Las cosas cambiaron cuando otra compañera latina se salió de la clase, frustrada, y fue directamente a la oficina de la escuela para quejarse.

Algunas mamás dicen que maestros o administradores escolares les han dicho que sus hijos con autismo o TDAH (trastorno por déficit de atención e hiperactividad) que necesitan apoyo no pueden recibir ayuda en clases avanzadas. Si los padres creen que sus hijos necesitan ayuda adicional, les han dicho que pueden obtener tutores privados fuera de la escuela o poner a sus hijos en clases de educación general.

Recientemente, han estado compartiendo sus experiencias públicamente, y quieren que el distrito haga cambios.

“No es que unos niños puedan y otros estudiantes no puedan”, Paola dijo. “Cualquiera podría usar esas clases si realmente se les motivara y tuvieran un acompañamiento, que realmente hubiera una estructura de apoyo, especialmente para los estudiantes que menos han podido acceder estas clases”.

Los representantes del Distrito Escolar del Valle de Boulder dicen que, mientras que no pueden responder a casos individuales, empezaron a escuchar historias similares recientemente y están haciendo cambios.

“Es absolutamente doloroso. Es absolutamente inaceptable que estudiantes estén teniendo estas experiencias”, dijo Lora de la Cruz, superintendenta adjunta de asuntos académicos para el distrito de Boulder. “Lo que estamos observando aquí no concuerda con nuestros valores como distrito, nuestros valores como una comunidad”.

De la Cruz dijo que después de escuchar sobre los problemas que los estudiantes latinos han tenido para entrar a clases avanzadas, o para obtener apoyo cuando ya están inscritos en ellas, los líderes del distrito están implementando una nueva iniciativa de capacitación para los maestros.

Los maestros de Boulder usualmente cuentan con muchas oportunidades de capacitación para elegir, incluidas clases sobre prácticas culturalmente sensibles, pero este otoño fue la primera vez que los maestros estarán obligados a aprender cómo crear entornos inclusivos en sus salones para que todos los estudiantes sientan que pertenecen.

“Conforme nos vamos enfocando en nuestro trabajo sobre lo que vamos a cambiar, sobre lo que vamos a ir desarrollando en nuestra enseñanza [para] fortalecer un ambiente y una cultura positiva en nuestros salones y escuelas, decidimos que queríamos enfocarnos aún más en el aprendizaje profesional”, de la Cruz dijo.

A los padres les alegra que el distrito esté enfocándose en todos los maestros. A muchos les preocupa que los problemas que sus hijos han vivido empiecen desde la edad temprana.

“Los alumnos van recibiendo mensajes. Desde que ingresan en el kínder, van recibiendo esos mensajes de lo que pueden hacer y lo que no pueden hacer”, Anna Segur dijo. Su hijo, quien está en high school, ya no está interesado en tomar clases avanzadas, a pesar de que ella lo anima, debido a una mala experiencia que tuvo en años anteriores. “No es problema de inteligencia”.

El plan estratégico del distrito destaca la necesidad de equidad

De la Cruz señala el plan estratégico actual del distrito, el cual hace un llamado a implementar varios esfuerzos para cerrar la brecha del logro entre los estudiantes blancos y los estudiantes de color. Debido a esos objetivos, el distrito cuenta con un sitio web público que da seguimiento a los datos sobre brechas educativas. Uno de esos es cuántos estudiantes están inscritos en cursos avanzados, combinando cifras de clases como las de honores, colocación avanzada, inscripción simultanea y otras. Los cursos de inscripción simultánea les dan a los estudiantes créditos universitarios a la vez que cuentan para los requisitos de graduación de high school.

Actualmente, el tablero informativo muestra que el 14.7 por ciento de los estudiantes inscritos en cursos avanzados son hispanos, mientras que constituyen el 20 por ciento de la población estudiantil total del distrito. Los estudiantes negros también se ven subrepresentados, mientras que los estudiantes blancos y asiáticos se ven sobrerrepresentados.

Datos adicionales proporcionados por el distrito muestran que del año escolar 2021-22 al año escolar 2022-23, el porcentaje de estudiantes hispanos en clases de colocación avanzada (AP, por sus siglas en inglés) o bachillerato internacional (IB, por sus siglas en inglés) en realidad ha disminuido. Pero al mismo tiempo, muchos más estudiantes hispanos tomaron clases de inscripción simultánea u otras clases avanzadas, compensando por la reducción en clases de AP y IB.

La cantidad de estudiantes que tomaron clases de inscripción simultánea fue 1,143 en 2022-23, casi el doble de la cantidad en 2021-22. El porcentaje de estudiantes hispanos que participan en esas clases aumentó del 10.9 al 11.8 por ciento el año escolar pasado.

El distrito promociona esas mejoras como resultados iniciales de un nuevo proyecto enfocado en que todos los estudiantes tengan algo que acompañe su diploma de high school. Ese algo puede ser un crédito universitario, experiencia laboral, certificados de industrias o un sello de bilingüismo.

“Sabemos que todos nuestros estudiantes son brillantes y muy capaces y tienen el potencial de alcanzar sus objetivos”, dijo Bianca Gallegos, directora ejecutiva de colaboraciones estratégicas para el distrito del Valle de Boulder. “Estamos muy emocionados de poder abrir vías y oportunidades para todos los estudiantes con un enfoque específico en asegurar que estemos abriendo vías, oportunidades para estudiantes latinx, hispanos, latinos y estudiantes que cumplan requisitos para [recibir] almuerzos gratis y a [precio] reducido”.

El distrito quiere tener más estudiantes que participen en el programa estatal de quinto año de high school, llamado ASCENT, el cual permite que los estudiantes obtengan un título asociado junto con su diploma. Otro objetivo del proyecto es que el 35 por ciento de los estudiantes de high school tomen un curso de inscripción simultánea este año y que las características demográficas de esas clases sean más parecidas a las del distrito.

Lastiri dijo que estaba contenta de escuchar que el distrito esté haciendo cambios y esforzándose por mejorar las cosas. Su hija, quien es una estudiante de segundo año que se cambió de high school en el distrito, está teniendo una mejor experiencia hasta ahora este año escolar.

Está tomando dos clases avanzadas este semestre.

Con respecto a los cambios, dijo: “nunca es tarde”.

Yesenia Robles es una reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado, cubriendo distritos escolares de kindergarten a 12º grado y la educación multilingüe. Comunícate con Yesenia por correo electrónico a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

La universidad es cara. Llenar la FAFSA te puede ayudar con los gastos.

2022-10-13T23:33:26+00:00

El mes de octubre marca el inicio de la temporada para solicitar ayuda financiera y uno de los períodos más importantes para determinar si un estudiante de secundaria irá a la universidad.

La Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes (Free Application for Federal Student Aid, o FAFSA), cuyo plazo de solicitud comenzó el 1 de octubre, ayuda a los estudiantes a calificar para obtener grants y préstamos federales o becas para pagar por la universidad. Llenar la FAFSA ayuda a los estudiantes a darse cuenta de que la universidad es una opción, dijo la directora ejecutiva del Departamento de Educación Superior de Colorado, Angie Paccione.

Alrededor de un 85% de los estudiantes que van a la universidad llenan la FAFSA, dijo.

“Sabemos que, si vas a ir a la universidad, completas esa FAFSA porque quieres asegurarte de obtener todo el dinero que puedas”, dijo Paccione. “Al mismo tiempo, los estudiantes que la llenan se dan cuenta de a qué escuelas pueden ir porque saben cuánto dinero van a tener disponible”.

El shock del precio de la matrícula es una de las principales razones por las que los estudiantes que quieren ir a la universidad acaban por no hacerlo. Sin embargo, para los estudiantes provenientes de familias de ingresos medios y bajos, el costo real de matrícula resulta ser mucho menor después de aplicar la ayuda financiera.

Llenar la FAFSA ayuda a los estudiantes y a las familias a tener una idea realista de lo que podría costar la universidad. Además, ayuda a los estudiantes y a las familias a decidir de manera informada si podrán afrontar ese gasto.

Los estudiantes y las familias tienen hasta el 30 de junio para presentar la FAFSA a fin de recibir ayuda para el próximo año universitario. Mientras más temprano los estudiantes y las familias envíen la solicitud, más fácil será resolver cualquier problema que pueda surgir.

A menos que un estudiante califique como independiente, los que tienen 24 años o menos probablemente tendrán que llenar el formulario con la información de su familia. También hay opciones para los estudiantes que no tienen la información de su familia o que son indocumentados.

Colorado ha luchado durante años para que los estudiantes llenen el complicado formulario. El año pasado, solo un 46% de los estudiantes que se graduaron de secundaria en el estado completaron la FAFSA, un porcentaje muy por debajo del promedio nacional del 57.5%.

El estado se ha enfocado más en aumentar esas cifras educando sobre el tema de ayuda financiera y requiriendo que las escuelas les notifiquen a los padres y a los estudiantes las ventajas de llenar la FAFSA. Esto es parte de un plan a largo plazo para que el porcentaje de estudiantes que completan la FAFSA en Colorado aumente a un 80%. Un grupo de trabajo también ha pedido que el formulario se convierta en un requisito para graduarse de la secundaria.

A continuación, los expertos en ayuda financiera ofrecen varios consejos para llenar el formulario.

Empieza el proceso ahora, aunque no sepas si vas a calificar.

Joe Donlay, Director de Ayuda Financiera de la Universidad Estatal de Colorado, aconseja que las familias y los estudiantes no esperen para llenar la solicitud.

El proceso de llenar el formulario puede llevar tiempo, ser abrumador, y a veces, parecer invasivo. El formulario pide una serie de datos financieros, como documentos de impuestos y los saldos en cuentas bancarias de cheques y de ahorro. El gobierno federal también podría darle seguimiento, y esto incluye pedir documentos adicionales.

Al final, el proceso puede valer la pena, porque abre a los estudiantes a una variedad de dinero para ir a la universidad, dijo Donlay.

Él aconseja que las familias llenen el formulario aunque sientan incertidumbre. Aunque el gobierno federal no les conceda dinero a los estudiantes y sus familias, alguien más podría hacerlo.

Sin la FAFSA, es posible que los estudiantes no tengan acceso a dinero gratuito, como grants o becas para ir a la universidad. Además, dijo Donlay, algunos podrían también calificar para préstamos de poco o ningún interés para pagar por la universidad.

“La FAFSA es realmente la clave”, dijo Donlay.

Donlay dijo que, para empezar, los estudiantes y las familias deben visitar FAFSA.gov. El sitio web federal explica con detalles cómo iniciar el proceso.

Las familias y los estudiantes cuentan con ayuda.

Sin embargo, no deberían pensar que tienen que enfrentar el proceso por su cuenta.

Ellos pueden preguntarles a los orientadores de secundaria qué documentos deben tener a la mano. Los padres y los estudiantes también deben estar atentos a eventos nocturnos de ayuda financiera organizados por las escuelas secundarias; en estos eventos podrán obtener ayuda adicional o hacer preguntas. Y pueden hacer listas de verificación para mantenerse organizados.

Los orientadores y los expertos en ayuda financiera también pueden facilitar el proceso hablando con las familias sobre la importancia de la FAFSA, poniéndoles en contacto con talleres y dándoles seguimiento.

Diana Madriz, directora asistente de acceso a la universidad en la Denver Scholarship Foundation, dijo que cuando trabaja con familias, para hacer el proceso lo más fácil posible suele preguntar sobre la vida en el hogar y lo que se aplica y no se aplica a los estudiantes.

Por ejemplo, si un estudiante o sus padres no son ciudadanos estadounidenses, es probable que necesiten ayuda para llenar los formularios de ayuda financiera y que deban consultar a un experto.

Sin embargo, la ciudadanía o el estatus legal de los padres no afectan que un estudiante obtenga ayuda financiera. El formulario no hace esa pregunta sobre los padres.

Madriz dirige a los estudiantes que no están aquí legalmente a la Solicitud de Ayuda Financiera del Estado de Colorado (Colorado Application for State Financial Aid, CAFSA). Esos estudiantes no son elegibles para la FAFSA porque ésta requiere contar con estatus legal en Estados Unidos, pero ellos de todos modos podrían obtener alguna ayuda a través de la CAFSA.

Al final, Madriz dijo que una gran parte de llenar el formulario es aliviar los temores y las preocupaciones y contestar muchas preguntas sobre las circunstancias individuales.

“Hemos tenido situaciones en las que creo que las familias sienten temor a compartir información”, dijo Madriz. “Pienso que es importante que nunca hablemos en términos absolutos, porque las cosas cambian todo el tiempo. Pero creo que podemos compartir lo que sabemos con las familias”.

Los orientadores tampoco deben tener miedo de hacer preguntas o pedir ayuda

Cuando se trata de finanzas, la situación de cada familia es diferente.

Cendy De la Torre, gerente de eventos de Denver Scholarship, dijo que los orientadores pueden hacer preguntas de manera cuidadosa a fin de fomentar la confianza de las familias o los estudiantes que podrían mostrarse reacios a llenar el formulario.

Ella agregó que preguntar sobre la situación legal, o si los miembros de la familia están distanciados, puede ser un tema difícil. Por eso, dijo que fomentar confianza es un elemento esencial para ayudar a las familias o a los estudiantes a llenar la solicitud. Su consejo es que los orientadores hablen en términos hipotéticos en lugar de hacer preguntas directas, permitiendo que los estudiantes y las familias sean quienes tomen la iniciativa de hablar sobre sus circunstancias.

Añadió también que los educadores y orientadores no son los únicos que ayudan a las familias. “Somos muchos los que pasamos por esos mismos retos”, agregó.

Madriz y De la Torre dijeron que a menudo se encuentran con numerosas situaciones en las que no saben a ciencia cierta cómo ayudar a una familia con el formulario.

Donlay y los departamentos de ayuda financiera de las universidades de todo el estado están dispuestos a ayudar. Él dijo que los funcionarios de ayuda financiera de las universidades pueden recomendar cambios en las palabras usadas en el formulario o en las preguntas financieras específicas en relación con la familia. Los orientadores no deben dudar en trabajar con las universidades, dijo.

“Siempre animamos al estudiante o a la familia a comunicarse con la oficina de ayuda financiera. Así nosotros podemos ayudar a determinar cuál podría ser la respuesta o la solución según esas circunstancias particulares”, dijo.

Los orientadores y las familias no deben sentirse desanimados si no consiguen resolver un problema.

Natasha Garfield, directora de becas de DSF, dijo que hasta los funcionarios de ayuda financiera, que han hecho este trabajo durante años y han capacitado a otros, a veces se encuentran con situaciones que parecen no tener solución. Sea cual sea la situación, las familias y los estudiantes pueden estar seguros de que la ayuda está ahí, aunque no haya una solución clara.

“Siempre son cosas que tenemos que superar y dar el todo para solucionarlas”, dijo.

Jason Gonzales es reportero que cubre temas de educación superior y la legislatura de Colorado. Chalkbeat Colorado trabaja con Open Campus en la cobertura de temas de educación superior. Para comunicarte con Jason, envíale un mensaje a jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

DACA abrió puertas de educación para algunos, pero muchos estudiantes todavía enfrentan obstáculos

2022-08-08T11:02:00+00:00

Cuando Flor Camarena estaba a punto de graduarse de secundaria en Denver, hubo un momento en que no sabía si podría ir a la universidad.

Sin embargo, sus orientadores académicos (a quienes les había confiado que no era residente legal) la ayudaron a encontrar universidades que la apoyaran y programas que le dieran esperanza de conseguir asistencia financiera.

Este otoño comenzará a estudiar en Metropolitan State University of Denver. Como ya tiene algunos créditos universitarios, empezará el programa como estudiante de segundo año. No tener residencia legal en este país, en el que ha vivido desde que era bebé, está teniendo un impacto en sus opciones y prospectos educativos.

Camarena ha solicitado ser parte del programa DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), que la protegería de ser deportada y le daría permiso para trabajar y solicitar ayuda financiera, pero ella no sabe si su solicitud va a ser procesada.

En vez de estudiar justicia criminal para ser detective, como siempre quiso, Camarena tendrá que estudiar una carrera en administración de empresas.

“Empecé a pensar en que DACA quizás se elimine, y a considerar cuál sería el efecto”, dijo. “Si estudio, tendré mi diploma y certificado, pero luego no voy a poder trabajar en el ámbito policial. No voy a conseguir un buen empleo debido a mi estatus legal. Aunque me den el programa DACA, de todos modos no voy a ser residente legal y eso me impedirá trabajar como detective. No veo la manera de que eso sea posible.”

No obstante, ella está aprovechando la oportunidad al máximo. Espera que con un diploma en administración de empresas pueda ayudar a sus padres a hacer crecer su restaurante.

“Al principio estaba bien decepcionada”, dijo Camarena. “Empecé a pensar que si tuviese un estatus legal distinto, podría ser alguien mucho más importante — quizás hasta tener una mejor profesión.”

Flor Camarena ha solicitado ser parte del programa DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), que la protegería de ser deportada y le daría permiso para trabajar y solicitar ayuda financiera.

Su mamá estaba triste. Su papá estaba orgulloso de que ella pensara en el negocio familiar y que estuviera siendo práctica.

FWD.us, un grupo político que defiende a los inmigrantes, calcula que en las escuelas K-12 de Estados Unidos hay unos 600,000 estudiantes sin estatus legal, como Camarena, y eso incluye unos 8,000 en Colorado.

Este pasado junio, los defensores celebraron el 10mo aniversario de la creación de DACA y el impacto que ha tenido para muchos. DACA es un programa que ofrece permisos de trabajo y alivio temporero del riesgo de deportación para personas que llegaron ilegalmente al país cuando eran menores de edad.

Antes de la creación de DACA, los menores de edad sin estatus legal describen haber enfrentado barreras desmoralizantes en la escuela secundaria. Los estudiantes perdían motivación al darse cuenta de que nunca podrían ir a la universidad por no tener acceso a ayuda financiara y no calificar para pagar matrícula como residente. Otras oportunidades, entre ellas internados y oficios que requieren certificaciones profesionales, también estaban fuera de su alcance.

Cuando los esfuerzos de la legislatura para ayudar a estos estudiantes no estaban progresando, el presidente Barack Obama creó el programa DACA mediante una orden ejecutiva.

Algunos de los beneficiados en ese momento ahora son padres. El impacto del estatus migratorio va más allá de los que los que se benefician del programa DACA. Se calcula que en Colorado hay unos 20,000 ciudadanos estadounidenses que viven con recipientes del programa DACA.

Tanto maestros como defensores de estos estudiantes tienen anécdotas de cómo la creación de DACA ayudó a motivar a algunos estudiantes, a darles esperanza por el futuro, y a optar por estudiar. Uno de los requisitos para solicitar es estar estudiando o tener un diploma de secundaria o GED.

Los investigadores publicaron un estudio en 2019 basado en los hallazgos del National UnDACAmented Research Project de la Universidad de Harvard, un proyecto que llevó cuenta por muchos años del impacto del programa DACA en cientos de estudiantes. El estudio encontró que, entre los estudiantes que habían abandonado la secundaria, recibir el estatus DACA fue motivación para reanudar sus estudios. Muchos otros completaron estudios universitarios y comenzaron carreras profesionales.

Marissa Molina, directora en Colorado de la organización FWD.us, fue una vez recipiente del programa DACA. Estaba en la universidad (y sus padres pagaban la matrícula a precio de alguien que no es residente del estado) justo antes de que DACA comenzara.

“Como sentía el peso de esa matrícula tan cara, estaba pensando abandonar la universidad”, dijo Molina. “No le veía sentido a continuar porque no había manera de poder usar lo que estaba aprendiendo. En mi caso, DACA fue realmente transformador”.

FWD, un grupo político que defiende a los inmigrantes, calcula que en las escuelas K-12 de Estados Unidos hay unos 600,000 estudiantes sin estatus legal.

A diferencia de la mayoría, Molina pudo encontrar otra manera de ajustar su estatus legal.

DACA les da estatus temporero a los estudiantes cada dos años, pero no ofrece una manera para conseguir residencia permanente o ciudadanía.

Desde que el entonces presidente Trump intentara eliminar DACA por primera vez en 2017, el gobierno solamente ha procesado solicitudes nuevas durante ventanas limitadas de tiempo. Camarena solicitó durante una de esas oportunidades el año pasado, pero su solicitud todavía no ha sido procesada.

Aunque la decisión del Tribunal Supremo fue en contra de Trump en 2020 y restauró el programa DACA, otro caso legal nuevamente detuvo el procesamiento de solicitudes nuevas.

Esta ocasión, un grupo de estados dirigido por Texas alega que DACA tenía deficiencias desde que empezó, que fue creado sin pasar por los debidos procedimientos legales y administrativos, y que les está haciendo daño a sus estados. Un juez federal estuvo de acuerdo. La administración del presidente Biden ha apelado el caso y los argumentos ya se escucharon el mes pasado.

Se espera que el tribunal tome la decisión este otoño, pero los defensores no tienen mucha esperanza. Por eso, como alternativa están presionando al Congreso para que apruebe leyes que amplíen y establezcan una ruta nueva a conseguir estatus legal para quienes vinieron al país como niños.

Como las reglas originales de DACA no han cambiado — incluida la de haber llegado a Estados Unidos antes del 2007 — la organización FWD.us calcula que la mayoría de los estudiantes indocumentados en las escuelas de Estados Unidos ahora no serían elegibles para el programa DACA aunque se estuviesen procesando solicitudes nuevas. Este año, los estudiantes de duodécimo grado nacieron entre 2004 y 2005, y si la elegibilidad no se extiende, muy pronto ningún estudiante de secundaria podrá calificar.

Aunque el programa está en riesgo, Molina cree que los estudiantes, aunque no tengan estatus legal, ahora tienen más expectativas que ella cuando estaba creciendo.

“Ahora hay estudiantes que no conocen un mundo sin DACA”, dijo Molina. “Nosotros vivimos en un mundo diferente. Particularmente en Colorado. Nuestro estado realmente ha entendido este problema y ha tratado de hacerlo mejor y apoyar a los estudiantes. Tenemos acceso a ayuda financiera como residentes del estado. Hemos continuado escuchando mensajes positivos y a nuestro gobernador hablando acerca de DACA. Quizás sea más difícil que un estudiante se imagine un mundo sin eso”.

Los maestros y orientadores también han aprendido mucho en la última década, dijo Molina, y tienen más acceso a recursos para ayudar a los estudiantes.

“Tu estatus legal no impide que te gradúes”, dijo Camarena. “Mis orientadores se aseguraron de que yo supiera que era posible. Siempre me hicieron sentir protegida”.

Cuando Camarena no estaba segura de poder ir a la universidad y pagar por la matrícula, sus orientadores también fueron los que la ayudaron a encontrar una manera de hacerlo.

“También pienso que, como hay más historias de gente que se graduó y ha emprendido carreras, la comunidad está enterada de la situación”, dijo Molina. “Hoy en día es mucho más difícil que te digan que no puedes ir a la universidad”.

Todo lo que quiere Flor Camarena es tener las mismas oportunidades que tienen sus compañeros — la habilidad de hacer internados, prácticas, y programas de estudio y trabajo.

Aunque Camarena ha tenido algunas decepciones, poder obtener una educación es una expectativa y por eso ella continúa siendo optimista. Sin embargo, eso no significa que los obstáculos hayan desaparecido.

Este verano ella tuvo la oportunidad de hacer servicio a la comunidad con el programa Immigrant Services Program de la Metropolitan State University en Denver. Aunque no califica para programas de estudio y trabajo, sí va a recibir un estipendio a través de otro programa de asistencia. Y si el programa DACA no la ayuda, no está segura de poder continuar teniendo suficientes alternativas de ayuda financiara para completar sus estudios universitarios.

Dice que todo lo que quiere es tener las mismas oportunidades que tienen sus compañeros — la habilidad de hacer internados, prácticas, y programas de estudio y trabajo.

De todos modos, nos dijo que por ahora decidió enfocarse en lo que puede hacer: comenzar el semestre de otoño y continuar sus planes de trabajar con el restaurante de sus padres.

“He hablado con gente que me ha inspirado a querer trabajar por mi cuenta, no para otros”, Camarena dijo. “En este punto, lo he puesto todo a un lado y decidí trabajar en lo que tengo”.

Yesenia Robles es reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado y cubre asuntos relacionados con los distritos escolares K-12 y la educación multilingüe. Para comunicarte con Yesenia, envíale un mensaje a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Dos hermanos hispanos querían ir a la universidad en Colorado. Aquí te contamos por qué solamente uno lo logró.

2021-12-02T23:47:15+00:00

See the full poll results, including regional breakdowns, here.

La alarma de Jimy y Luis Hernández los despierta antes de que salga el sol.

Los hermanos intentan moverse en silencio por la casa de sus padres en el noreste de Denver para no molestar a sus hermanos.

Luis, de 18 años, podría ver las noticias o ayudar a su mamá a preparar el almuerzo antes de salir hermano a la fábrica de cartuchos de tóner donde trabaja a tiempo parcial para ayudar a pagar la universidad. Está matriculado en la Metropolitan State University (MSU) en Denver.

Jimy, de 21 años, suele no pasar por la cocina porque se apresura a prepararse para su trabajo a tiempo completo pavimentando asfalto en una empresa de construcción. Él quería ir a la universidad, pero no pudo encontrar la manera de lograrlo.

Las rutas opuestas de los hermanos destacan los retos que enfrentan los varones hispanos para poder entrar a la universidad... y también para graduarse.

En Colorado, la mayoría de los graduados de secundaria hispanos siguen un camino más parecido al de Jimy. Menos de la mitad va a la universidad - una tasa inferior a la de los varones negros y las mujeres hispanas.

Jimy Hernández, en el medio, camina por la cocina de su casa de Denver mientras su mamá, Mariela Hernández, prepara burritos de chicharrón para la familia antes de que todos salgan a trabajar.

Pero incluso cuando entran a la universidad, como Luis, las probabilidades siguen estando en su contra. Solamente un 41% de los hombres hispanos que asisten a las universidades públicas de cuatro años de Colorado consiguen graduarse, según datos federales recientes. En los colegios comunitarios, menos de un tercio se gradúa.

Y todo esto resulta en enormes disparidades. Entre los estados, Colorado tiene una de las poblaciones más educadas, pero solo una cuarta parte de los residentes hispanos tiene una credencial universitaria, la cifra más baja de todos los grupos. Esto es en comparación con un 61% de todos los residentes de Colorado.

Esta diferencia supone un alto costo para las finanzas de las familias en un estado en el que 1 de cada 5 personas se identifica como de origen hispano. Además, tiene implicaciones para la prosperidad del estado. Para que Colorado cumpla su propia meta de que un 66% de sus residentes tengan una credencial universitaria, es esencial conseguir que más varones hispanos se matriculen y terminen la universidad.

En Colorado y en todo el país, sin embargo, los varones hispanos uniformemente se han pasado por alto en lo que respecta a la educación superior, dijo Wil Del Pilar, vicepresidente de política de educación superior de Education Trust.

“No creo que se hayan enfocado en eso”, dijo Pilar. “Si uno no está representado en la mesa o no empuja a la gente a pensar en esta población de estudiantes, creo que a menudo se les olvida que existen.”

Obstáculos a la educación superior

Múltiples razones llevan a que los varones hispanos a menudo no puedan recibir una educación universitaria.

Una de las barreras es el dinero. En Colorado, las familias hispanas tienden a tener ingresos menores al promedio del estado. Muchos varones hispanos quizás son los primeros de su familia en ir a la universidad. Ellos no pueden dejarse llevar por la familia para saber cuándo empezar a prepararse, dónde solicitar o cómo conseguir ayuda financiera.

Y a esto se le añaden las expectativas de algunas familias de que ayuden a sostener el hogar o a cuidar de los hermanos.

Si llegan al campus, los varones hispanos podrían descubrir que no hay mucha gente que comparte sus experiencias y entiende sus retos. Menos de uno de cada 10 profesores son hispanos, algo importante para que los estudiantes se sientan bienvenidos y para ayudarles a conectar con mentores que puedan guiarles.

Un camino nuevo hacia la universidad

Desde que eran niños, los hermanos Hernández entendieron que la universidad era una expectativa.

Como inmigrantes del estado mexicano de Zacatecas, sus padres Mariela y Jaime les recalcaron que hay que aprovechar todas las oportunidades en Estados Unidos. La universidad les abriría nuevas carreras en campos que estarían bien pagados y les aseguraría que iban a trabajar duro con sus mentes y no con sus espaldas.

“Mi sueño siempre ha sido que mis hijos tengan una vida mejor que la que yo tuve”, dijo Mariela Hernández. “Quiero que crezcan y hagan lo que les gusta, que no tengan que trabajar tanto como yo. Quiero que tengan una vida bonita.”

Pero la trayectoria de los hermanos Hernández resalta cómo el sistema universitario de Colorado (y del país) produce resultados desiguales, incluso dentro de la misma familia.

Luis ayuda a su mamá, Mariela, a trabajar en una fábrica de cartuchos de tinta y tóner. Ella le ayudó a conseguir el trabajo para pagar sus estudios en la Universidad Estatal Metropolitana de Denver.

Tres años después de graduarse del Denver Center for International Studies en Montbello, Jimy Hernández tiene una rutina diaria que no había anticipado. En la secundaria, Jimy era un estudiante con desempeño mediano pero se esforzaba y disfrutaba de la escuela. Él sentía que la universidad podía estar en su futuro. Consideró entrar en un programa de soldadura o en especializarse en artes culinarias o en convertirse en barbero.

Sus padres estaban involucrados en su educación. Ellos iban a todas las reuniones de padres y maestros y le animaron a triunfar.

Jimy trató de mantenerse involucrado en la escuela y en las actividades extracurriculares. Tomó el examen ACT y completó los cursos usuales de secundaria. Le gustaba especialmente la historia.

Los maestros y los orientadores académicos sugirieron que solicitara admisión a las universidades. Pero esa sugerencia no vino acompañada de asesoramiento práctico individual. Al no tener ayuda, no sabía por dónde empezar.

“Para ser honesto, los orientadores académicos realmente ayudaron más como los estudiantes de honor y todo eso”, dijo Jimy.

Jesse Ramírez, cuya Organización INSPiRE brinda mentoría para ayudar a estudiantes a entrar a la universidad, dijo que ha encontrado que muchos varones hispanos como Jimy simplemente son pasados por alto. Quizás alguien les hable de la universidad, pero rara vez se les proporciona ayuda práctica, dijo Ramírez.

La clave, dijo, es trabajar con los estudiantes y recordarles la universidad como opción constantemente para que no se desanimen. “Nosotros podemos mostrarles que, sea cual sea su pasión, una educación universitaria puede resaltarla”, dijo Ramírez.

Él ha encontrado que también ayuda tener hombres hispanos exitosos como mentores.

Sin nada de eso, Jimy nunca completó la Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes (FAFSA), que abre las puertas a becas, y también a préstamos y grants del gobierno federal. Él solicitó algunas becas y recibió $1,000, pero no pudo decidir a qué universidad ir.

No sabía que las universidades comunitarias ofrecen muchos de los programas que le interesaban por una fracción del costo de las instituciones privadas con fines de lucro. Tampoco sabía por qué era importante llenar la FAFSA.

Lincoln College of Technology, la única universidad que trató de reclutarlo (privada y con fines de lucro), estaba económicamente fuera de su alcance. Un asesor le dijo a Jimy que graduarse con un diploma de soldadura le costaría unos $60,000. Esa cantidad de dinero era abrumadora.

Jimy sabía que ir a la universidad le permitiría ganar más dinero más adelante. Los datos federales muestran que los hombres con diploma universitario de cuatro años ganan en promedio casi $1 millón más durante toda su vida laboral que los que solamente se graduaron de secundaria. Y los graduados de una universidad comunitaria también ganan más.

Los hermanos Jimy y Luis se relajan en la mesa después de un largo día de trabajo y estudios.

Pero la realidad de renunciar a un sueldo fijo y asumir una deuda mayor le llevó a optar por trabajar. Fue cambiando de trabajo y finalmente aterrizó en la empresa de pavimentación de asfalto, que le ofrecía un sueldo de $21 por hora con beneficios y la oportunidad de progresar. Y su mamá dijo que está orgullosa de él — y de todos sus hijos — por lo mucho que trabaja.

Jimy se siente orgulloso de que su hermano pequeño esté logrando sus objetivos y sigue alimentando sus propios sueños universitarios. Pero Jimy no sabe por dónde empezar para volver a estudiar o quién podría ayudarle a saber cómo hacerlo.

Él recuerda cuando tuvo que decirles a sus papás que no iba a ir a la universidad. Podía sentir la decepción de ellos.

“Mis papás realmente no podían ayudarme”, dijo. “Luego, mi mamá entendió.”

Cómo Luis encontró un camino

Entonces, ¿cómo Luis consiguió entrar a la universidad, especialmente cuando se encontró con muchas de las mismas barreras que su hermano?

Luis también trabajó duro y trató de mantenerse activo. Fue parte del grupo que preparó el anuario de la escuela y tomó clases de inglés AP, geografía AP, y otras clases de nivel avanzado y universitario.

Fue uno de los pocos afortunados de su secundaria, predominantemente hispana, en ir a la universidad. En el año escolar 2019-20, aproximadamente una cuarta parte de los estudiantes de DCIS Montbello decidió obtener una educación postsecundaria, en comparación con casi la mitad de los graduados de las escuelas públicas de Denver.

Luis, a la derecha, toma notas en su clase de la tarde sobre atención informada por el trauma, donde el tema de la lección del día era la resiliencia. Él ha obtenido apoyo a través del programa Pathways to Possible para estudiantes desfavorecidos. No cree que hubiera podido asistir a la universidad si no fuera por el programa.

Aunque Luis apenas sabía por dónde empezar, el personal del Programa Pathways to Possible de MSU Denver se comunicó con él y le orientó sobre dónde ir, cómo pagar por la universidad, cómo elegir las clases y cómo matricularse en ellas.

Eso marcó la diferencia.

Mariela y Jaime celebraron el día en que Luis empezó la universidad llevando a la familia a cenar a un restaurante mexicano. Mariela sigue hablando de lo orgullosa que está de Luis.

“Es una bendición”, dijo Mariela. “Estoy agradecida con Dios, con mi esposo y conmigo misma por todo el trabajo que hemos hecho para que esté ahí.”

La graduación no es una garantía

Antes de la pandemia, solamente 1 de cada 5 varones hispanos terminaba una carrera universitaria de cuatro años en MSU Denver.

En su defensa, los funcionarios de la MSU de Denver dicen que sus estudiantes empiezan la universidad con más responsabilidades y retos en el trabajo, la escuela, la familia y la vida, y todo eso pueden dificultar el camino hacia la graduación. Dicen que la universidad también recibe en general menos dinero del estado para educar a cada estudiante que otras escuelas.

Michael Benitez, que dirige la oficina de Diversidad, Equidad e Inclusión de MSU Denver, dijo que el precio de la matrícula universitaria siendo menor que el de muchas otras universidades estatales. Eso ayuda a reducir la deuda y la carga de trabajo de los estudiantes, dijo. La universidad también programa las clases para acomodar a los estudiantes que trabajan, dijo Benítez.

Aun así, los varones hispanos se gradúan en tasas más bajas que cualquier grupo, excepto los varones negros, a pesar de que muchos estudiantes se enfrentan a circunstancias de vida similares.

Para impulsar las tasas de graduación y reducir las barreras, la universidad ha creado programas como Pathways. El programa Pathways, financiado con los fondos federales para el alivio del coronavirus, conecta a los estudiantes con orientadores académicos, ofrece orientaciones para estudiantes de primer año y proporciona ayuda financiera.

Luis dijo que el programa marcó una gran diferencia con solo ayudarle a entrar por la puerta. Pero el programa es minúsculo, con solamente 125 estudiantes, su demanda es potencialmente enorme. Es injusto, dijo Luis, que haya tan pocas oportunidades como Pathways, un programa que podría haber ayudado a su hermano.

“Pienso mucho en ello”, dijo. “Es triste que no haya podido ir a la universidad, porque realmente quería ir.”

Luis es un estudiante de primer año en MSU Denver, y espera convertirse en dentista después de graduarse de universidad. Trabaja tres días a la semana mientras asiste a clases a tiempo completo.

Luis se matriculó en otoño en MSU Denver como estudiante de primer año para hacer un sueño realidad: ser dentista. Siempre le gustó que le limpiaran los dientes cuando era niño y cómo se sentía después. Está tomando clases relacionadas con la medicina y espera ir luego a la escuela de odontología. Las clases son duras, dijo, pero su preparación en la secundaria le ayudó.

Para continuar en la universidad, Luis trabaja tres días a la semana. Eso hace que los días sean largos, lo que complica su meta más inmediata: graduarse. Estadísticamente, se enfrenta a un riesgo.

Los varones hispanos de las universidades de Colorado se gradúan a niveles muy inferiores a los de sus compañeros. Entre las universidades estatales de cuatro años, la MSU de Denver tiene la tasa de graduación más baja para los varones hispanos.

Un éxito en Georgia

Una escuela que ha estado a la vanguardia graduando estudiantes de primera generación es la Georgia State University. Esta institución educa mayormente a estudiantes de color que son los primeros de su familia en ir a la universidad o que tienen bajos ingresos. Sus estudiantes hispanos y negros se gradúan al mismo ritmo que los blancos.

Timothy Renick, que dirige el National Institute for Student Success at Georgia State, dijo que la universidad lleva cuenta electrónicamente de los factores de riesgo que cada estudiente enfrenta a diario, y esto incluye no cumplir los plazos de entrega escolares o tener problemas financieros. La universidad toma en cuenta 800 posibles riesgos. Eso significa que si una crisis laboral o de vida interfiere con los estudios, la universidad puede tratar de intervenir.

“En vez de esperar que los estudiantes en cada uno de esos casos diagnostiquen el problema y acudan a nosotros en busca de ayuda, nosotros nos estamos comunicando proactivamente con ellos en un plazo de 24 o 48 horas después de detectar uno de esos problemas”, dijo Renick.

En Colorado, ninguna universidad lleva notas tan detalladas sobre los estudiantes.

Los días de trabajo, Luis y su madre entran a trabajar en la fábrica a las 6:30 am. Él usualmente trabaja hasta la hora de almuerzo y luego se dirige a la casa para hacer la tarea o toma el tren para ir a sus clases. Su gerente le da flexibilidad para trabajar de acuerdo con su horario de clases.

Luis se levanta a las 7 de la mañana hasta los días en que no trabaja.

Luis se pregunta si podrá mantener el intenso horario de trabajo y de estudios a tiempo completo, pero dice que se siente equipado para hacerlo.

Él trata de ayudar en la casa o pasar tiempo con sus hermanos menores. En los raros días que tiene tiempo para sí mismo, dice que le gusta “disfrutar un poco de la vida.” Usualmente eso incluye ver un programa de televisión.

Dice que rara vez se siente demasiado cansado. Se apoya en la fuerza de su familia y en su orientador del programa Pathways. Tomó un seminario de manejo del tiempo, y por eso se siente preparado para controlar su agenda.

Sin embargo, le preocupa si podrá mantener el programa a largo plazo y qué retos podrían desviarle del camino.

Modelo de conducta para una familia extendida

Después de un largo día, los hermanos Hernández a veces pasan el rato juntos en el sofá. Luis suele hacer tarea en su computadora portátil. Jimy podría estar viendo las noticias o navegando en su teléfono.

También pasan tiempo con sus dos hermanos menores, Alejandro, de 13 años, y Brian, de 14. Los hermanos Hernández mayores tienen las mismas expectativas universitarias de sus padres para sus hermanos menores.

“Siempre les digo que se queden en la escuela y que hagan algo por sí mismos”, dijo Jimy.

Y Luis espera poder ser un ejemplo a seguir para sus hermanos, así como para otros varones hispanos que aspiran a obtener algún día un título universitario.

“Tengo mucha presión por ser el primero en ir a la universidad”, dijo. “Pero mis primos y hermanos me admiran y ven lo que estoy haciendo. Quiero ser una inspiración para ellos.”

Dual credit courses growing in Illinois, but students of color less likely to take them, report says

2023-12-08T12:59:53+00:00

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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.

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.

How Indianapolis-area students can earn college credit in high school

2023-12-07T16:10:41+00:00

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This article was originally published by WFYI.

More than a decade ago, only a quarter of Marion County public high school graduates earned college credit. Today, over half of all graduates earn dual credits from Indiana public colleges during their high school years.

The growing popularity of dual credit comes as the price tag of a secondary degree is questioned by debt-averse students, and Indiana’s college-going rate is stuck at the lowest point in a generation.

In Indianapolis, the number of high schoolers going directly to college after graduation fell to about 47 percent in 2021, according to the most recent state data.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, more students than ever were choosing to earn several types of advanced credit that count toward their graduation and can not only streamline the transition to higher education but cut the bill. Nearly 63 percent of Indiana high schoolers who graduated in 2021 had some type of college credit, a slight dip from the previous year.

In the next four years, state education leaders want to ensure that every Indiana high school provides students the opportunity to earn 30 core college credits, covering essential subjects like English composition, introductory biology, and chemistry. That’s called the Indiana College Core — a certificate earned by completing a set of coursework that can be transferred between all Indiana public colleges and universities and some private ones. Today more than 220 high schools offer it.

Proponents of College Core say it’s working. Over 1,800 students from the class of 2021 graduated with the Indiana College Core, and 90 percent of those students went on to attend college.

Those students could also save on the price of a degree. The Indiana Commission for Higher Education estimates the average cost for a year at a state public college at $22,000.

Students can still take classes for transferable college credit that work towards earning the Indiana College Core without taking all 30 credits needed to earn the certificate.

Michael Hansen with the Brookings Institution says many people are rethinking the purpose of college credit — including how it could be a pathway to enrolling in and completing college.

“I think, for many students, it does show them that maybe college isn’t that challenging, after all,” Hansen said. “I think some students just sort of tell a story about their academic ability during school, and they just feel like college is not for me, and so I’m not even going to try.”

High schools in Indianapolis provide various dual credit programs, with some large traditional schools like Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis Public Schools and Lawrence North in Lawrence Township, reporting around 68 percent of graduates earning credits, according to most recent state data.

Here’s how two Indianapolis high schools provide programs for students to earn college credits and, for some, even a chance at an associate’s degree.

Earning credit on a college campus

Rhymz Johnson is a junior at GEO Next Generation High School. He’s been at GEO since he was a freshman. He arrives at the school in the Meadows northeast side neighborhood every weekday morning around 8:30 a.m. A little bit later, he gets on a bus.

Johnson and two other classmates are headed a few miles to Ivy Tech Community College. It’s the first day of a new term in October.

Rhymz Johnson is a junior at GEO Next Generation High School. Johnson attends classes each day at Ivy Tech Community College as part of a program to earn credit or an associate degree that can transfer to an Indiana college or university.

Johnson, 17, said he feels more like a college student than a high schooler. This semester, he only has one class at the charter high school. The rest of his classes are at Ivy Tech, like the design technology class today.

“Every year since freshman year, I’ve basically had more college classes than high school classes,” he said about the Ivy Tech courses that also satisfy his graduation requirements.

Kevin Teasley, the founder of GEO Academies, said getting students on campus to take classes prepares them for the experience of navigating and learning at college.

“So they walk away with not only a bunch of credits, saving themselves and their family a bunch of money, but they walk away with a lot of experience,” Teasley said. “That’s the key. So if they get an associate’s degree, fantastic. But what we really want them to get is that life experience of going off to college.”

Teasley opened a Gary charter school in 2005. The goal was initially to thwart the high dropout rate in the Northwest region. What he found was a way to connect students with post-grad opportunities.

Now two GEO schools in Gary offer dual credit programs at local colleges. At Gary Middle College, aimed at non-traditional students, nearly 80 percent of graduates reported employment or college enrollment a year after graduation in 2020, according to the most recent data available.

The GEO Next Generation High School Indianapolis opened in 2020 and it offers the Indiana College Core. About 180 students are enrolled at the 7-12 grade school, according to state data. In 2022, 85 percent of students graduated.

“We’re in the business of dropping all barriers,” Teasley said. “We want our students to succeed. So if we have to provide transportation we do. We do pay for the tuition. We do buy the textbooks. We do provide academic and social supports. It’s a complete approach.”

The cost per credit hour for part-time students at Ivy Tech is $170.

Multiple times each day a bus transports students from GEO Next Generation High School on the city’s north east side to the campus of Ivy Tech Community College.

For Johnson, the experience at GEO Academy led him to reconsider a plan to take off time after high school.

“I think I’ll just go ahead and stick to it and just take another year at Ivy Tech, at least to try to get my associate’s degree,” he said.

Now, Johnson is considering transferring to a four year university after getting his associates to major in engineering.

College classes at your high school

Ben Davis University is a three-story building just outside the I-465 loop west of downtown. From the outside, it appears to be a traditional high school but is a partnership between the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township and the public Vincennes University.

The curriculum is designed for students to earn a diploma and associate’s degree to ease the path to a four-year college. Students take classes to complete one of four degrees and career paths: liberal arts, business management, information technology, and health careers.

The school district covers all the costs.

Gift Akintomide is a junior who picked IT as her focus. She said the smaller, more intimate educational environment at BDU led to her choosing the school over other options. About 390 students are enrolled at the 10-12 grade school, according to state data.

“There’s a lot fewer people [at BDU] than at other high schools. So you feel like you’re getting a tailored education and you have a more personal relationship with your teachers and your peers,” said Akintomide. “But I will say that the early college did draw me in as well. There are opportunities to grow from it.”

BDU students take college classes every other day from a Vincennes University adjunct professor. This semester, Akintomide is taking an advanced computer science class.

She chose IT because it’s a growing field and the skills she’s learning now will be transferable to whichever career path she lands on.

Vincennes counselors are also in the building to help students stay on track for their degree completion. Akintomide says she learned that if you collaborate with teachers to understand the college coursework, “you will excel.”

In 2022, 100 percent of students graduated. In 2021, nearly 95 percent of graduates reported they were employed or enrolled in college after graduating a year earlier.

Wayne Township offers other dual credit options outside of Ben Davis University. The Early College Career Center at Ben Davis High School offers a program for students to earn their diploma and associate degree in pharmacy technology, culinary arts, or precision machining.

Ben Davis University is part of the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township. Through a partnership with Vincennes University students can earn an associate degree when they graduate with their high school diploma.

“Wayne Township has always had pathway options for students so that they can individualize what they want to do during high school and what they want to do after high school,” said Rebecca Daugherty-Saunders, the district’s Director of College and Career Readiness. “We definitely have seen a growing trend of interest in career certification programs. And so we’re adapting to meet the needs of our students.”

The Area 31 Career Center, also based at Ben Davis High School, offers credentials in welding, cosmetology, and supply chain management. Students get school credit for hands-on work experience.

Akintomide, the junior at Ben Davis University, hasn’t nailed down exactly what she wants to do for her career but wants to go into the medical field. She is considering a major in bioengineering on a pre-med track and then continuing to medical school.

“I think it gave me an idea of what college is. I may not be like physically in an actual college. but it does let me know how the structure works,” Akintomide said about the school. “I also get to talk to the professors, and they let me know how it is at Vincennes University.”

Contact WFYI Marion County education reporter Sydney Dauphinais at sdauphinais@wfyi.org.

How the delayed FAFSA is impacting a new mandate for Indiana students

2023-12-07T11:00:00+00:00

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It’s the first school year that Indiana students are required to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA. But they still don’t have access to the form.

The FAFSA is typically released in October. But this year, its release has been delayed as the federal government works on a new version that’s supposed to be easier and quicker to fill out. It’s now expected to be out by the end of the month.

All that change means it’s even more important for resources to reach every student individually, school leaders said.

The FAFSA is how students are considered for federal financial aid such as grants, loans and scholarships as well as some aid from states and individual colleges. Students can also access funds for a Next Level Jobs Workforce Ready Grant for a short- or long-term credential by filling out the form.

The new statewide requirement, which has some exceptions, is part of an effort by state leaders to boost Indiana’s college-going rate, which stood at about 53% for the Class of 2021, the latest data available. That’s roughly the same percentage as for the Class of 2020, although it declined for several years before that.

Filling out the FAFSA is considered an indicator of college-going, and nearly 48% of students in Indiana’s high school Class of 2023 completed the form, per a state dashboard. But the FAFSA delay could create a time crunch; of those students who completed the FAFSA, roughly 60% filled out the form by Dec. 31.

What families need to prepare for the FAFSA

One big change is when students and parents create their Federal Student Aid ID, which serves as a digital signature students need for the FAFSA

As part of creating the ID, they submit personal information to be verified, and the ID can take one to three days, said Bill Wozniak, vice president of communications and student services for INvestEd, which provides free FAFSA help in-person and via phone.

In the past, students and parents could create their FSA ID before sitting down to fill out the FAFSA or at the same time, but the latter is no longer an option, Wozniak said. So families need to have the ID ready before they start the form.

“It really launches the whole process,” said Rebecca Daugherty-Saunders, director of college and career readiness for the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township.

School leaders and others are telling students to create their FSA IDs now. Otherwise, for example, families might come to a FAFSA event in the spring expecting to complete the FAFSA there with experts to help them, but won’t be able to because they don’t have an ID ready to go.

How sports and free dinners help schools boost FAFSA completion

In years past, Wozniak said INvestEd would hold roughly half of its FAFSA events before the new year, in part because there’s typically a group of students who wanted to fill out the form around the time when college applications are due.

Plus, College Goal Sunday, a free event to help families fill out the FAFSA at locations across the state, is typically in October and in February. But this school year, it’s only on Feb. 25, 2024, said Wozniak, who serves as the event’s co-chairperson.

Still, INvestED has more than 900 events scheduled this year at high schools across the state, including ones this semester about the FSA ID and general information.

And districts including Warren and Wayne townships received the College Matters grant to increase college enrollment in Marion County; they are using it to help students fill out the FAFSA.

Both Ben Davis and Warren Central have added experts and support staff from universities and community groups to answer questions and work with students and families on the FAFSA. District leaders said they are looking for ways to make it as easy as possible for families.

At Warren, that means having people available to help before and during the school day at the district’s community resource center, in addition to the evening sessions for filling out the FAFSA.

It also means ensuring there is FAFSA information at events families attend, such as athletic competitions, said Laura Butgereit, coordinator for college and career readiness, school counseling, and family engagement for the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township.

At Ben Davis, the Indianapolis Urban League is providing hot meals for families during the FAFSA nights. That makes it easier for families to attend, Daugherty-Saunders said: “We’re taking time away from families outside of school. It’s their dinner time.”

Reaching all students can be difficult in a high school as big as Ben Davis, but it’s crucial, Daugherty-Saunders said. She added that teachers and counselors both work to reach seniors about their postsecondary plans.

Butgereit agreed that reaching each student is crucial to the new FAFSA mandate’s success.

“It’s going to come down to our counselors [and] support people working through all the seniors,” she said.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. She also covers access to higher education and Warren Township Schools. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools students are taking longer than four years to finish college: report

2023-12-05T11:00:00+00:00

Most Chicago Public Schools students take five years or longer to finish college, according to a new report from the To&Through Project at the UChicago Consortium on School Research.

The report — titled “The Four Years Fallacy” — analyzed CPS students who graduated in 2015 and enrolled in college the following year. It found 30% finished their degree in four years, but when looking at college completion rates within six years, the rate climbs to 50%.

Most students — roughly 67% — finished their degree in five years, after one or two extra semesters, while 12% took longer. About 15% finished in four years, exactly eight terms, and 4% finished early.

Jenny Nagaoka, deputy director of the UChicago Consortium and senior advisor for the To&Through Project, said college graduation rates are most commonly reported by the federal government and higher education institutions as six-year rates, but that’s not how students and families think about college when they’re applying.

“The problem is that we call them four-year colleges,” Nagaoka said. “If I’m on a two-hour flight, and if it arrives three hours later and that’s considered on time, I’m going to be pretty unhappy.”

The report did not look at the reasons why students took longer, and the authors said there are many valid reasons students take more time. However, the report points out that taking longer than four years to complete a degree can create financial burdens, including more student debt, and can delay the start of one’s career and earnings.

When looking at a student’s race and gender, disparities in college completion emerge.

Young Black men are least likely to finish their degree in either four or six years, followed by young Black women and young Latino men. Young white and Asian American women have the highest college completion rates, followed by their male counterparts, according to the report.

“We’re seeing a lot more first-generation college students, a lot more low-income students, and we’re seeing more students who are going to college are racially diverse,” Nagoaka said. “What colleges need to do to make sure that students are successful has changed considerably.”

Brian Harris, Director of College Pathways with Chicago Public Schools, said it’s important not to “negatively stigmatize taking six years to finish college.”

“Our focus is on our students’ success in general as opposed to doing it within a specific amount of time,” Harris said.

CPS has a curriculum for all sixth through 12th grade students to help them think about their future careers and how to navigate college applications and enrollment, as well as prepare them academically to be successful in college classes, Harris said.

But once they’re on a college campus, that extra guidance and help can fade away.

“So much of persistence and completion is connected to the type of support they get on the college level,” Harris said.

He pointed out that the district has had a partnership with more than a dozen local universities and colleges since 2014 aimed at collaborating on the question of how best to support CPS students.

“We talk about financial aid, we talk about admissions policies, we talk about student affairs policies,” Harris said. “We have a pretty open line of communication with higher ed institutions in hopes that we get feedback on: How can we best prepare students for success at your institution?”

“And on the flip side, here’s what we’re hearing from our students in higher ed institutions. This is what our students need in order to be successful at your institution,” he said.

Harris noted that the data in the report looks at the Class of 2015 and said district officials anticipate seeing improved four-year and six-year college completion rates in the coming years.

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

Colorado poll finds voters skeptical of college, more supportive of career education

2023-12-05T12:46:00+00:00

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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.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

‘We are the future’: MSU Denver’s Women in Aviation chapter opens doors for female pilots

2023-08-14T22:28:14+00:00

Dagmar Kress dreamed of becoming a pilot. But her father told her that flying wasn’t something women did.

She recalled him saying at the time, about 55 years ago: “Oh, that’s not for women, that’s too technical and you could never have a family,”

But Kress didn’t heed her father’s warnings and went on to become a decorated pilot and flight instructor. She is also a lecturer at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where she is helping guide other women into the aviation field.

MSU Denver is considered one of the most comprehensive aviation schools in Colorado, offering extensive courses in its aviation and aerospace department where students can earn degrees and certifications including professional flight officer, air traffic controller, aviation management, and drone operator.

The program is also notable for its enrollment of students who identify as female, which at 20% sits above the industry standard. The number of women enrolling in MSU Denver’s program has increased almost each year since 2017, when the university started tracking data.

Nationally, women made up fewer than 16% of students enrolled in aviation programs in 2022, according to data from the Federal Aviation Administration.

MSU Denver’s success in attracting women to the aviation program is coming at a key time for the industry, which is being hit by an unprecedented rate of mandatory retirement. That will leave openings for women to break through a field that has been historically male-dominated. About 91% of aircraft pilots and 75% of air traffic controllers are male, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

University President Janine Davidson, herself a former pilot, frequently promotes the aviation program. In addition, several of the aviation faculty are women, and the university actively works to connect students with job opportunities — most recently through a new partnership with United Airlines.

The university’s Women in Aviation chapter also works to help younger women pilots see that they have a place in aviation, as well as providing scholarships, networking, and opportunities for travel that might otherwise be out of reach.

Dagmar Kress, coach of the university’s aerobatic team, uses a radio to communicate with students who are practicing stunt maneuvers at Fort Morgan Municipal Airport during the team’s practice Aug. 5.

Kress, 64, understands firsthand the challenges that women can face in pursuing a career in aviation, noting that when she was starting out “women were expected to be a housewife, take care of kids, and were discouraged from careers.”

Kress immigrated to the U.S. from Germany when she was 24 and earned her master’s degree in business administration, but fell in love with aviation while studying in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Many of Kress’ first influences in the industry were women and she credits “everything she knows and has learned” to Charlee Galbreath, a former Navy pilot and the woman who taught her how to fly in 1985.

Kress has now been teaching others how to fly for over 33 years as a flight instructor and has been at MSU Denver for the past eight years. She also serves as the head coach for the university’s aerobatic team, which she has led to 13 collegiate championships.

Jared Hulse, a founding member of the aerobatic team, chats with Dagmar Kress as student pilots taxi on the runway Aug. 5 after landing at Fort Morgan Municipal Airport.

“If the men can do it, so can the women, maybe even better,” said Kress, an international world aerobatic competitor who has competed in world championships for Germany.

This fall, when she looked at her class rosters, Kress said she saw more women enrolled compared to previous years. More years than not, Kress has often seen more men enrolled in her course. This year, she has a class that is half women.

Aerospace industry, military feed aviation pipeline

The aviation major at MSU Denver dates back to 1967 and was one of the original major programs offered at the school, which first opened in 1965 as Metropolitan State College.

That was fitting for a place like Colorado, which has become a hub for the aviation and aerospace industry with companies and government agencies such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing Corporation, the United States Space Command, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, known as NORAD, and the Air Force Academy, all based in Colorado Springs.

Denver International Airport — the largest airport in North America — and Lockheed Martin are part of Colorado’s top employers with over a combined 40,000 workers. Both have recruited possible applicants from the university’s programs.

Natalie Gramer, pilot and student at MSU Denver flies over Sedalia, Colorado while logging flight hours Aug. 3. Recording hours is one of the biggest expenses for those trying to earn flight certifications.

The military is also a critical pipeline for aviation careers – as well as the root of an early barrier for women.

Former military pilots have historically represented the largest percentage of airline pilots’ backgrounds. In the 1980s, roughly two-thirds of all airline pilots in the United States had some form of military experience. It’s now estimated that one-third of airline pilots have military aircraft experience, partially due to many retirements.

But it wasn’t until 1993 that the United States Armed Forces lifted the Combat Exclusion Policy, a 45-year-old practice prohibiting women from serving in combat roles. The change only pertained to aviation positions and allowed women to serve in almost any aviation role. (The limits on women in other military roles were lifted in 2013.)

Once that legal hurdle was lifted, doors previously closed for women were opened, increasing aviation opportunities in the military.

Many second-generation aviators, such as Laura Braunshmidt, a lecturer at MSU Denver, have roots in the military. Her father, like many others in the industry, served in the U.S. Air Force.

Braunshmidt was surrounded by aviation her whole life. Her father served as a radar engineer, her husband is a pilot, and her father-in-law built airplanes. Even her son became an air traffic controller.

“I always was fascinated by aviation but never really thought it was something I could do,” Braunshmidt said.

Braunshmidt began thinking about a career in aviation for herself about 15 to 20 years ago and became a professional pilot for a few charter airlines while working in Michigan and Wisconsin. She eventually grew tired of the constant travel and took a position teaching at MSU Denver, eventually advising the Women in Aviation chapter.

Being able to teach and see women grow in the field has been one of the highlights of her career, she said.

“All of the things that men have been enjoying for a long time now, women are able to enjoy them now in aviation, too,” Braunshmidt said.

Costs and industry culture create barriers for women

But barriers still exist in aviation for women and people of color.

Women are more likely than men to consider leaving the aviation industry, because of negative experiences in a culture often not welcoming for women. Current efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in aviation are often ineffective, with men deciding what initiatives will enhance gender and diversity balance, according to a 2021 report by the International Aviation Womens Association.

Another hurdle is cost. It can cost as much as $75,000 to $100,000 for the training and education needed to become a pilot.

To earn certain pilot ratings, pilots must fly a minimum of hours, all of which accumulate costs for renting a plane, hiring a flight instructor, and paying for gas. Many of those who pursue the industry come out of their education with significant debt.

MSU Denver students Holly Hunsaker and Shelly Hughes know that all too well. Both are first-generation pilots who compete on the university’s aerobatic team and are on their way to becoming professional flight officers.

Shelly Hughes watches the gas gauge Aug. 5 on the aircraft wing as team members help prepare the plane for her turn to practice stunts at Fort Morgan Municipal Airport.

They are also both scholarship recipients. All of the funds have either gone to required flying hours, classes, or costs related to practicing aerobatics at the team’s practices.

“I would say that money is the number one challenge, especially as a first-generation pilot because my family doesn’t really understand how expensive it is,” Hughes said. “Having to find my own funds to pay for it has been the hardest part and it’s the reason why I don’t have my license fully done yet.”

Holly Hunsaker began her career in aviation almost two years ago, originally starting with skydiving, but after being surrounded by pilots, she knew what next steps she wanted to take in life.

Hunsaker received a $2,500 aerobatic scholarship through the university’s Women in Aviation chapter, which was donated by Kress, the aerobatics coach.

“We are the future,” Hunsaker said about women in the industry.

Women in Aviation chapter creates support system

Natalie Gramer, a senior this fall at MSU Denver, has played an integral role in bringing together women from the program. In 2019, Gramer co-founded the university’s Women in Aviation chapter, the first of its kind on campus.

When Gramer first started her classes, she was told that she would see few women in the aviation field. That’s exactly what she encountered when she started in the industry.

“It was very apparent to me that I was in a world where I felt like I belonged, but I didn’t really know how I fit in,” Gramer said, explaining why she helped co-found the chapter.

Gramer felt like it was her calling to help create a non-exclusionary space where others could feel like they belonged, were supported, and could give back. The chapter started with a handful of people and has now grown to over 70 members.

Natalie Gramer plans to earn her certification as a flight instructor to help teach others interested in flying to earn their license.

But Gramer was no stranger to aviation. Her father is an alum of the university’s aviation program, served as a pilot in the Air Force, and was a Delta Air Lines pilot for 40 years before recently retiring. Her godfather was also a pilot.

Seeing women in the same place as herself had a big impact on Gramer.

“It changed my perspective on my education,” Gramer said.

Gramer, who has served as the Women in Aviation president for the past two years, said it has been the pride and joy of her college experience.

Over the past three years, the university has paid for the chapter to travel to the Women in Aviation International conference, where chapter members have been able to connect with women involved in aviation from around the world. The conference encourages the advancement of women in all aviation career fields and interests.

“The power that we can give to other people by sharing our passions and just being kind embodies what Women in Aviation is,” Gramer said.

Gramer has now passed on the mantle of president of the chapter as she prepares for graduation in December. Her goal is to start teaching others how to fly and is in talks with the university to return as an instructor.

Sara Martin is an intern with Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Sara at smartin@chalkbeat.org.

Natalie Gramer completes a pre-flight checklist, preparing the plane at Centennial Airport Aug. 3 before she flies. Gramer recently earned her commercial pilot rating in July which requires a minimum of 250 logged flight hours to obtain. The certification now allows her to be compensated for flight services.

Colorado hands out grants aimed at college opportunities, workforce training for in-demand jobs

2023-07-24T18:02:00+00:00

Colorado is investing a chunk of its federal relief money in the future of students to boost the job economy.

The Polis administration announced in June that the state would award $27 million to 46 groups across the state in a first round of funding to support workforce training in local urban, suburban, and rural economies via the Opportunity Now Colorado grant program. Grants range from $50,000 to $7 million.

The grants aim to make college more accessible for high school students, open educational opportunities for older adults who never attended or finished college, and “are intended to help connect more Coloradans with in-demand, high-wage occupations,” according to the governor’s office. It also will fund healthcare education programs in order to address the healthcare worker shortage that has been a persistent problem throughout the pandemic.

“This is designed to help fill the workforce gap and get people the skills they need for positions that are available and ready to start today and tomorrow — it will help power economy and help Colorado shine in terms of workforce readiness,” said Gov. Jared Polis in an interview with Chalkbeat Colorado.

Eve Lieberman, the executive director of the Office of Economic Development and International Trade, said, “Increasingly we were hearing from businesses that they want to be partnering with educational institutions and creating these innovative models. That’s exactly what we’re doing here is forming grant opportunities to allow for that innovation, those partnerships, and to have industry help co-create that talent.”

In 2021, Colorado lawmakers passed legislation that created the Student Success and Workforce Revitalization Task Force Report to determine how to spend federal pandemic relief money.

The task force’s main suggestion was to create a statewide grant program for innovative ideas that connect community groups, colleges, and employers. The state is now using $85 million of the one-time federal money on the grants.

St. Vrain Valley Schools is using its $7 million grant to partner with multiple organizations and school districts, including Estes Park R-3, Weld RE-3J, and Adams 12 Five Star Schools, to further develop its early childhood/K-12 education, technology, and advanced manufacturing workforce pathway programs.

St. Vrain currently partners with CU Denver in a program for high school juniors and seniors to take dual education enrollment courses that can transfer to CU Denver after graduation. With the new funds, CU Denver will develop classes for adult working professionals and high school students to access college coursework and earn additional credits. The credits will be free to students and district professionals.

“Being able to remove so many financial barriers, it gives students a real strong feeling of success and our older working professionals, where many of them haven’t been in school for a number of years, the same feeling,” said Diane Lauer, St. Vrain Valley School District’s chief academic officer.

Students will be able to earn certificates in the technology or advanced manufacturing fields in welding, metal fabrication, pipefitting, electronics, and machinery operation.

St. Vrain Valley students learn about AI and robotics technology July 19 at the district’s Innovation Center during a week-long STEM summer camp.

Colorado State University of Pueblo was awarded over $1.39 million to help address the healthcare crisis, especially for Coloradoans who are Hispanic, rural, and low-income. The money will help address the state nursing shortage with new nurses and instructors in the graduate program.

“One of the reasons that nursing shortages exist is because there’s a shortage of nursing instructors. This is due to retirements in the healthcare workforce, and could be a university or college-level nursing program not being able to admit the number of students that are applying because there are not enough qualified faculty with the credentials to instruct,” said Alexandra Hansen, CSU Pueblo’s regional development officer.

Hansen said that the university wants to listen to its community and encourage those in the southern Colorado region to join an in-demand, high-paying occupation.

People who have experienced limited access to healthcare may find the nursing field a fulfilling career, Hansen said.

Limited access could be due to staffing shortages or “because they’re a Spanish-speaking family who have experienced going to a clinic where there are no Spanish-speaking providers,” she said.

The grant will support graduate students in becoming nurse managers, educators, and practitioners at the master’s and doctoral levels. It aims to enhance health equity in 15 counties in southern Colorado.

Tepeyac Community Health Center in Denver received over $1 million from the grant program. Tepeyac’s program will initially focus on increasing equitable access to clinic positions, training, and licensing. Tepeyac historically has served the Latino communities in the Globeville and Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods since the early 1990s.

Two additional rounds of grant funding with the remaining $58 million will be available through Opportunity Now Colorado, with the next application period opening in August. The last of the grants will be announced by December 2024.

Sara Martin is an intern with Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Sara at smartin@chalkbeat.org

CUNY sees ‘enormous’ October application spike, as efforts to boost enrollment continue

2023-11-20T21:47:21+00:00

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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.

Shaped by pandemic hardships, more Colorado college students are sticking with school

2023-10-20T01:03:46+00:00

Stephanie Araiza tries to keep the tough days at the University of Colorado Boulder in context.

Her parents struggled to earn money during the pandemic because they weren’t getting as many hours. Unlike many who could do their jobs remotely or whose work was considered essential, they didn’t have a college degree.

That’s helped Araiza, 20, a junior who is studying integrated psychology and wants to be a doctor, keep her goals in mind. It’s also helped her keep her struggles to acclimate to the academic demands and find a community at CU Boulder in perspective — none of them can compare to the difficulties her family endured during the pandemic. She wants to graduate for her family, and also to ensure she can always find work.

“I personally want to pay them back back for all the sacrifices they made, especially during the pandemic,” said Araiza.

Araiza is one of a record number of students this year sticking with school from year-to-year at CU Boulder.

In the wake of the pandemic and deep disruptions to education, fewer graduating high school students have gone to college. But recently released retention numbers show that the share of students who are sticking with college is on the rise. The improvement reflects the ways institutions like CU Boulder have put more priority on supporting students, especially students of color. It also reflects the resilience of students like Araiza after enduringing pandemic hardships.

“I do feel like they’ve done better,” Araiza said of the school.

This year, 89% of CU Boulder students stayed enrolled into their second year, according to school numbers. And 81.7% of students entered into their third year. Each are all-time highs for the school.

The focus on retention, or the ability of schools to keep students enrolled on a yearly basis, has become crucial for CU Boulder and nearly every school in the state.

College leaders worry about an upcoming enrollment cliff, or the dropoff in college-aged students that would impact enrollment numbers. Keeping students on campus keeps enrollment up. Some college leaders in Colorado also worry about competition from other universities, especially out of state, impacting their pool of applicants.

But when school leaders like those at CU Boulder focus on retention, the benefits don’t just go to the institutions.

Retention efforts most benefit students, especially students of color and from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Graduating opens up higher paying job opportunities. And students who only have some college are saddled with debt and federal labor data shows they make far less than graduates. Statewide, Colorado has over 700,000 residents with some college, but no degree.

Despite the positive overall trend at CU Boulder, the numbers show the university still hasn’t bridged the gap between students of color and white students, although the numbers improved for both groups.

About 82% of Black freshmen persisted into their sophomore year, up by 1.2 percentage points from the 2021 freshman class. Hispanic freshmen students stayed on campus into their sophomore year at a rate of 85.9%, up 4.3 percentage points from the previous class.

Meanwhile, about 91% of white students stayed enrolled into their sophomore year.

Retention rates were lower among freshmen during the 2021-22 academic year who are now juniors and spent most of their high school senior year in remote learning. About 69% of Black students and 74% of Hispanic students made it to their junior year. That’s compared to 84% of white students.

Luis Licon, a junior studying political science who is also running for CU System regent in 2024, said the school does a lot of general outreach to help students, although sometimes it’s not targeted enough to individuals who might be struggling. He’s felt the school has done a better job at recognizing the cultural backgrounds of students and making them feel like a part of campus.

“But I do feel like I can manage this, because I’ve experienced much worse,” Licon said, who at one point lived in his car.

Efforts to retain students focus on mentoring, housing

CU Boulder leaders began to take a deeper look at undergraduate retention about two years ago, because the school hadn’t historically helped enough students return every year, said Katherine Eggert, senior vice provost for academic planning and assessment.

The committee, called the The Buff Undergraduate Success Leadership Implementation Team, got school leaders talking for the first time to understand how best to support students from year to year, she said.

The committee has made some changes and plans for others. Changes in the spring included a published directory of tutoring resources and inclusive spaces. Priorities for this fall include streamlining academic advising and improving campus tutoring.

The committee also wants to make it more affordable for students from low-income backgrounds, and to refocus some support programs to provide consistent help to some students.

“The goal is just to serve our students better and that includes closing the gaps between student populations who need more help,” Eggert said. “We want everybody to have the same opportunities to succeed and if we’re not making those opportunities real we need to figure out why.”

Other Colorado schools have also increased student retention.

Fort Lewis College increased student retention from 59% last year to 63% this year among its freshmen. CSU’s retention is up by 1.4 points to 84.9%, and made strides retaining more students of color and those who are the first to go to college in their family.

Like CU Boulder, the University of Northern Colorado has also posted some of its strongest numbers. The school’s fall 2023 retention rate of 74.5% is its second-highest ever.

The school has focused heavily on student-to-student mentoring in recent years to help students with questions they have about college and how to get help, said Cedric Howard, Northern Colorado’s vice president for student affairs and enrollment services.

The school has also tried harder to address food and housing insecurity, as well mental health and anxiety, Howard said. The school wants students to feel like they belong on campus.

“I think all that has allowed students to feel that UNC is not just a place for them to learn, but it is actually a place for me to grow and develop as a person,” Howard said.

At CU Boulder, Paola Medrano, 19, a sophomore studying political science, said a sense of belonging has helped her feel like she can get to graduation. With the help of staff, she has participated in specialized programs on campus such as the McNeill Academic Program, which helps a cohort of about 400 students get academic advising, and Por La Cultura for Multicultural and Latinx students, where she’s made friends.

Like Araiza, Medrano also said the pandemic has had a big impact on her motivation to stick with college.

She watched as her parents struggled, especially her dad, who couldn’t get consistent work farming. She wants the security a college education can help provide. The pandemic made her determined to persevere.

“If I can go through that I can go through anything,” she said.

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.

¿Quieres ir a la universidad? Aquí hay 5 consejos para ayudarte a pagar por una educación universitaria en Colorado

2023-10-18T19:43:12+00:00

¿Cómo voy a pagar por la universidad? Con frecuencia, no poder contestar esa pregunta hace que los estudiantes de Colorado no asistan a la universidad.

Por otro lado, los estudiantes rara vez pagan el precio completo. En cambio, hay numerosas opciones para que los estudiantes consigan dinero para la universidad, y en especial los programas gratuitos que Colorado ofrece para ayudar a los estudiantes a pagar por algunos créditos o por toda la carrera universitaria.

Estos son cinco consejos para ayudar a los estudiantes a conseguir dinero para la universidad:

Aprovecha los programas universitarios

Inscripción simultánea. Doble inscripción. Quinto año de high school. Colorado Promise. Career Advance.

Hay una inmensa cantidad de programas para elegir y pueden ser específicos, todo depende si todavía estás en high school, matriculado en una universidad o en un programa particular. Algunos programas solamente pagan por una cantidad designada de créditos universitarios. Otros pagan toda tu carrera universitaria.

Inscripción simultánea o doble — En casi todos los distritos de Colorado los estudiantes de high school pueden inscribirse gratuitamente en clases de nivel universitario mientras están en la high school. Las clases ofrecidas pueden variar de un distrito a otro. Algunos estudiantes pueden asistir a clases en su high school, tomar clases en línea o ir a un campus universitario. Los programas están muy extendidos por todo el estado y su objetivo es ayudar a los estudiantes a obtener desde unos pocos créditos hasta un diploma de grado asociado. En promedio, la mayoría de los estudiantes se inscriben en unas dos clases universitarias mientras están en la high school. Algunas opciones populares incluyen cursos introductorios como redacción en inglés, álgebra universitaria, psicología, comunicaciones o clases de administración de empresas.

ASCENT, P-TECH y Early College — ASCENT es una opción de quinto año para que los estudiantes asistan a la universidad mientras le extienden un año a su educación high school. Hay plazas limitadas para los estudiantes de todo el estado, y el quinto año de high school es gratuito para ellos.

P-TECH también es una opción gratuita pero menos común que les enseña conocimientos más técnicos a los estudiantes, como soldadura y otros oficios. Aunque cubre el costo de las clases universitarias ofrecidas, es posible que los estudiantes tengan que pagar el transporte o los libros.

Early College, que se ofrece en algunas high schools de distrito y escuelas chárter, permite que los estudiantes se gradúen en cuatro años con un grado asociado. No hay muchos en todo el estado.

Care Forward Colorado y Career Advance Colorado — Care Forward Colorado ofrece educación gratuita en los colegios comunitarios del estado en campos de salud, que incluyen enfermería, flebotomía, técnico(a) de emergencias médicas y asistente dental.

Career Advance Colorado comenzó este año como una expansión del programa de atención médica. Los campos de estudio elegibles para obtener educación gratuita incluyen educación, cumplimiento de la ley, bomberos y educación en la niñez temprana. Los programas de educación pagan dos años de educación en un colegio comunitario antes de que los estudiantes se trasladen a una universidad de cuatro años.

Es probable que estos programas terminen cuando se agote el dinero, y por lo tanto es una oportunidad que se ofrece por orden de llegada.

Programas University Promise — Algunas universidades de todo el estado, que incluyen la Universidad de Colorado en Boulder, el Fort Lewis College y la Colorado State University Pueblo, ofrecen inscripción gratuita para estudiantes que califican para recibir ayuda financiera federal. Cada institución tiene requisitos de elegibilidad. Por ejemplo, CU Boulder recientemente expandió su programa para estudiantes de ingeniería.

Planifica tus opciones

Como estudiante de primer año de high school, la universidad puede ser en lo menos que piensas. Y nadie está diciendo que debes tenerlo todo resuelto en estos momentos.

Por suerte, las escuelas de Colorado cuentan con orientadores que pueden ayudar a los estudiantes a entender qué es lo que sigue. Hablar con un orientador puede ayudar a los estudiantes a entender qué está disponible, dijo José Olivo, director de TRIO Talent Search de la Denver Scholarship Foundation.

TRIO es un programa federal que ofrece apoyo para los estudiantes de ingresos bajos, los primeros de su familia en ir a la universidad o los que tienen alguna discapacidad. El programa ayuda a los estudiantes a exponerse a la universidad, y esto incluye ayuda financiera y asistencia para prepararse para los exámenes de acceso a la universidad.

Esta fundación del área de Denver ayuda a los estudiantes a determinar sus aspiraciones universitarias, y aproximadamente un 85% de sus estudiantes asisten a una universidad de cuatro años. Olivo dijo que los orientadores se reúnen con los estudiantes cada año para ayudarles a entender mejor la universidad y la ayuda financiera.

“Nos gusta la práctica de ‘voy a darte toda la información posible para que tomes la mejor decisión por tu cuenta’”, dijo Olivo.

Los estudiantes de primer año de high school aprenden sobre lo que se necesitaría financieramente para ir a la universidad, que incluye saber qué programas universitarios de high school están disponibles, como ASCENT o doble inscripción. Los estudiantes de segundo año aprenden sobre becas, grants y préstamos. Los de tercer año aprenden más detalles sobre la ayuda financiera y los programas universitarios gratuitos. Finalmente, los de cuarto año reciben ayuda para llenar la Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Económica para Estudiantes, o FAFSA, las solicitudes de becas y las de admisión a la universidad.

Completa la FAFSA

El costo promedio de asistir a un colegio comunitario de Colorado es unos $5,000 anuales por colegiatura, libros y otros cargos administrativos. Según Landon Pirius, vicerrector de asuntos académicos y estudiantiles del Colorado Community College System, ese precio no suele ser el que los estudiantes pagan de su bolsillo.

En realidad, aproximadamente un 60% de los estudiantes de colegios comunitarios se gradúan sin deuda gracias a las ayudas estatales y federales, dijo.

“En efecto, los estudiantes de cierto nivel de ingresos pueden asistir gratuitamente a cualquier programa de un colegio comunitario”, dijo.

Los estudiantes no van a saber exactamente cuánto pagarán a menos que llenen la Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes, o FAFSA. La solicitud está disponible en studentaid.gov.

La solicitud sirve para obtener becas federales que los estudiantes no tienen que devolver.

Colorado también concede grants a los estudiantes para ayudar a pagar por la colegiatura, los libros y otros gastos.

En las universidades de cuatro años, los estudiantes pueden usar ese dinero para compensar el gasto de colegiatura, que varía según la institución. Por ejemplo, en la Universidad de Colorado en Boulder, el campus principal del estado, el costo total de colegiatura, cargos, libros y alojamiento pueden ser de aproximadamente $31,774 al año para un residente de Colorado.

Algunos estudiantes inmigrantes no califican para la ayuda federal, pero sí para la estatal.

Los estudiantes indocumentados, incluidos los que califican para el programa Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, o DACA, pueden llenar la Solicitud de Ayuda Financiera del Estado de Colorado, o CASFA. Para ser elegible, el estudiante deberá haber vivido en Colorado durante al menos un año antes de graduarse de high school y por lo menos 12 meses antes de inscribirse en la universidad.

El programa ayuda a los estudiantes a acceder a colegiaturas estatales de menos costo, grants estatales y oportunidades de trabajo y estudio.

No olvides las becas y grants

Lamentablemente, no hay suficientes programas gratuitos en todo el estado para ayudar a cada estudiante.

Los estudiantes de cuarto año de high school especialmente no deben olvidar que hay numerosas becas disponibles para pagar por la universidad, según los expertos en ayuda financiera.

Algunas becas específicas de Colorado son la Daniels Scholarship y la Boettcher Scholarship. Las oficinas de orientación de las escuelas de high school también deben poder ayudar con un directorio de las miles de becas nacionales disponibles, que incluyen algunas como la beca Coca-Cola y la del Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

Siempre hay más ayuda

Los estudiantes ya inscritos en la universidad también pueden obtener más becas y ayuda a través de su universidad, dijo Olivo. Los estudiantes también podrían ser elegibles para otras becas nacionales después de declarar su especialidad, dijo.

“La mayoría de las universidades también tienen becas institucionales que les dan prioridad a los estudiantes que regresan a sus estudios”, dijo Olivo.

No siempre es una garantía, dijo Olivo, pero sugiere que los estudiantes que hablen con los orientadores del campus o con la oficina de ayuda financiera de la universidad si lo necesitan.

No está de más preguntar y puede ser que te den algo”, dijo.

Jason González es un periodista que cubre temas de educación superior y la legislatura de Colorado. Chalkbeat Colorado colabora con Open Campus para cubrir tema de educación superior. Para comunicarte con Jason, escríbele a jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

Are KIPP students more likely to graduate college? A recent study offers a complex answer.

2023-10-12T20:23:13+00:00

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KIPP, the country’s largest charter school network, touts its commitment to getting students to and through college, so a recent study offered a compelling test of its model.

Researchers compared students who won a random lottery to attend a KIPP middle school versus others who lost the lottery. The result: Both groups earned college degrees at similar rates: 22%. “KIPP middle schools had little to no impact on four-year degree completion rates,” researchers with the company Mathematica concluded.

But the story did not end there. Researchers then examined a subset of those students who also attended a KIPP high school. Although this was not based on a random lottery, these results were encouraging. Attending a KIPP middle and high school dramatically boosted students’ chances of entering and completing college.

This result was emphasized by KIPP officials and in news coverage of the study when it was released last month.

Put together, though, the findings offer a complex verdict for KIPP charter schools. The results for middle and high school combined are promising, and KIPP already has a track record of boosting student learning. But the less-encouraging middle-school-only results apply to a broader group of students and are more methodologically robust because they are based on a lottery.

That has some experts saying that more research is needed before firm conclusions about KIPP are made.

“This is suggestive evidence,” said Jon Baron, president for the Coalition for Evidence Based Policy, referring to the middle and high school results. “This really needs to be tested in further study before being accepted.” (Baron was previously an official at Arnold Ventures, the philanthropy that funded this research.)

The study examined over 2,000 students who applied to attend one of 21 KIPP middle schools in 2008, 2009, or 2011. Researchers tracked and compared lottery winners versus losers for the next decade plus.

Prior research has found that KIPP improves test scores, but this new study showed limited longer-term benefits from attending a KIPP middle school. While there was some hint that students were more likely to enroll in college, they persisted and graduated college at similar rates as students who lost a KIPP lottery. This was the study’s “primary analysis.”

But then the Mathematica researchers undertook a further “exploratory analysis.” This is researchers’ way of saying that they are a bit less confident in these findings. Here, the study used an approach that is rigorous, but not based on a random lottery. (Nevertheless, a number of news outlets and commentators inaccurately described these exploratory findings as lottery-based.)

This secondary analysis focused on a smaller group of KIPP middle school students who also attended a KIPP high school. Those students appeared to benefit quite a lot from the longer KIPP experience: 39% of them earned a four-year college degree, compared to 20% of a comparison group.

These results, which were distributed to reporters last month ahead of the release of the study, were touted by KIPP leaders.

“The Mathematica study shows that a continuous KIPP education, spanning middle school and high school, is life-changing and would essentially close the educational-opportunity gaps facing Black and Latinx students,” said KIPP foundation CEO Shavar Jeffries in a statement.

Mathematica researchers say the gains may be due to the focus of KIPP high schools in getting its students into college. “It is possible that this large effect results from combining the well-established benefits of attending a KIPP middle school (a substantial boost to students’ academic achievement) with the strong emphasis on college-related supports found in KIPP high schools,” the study says.

The two findings create something of a puzzle, though: the group of KIPP middle and high school students who saw big gains in college completion were a subset of the larger group of middle school students who did not experience any improvements. And yet the overall effect on college completion for middle school was estimated to be close to zero. This is possible because the middle and high school group was a small subset of the whole sample, said Ira Nichols-Barrer, one of the Mathematica researchers.

He said that further research would help explain the disconnect between the study’s two big findings. “Our hope is that this is not the last phase of this study,” he said.

Matt Barnum is interim national editor, overseeing and contributing to Chalkbeat’s coverage of national education issues. Contact him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.

Rising share of Chicago Public Schools graduates are pursuing college, study finds

2023-10-12T18:25:42+00:00

A rising share of Chicago Public Schools students enrolled in college in recent years, and far more are earning degrees or certificates at two-year colleges.

That’s according to a study released Thursday by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research and the To & Through Project, which tracks college enrollment. Additionally, the study found that more Chicago students than ever are projected to pursue and complete college over the next decade.

The study’s findings run counter to national trends of sagging college enrollment during the pandemic; nationwide enrollment in two- and four-year colleges fell by .6% from 2021 to 2022, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Many young people across the nation are questioning whether higher education is worth the cost, said Jenny Nagaoka, one of the study’s authors and deputy director of the Consortium on School Research.

Higher education is “tremendously expensive, student debt is a huge issue [and] ultimately for a lot of students they’re unclear if the payoffs will be there,” Nagaoka said. “But CPS students are still going to college. They’re still seeing there’s value in it.”

Research shows that a college education can lead to better salary-earning potential, provide better access to high-quality housing, and contribute to better overall health, according to a review of literature by Healthy People 2030, a federal government-led project that tracks health data.

“We are hearing so much discouraging news about achievement in our schools right now, and this is not to say that’s not real, but I think it’s really important to note that at the same time, we’re actually also seeing increases in attainment,” Nagaoka said.

The study used a measure called the Post-Secondary Attainment Index, or PAI, to project college enrollment and completion based on current high school graduation and college enrollment and completion rates. Researchers calculated graduation rates slightly differently from the district, which is why they’ve come up with an 84-percent graduation rate for 2022 versus 82.9% reported by CPS. (The authors emphasized that the index is not meant to be a prediction; rather, it is a “starting place” to understand how to improve current patterns.)

This year the index is 30%, meaning that if CPS graduation and college enrollment and completion rates remained the same over the next decade, 30 out of 100 current ninth graders would earn a college credential by the time they are 25, researchers project. That is a 2.4 percentage point increase over last year and the highest rate on record since researchers began calculating this index in 2013. At that time, the index was 23%.

This year’s ninth graders were in middle school when the pandemic shuttered school buildings.

Nagaoka said they’re “cautiously optimistic” that these trends won’t reverse in the future, since this year’s record-setting data reflects students who were in high school and college during the pandemic.

But the study also found significant racial disparities within the data. For example, 66% percent of Asian American women would earn a college credential over the next decade according to the PAI, but just 13.6% of Black men would do the same.

During an event Thursday announcing the study’s findings, CPS Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova acknowledged that the district has more to do to close racial disparities.

“With these groups, especially at the high school level, we’ve learned that one of the most impactful ways we can provide support is by establishing partnerships that will provide mentorship and guidance to the students throughout their high school experience,” she said.

The researchers also studied college enrollment data from 2022 and college completion data from 2021, based on data that was available. Some highlights included:

60.8% of CPS students who graduated in 2022 immediately enrolled in two-year or four-year colleges, 1.5 percentage points higher than the class of 2021.
There are stark racial disparities in who pursued college upon graduation in 2022. For example, nearly 80% of white women immediately enrolled in college upon graduation, while just 45% of Black male students did the same.
Just over 53% of English learners immediately pursued college after graduating last year, compared with 68% of former English learners.
For the class of 2015, nearly 56% of students who immediately enrolled in a four-year college and roughly one-third of students who immediately enrolled in a two-year college eventually earned a bachelor’s or associate degree, or earned a certificate by 2021.
For those who did not immediately enroll in college in 2015, roughly 3% earned a bachelor’s degree within six years. Another 5% completed an associate degree or certificate. While those rates are on the rise, they are 1.7 percentage points smaller than similar completion rates for the class of 2009.
The percentage of students who earned some sort of college credential after enrolling in four-year schools dipped by .6% between the graduating classes of 2014 and 2015.

Chkoumbova attributed the gains to various efforts across district schools to keep students interested in school and prepared for the future, including more career and technical education and dual-credit programs. She also pointed to the district’s work on how it disciplines students. Rather than suspending students, schools are using restorative practices to keep them connected and in class.

A district spokesperson pointed to a host of other programs, such as a new pilot initiative that aims to re-engage young people who are no longer in school or working. The spokesperson also pointed to efforts to get students interested in college and staying there. That includes the Direct Admissions Initiative, which tells seniors whether they can get into a select list of colleges, and another program that provides students with support and mentorship in the two years after they graduate from high school.

Nagaoka also highlighted the increase of 5.6 percentage points in the two-year college completion rate for class of 2015 graduates, the largest increase by far over at least the past six years.

That increase, researchers and Chkoumbova noted, coincides with the onset of Chicago’s STAR Scholarship, which former Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced in the fall of 2014 and offers free tuition to City Colleges for any CPS student with at least a 3.0 grade point average by high school graduation.

Chicago’s college enrollment rates beat national figures for high-poverty schools by about 11 percentage points, researchers found. Nagaoka attributed this in part to efforts by counselors, nonprofits, and others who work in schools to ensure students know about their college options.

More specifically, CPS requires students to create a post-secondary plan, or “evidence of a plan for life beyond high school,” in order to graduate from high school. That requirement forces students to have a conversation about what’s next, she said.

Ninety-seven percent of seniors in the class of 2022 submitted a post-secondary plan, a district spokesperson said.

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

Detroit special ed aides call for increased hourly pay

2023-10-11T15:40:40+00:00

Special education aides and paraeducators in the Detroit school district are calling for higher hourly wages as demanding workloads, staff vacancies, and inflation amid the pandemic have taxed support staff.

Members of Local 345 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees came to Tuesday’s school board meeting to criticize the Detroit Public Schools Community District’s offers in its current negotiations with the union.

“Despite the love and passion that we all share for our students, our wages remain mediocre,” said Sheila Wilson, a special ed paraeducator at Moses Field Center. “On any given day we perform multiple roles, from being a security guard to a substitute teacher. We desperately need a raise to support ourselves and our families.”

The board on Tuesday approved contracts with other employee unions representing security officers, office employees, and school administrators. District officials also reported improvements in the number of students enrolled in college courses, and encouraging enrollment trends following Count Day last week.

Special ed aides call for increased wages

In 2021, AFSCME and DPSCD agreed to a two-year deal that increased hourly wages to roughly $15 to $17.66 for the union’s district employees, who include trainable aides, custodians, bus attendants, and food service workers. Special ed aides currently make $16 an hour.

Michelle Lee, president of AFSCME Local 345, said union members “expect the recognition of our sacrifices and dedication. However, all the district can offer us is a mere 3% to 5% increase.”

“When the world faced the daunting challenges of the COVID pandemic, it was the members of Local 345 that stepped up,” Lee said. “We put our lives and our family’s lives on the line.”

DPSCD and other Michigan school districts have struggled to recruit and retain school employees in light of statewide staffing challenges and budget cuts. In recent years, the district has hosted monthly hiring fairs for hard-to-staff positions such as security guards, cafeteria workers, and bus attendants. This past spring, the district moved to cut and consolidate hundreds of positions due to enrollment losses and the loss of federal pandemic aid.

The district has about 20 special ed paraeducator vacancies, according to Superintendent Nikolai Vitti. The district employs roughly 400 special ed paraprofessionals and aides.

DPSCD’s negotiations with AFSCME come on the heels of a one-year contract the board approved with the Detroit Federation of Teachers in September. The contract raised pay for senior teachers by 6% and provided retention bonuses to all members. In recent years, the district has prioritized improving teacher salaries to compete with neighboring districts.

In the past several weeks, the board also approved contracts with other unions for hourly employees.

AFSCME members “deserve a fair contract, or the district will continue to shed staff,” said DFT Vice President Jason Posey, and AFSCME members’ duties will fall on the shoulders of DFT members.

Crystal Lee, a DPSCD special ed teacher, said that when she was a paraprofessional at Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency 25 years ago, she made $14.51 an hour, only a dollar less than what district employees currently earn.

“That is not a livable wage for no one,” Crystal Lee said.

Vitti said the district remains committed to increasing salaries and wages for teachers and support staff. Hourly wages for special ed aides, he added, have improved from $13 at the beginning of his tenure in 2017.

Vitti did not say what the district’s current offer for special ed paraprofessionals and aides is, but said it is above Michigan’s livable wage. That would be $16.27 for an adult with no children according to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator.

“That offer is there and could possibly increase,” he said. Another bargaining session between AFSCME and DPSCD officials will take place Wednesday.

More DPSCD students flock to college-level classes

College-level course enrollment in DPSCD is back to pre-pandemic levels, following a sharp increase in the number of students seeking credit recovery over the past several years.

Fifty-five percent of high school students are currently enrolled in college and career-prep courses this year, the same percentage as the 2018-19 school year. During the 2021-22 school year, only 39% of students were enrolled.

“We’re starting to make inroads in the damage that was created by the pandemic when students were losing credit,” said Vitti.

The number of DPSCD high school students enrolled in credit recovery programs jumped from 2,742 in 2019-20 to 4,901 the following year. By 2021-22, credit recovery enrollment was 7,480, over half of the roughly 14,000 high school students the district enrolls each year.

School districts have long used credit recovery programs to give students another chance to earn course credits. However, the numbers increased in Detroit and around the country as schools tried to recover from pandemic-related disruptions that left many students off track for graduation due to failing grades, absences, and challenges with online learning.

“As we have more students catch up and (get to) where they should be as far as credits by grade level, then we opened the schedule up for more dual enrollment, more advanced placement, more international baccalaureate classes, more JROTC and general elective classes,” Vitti said.

District enrollment trend looks positive following Count Day

DPSCD student enrollment is projected to be up from this time last year, Vitti said.

The district reported that it has 47,843 students, roughly 350 more than last October. DPSCD schools, however, are still struggling to keep students. The district’s re-enrollment rate has remained roughly 70% since before the pandemic.

“We’re bringing in new students to the district, the lower grades and ninth grade in particular, which is again positive,” Vitti said. “What’s happening, though, is we’re not retaining students that are already in the district from year to year.”

That’s primarily due to the “high transiency rates of our families just moving around the city and out of the city,” he added, as well as competition with city charters and neighboring school districts.

Despite that, Detroit-area charters have consistently reported greater enrollment losses than DPSCD in recent years.

Vitti said he will give a more detailed account of the district’s enrollment trends at the November board meeting.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit, where she covers arts, culture, and education. Contact Micah at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.

How CU Boulder is offering free college to some engineering students

2023-10-02T17:00:00+00:00

Engineering students from low-income families at the University of Colorado Boulder will be able to earn their degrees for free under an expansion of the school’s CU Promise program.

It’s the first time the university has created a free college program specific to one field. Lattice Scholars is propped up by a donation from local engineering firm Campos EPC and provides financial and academic support to low-income Colorado students who are the first to go to college in their family.

The program is significant because students from low-income backgrounds are underrepresented in STEM fields, and STEM degrees often lead to the kind of high-paying jobs that can change the economic trajectory of entire families.

The program provides free tuition to first-generation Colorado students whose families make less than $65,000 a year. Students don’t need to apply. Instead, the school identifies eligible full-time students through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

Keith Molenaar, dean of the university’s College of Engineering and Applied Science, said the donation shows how business leaders can help more Coloradans from backgrounds that are less represented at CU Boulder and colleges across the state realize their dreams of higher education.

“We’ve shown we can do it,” Molenaar said. “We’re really looking forward to having other schools and colleges try to expand this across the university.”

This year, the school doubled the number of students who can qualify for the CU Promise program, which now serves about 3,500 students.

In a news release, school leaders said the expansion happened through donations and a new law this year that allows the school to enroll more out-of-state students who pay higher tuition if it provides more aid to Colorado students.

The Lattice Scholars program, however, is the first within a specific program and the first sustained by a major donation.

About 65 students this year are part of the Lattice Scholars program. Those students also get academic and advising support to help them finish college.

Mindy Zarske, an integrated design engineering teaching professor, said students learn about financial wellness, academic skills, and life after they leave the dorms. Students also get to connect with other scholars, which helps them form a network they can rely on, she said.

Zarske said it’s important to not only remove financial barriers for first-generation students, but help them get comfortable with navigating college life. That helps scholars “feel more empowered,” she said. Faculty and staff also learn how to better help students when money isn’t an issue.

“Are they able to focus better if we provide them with support? How does that help them persist? This is their dream and we want to get them there,” she said.

Marco Campos, whose foundation and engineering business Campos EPC donated to make the Lattice program happen, said it’s important for him to give back to diverse students who want to go into engineering. Campos graduated from CU Boulder’s engineering school as a low-income, first-generation student, so helping others with similar backgrounds is a mission of his.

He also said helping diverse students allows his company to find employees with different life experiences. He hopes other business leaders see the value in helping students.

“It’s just doing the right thing,” Campos said. “My hope is that this platform will serve as a big enough sounding board for one or two other companies, whatever it is, to get motivated.”

At six Illinois college campuses, advocates seek to create ‘comfort’ for foster care peers

2023-10-02T10:00:00+00:00

Grace Ward spent four years in foster care before enrolling at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2021. On campus, 200 miles south of her hometown of Rockford, she felt alone.

Before Ward entered care, she had missed three years of school and had briefly lived in homeless shelters with her mother. In her foster home, she was expected to prioritize chores over homework, babysit younger children, and call the police if a child was having a mental breakdown, she said.

A few months before coming to the university, she had a violent disagreement that involved her foster parent, leading Ward to end that relationship and head to school without knowing anyone well on campus.

“You kind of have to figure out and navigate for yourself now,” Ward said. “How do you find comfort in your life?”

Now a junior studying animal sciences, Ward has taken up a new role: peer advocate for youth on campus who have experienced foster care. The new gig, she hopes, will create the support system for others that she craved as a freshman.

Ward has joined the state’s new Youth in Care - College Advocate Program, or Y-CAP, which pairs peer advocates like Ward with other college students who have experienced foster care. The goal is for the advocates to check-in regularly with their mentees, help them navigate college life, and ultimately create a support system they’re missing.

A 2021 study found that of Illinois youth in foster care who turned 17 between 2012 and 2018, 86% enrolled in community college. Of those, just 8% graduated, according to the study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. Students told researchers that they felt alone, largely weren’t aware of financial aid options, and that they needed more specialized attention.

As for what would help them, some interviewees said they wanted someone to help monitor their academic progress. Others said they wanted a support group, the study said.

“Young people with a background in foster care on college campuses are not getting the supports they need to be successful,” said Amy Dworsky, a senior research fellow at Chapin Hall at University of Chicago who co-authored the study and helped the state create the advocate program.

The state’s Department of Children and Family Services, or DCFS, launched the $200,000 program this year after its youth advisory board signaled that college-bound foster youth needed more support on campus, said Chevelle Bailey, deputy director of DCFS’s office of education and transition services. Some colleges have similar mentorship programs, but “there’s no consistency” across all Illinois campuses, Bailey said.

The program has launched one year after a new state law went into effect requiring each Illinois college to have a liaison that is charged with connecting students who are in foster care or are homeless with resources and assistance.

Department officials want colleges to be more “foster-friendly,” Bailey said, noting that foster youth need extra support in a new environment like college. These youth are at higher risk of dropping out of school, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In Chicago, which houses the most foster youth of any jurisdiction, 40% graduated on time from the city’s public schools last year, compared with 83% of all CPS students, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

DCFS contracted with Foster Progress — an advocacy organization for foster youth that runs its own high school mentorship program — to oversee YCAP on six college campuses this year. That includes University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois at Chicago, Northern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Harold Washington College, and Kishwaukee College.

“One reason we started small is to make sure we do this right and not take on too much we can’t handle,” Kim Peck, DCFS’ downstate education and transition services administrator.

Nearly 20,000 Illinois children were in foster care as of last month, according to DCFS data. These youth have likely experienced abuse or neglect that led them into the system, and often cycle through multiple foster homes before they age out of care at 21.

So far, Foster Progress has hired three advocates on Ward’s campus, and they’ve identified four mentees, said LT Officer-McIntosh, program manager for Foster Progress. She’s expecting to hire a total of 10 peer advocates, who are paid $15 an hour, to support up to 100 mentees across all the campuses.

There are three parts to the mentor-mentee relationship, Officer-McIntosh said.

Advocates are supposed to hold regular check-ins, where they’ll track goals for what the mentee would like out of the experience and will also navigate college questions and deadlines, such as for financial aid.

Peer advocates and mentees will also pick a short group training they want, such as on resume building, and volunteer together so that they feel more rooted in the surrounding community.

Beyond this framework, program leaders want peer advocates and their mentees to figure out a support system that works best for them.

“Our goal with YCAP is to not tell them, ‘This is how you build community from our perspective,’” Officer-McIntosh said. “It needs to be rooted in the things that they identify, that they want out of a campus community and the experience in YCAP.”

Ward wants to help mentees with whatever they need to grow, whether that means being “a shoulder to lean on” or just instructions for how to do laundry.

Sometimes when she walks around campus, Ward thinks about how different her life is now. She wants her mentees to similarly feel like they have a “safe space” that doesn’t involve talking about required paperwork or upcoming court dates, if they don’t want to.

“It’s not something to be like, ‘You’re a foster youth,’ Ward said. “It is something to be like, ‘You have gone through challenges in your life; this is a time to ease those challenges, so you don’t constantly struggle and feel like you’re struggling.’”

Correction: Oct. 2, 2023: A previous version of this story said a 2021 study was conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago. The study was conducted by researchers at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.

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

Chicago Public Schools shows off training program for students with disabilities — and considers opening more

2023-09-25T22:20:04+00:00

Mary Fahey Hughes, a member of Chicago’s Board of Education, went into mom mode Monday during a tour of her son’s former South Side school, which provides work and life skills training to older students with disabilities.

Standing to the side of a horticulture classroom at Southside Occupational Academy High School, Hughes smiled as she snapped photos of Aidan next to Mayor Brandon Johnson, who was also on the tour. Aidan has come far from when he was diagnosed with autism as a child — and Hughes was unsure what his future would look like, she said.

She credits the Englewood school — from which Aidan graduated in June — with giving him the confidence to chat up the mayor and show off his alma mater.

“He just gained so much independence,” Hughes said in a hallway at Southside. “The thing I love about this place is there is so much respect for students where they’re at.”

Chicago Public Schools officials are considering expanding the model at Southside and a handful of other so-called specialty schools, which are meant to help students with more challenging disabilities transition into the real world, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said Monday.

Monday’s tour was the district’s opportunity to show off the model to Johnson and a slew of other city and district officials. If the district decides to grow the program, it would need to lobby the state for more funding, Martinez said.

“We’re having the conversation internally about, how do we look at these programs, build on their strengths and potentially expand them,” Martinez said.

The district has seven specialty schools that together enroll about 1,800 students with mild to moderate cognitive disabilities, said Sylvia Barragan, a spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools. Three schools are early childhood programs that serve younger students with disabilities. The remaining four — including Southside — are for older students and have a focus on vocational and life skills.

Unlike traditional high schools, the district assigns students to these schools, Barragan said.

Some students with disabilities who look for work after graduation may benefit more from going through a specialty program first, Martinez said. He believes the need is enough to warrant doubling the number of specialty schools.

Other districts, such as New York City, have similar programs where students with disabilities learn vocational skills.

These programs, however, have drawn some criticism for segregating students with disabilities, instead of allowing students to build skills next to peers who don’t have a diagnosed disability.

Southside Principal Joshua Long has said his school model allows students to have the specialized attention they need.

At Southside, nearly 88% of students came from low-income families last year. Asked if schools like Southside limit students to low-paying jobs, Hughes said the programs hone skills that these young adults may otherwise miss out on, potentially leaving them stuck at home without work. Hughes noted that the schools serve students with a variety of strengths, and some graduates go on to community college.

“The problem is that a lot of jobs are low-paying, despite the amount of work that needs to get done,” Hughes said.

High school students can attend Vaughn Occupational High School and Northside Learning Center High School, both on the Northwest Side. Southside, in Englewood, and Ray Graham Training Center, in the South Loop, serve students who have met graduation requirements but still need “transition supports and services,” as determined by the team that creates their Individualized Education Program, according to the district. At these two schools, students are typically ages 18-22.

At Southside, where 360 students enrolled last year, students learn about various potential jobs and responsibilities they will need in the real world. Most students are exposed to every class, and some do internships, such as with the Museum of Science and Industry, said Kristen Dimas, a teacher at the school.

Long led the mayor and other officials through several different rooms that simulate a different career or life responsibility. Among the classrooms they saw were a horticulture class, a mock grocery store, a broadcast studio with a green screen, a garage where students learn to wash cars, and a café — complete with a bakery display case.

A group of students stopped by the horticulture room to ask if they had laundry. They would eventually go to the laundry room, where they learn how to wash clothes but also learn a mental checklist on basic hygiene.

“Smell your armpits. Do they smell fresh?” said a laminated list in the laundry room. “If not, put on deodorant.”

In a supply room, where a laminated document listed rules for folding a T-shirt, a student carefully practiced folding. Long gently asked her to get the mayor’s T-shirt size, but the student was shy. The mayor, who used to be a teacher, ultimately revealed he’s an extra large.

Mayor Brandon Johnson watches a student practice folding a T-shirt at Southside Occupational Academy High School in Englewood.

“But here’s the thing — you don’t have to tell everybody that,” he said to the student, who laughed and handed him a T-shirt.

The café and laundry classes are favorites of 18-year-old Josiah Hall, who enrolled at Southside in August. He especially enjoys spending time with the teachers, he said. He hopes to attend a four-year university, such as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The school works to help students understand the career options that are right for them and to reach those goals, Long said.

For Aidan, Hughes’ son, that path has led to a new transition program for adults age 18 and older at Daley College. He’s also taking EMT classes and dreams one day of being a firefighter like his father.

Correction: Sept. 26, 2023: A previous version of this story said the program at Daley College is for people age 22 and older. It is for people age 18 and older.

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

Want to go to college? Here are 5 tips to help pay for a Colorado education

2023-09-22T20:52:17+00:00

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

How am I going to pay for college? Often, the inability to answer that question keeps Colorado students from heading to school.

Students, however, rarely pay the sticker price. Instead, there are numerous options for students to get money for school, especially the free programs Colorado offers to help students pay for some credits or college in its entirety.

Here are five tips to help students get money for college:

Take advantage of college programs

Concurrent enrollment. Dual enrollment. Fifth-year high school. Colorado Promise. Career Advance.

There’s a dizzying number of programs to sort through and they can be specific to whether you’re still in high school, enrolled in a certain university, or a particular program. Some pay only for a designated number of college credits. Others pay for your entire college bill.

Concurrent and dual enrollment — Students in high school can enroll in college-level classes while in high school in almost every Colorado district for free. The classes offered by schools can vary from district to district. Some students might attend classes at their high school, take classes online, or go to a college campus. The programs are widespread statewide and meant to help students earn a few credits up to an associate’s degree. On average, most students enroll in about two college classes while in high school. Popular options include introductory courses such as English composition, college algebra, psychology, communication, or business classes.

ASCENT, P-TECH, and early college — ASCENT is a fifth-year option for students to attend college classes while extending their high school education by a year. There are limited slots for students statewide and the fifth year of high school is free to them.

P-TECH is also a less common free option that teaches students more technical skills, such as welding or other trades. While this covers the cost of classes offered at the college level, students might still need to pay for transportation or books.

And early college, offered at a few district and charter high schools, allows students to graduate from high school in four years with an associate’s degree. There aren’t many statewide.

Care Forward Colorado and Career Advance Colorado — Care Forward Colorado offers free training at the state’s community colleges in health care fields, including nursing, phlebotomy, emergency medical technician, and dental assistant.

Career Advance Colorado kicked off this year as an expansion of the health care program. Fields of study eligible for free training include education, law enforcement, firefighting, and early childhood education. Programs in education pay for two years of community college before students move on to a four-year university.

These programs will likely end once money runs out, so it’s a first-come, first-served opportunity.

University promise programs — Some universities across the state, including the University of Colorado Boulder, Fort Lewis College, and Colorado State University Pueblo, offer free tuition to students who qualify for federal financial aid. Each school has eligibility requirements. For instance, CU Boulder recently expanded its promise program to engineering students.

Map out your options

As a high school freshman, college might be the last thing on your mind. And no one is saying you have to have it all figured out at an early age.

Luckily, Colorado schools have guidance counselors that can help students understand what’s next. Talking with a counselor can help students understand what’s available, said Jose Olivo, Denver Scholarship Foundation, director of TRIO Talent Search.

TRIO is a federal program that offers support to students who are low-income, the first to go to college in their family, or who have a disability. The program helps students get college exposure, including financial aid help and assistance preparing for college entrance exams.

The Denver-area foundation helps students figure out their college aspirations, and about 85% of their scholars end up at a four-year university. Olivo said counselors check in with students every year to help build their understanding of college and financial aid.

“We like to practice the approach of, ‘I’m going to provide you with as much information as possible for you to make the best decision for yourself,’“ Olivo said.

Olivo said students get information each year about college.

Freshmen learn about what it would take financially to get to college, including what high school college programs are available, such as ASCENT or concurrent enrollment. Sophomores learn about scholarships, grants, and loans. Juniors get a deeper dive into financial aid and learn about free college programs. And then seniors get help filling out the Free Application for Student Financial Aid, scholarships, and college applications.

Fill out the FAFSA

The cost of attendance at a Colorado community college averages about $5,000 annually for tuition, books, and fees. That price isn’t typically what students pay out of pocket, said Landon Pirius, the Colorado Community College System’s vice chancellor of academic and student affairs.

In actuality, about 60% of community college students leave without any debt thanks to state and federal aid, he said.

“In effect, you can attend any community college program for free for students of a certain income level,” he said.

Students won’t know exactly how much they will pay unless they fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The application can be found at studentaid.gov.

The application opens access for federal grants students don’t need to pay back.

Colorado also provides grants to students that help pay for tuition, books, or other fees.

At four-year universities, students can use that money to offset their tuition bill, which varies at institutions. For instance, at the University of Colorado Boulder, the state’s flagship campus, tuition, fees, books, and housing can cost about $31,774 a year for a Colorado resident.

Some immigrant students don’t qualify for federal aid but can still qualify for state aid.

Undocumented students, including those who qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA, can fill out the Colorado Application for State Financial Aid, or CASFA. To be eligible, a student must have lived in Colorado for at least one year before they graduated from high school and at least 12 months prior to enrolling at the college.

The program helps students get access to lower cost in-state tuition, state grants, and work-study opportunity.

Don’t forget about scholarships and grants

Unfortunately, there aren’t enough free programs statewide to help every student.

Seniors, especially, shouldn’t forget that there are numerous scholarships available to pay for college, according to financial aid experts.

Some Colorado-specific scholarships include the Daniels Scholarship and the Boettcher Scholarship. High school counseling offices should also be able to help with a directory of the thousands of national scholarships available, including ones like the Coca-Cola scholarship and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

There’s always more help

Students already enrolled in college also can get more scholarships and help through their college, said Olivo. Students also might be eligible for other national scholarships once they declare a major, he said.

“Most schools also have institutional scholarships that give priority to returning students,” Olivo said.

It’s not always a guarantee, Olivo said, but he suggests students speak to campus advisors or the school’s financial aid office if they’re in need.

“I always tell students you have to A-S-K to G-E-T,” he said. “It doesn’t hurt to ask and they might give you something.”

You can apply to college for free in Indiana from Sept. 25-29. Here’s how.

2023-09-22T11:00:00+00:00

Indiana students can apply to 36 colleges in the state for free next week, saving them hundreds of dollars in fees.

The fee is waived during College Application Week, which runs from Sept. 25 to 29. The effort is part of a push to increase college-going in the state, which stagnated at 53% of high school graduates from the class of 2021, and was declining before the COVID-19 pandemic.

While some Indiana colleges have no application fee, those that do range from about $25 to $65 per application, so the cost can add up quickly, said Michelle Ashcraft, senior associate commissioner and chief programs officer for the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, who leads the commission’s K-12 outreach team.

The commission has several initiatives aimed at increasing the college-going rate after high school, including automatic enrollment into 21st Century Scholars, which covers tuition for qualifying students; requiring all students fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to access more funds; and pre-admissions, where students at participating schools receive a letter telling them which of the participating Indiana colleges they’d be admitted to if they apply.

The application fee waiver next week not only reduces the cost of applying for college, it also means students are researching colleges and applying earlier in the year, Ashcraft said. She added that increases their chances at merit scholarships and helps to meet early deadlines.

If a student hasn’t yet started an application or decided where to apply, Ashcraft said it’s still “very feasible” for students to apply to multiple colleges during College Application Week.

Colleges in the state have worked to streamline their application process, and in some cases, have one-page applications, she said, adding that if a student is undecided about college, this means they have the option for free.

However, Ashcraft said that if students have concerns about affording the application fee after this coming week, they should contact that school’s admissions office and ask if waivers are available.

How to apply to college in Indiana for free:

Below is a list of Indiana colleges and universities participating in College Application Week.

Students should go to the institution-specific application (not the Common App) on that school’s website and fill it out as usual. If a code is listed below, enter that when prompted, otherwise the fee should be automatically waived, Ashcraft said.

List of participating colleges

Anderson University
Bethel University
Caris College
DePauw University
Earlham College
Franklin College
Grace College
Hanover College
Huntington University
Indiana Tech
Indiana State University (Fee waived until Oct. 1)
Indiana University East
Indiana University Fort Wayne (Fee waived from Sept. 15 to Oct. 1. Use code: FWCOLLGO)
Indiana University Indianapolis (Use Code: INCOLLGO)
Indiana University Kokomo
Indiana University Northwest
Indiana University South Bend
Indiana University Southeast
Indiana Wesleyan University
Ivy Tech Community College
Manchester University
Marian University
Martin University
Oakland City University
Purdue University Fort Wayne (Fee waived from Sept. 25 to Oct 8. Use Code: CollegeGo2023)
Purdue University Northwest (Fee waived all of September)
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College
Saint Mary’s College
Trine University
University of Evansville
University of Indianapolis
University of Saint Francis
University of Southern Indiana
Valparaiso University
Vincennes University
Wabash College

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief and covers higher education. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

A path to the workforce and a pipeline of workers: Companies go to high schools for career training

2023-09-20T11:00:00+00:00

Every now and then, Ayden Corbett has to explain to surprised homeowners what he’s doing in their front yard.

Since the second semester of his senior year of high school, he has responded to field calls as an employee of the largest underground utility locating company in North America — the Indianapolis-based U.S. Infrastructure Company (USIC). The white truck and multicolored flags marking the location of water, power, and telecommunications lines usually give it away.

“You learn how to work with people,” he said.

Corbett graduated in 2022 from a unique program at the Hinds Career Center in Elwood that trains high schoolers for the little-known underground utility locating industry. As demand for the profession skyrocketed during the work-from-home boom of the pandemic, USIC representatives approached the career center about creating a high school graduation pathway that would lead to a diploma, an industry certification, and a job offer.

While still uncommon in Indiana, partnerships between schools and private companies that lead students directly into employment in highly specific trades are growing — the Hinds Center program is the newest among four that have been started statewide.

“Their goal is to have trained employees ready to enter the field; ours as a career center is to give students the workforce and soft skills to be employable in whatever they choose,” said Jim Pearson, director of the Hinds center.

And creating more of these programs is a top priority for state education officials, who have been charged under a new state law with reworking high school requirements to encourage more students to work and earn credentials before they graduate.

It’s part of an effort to counter Indiana’s declining college going rates by connecting high school students to in-demand and high-paying jobs without the need for postsecondary education.

Ayden Corbett, a 2022 graduate of the underground utility locating program, stands with his company truck.

“Young people are really wanting a variety of options for leading to viable, successful futures. That’s not necessarily a four-year degree,” said Rachel Rosen, senior research associate at the Center for Effective Career and Technical Education at MRDC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.

‘Employable in whatever they choose’

The underground utility graduation track at the Hinds Center is a slower version of the standard company training program, hosted inside a former sewing classroom that USIC equipped with a virtual reality system and a wall showing the typical utility connections on a home. The company also provides the two instructors, said Darrin Haynes, senior manager of career and technical education at USIC.

Students study the underground utility maps of Indiana cities like Westfield, where new home construction is booming, and learn to use the equipment that allows them to detect underground utility lines both through virtual reality and in the field. They spend part of the day at the center for career training, but also take traditional academic courses at their home high schools.

USIC has hired 14 of the 16 graduates of the Elwood program over two years, and fielded calls from its competitors looking to hire students as well, Haynes said. As of this year, students will also earn college credit at Indiana Tech upon completing the pathway.

One of the main draws of the track is the opportunity to start working during senior year, said Jacob Wright, another 2022 grad. Students who are at least 18 years old are paid the same rate as new hires to respond to calls to 811, the service that companies and homeowners are supposed to call before digging projects, according to Haynes.

“You get a job out of high school, a (company) truck second semester, and you get paid to take calls,” said Wright.

A hallway inside the Hinds Career Center in Elwood, Indiana, shows the 15 different career technical education paths offered to students.

Programs should connect to college and career

Several other local graduation pathways in Indiana offer students direct links to local companies, including the RV construction pathway at Wa-Nee Community schools, and a now-defunct aviation sheet metal pathway at Decatur schools.

The latter operated for a year before the pandemic created challenges for teaching and recruiting students, said Michael Gehrich, director of aviation at Vincennes University, which worked with Decatur schools on the pathway.

Like the utility locating program, the aviation pathway sought to expose students to a local industry that’s in need of workers, with a lower barrier to entry than existing dual credit aviation programs that require additional college education, Gehrich said.

Other similar programs can be found in New York City’s P-TECH schools, said Rosen, the researcher, which are six-year schools that partnered with companies to allow students to graduate with STEM skills, a high school diploma, and an associate’s degree.

Where vocational schools of the past contributed to inequity by directing low-income and students of color into low-wage jobs, modern career training can give students a window into their options, Rosen said.

“CTE in high school provides students an opportunity to explore what they don’t want to do as much as what they do want to do,” Rosen said. “We may see a failure because the student did not want to go into that field, but higher-resourced students have more opportunity to explore and make mistakes. If they wait till college to explore what they don’t like, there can be a real cost to doing that.”

The goal should be preparing students for a career with mobility, Rosen said.

Haynes said underground utility locating offers that mobility. Graduates can work for municipalities instead, move into management and training roles at USIC, or request to be relocated to another state.

The pathway opens a new option in a community where the college-going rate has dropped, said Haynes.

Darrin Haynes, senior manager of career and technical education at USIC, shows a training wall inside the Hinds Career Center classroom.

State data shows the rate for Madison County dropped 16 percentage points from 2015-2020, mirroring the state’s drop of 12 points in that time period.

Though no students have yet changed their minds about the senior-level course, Pearson said one advantage of the career center is that it has the flexibility to redirect students to one of its other career paths.

Plans to expand in Indiana and other states

Pearson said the Hinds center is open to working with other companies to develop local graduation pathways and meet workforce needs — but that they would need to work closely with educators on curriculum and standards.

The career center would aim to stay away from low-skill, low-pay tracks, but wouldn’t outright reject retail pathways, for example, if they led into supervision and management positions, Pearson said.

Haynes said that other companies interested in creating their own pipeline programs at local high schools need to commit to an upfront investment with a slow return. In addition to a workforce pipeline, one major benefit to USIC is that graduates have more time to absorb the training, and begin working with more experience, often making fewer mistakes than other new hires.

Haynes said the company isn’t working with students who are using Indiana’s new career scholarship accounts, which give students money to take career training outside of their schools. Those students could apply for a job with the company and take the training there, he siad.

A mural in Elwood is dedicated to Red Gold Tomatoes, a major manufacturer and employer in town.

The company plans to continue recruiting in high schools. Haynes said USIC has replicated the high school training program in Oklahoma and New York, and hopes to grow it further throughout Indiana and other states.

“Most of our graduates have moved out, have a place of their own. They start their lives in a way that we all dream of when we’re teenagers,” said Haynes. “We’re putting them on a pathway to do that.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Career-focused graduation pathway for English learners takes root in Perry Township

2023-09-07T19:10:06+00:00

For over a decade, Southport High School teacher Amy Peddie has led classes of students who are English language learners through the intricacies of getting ready for college, like filling out applications, finding financial aid, and writing personal essays.

This year, she’s teaching a class with a new emphasis: Getting ready for a career by writing cover letters, resumes, and professional emails. In a recent exercise, students contacted companies they were unfamiliar with to ask about job and training opportunities.

“One student said, ‘I thought this was an [English learner] class, but this feels like a work class,’” Peddie said.

Peddie’s course is part of a new graduation pathway for students who are learning to speak and read in English, where students can train for the workforce during high school and graduate with a job and a diploma in hand. It’s the first local graduation pathway in the state to specifically cater to English learner students who have limited English proficiency.

This pathway is part of a growing emphasis in Indiana and nationwide on preparing students for jobs without the necessity of a two- or four-year degree, as college-going rates have declined from several years ago and skilled trades face a worker shortage.

In Indiana, lawmakers have pushed to “reinvent high school” to make it more relevant to in-demand careers.

At Perry schools, which educate around 4,600 English learner students, the second largest population in the state, the pathway also gives students another way to meet Indiana’s graduation requirements and local hiring needs. Like the college-going class, it aims to help newly arrived students navigate a potentially unfamiliar process.

“If your choice is college, great, but if not, that’s not something to look down on,” said Southport Principal Amy Boone. “We want to have options and opportunities.”

Southport has around 600 students receiving English language services, Boone said, and district officials say they’re expecting a record enrollment this year of students who have recently relocated to the United States from other countries. In Indiana, this population grew 52% from 2017 to 2022.

The population is not only growing, but changing, Boone said: More students have arrived in recent years with less experience in formal education, both as a result of the pandemic and international conflict.

But once they enroll, they’re still required to meet Indiana graduation requirements that include demonstrating postsecondary skills. Students with extenuating circumstances could be granted a waiver, but this approach will be limited going forward under a state law passed this year.

If English learners are missing reading and writing skills in their first languages, a traditional career and technical education course may be inaccessible, even with the aid of translation, Boone said.

The new graduation pathway provides students who enrolled in U.S. schools in seventh grade or later a way to meet graduation requirements through classes on business math and personal financial responsibility, as well as internships and mock interviews. It’s also meant to help students develop their English proficiency through speech and English as a New Language classes.

In addition to being the first such local pathway for graduation in Indiana, Perry’s track for English learners is one of just two in the state that equips students with general career skills, rather than focusing on a specific trade or industry.

This year, an initial section of students piloting the pathway has already discussed what they hope to do after high school — answers that included working as barbers or cosmetologists.

Peddie said she hopes to take them on field trips to visit local salons and see that work up close. But she’d also like to introduce them to other industries, like manufacturing, where local companies are actively hiring.

Boone said the key to the program is to balance student interests with community needs.

Local staffing companies that already place the parents of Southport students in jobs are working with Perry schools on the new pathway.

The district itself could employ students to work on campus beautification projects, and then hire them after graduation knowing they have the required skills, Boone said. Southport High School, for example, recently hired a current student to work in the cafeteria.

“There’s been a pendulum shift,” Boone said. “We pushed for a long time on college, but there’s value in the trades, too.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Many Colorado students juggle college and parenting. Often they feel like outsiders on campus.

2023-09-05T18:39:58+00:00

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Deysi Parga Macias faced a dilemma last fall in the first week of classes at the University of Colorado Boulder.

She couldn’t find daycare for her son, Ramiro, and her grandparents, who were supposed to watch him, were sick.

Macias, then 19, began to panic. Her biochemistry lab only allowed four absences before she failed the class — but missing even one would make her feel like a failure. Desperate, she sent her professor an email before class and asked if she could bring her then-year-and-a-half-old son.

“I said, ‘I am so sorry, and I know that this is unprofessional,’” Macias said.

Students in the lab were scheduled to collect samples at Boulder Creek and analyze the results. Luckily, her professor agreed to let Ramiro come since it was a safer environment than in a classroom lab. While Macias worked, Ramiro played with rocks and threw them into the water.

“He thought it was just another day out,” she said.

Macias carries her son to the car to be dropped off at her grandparents’ home.

Macias, now a 20-year-old junior at CU Boulder, tries her best to separate parenting and coursework on campus, even if she alerts professors on the first days of class that she has a kid.

She doesn’t usually see other young children at CU Boulder. Many students can’t relate to her life.

It’s an isolating experience.

“Every time I tell my professors that I’m a mom and I’m an undergrad, they say, ‘You’re my first,’” she said.

How many student parents are on Colorado college campuses?

Many public Colorado colleges don’t know how many students are parents on their campuses.

Census data from the 2021 American Community Survey analyzed by Colorado’s demographer suggests that parents make up a little less than a third of undergraduate students at all of the state’s colleges and universities.

That’s close to what national data collected by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research showed in 2016: about 22% of all college undergraduates were parents. The institute found 42% of all community college students and just 17% of students at public four-year universities were parents.

Colorado, like many states, does not require colleges and universities to keep these numbers. Some colleges, including Colorado State University Fort Collins, have used voluntary surveys to get a better sense. But it’s still an estimate.

“We don’t know if we have 50 student parents or 5,000,” said Lisa Chandler, CSU Fort Collins adult learner and veteran services assistant director.

Some administrators worry that asking whether students have children could violate federal rules intended to prevent discrimination. Advocates say the lack of concrete data can limit the services and outreach students receive to help them through college, especially because this is a group that doesn’t have a lot of time to track down help.

Ramiro’s picture is displayed on Macias’ high school graduation cap at her home in Arvada, Colorado.

Student parents carry higher GPAs on average but are 10 times less likely to graduate, according to the women’s policy research institute. They are also more likely to be Black and low-income, take on more student loan debt, and struggle to find housing.

It matters to student parents that they succeed because they want higher wages to support their families. And, Colorado has a goal to get more residents — especially those from diverse communities — the postsecondary training they need to land good-paying jobs. Macias, for instance, studies biochemistry and wants to become a doctor.

In recent years, Colorado’s community colleges, with more student parents, have provided food resources, and connected students to housing, childcare, and financial support. Meanwhile, four-year universities offer fewer services.

Daycare is the priority for many student parents

Before Macias enrolled, she researched the schools that would offer her the most help while parenting. CU Boulder gave her scholarships, and she pieced together enough to pay for college. She also planned to use the university’s graduate and family housing so she could have more space for her and Ramiro, live on campus, meet friends, and be independent.

There was so much she didn’t anticipate as the first student in her family to go to college and as a new mother.

The rent in family housing proved to be more than she could afford. She struggled at times through her first year to pay for furniture and other household items – even things as small as a shower curtain and toiletries. Macias estimates a high school mentor spent about $1,000 to help her furnish her apartment. Her mom would cook for her and also bought her groceries and other daily items. Her sister helped babysit Ramiro when Macias had classes.

Macias looks for an outfit for her son at her home in Arvada, Colorado.

Macias is now living with her son’s paternal grandmother. It puts her minutes away from family members who can provide child care because she said she can’t afford CU Boulder’s childcare facility. It also makes it easier when she and Ramiro’s dad co-parent.

In Colorado, child care on average can cost about $1,360 a month at a center and about $960 at a home-based business for a toddler, according to Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2023 Kids Count data book.

CU Boulder students pay based on the age of their child and how often they attend daycare. A student can pay up to about $1,900 a month for five-day-a-week care for an infant. The daytime hours don’t cover evening classes or study sessions.

The school surveyed undergraduates in 2021 to better understand how to help all students. Only a third of all students took the survey, and about 3% of respondents said they are responsible for the care of children or other adults, according to the university.

Other campus services for parents include a health and wellness center and mental health support, nap pods for tired students, and dedicated lactation rooms.

Macias said she no longer uses most of what CU Boulder offers. Child care continues to be her biggest struggle. In a perfect world, she said the school would provide free care, because college students don’t have a lot of money.

The biochemistry major works on an online class, “Academic Skills Resources,” in a study room in the Duane Physical Laboratories Building at CU Boulder.

Community colleges offer more built-in supports

Schools that serve more older students tend to think more about the needs of parents. Aurora Community College has sent out voluntary surveys to students and learned about 35% have parental responsibilities, said Reyna Anaya, senior student affairs officer and dean of student success.

The surveys helped the school create more help. The school has snack stations for kids, a free market for parents to get food, and play stations with toys. Advisors are available for support.

Colorado Mountain College’s Rifle campus hosts Family Fridays where students and community members can bring kids on campus to learn while their parents take classes, said Tinker Duclo, vice president and campus dean at CMC Rifle.

But four-year institutions are also doing more to offer parent services on campus. For example, Colorado State University Fort Collins has drop-in child care at its library that is paid by student fees. And like many other schools, CSU offers federal grants to subsidize child care.

Moving from community college to university

Zeke Dominguez, 41, is nervous about transferring from Front Range Community College to Colorado State University next fall. As a single parent of an autistic 11-year-old child, his second try at college has provided him a lot of what he’s needed as a parent, but he’s not sure what to expect at the bigger college.

Dominguez studied cybersecurity in 2012 at for-profit University of Phoenix. His daughter was born at about the same time. She spent months in the hospital, and he took family leave for a semester but felt overwhelmed when he returned. He needed to drop out.

“I didn’t have any support systems, either,” he said. “It wasn’t anything like what I have now.”

Community colleges have increased services in recent years for student parents.

Front Range brings student parents together to support each other. Dominguez also connected to the school’s TRIO program, a federal program to guide disadvantaged students through college that’s used at many college and university campuses. While not only for student parents, the program has connected him to tutors and helped him learn to advocate for his needs as a parent, such as how to reach out to instructors or deans so he doesn’t have to drop classes when he gets behind.

The school also has federal grants for child care, he said, and if Dominguez has a problem, Front Range officials try to help connect him to community resources.

It’s important for Dominguez to finish his degree. He wants to get a bachelor’s in fine arts to allow him flexibility to work and take care of his daughter. The demands of his previous job as a chef didn’t mix well with parenting.

He plans to expand his work in photography — he used to shoot food photos while a chef. He also wants to explore his career options, such as selling his paintings.

As he gets ready for CSU Fort Collins, he worries that he will get lost at such a large school.

“We really are a ghost,” he said. “We’re not seen.”

Students walk around the UC Boulder campus Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023.

Higher education’s growing focus on student parents

Elsewhere, some states have figured out how to track student parents. Oregon and Illinois require colleges and universities to collect data on student parents to help them get what they need, according to Nicole Lynn Lewis, founder and CEO of Generation Hope. The nonprofit advocates for policies that support student parents and supports schools in their efforts.

Schools also want to increase support. Norfolk State University, a historically Black university in Virginia, has worked with Generation Hope in the last year to increase services, such as lactation rooms and parent groups. The school offers evening child care. School officials are also drafting guidelines around the presence of children on campus and how faculty and staff can help student parents.

Student parents want to feel more a part of the campus and be considered, said Andrea Neal, Office of Academic Engagement associate vice provost at Norfolk State. Small things like specific parking spaces or easy access to diapers on campus would make them feel included, she said.

Larger universities like The Ohio State University also are trying to find ways to serve parents.

Traci Lewis, director of the university’s Comprehensive College Experience for Student-Parent Success Program, said Ohio State makes parents and their kids a part of campus life. The school has a student-parent welcome week with bounce houses for their kids, offers child care during club meetings, and will allow students to walk with their kids this year in the homecoming parade.

Ohio State student parents receive a comprehensive resource support guide, but the school also provides advisors to offer more personal guidance. The school also offers emergency financial assistance.

Student parents need to advocate for themselves

Macias feels burnt out, but she rarely lets that stop her positive attitude.

She has found ways to feel like she’s a greater part of the campus. She wants to be a role model for other first-generation and Latina students in the sciences. She’s found supportive friends. She’s joined clubs like the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights.

She takes the tough days in stride because she’s determined to finish school.

Macias, left, listens to America Ramirez, program director for the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR), during the “Be Involved Fair” on campus.

“Life doesn’t wait for you to be OK,” Macias said.

Macias works within CU Boulder’s Office of Precollege Outreach and Engagement and gives campus tours to high school students. The program also hosts overnight trips.

She’s met hundreds of students, she said. But over the summer, a young woman approached her to read the college essay she prepared.

The teen, a rising high school junior, wrote that she was pregnant. She wanted to major in the sciences just like Macias. She documented her fears of telling her family about the pregnancy and never getting to college.

Tears streamed down Macias’ cheeks as she sat across from the student. The young girl’s struggle was her own. She finally didn’t feel so out of place.

“I told her to stay focused and keep going. To finish strong, as strong as you can because there’s going to be a lot of help,” she said. “Unfortunately, they’re not going to come and find you as a parent. You have to find the help yourself.”

These Latina moms in Boulder are concerned about equity in advanced courses. The district says it’s listening and responding.

2023-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

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When Adriana Paola and her family arrived in Boulder in 2017, her son, who was starting high school, loved math.

Slowly, she saw her son’s passion for the subject fade and she realized his math class was too easy. So, she went with her son to the school counselor’s office and asked for him to be enrolled in a more advanced class.

She recalls the counselor questioning the request, saying that his class was “the class that Latinos go into.” It took going to the principal, before the request was approved. Once in the advanced math class, her son noticed he was one of just two Latino students.

Paola recalls the experience as a shock to her and her family.

“That was like our first red flag that there’s something wrong with the system,” she said. “We saw there was no equity.”

Efforts to enroll more Colorado students of color in advanced courses sometimes focus on encouraging students to see their own potential. The experiences of these Boulder moms show how prejudice from educators can shape the opportunities students have.

A recent report from a group of northeastern Colorado school districts that received a state grant to improve diversity in advanced courses similarly found that many teachers underestimated students’ abilities.

And getting access to advanced courses in high school can be important to getting into college, being prepared for it, and to letting students feel confident that they can succeed.

Parents point to systemic issues

In recent years, Paola has connected with other Hispanic moms whose children have gone through similar experiences at multiple high schools in the district.

Noemi Lastiri’s daughter walked into her advanced science class on the first day of school last year and the teacher asked her if she was in the wrong class. In another class, her daughter was assigned to sit next to the few Latino students, and she told her mom that when they raised their hands, they were never called on.

Things changed when another Latina classmate walked out of class, frustrated, and straight to the school office to complain.

Some moms say they’ve been told by teachers or school administrators that their children with autism or ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) who need support, can’t receive assistance in advanced classes. If parents believe their children need extra help, they have been told they could get private tutoring outside school or keep their children in general education classes.

Recently, they’ve been speaking out, and want the district to make changes.

“It’s not that some kids can and other students can’t,” Paola said. “Anybody could take these classes if someone truly motivated them and offered accommodations, if there was truly a structure of support, especially for those students who have had the least access to these classes.”

Boulder Valley School District officials say that, while they can’t respond to individual cases, they started hearing similar stories recently and are making changes.

“It’s absolutely heartbreaking. It’s absolutely unacceptable that students are having these experiences,” said Lora De La Cruz, deputy superintendent of academics for the Boulder district. “What we’re seeing here does not align with our values as a district, our values as a community.”

De La Cruz said that after hearing of the problems Latino students have had in accessing advanced classes, or support once they are enrolled, district leaders have rolled out new teacher training.

Boulder teachers usually have many training opportunities from which to choose, including classes on culturally responsive practices, but this fall was the first time all teachers were required to learn how to create inclusive classroom environments so all students feel they belong.

“As we get more focused in our work around what we are changing, where we’re evolving in our instruction in our building positive climate and culture within our classrooms and schools, we decided that we wanted to get even more focused on professional learning,” De La Cruz said.

Parents are glad the district is focusing on all teachers. Many worry that the problems their children have experienced start from a young age.

“Students are absorbing messages. Ever since they start kindergarten, they are receiving these messages about what they can and can’t do,” said parent Anna Segur. Her high school-age son is no longer interested in taking advanced classes, despite her encouragement, because of a previous bad experience. “It’s not a problem of intelligence.”

District’s strategic plan calls out a need for equity

De La Cruz points to the district’s existing strategic plan which calls for various efforts to close the large gaps in achievement among white students and students of color. Because of those goals, the district has a public website that tracks data on educational gaps. One of those is how many students are enrolled in advanced courses, combining figures for classes including honors, Advanced Placement, concurrent enrollment, and others. Concurrent enrollment courses give students college credit while counting toward high school graduation requirements.

Currently, the dashboard shows 14.7% of students enrolled in advanced courses are Hispanic, while they make up 20% of the entire district’s student population. Black students are also underrepresented while white and Asian students are overrepresented.

Additional data provided by the district shows that from 2021-22 to the 2022-23 school year, the percentage of Hispanic students in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes has actually decreased. But at the same time, many more Hispanic students took concurrent enrollment or other advanced classes, making up for the decline in AP and IB.

The number of students taking concurrent enrollment classes was 1,143 in 2022-23, almost double 2021-22 numbers. The percentage of Hispanic students participating in those classes increased from 10.9% to 11.8% in the last school year.

The district touts those improvements as early results from a new project focused on getting all students to have something to go along with their high school diploma. That could be college credit, workplace experience, industry certifications, or a seal of biliteracy.

“We know all of our students are brilliant and very capable and have the potential of reaching all of their goals,” said Bianca Gallegos, executive director of strategic partnerships for the Boulder Valley district. “We’re very excited to be able to open up paths and opportunities for all students with a specific focus on us ensuring that we’re opening up pathways, opportunities for Latinx, Hispanic Latino students, and students who qualify for free and reduced [price] lunch.”

The district wants to have more students participate this year in the state’s fifth year of high school program, called ASCENT, which allows students to earn an associate degree along with their diploma. Another project goal is that 35% of high school students take a concurrent enrollment class this year and that the demographics of those classes more closely mirror the district’s.

Lastiri said that she was happy to hear the district is making changes and striving to make things better. Her daughter, now a sophomore who changed high schools within the district, is so far having a better experience this school year.

She’s taking two advanced classes this semester.

Regarding the changes, she said, “it’s never too late.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

A Colorado grant aimed to increase access to advanced coursework. It is unclear how much it helped.

2023-08-30T15:55:00+00:00