Going to College: How Some Schools are Making a Post-Secondary Education Accessible to their Students
For many teenagers, going off to college represents a coming of age that has been anticipated and carefully planned for years. Although postsecondary education is more accessible today than ever before, there are some students for whom college remains a distant dream. Isolation and a lack of resources present two challenges to students who want to pursue a college education. In rural areas, where higher education has not been the experience for most people in the community, expectations for education beyond the twelfth grade can be low. In some urban areas, even those students who do demonstrate interest in higher education may not have a support structure they can call upon for approaching and understanding colleges and universities.
What
can be done to make higher education a reality for students in under-resourced
communities, rural or urban? Teachers and school administrators from Massachusetts
and the Adirondack regions of New York state and Vermont are addressing
this question as they strive to put into place an infrastructure that prepares
K-12 students for higher education. Through guidance and support from the
Foundation for Excellent Schools (FES), a non-profit organization that helps
low-income communities achieve academic excellence, education teams from
these schools are identifying strategies for improving opportunities for
their students. The Adirondack Excellent Schools Program (AESP), the Vermont
Excellent Schools Program (VESP), and the Building Excellent Schools Together
(BEST) II all aim to create strategic networks those schools can call upon
to support their students’ academic aspirations.
The situation the participating schools face can be daunting – all are located in isolated areas characterized by higher than average poverty rates and lower than average student test scores. By working with other schools in the consortia, reaching out to their local communities, and developing relationships with higher education institutions, AESP, VESP, and BEST partners are working towards a shared goal of helping their students "take one more step" in their lives. The strategies that participating schools adopt reflect local needs, but many schools participating in the consortia have focused on a core practice that FES has termed "students as stakeholders." FES maintains that students benefit most when they are actively involved in their own process of improvement and that schools should create structures that encourage students to contribute.
Schools have introduced this practice in a number of ways. For some schools, introducing students (and their families) to the college application process as soon as possible represents a solid starting point. For example, one high school in Massachusetts that has a large minority student population formed a partnership with a college in Vermont. The high school implemented a "University Research Project" that required all students in 9th grade to complete a college application packet. As part of the project, students were required to approach teachers for recommendations and begin writing their college essays. Students could send their essays to admissions counselors at the partnered college to get feedback on their "application." Families, too, were involved -- parents were required to fill out a financial aid form. By 12th grade, all students will have become familiar with filling out college application forms, will be confident in approaching teachers for recommendations, and will have completed four essays to choose from for their application.
Other VESP, AESP, and BEST schools have initiated mentoring programs that pair low-performing students with honor role students or college students. Schools have also formed community service learning programs that allow students to contribute to community-wide needs.
While participating schools have engaged in a spectrum of activities, the common goal of nurturing and sustaining student involvement is a consistent theme in FES-sponsored initiatives. By allowing their students to understand that they are the ultimate stakeholders of their own success, these schools hope that college will be more than a dream.
Hezel Associates serves as the external evaluator for the VESP and AESP initiatives.
For more information about the Foundation for Excellent Schools and participating schools, go to www.fesnet.org or contact Hezel Associates.