A free program called Next Level NOLA is offering New Orleans students a bridge to college and careers, writes Beth Hawkins on The 74.
Graduates of the city’s high-poverty high schools are getting into college, but without the ACT scores required for a merit scholarship. Most underprepared students enroll in community college, but don’t earn a degree or a career certification. When their federal Pell aid runs out, they find themselves without the credential or skills to get a decent job.
This year, because of the coronavirus lockdowns, many high school graduates are considering taking a gap year rather than starting college with no guarantee of face-to-face classes.
However, “the pandemic was not even on the horizon when the two school networks set a launch date for Next Level NOLA,” writes Hawkins.
But with COVID-19 shutting down options for young adults, the program will be especially timely, says Rhonda Dale, who is leaving her job as principal of Collegiate’s Abramson Sci Academy to start it.
Colleges and universities are waiving entrance exams and admitting candidates who in a normal year might not have been competitive applicants — which is not necessarily a good thing, she says: “I’m still afraid students are going to go set themselves up for an experience they’re not going to be successful at, and they’re not going to qualify for financial aid, so they’re going to take out loans to go to a university now because they can get in.
Dale hopes the 100 participants, known as fellows, will be able to meet in person starting in August. They’ll take online college classes at Southern New Hampshire University, with intensive support, and work to raise their ACT scores and earn scholarships. In addition, they’ll work to earn a vocational certificate in health care management, education or business and participate, if possible, in mentoring and internship opportunities.
“In the beginning, we’ll do an orientation with them as well, create a five-year plan and goals and map out that, and then backwards-plan their year with us to set them on a pathway for achieving that five-year plan,” says Dale. “That could include going straight to work after they do Next Level NOLA into a career or a technical high-wage/high-demand career.”
Nationally, community college success rates are low. Many students aren’t ready for college-level courses or work so many hours to support themselves that they have little time for classes. Those who start college with a plan are more likely to succeed.
A “certificate in a high-demand field, such as health care, often can give a student a toehold in a career where they have the potential of qualifying for increasingly good jobs,” writes Hawkins. “Certified nursing assistants, for example, are likely to earn enough to support themselves while continuing on for a nursing degree.”
Louisiana is funding Next Level NOLA and smaller pilots run by school districts to help fill the skills gap, writes Hawkins. “Slightly more than half of new Louisiana jobs now require a certificate or a community or technical college degree, yet only 31 percent of working-age residents have an associate’s degree or higher.”