Going from high school to a four-year college can be a costly mistake for unmotivated students, write Michael Horn and Bob Moesta, authors of Choosing College: How to Make Better Learning Decisions Throughout Your Life in the Hechinger Report.
Students who enrolled in college because they felt it was expected of them ended up dropping out or transferring 74 percent of the time, our research revealed. More than half of the students we interviewed who chose college to get away from something else in their lives had left the institution they were attending without a degree at the time we interviewed them.
Dropouts don’t earn much more than those who never tried college, so they struggle to pay back student loans.
Students from low-income families who aren’t pushed toward college “will not do a coding academy or a technical training program,” Mike Goldstein, the founder of Match Charter Public Schools in Boston, told Horn and Moesta. “They’ll take a job at Chipotle.”
What should educators do?
Match created Duet, a nonprofit that has partnered with Southern New Hampshire University’s online, competency-based College for America to offer a degree that is accessible and affordable, and that supports students with whatever it takes in its blended, on-the-ground experience. As students move toward graduation, Duet connects them to jobs in the Boston region. This level of support provides students what they need to complete a degree and find a job so they don’t go to college, accrue debt, waste time and drop out.
A second option is to emulate “Big Picture Schools, Summit Public Schools, and the Cajon Valley Union School District,” write Horn and Moesta. They introduce students to mentors and place them in workplace and community experiences to figure out what they want to do. Providers such as Project Wayfinder, IDEO Purpose Project and nXu can help students find their purpose.
Finally, some students would benefit from a “discovery year” after high school with jobs, apprenticeships, internships, short courses, volunteering and travel, Horn and Moesta write.
The risk is that first-generation students who get off the college track have trouble getting back on again, even if they discover their goals require a degree.
Schools must ensure graduates can earn money or qualify for scholarships or paid internships, they write. Then, “educators must make sure that students who take a discovery year have a clear plan in place that is time-bound.” A gap year at a low-wage job could last a lifetime.
“Legislators in six states – Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and West Virginia — have introduced versions of the Right to Know Act, which would give students information about potential pathways after their K-12 education, as well as real workforce outcomes,” writes Jennifer Bell-Ellwanger of the Data Quality Campaign on The 74. Whether it’s “a four-year or a community college, the military or an apprenticeship, students and families need information to make the best decisions.”