THIS TIME OF YEAR should be full of excitement as students receive college acceptance letters and decide where to go this fall. But for some students, spring can be full of disappointment and disillusionment. I witnessed this firsthand as assistant principal at a local high school — where despite working hard to achieve good grades, some students were confused by their limited college options.
One of my former students, I’ll call her Jada to protect her identity, was off track in her early years of high school, but worked hard to turn her grades around, taking remedial courses, and earning high marks in her junior and senior years.
While colleges typically like to see the kind of upward trajectory Jada showed, some of her coursework was remedial, and not recognized by the colleges she applied to, and she did not have time to take the full array of higher level courses colleges prioritize. As a result, Jada ended up in the school’s counseling office in tears — not accepted into her dream school, target school, or her safety school. She and her family felt she’d proved she was ready, and were distressed by her limited college options.
Sadly, Jada’s story is more common post-pandemic. National media have focused on the looming problem of widening post-pandemic student learning gaps, and growing evidence that parents don’t recognize their children’s lagging learning. Students and families, relying on grades and feedback from teachers, typically hear students are doing ok, even great.
But often these positive appraisals are out of step with students’ actual levels of college and career preparedness. And having a rosy picture of readiness in high school is especially tough. Just as students are getting ready for their next steps, they learn they are not quite ready for colleges they had hoped to enter, or jobs they had planned to land.
Here in Massachusetts, I’m part of a coalition of nonprofits – the Voices for Academic Equity – looking more closely at the signals families and students receive about readiness for success in college and careers, captured in a recent report called: “The Courses They Take: The Impact of MassCore Classes on Student Success.”
To make matters more challenging — unlike nearly every state in the nation – Massachusetts has no statewide requirements for the courses students must take in high school. The Commonwealth merely recommends a program of study for all high schoolers, called MassCore, leaving it up to districts to determine the courses required for high school diplomas.
In some districts, students are supported and encouraged to take the coursework that will set them up for success in college or the workplace, while other students take less rigorous courses or simply don’t enroll in enough of the courses needed to pursue their postsecondary dreams.
And completing all of the MassCore courses matters. A recent analysis by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University found MassCore predicts both college-going and college completion. Even for students with the same 10th grade MCAS scores, those who also completed MassCore were more likely to attend and graduate from four-year colleges.
Perhaps most disturbing is that the students who could most benefit from MassCore are least likely to complete it. Data reveal alarming differences in MassCore completion — non-completers are more likely to be students of color, multilingual learners, from low-income families, and to have special needs. There’s a 23 percentage point range between White students’ completion of MassCore (88.4 percent) and English learners’ completion of MassCore (65.3 percent).
Yet, we know educators don’t intend to put students off track, or to limit their future pathways. Most educators assess each student and seek out academic settings where they think students can be successful. What’s needed is more support for educators to work together with students and families to decide on post-high school pathways.
Our coalition is advocating for these conversations to happen early – so that well-intended choices about what courses are the right fit for students today, don’t lead to unintended, life-limiting consequences in the long run.
The Voices for Academic Equity coalition is also calling for students’ MassCore progress to appear on their report cards and transcripts – and on the MCAS data reports that are already sent to families.
Including students and families as partners in developing plans for future pathways is essential, but being informed and empowered to make the best decisions requires more clarity about high school course options, possible pathways, and the implications of choices that could either limit or propel students, like Jada, toward the future they envision.
Robert Hendricks is the founder and CEO of He Is Me Institute, an organization that ensures that Black male teachers have lifelong access to resources, experiences, and opportunities that support them as they are recruited, retained, and retire as teachers.
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