Encouraging College

Encourage all students to attend college- especially at-risk youth

Is there a double standard when it comes to encouraging students to apply to college? I constantly try to engage youth, especially the at-risk youth that I work with, to consider college. We discuss what they would like to be when they grow up and the steps that are necessary to achieve those goals. However, it seems that we are not providing youth with enough resources about how to apply to college, the different options in high school (such as running start, AP, or concurrent enrollment programs) or how to tackle the financial issues that come with college. I try to provide materials to students about the opportunities they are interested in.

 Now for the double standard- do we really encourage all students to seek higher education whether it is a certificate program, a technical college, trade school or a university?  It seems that we label students- often by socio-economic status or some other label- lazy, unintelligent. We only encourage them to attend trade schools, not universities. We limit them by limiting the information we give them, and what we believe they can achieve. This isn't to say that trade schools aren't wonderful and provide excellent job training, we just need to set the bar high for all students and not limit the information we present.

Then there are some students that don’t need any encouragement to attend higher education- Those students are encouraged to prepare themselves for colleges, but not at-risk youth. I had an experience myself when offering an 8^th grader some information on running start. Because he was in ELL, the teacher thought that this was inappropriate. I disagree- he is learning the language, has great grades, is really smart and is highly motivate. The kid is smart, but lacks the resources and information he needs to go on to college.

We need to get rid of the double standard by placing students in the lower achieving classes and stop assuming that preparing all students is just an illusion. We also need to encourage all students to apply to colleges. While for some students this might not be the best fit, we need each student to realize that this is an option for them. We need to prepare all students for college regardless of their background.

Preliminary studies show that programs focused on concurrent enrollment for students who are at-risk for dropping out of college have a lower dropout rate and some continue on to graduate with associates and even attend four year colleges. This is wonderful considering the long term consequences of dropping out of high school- more likely to go to prison, be on welfare, have less access to health care/dental care… the list is ongoing.  (See the NY times article link below)

 So the big question is- Why not encourage these alternative college programs? When are we really going to prepare all students to be colleges ready and when are we are we going to push them? A student who is taught (whether it’s direct or indirect) that he or she is not good enough, or isn’t smart enough isn’t going to apply him or herself. We need to believe in all of our students.

NY Times Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/education/08school.html?em

Program at Lake Washington Tech that has a similar program:

http://www.lwtc.edu/Academics/High_School_Programs.xml