The national conversation about education, to the extent that one is actually happening, tends to come in two dialects today. The first involves a lot of appropriate hand-wringing about the that started about 10 or 12 years ago, before the sent it over a cliff. This has been particularly acute for the lowest-performing students, who are disproportionately poor, Black and Hispanic.

The more hopeful discussion is about Mississippi and some of its Southern peers, which have bucked these trends, or at least made more progress against the headwinds than the rest of the country. That has, in turn, spurred some excellent journalism about why , and other states and regions have allowed themselves to fall so far behind.

But what鈥檚 hardly ever said in either of these conversations is that the declines since 2013 or so came on the heels of two decades of remarkable progress. Perhaps my fellow ed-policy wonks understand that, but I doubt the general public does. And we can鈥檛 say it often enough.

That鈥檚 for two key reasons. First, as Kant said, the actual proves the possible. It鈥檚 important to give people hope that we can turn around today鈥檚 challenging circumstances because we did it before, not so long ago. And second, some of the same policies and approaches that worked last time around might work again today. The conventional wisdom might be that education reform failed, but that is factually and historically incorrect.

Which is what made all the more praiseworthy. He noted that Republicans 鈥渁re now kicking Democrats in the butt鈥� on education policy 鈥� but more importantly, he reminded readers about the huge progress made during the reform era:

Student achievement test scores in reading, math and most other academic subjects shot upward between the mid-1990s and about 2013. In 1990, 48% of America鈥檚 eighth graders scored below basic competency in math. But by 2013, that was down to just 26%. The best part of this progress was that the scores of the most disadvantaged students shot up the most. Among Black students, the share of those scoring below basic in math fell from 78% to 48%. Among Hispanic students, it fell from 66% to 38%.

Student outcomes are rarely just about what happens in the schools. The policies of that so-called neoliberal era helped, too. Economic growth was strong; income inequality decreased. Between 1983 and 2010, the child poverty rate fell from 30% to about 17%.

Those are enormous gains, amounting to two to three grade levels of progress over the course of a generation or two of students. We would love to see that kind of progress today!

But to Brooks, I would say: It wasn鈥檛 just test scores. It was also educational attainment. The proportion of young people graduating from high school and completing two- and four-year college degrees also increased dramatically during this period. That鈥檚 true on average, but particularly for Black and Hispanic students.

That鈥檚 a lot of information to absorb, so let me highlight some of the best news depicted in these figures:

• The percentage of young Americans with no high school diploma dropped by more than half from the class of 1997 to the class of 2016 鈥� from 14% to 5%.
  
• For Hispanic students, it dropped by a factor of three, from 37% to 12%.
  
• For young men, it dropped from 15% to 6%.
  
• The percentage of young Americans with a two-year degree or higher shot up from 37% (Class of 1997) to 51% (Class of 2016). A majority of young Americans now have a college degree of some sort.
  
• The percentage of young Black Americans with at least a two-year degree shot up from 27% to 42%; for young Hispanic Americans, it more than doubled, from 17% to 36%.
  
• The percentage of young women with at least a two-year degree rose from 41% to a remarkable 57%.

There鈥檚 a debate in academe about how much these attainment gains amount to real progress versus 鈥渄egree inflation.鈥� I鈥檝e certainly been skeptical of some increases in the high school graduation rate, given all the games we鈥檝e seen at the state and local levels, such as the adoption of , It鈥檚 arguably never been easier to graduate from high school in America than it is today.

But that doesn鈥檛 mean all these improvements in the graduation rate are fake. Doug Harris at Tulane University dug into this a few years ago and that most of the progress was real. It helps that student achievement and attainment were moving in the same direction.

Education reform shouldn鈥檛 get all the credit for this remarkable progress in achievement and attainment. 鈥� and Brooks wrote last week 鈥� schools enjoyed strong tailwinds back then thanks to a booming economy, sharply declining child poverty rates and big increases in spending. All that mattered, too.

It鈥檚 also worth noting that college-going has declined significantly in the last few years, partly because of the pandemic and partly because of rising doubts about the value of higher education. That will surely translate into flatlining or even decreasing college attainment rates soon.

But here鈥檚 the bottom line: Young people made huge gains from the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s, when education reform was at its zenith. We need to celebrate that success more often. Most importantly, we need to get back to making that kind of progress again.

Fordham Institute research intern Jill Hoppe contributed to the data collection and analysis for this post.

This is largely because the transfer process is inefficient and not designed for non-traditional students. Students who transfer after earning an associate degree often lose significant credits and must retake courses, which is a considerable barrier to earning a baccalaureate, or bachelor’s.

Community colleges could be a big part of the solution by expanding their capacity to offer bachelor鈥檚 degrees in fields that are in high demand in their regional labor market, and by doing more to help students transition to four-year colleges.

Today, over 200 community colleges in 24 states offer more than 736 . The focus on business, health care and nursing, education, information technology and other areas that address shortages in these and other fields. The bachelor鈥檚 degrees conferred by the community colleges typically cost about half the tuition charged by four-year public colleges. The programs help award four-year degrees to many underserved college students, keeping them close to home, putting them on pathways to good jobs and helping communities thrive.

At MiraCosta College in San Diego, for example, college leaders learned from biotech industry partners such as Pfizer and Abbott Labs that they needed more employees with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in biomanufacturing production. After coordinating with four-year college partners, MiraCosta created the first-ever community college biomanufacturing bachelor鈥檚 degree program conferred by a two-year college.

The program not only has significant employer buy-in and a 93% completion rate, but it also provides equitable opportunities to students. About two-thirds of MiraCosta鈥檚 biomanufacturing graduates are women (62%), two-thirds are non-white (64%) and 20% are the first in their family to attend college. The school is clearly meeting an industry need, employers are engaged, and together they have created a pathway to good-paying jobs in an expensive region of the country. Likewise, graduates of similar baccalaureate programs delivered by community colleges nationwide are 50% people of color and 64% female.  

In northeast Ohio, Lorain County Community College has offered 100 bachelor鈥檚 and master’s degrees on its campus for nearly 30 years as part of a voter-approved

University Partnership that includes 13 colleges and universities. The degrees 鈥� in everything from biology, human resources, nursing, public safety and respiratory care to computer science and supply chain management 鈥� and include the kind of personal attention, career guidance, tutoring, writing instruction and nonacademic assistance with child care, transportation and food that are more common at community colleges than at four-year institutions.

But state officials recognized that more community college baccalaureate degrees were needed to fill talent gaps in emerging fields in the state. Lorain County Community College was given permission to launch an applied bachelor鈥檚 degree in microelectronic manufacturing, to prepare workers in fields such as advanced manufacturing, automation, aerospace and biomedical technology.

In the first two years, students spend three days a week working in paid internships and two days in the classroom. They graduate with an associate degree and up to two years of real work experience, then enter the bachelor’s degree program already holding a full-time job, often by the company where they interned. 

The college also launched a bachelor鈥檚 degree program to prepare technicians and engineers who are helping companies digitize and automate their operations, integrating robotics, control systems, machine learning and cyber-physical systems into modern factories. More than 100 companies have offered internships, advised on curriculum and committed to hiring graduates. 

But making baccalaureate programs available where they are needed is only one aspect of what community colleges do. Achieving the Dream, the reform network of more than 300 community colleges, includes more than 50 that offer baccalaureate degrees. These colleges are making it easier to transfer to four-year degree programs by creating better advising and support so students can move seamlessly from adult learning programs that provide certificates but not degrees; dual enrollment programs in which high school students also earn college credits from community colleges; and associate degree programs that lead to four-year degrees. 

These community colleges are also working to connect their students and graduates to programs and careers that pay a family-sustaining wage. In focusing on areas from which people from similar demographics have previously been excluded, the schools are sparking upward mobility.

The debate over who and where bachelor’s degrees should be offered is too often driven by institutional priorities and policies set in the past. As jobs increasingly require a bachelor鈥檚 degree and employers continue to seek skilled workers, and as too many high school graduates and employees neither master new skills nor earn a living wage, it is time to shift the discussion from what type of institution offers a bachelor’s degree to their programs’ costs, benefits and value to students, employers and communities. 

Community colleges can play a central role in helping graduates achieve a bachelor鈥檚 degree. States and all colleges should support these low-cost, high-value degree pathways. 

The survey didn鈥檛 ask about schools, which is too bad. But it made me wonder: When was the Golden Age of American K-12 education? The answers might provide hints about smart policies and practices for the years to come, especially as the nation continues to dig out from the COVID debacle. 

The key question is which indicators to examine. Some might point to high school graduation rates, given that educational attainment is a traditional measure of school quality. But I鈥檓 skeptical; it鈥檚 a notoriously squishy metric, since the easiest way to boost graduation rates is to lower standards 鈥� surely a major reason why grad rates are at an . 

A stronger indicator might be postsecondary completion; no doubt one of the key goals of K-12 education is to prepare students to succeed in college. But there are issues with that metric, too. Colleges can inflate graduation rates by lowering standards. Plus, there鈥檚 the newfound recognition that should go, making a focus on postsecondary education feel a bit anachronistic.

But let鈥檚 look at it anyway. These come from the Census Bureau鈥檚 Current Population Survey, which asked a random sample of adults ages 25 to 29 about their educational attainment. If we want to use this as a measure of the K-12 system鈥檚 effectiveness, it’s important to remember that there鈥檚 a seven- to 11-year lag between high school graduation and the reporting of the data. To make the charts easier to understand, I鈥檒l show the years these young adults graduated from high school. (API stands for Asian and Pacific Islanders.)

As with high school graduation rates, college attainment is up, up and up, climbing from 28% of Americans who graduated from high school in the late 1990s to 41% in the mid-2010s. Note especially the tremendous progress for Hispanic students, whose college attainment rate rose 157% over this period, and for Black students, whose rate grew 68%.

Because of the time lag, there is no data for students who graduated after 2016, including the COVID cohorts. So by this measure, the heyday of American education appears to have been in the early- to mid-2010s, and possibly even more recently.

Student achievement

The other obvious way to identify the Golden Era of American Education is to look at the high point of student achievement. This is harder, if not impossible, to game 鈥� but there are issues here, too, especially with scores for 17-year-olds/12th graders. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress鈥檚 Long Term Trends series, for 17-year-olds peaked in the late 1980s or early 1990s in reading and in 1999 in math. Meanwhile, on the main NAEP, which has been adjusted over the decades to better align with curricular changes but goes back only to the early 1990s, 12^th graders hit their peak in 1992 in (the math trend goes back only to 2005, so it isn’t much use)

But because high school graduation rates have increased so dramatically over the decades 鈥� 鈥� I find the achievement trends for older students unreliable. It seems highly likely that low-performing students who today make it to graduation (and thus sit for the NAEP exams), but back then would have dropped out, are lowering recent achievement results.

So that leaves scores for 9-year-olds and 13-year-olds (on the LTT) and fourth- and eighth-graders (on the main NAEP). 

According to the LTT, students hit their peak in 2012, both in reading and math and for 9-year-olds and 13-year-olds. (Granted, the reading trends, especially for 13-year-olds, were pretty darn flat, so 鈥渉igh point鈥� might be an exaggeration.) Scores were trending down even before the pandemic, when they fell off a cliff.

Meanwhile, on the main NAEP, students hit the high point in 2013 or 2015, depending on grade and subject area, before entering a pre-COVID decline.

Meanwhile, on the main NAEP, students hit the high point in 2013 or 2015, depending on grade and subject area, before entering a pre-COVID decline.

So according to achievement scores, education鈥檚 Golden Era was in the early to mid-2010s. 

But is that the right answer? It’s certainly when American students performed their best, both on test scores and in terms of college attainment. The adults who were in school back then 鈥� the youngest Millennials and oldest Gen-Zers, or what some call 鈥� might be considered the Smartest Generation.

Measuring school effectiveness

But I want to know when the education system was at its best. For that, we can do better than raw test score averages. That鈥檚 for a couple of reasons. First, there is the composition of the student population. Think of the mistake some analysts made back in the Nation at Risk era, when they pointed to falling SAT verbal scores as proof that America’s education system was in rapid decline. They failed to note that the population taking the SAT was changing rapidly. Whereas it used to be just elite students taking the college entrance exam, more middle-class and even working-class kids did as well. Not surprisingly, they performed worse on the test and lowered the average scores.

That鈥檚 why the NAEP, for as long as it has existed, has been a better measure of student performance than the SAT (or ACT), given that it tests a representative sample. That addresses the selection effects problem, but doesn鈥檛 tackle the compositional effects problem 鈥� at least, not entirely. With a rapidly changing student population, as we鈥檝e had in recent decades, average scores can mislead. 

In particular, the growing number of Hispanic students entering American schools every year 鈥� who tend to come from families with lower educational opportunity, and thus score lower on average 鈥� will automatically reduce the average test scores of the nation as a whole. Especially given that so many of these new students are still learning English. Indeed, the new federal finds that the number of students classified as English learners rose by more than a million from 2011 to 2021. If we鈥檙e trying to gauge school performance, we have to control for such changes. 

One straightforward way to do so is to look at trends in student achievement for individual racial/ethnic groups. This doesn鈥檛 alter the picture much for math; the trend lines for the major subgroups track that national average pretty well, with all generally increasing until the 2010s. Here鈥檚 what that looks like for the Long Term Trend assessment for 13-year-olds:

But in reading, there were periods when all or most of the major racial groups were making progress, even though the national average looked flat. From 2002 until 2019, for example, fourth-graders鈥� average reading scores barely budged, ticking up just a single point. But both Black and Hispanic students made significant gains, with increases of 5 and 8 points, respectively. That progress remained hidden within the national averages, largely because the Hispanic population share was also growing rapidly at the same time.

So when we analysts reported that, pre-COVID, American reading scores were flat as a pancake, we weren鈥檛 wrong 鈥� but that wasn鈥檛 the full story. Schools were doing something to boost reading performance over time, at least for Black and Hispanic students, albeit more slowly than the country would have liked.

Cohort growth

It’s also important to consider what might be changing in American society. That鈥檚 because test scores correlate highly with family background, and those backgrounds have changed a lot over time. Child poverty rates have gone up and (mostly) down; the number of two-parent families has declined; nutrition has improved; environmental risks (like lead paint) have decreased. All these factors affect test scores.

Most importantly, what happens to kids in the years before they sit for a test 鈥� especially before they even enter school 鈥� has a big impact on their achievement. Yet, there’s no good trend line for student performance before age 9 (for the LTT) or fourth grade (main NAEP). I鈥檝e called for the federal government to to partially correct for this, so we would at least get a good read on whether students are coming into schools better or worse prepared than in the past. We could then use those kindergarten scores as controls to better isolate the performance of schools versus everything else going on in society. (By one metric 鈥� the Northwest Evaluation Association鈥檚 Measures of Academic Progress test 鈥� student readiness started to fall , which might partially explain the pre-COVID slump.)

In the meantime, we can apply the same logic by using fourth-grade scores as controls. In other words, looking at the changes in test scores for the same group of students as they move from fourth to eighth grade can give a rough estimate of school performance, at least in the upper elementary and middle school grades. This measure has become popular among some analysts, including Matt Chingos at the Urban Institute, and for good reason. (Unfortunately, LTT doesn’t work for a similar analysis because its testing schedule has been too irregular. Likewise with grade 12 trends on the main NAEP.)

We鈥檒l focus here on math, given that progress in reading has been so slight, and see when cohort growth was the strongest. This provides a very different answer: The mid- to late-1990s were the heyday of American education. Indeed, whereas achievement kept improving until the early to mid-2010s, the trend for cohort growth is generally downward. 

Though not shown here, the cohort patterns look largely the same when disaggregated by race and percentile level, though the mid-2010s slump was particularly bad for the lowest-achieving kids and for Black students 鈥� as was the COVID era.

Summing it up

So where does that leave us?

• Student achievement reached its all-time high in the early to mid-2010s, before slumping through the rest of the decade and then falling off a cliff during COVID. College attainment was also highest for students who graduated high school in the early to mid-2010s, though it might have kept rising afterward. The young Americans who were in school in the early to mid-2010s, then, might be considered our Smartest Generation.
  
• Gains in math have been particularly impressive over the years, at least until the 2010s 鈥� though schools performed somewhat better in reading than national averages indicate, given the rapidly changing composition of the student population, especially the dramatic rise in (lower-scoring) Hispanic students and English learners.
  
• However, schools鈥� productivity 鈥� in terms of boosting students鈥� test scores from grades 4 to 8 鈥� peaked much sooner, in the mid to late 1990s, before declining somewhat in the 2000s and even more in the 2010s. The mid to late 1990s, then, might be considered American Education鈥檚 heyday.

The , when the Cold War was over (and the war on terrorism hadn鈥檛 started), the economy was booming, child poverty was falling and the combination of increased school spending and consequential accountability were marching across the land. (No, those weren鈥檛 my childhood or teenage years, but it was the time when I was lucky to join the nascent education reform movement.)

As an eternal optimist, I must remain hopeful that another Golden Age might be right around the corner. I know, COVID learning loss was massive, and kids are still entering school behind where they used to be. And educators are struggling mightily with a student engagement crisis, with chronic absenteeism, misbehavior and phone addiction creating daily challenges. 

But at the same time, many states and districts have been investing in high-dosage tutoring, getting their act together when it comes to the Science of Reading and adopting () high-quality instructional materials. A strong economy is keeping child poverty rates low, too. All these factors should help kids make progress in the years ahead 鈥� especially if policymakers decide to as well. 

If we analysts focus on cohort growth rather than raw trend lines, Americans might spot a rebound sooner than many naysayers expect.

Special thanks to Fordham senior research associate Meredith Coffey for the extensive data analysis represented here.

confirms that high school students who complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) are more likely to attend college than those who do not. This, of course, is the whole purpose of the federal financial aid program 鈥� to help lower- and middle-income students pursue higher education.

Despite the recent unfortunate 鈥� to put it mildly 鈥� rollout of the simplified FAFSA, the country would still be better off if all high school students completed the form. But even before the current fiasco, on the number of high schoolers filing the FAFSA was worrying. Access to federal aid is contingent on the FAFSA, and if students do not fill it out, they cannot access a major source of financial support for college.

Several states have moved in the right direction in requiring completion. One of the first, Louisiana, saw a 20% increase in FAFSA completions in one year after requiring high school seniors to complete the form to graduate. But the state is its universal FAFSA mandate over concerns about sharing financial information with the federal government, 鈥渋nvading鈥� families鈥� privacy and jeopardizing their 鈥渓iberty.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Worries about privacy seem misguided, as families share financial information with the government every year by filing tax returns, and much of the data in the FAFSA comes directly from these. Dropping a statewide mandate will not only hurt those students and families who might not learn about available financial aid; if fewer students go on to postsecondary education, it will make it more difficult for states to meet their higher education attainment goals.  This, in turn, will jeopardize the economic benefits to the state that accrue from having a more educated workforce.  

Hopefully, more states will require high school graduates to fill out the form. But beyond hoping, there is a way to make sure this happens: All colleges and universities could require the FAFSA as part of their application for admissions, whether students are applying for financial aid or not. 

This would create much stronger incentives for more states to mandate that high schools take on the responsibility of mandating FAFSA for their graduates. Even students who don鈥檛 require need-based financial aid receive large subsidies from both public and private nonprofit colleges and universities, because the full sticker price does not cover the actual cost of the education received. The difference can be quite large 鈥� in many cases greater than the value of a Pell Grant 鈥� both at public flagships and more selective private schools. The more selective the university, the larger the subsidies, since selectivity is closely related to the resources that colleges have available to spend on students. These are covered in a variety of ways that are supported by federal and state policies: direct government subsidies to colleges and universities; contributions from donors who receive tax benefits; exemptions from income tax on earnings on endowments; and local property taxes. 

If the FAFSA became a routine part of the college application process for all, it would level the playing field for all students in terms of required submissions and make it more likely that more high school students would receive the financial aid they need. Families that pay full freight might object, but the checks they write don’t cover the full cost of their children’s education any more than the small contributions asked of students who receive large scholarships. Why should the wealthiest families be treated differently than those applying for Pell Grants? Both are receiving public financial benefits, just in different forms. The burden on these families would be minimal since most of the information would come directly from the IRS.

Requiring the FAFSA from all applicants would also offer more information to policymakers on the income distribution of students attending college. Since both the federal and state governments heavily subsidize higher education, understanding how those subsidies are distributed across the population is important for making good public policy. These subsidies are, in part, justified on the basis of supporting economic and social mobility. Without knowing who is receiving them, it is impossible to evaluate their effectiveness.  

Having all families fill out the FAFSA whether they are applying for need-based financial aid or not would make possible better federal and state policies in support of the country’s higher education goals.

As she prepares to enroll at Spelman College in Atlanta, here are five things to know about Shepherd:

How she did it: Shepherd sent her bona fides 鈥� which include the publication of a book titled 鈥淭hirteen,鈥� seats on the New Orleans mayor’s and superintendent’s youth advisory councils, and extensive community service 鈥� to every college or university she could find that waived the application fee. She also submitted her application to , an online portal that offers direct admissions to colleges whose criteria students meet. 

About those scholarships: KIPP New Orleans leaders believe Shepherd has received more scholarship offers, or nearly so, than any graduate, ever. Because of unprecedented delays caused by problems with this year鈥檚 FAFSA, her total tally is likely to keep rising as colleges and philanthropies continue processing awards. All told, so far her senior class has earned $26 million in scholarships.  

Where she鈥檚 headed: Shepherd is waitlisted at an Ivy she鈥檇 prefer not to name, but it wasn鈥檛 her first choice. She鈥檚 had her eyes on Spelman College for years 鈥� even if it wasn鈥檛 always clear how she鈥檇 get there: 鈥淢y mom always told me to play my role and everything else would fall into place, and that鈥檚 exactly what happened. (They did also give me a full ride .)鈥� Shepherd texted in response to 蜜桃影视鈥檚 questions. 鈥淪o I鈥檒l be going to my dream school for free!鈥�

After that: Shepherd plans to follow a political science degree with law school, after which the two-time winner of KIPP New Orleans’s Black Lives Matter writing contest plans to tackle some societal issues. 鈥淚 want to be on the Supreme Court because I want to be a part of change to make a more fair, just and equitable society, and what better way to do that than from inside.鈥�

Her inspiration: Shepherd was in kindergarten when her father died. More recently, she lost both of her maternal grandparents to COVID. 鈥淓ducation meant everything to them, so I didn鈥檛 really have a choice but to do well in school,鈥� she says. When her grandmother passed, Shepherd channeled her grief into making her proud. 鈥淚t made me feel like everything I do moving forward .鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

GEO鈥檚 class of 2023 鈥� the school鈥檚 first graduating class 鈥� set a strong baseline that current students are on track to beat: 100% of students graduated in four years, 40% of them finished high school with at least one full year of college credit and an additional 10% finished with a full associate degree. Two sisters illustrate GEO students鈥� drive and persistence. Quintasia McCray, a 2023 graduate, earned her associate degree and 76 college credits at Baton Rouge Community College by the time she finished high school. Now, her little sister is coming after her. Quinniese Darby, a GEO senior, has 58 college credits 鈥� but her goal is to beat Quintasia鈥檚 total.

By earning associate degrees in high school, the sisters can expect a median net gain in their lifetime earnings of beyond what they could expect to make with a high school diploma. Combine this with additional credit hours and smart college advising on four-year degree programs, and they have already gone a long way toward earning the bachelor鈥檚 degrees that could help them earn almost more than a high school graduate over their lifetimes.

Of GEO’s 455 current students, 50% were enrolled in a community college course in fall 2023, and they paid nothing for their credits. The school uses per-pupil funding to cover all fees 鈥� books, transportation, enrollment and more. Though research that early college usually cost an extra $1,000 per pupil per year, GEO, a public charter school, is making this work without additional funds. The college classes replace high school courses, so, for example, students taking English composition at Baton Rouge Community College can skip junior-year English at GEO. That means fewer high school teachers and courses, a key part of the school鈥檚 ability to fund community college costs. A , new this year, allows 25 seniors to take all their courses, whether for high school or college credit, at Baton Rouge Community. 

Counselor Katie Grimes, who oversees the dual-enrollment initiative, says the secret to running a successful program for a population that many high schools would struggle to graduate is to set high expectations for students and not let them quit. 鈥淲hat I think adults need to understand about high school kids is that if you set a high standard, they鈥檙e always going to meet you there,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut you have to set it and be firm.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Sitting at a table with six seniors, who are all on track to graduate with an associate degree, Grimes noted, 鈥淎ll of these kids in here have come to me several times, either mad or wanting to drop out of a class. I鈥檓 just, like, 鈥楴o.鈥� They come to me with their internal fires, upset, and I just say, 鈥楴o, you can do it.鈥欌�� 

Grimes walks the line between keeping students from quitting and being realistic about when early college might be too much. When ninth graders arrive, she looks carefully at their academics and behavior to determine whether they should begin college classes right away. But a slow start doesn鈥檛 keep them from trying later, at their own pace. To calibrate the experience, she gets to know each student as a person.

Looking directly at Phillip Derozan, a senior, she said, 鈥淧hillip and I had a tumultuous relationship at first. We were always fussing. I was threatening to kick him out of the program every week. I threatened it because I felt he just wasn鈥檛 there yet. But one day, it clicked. He came to me and said, 鈥淥K, Miss Katie, I want to do this. I want to earn my associate degree. What do I need to do?鈥�

Another key ingredient is that students learn to tolerate and bounce back from failure. They are taking challenging, college-level courses, with adult college students. The high schoolers are not guaranteed a passing grade simply because they are young, or they try.  

One by one, all six of the seniors named a college class they had failed. Anyla Fleming is taking college algebra for the third time. 鈥淭his time, we鈥檙e going to do it,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard out there. It鈥檚 hard. But this time, I鈥檓 passing.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;  

Akeem Tillman, sitting across from Anyla, plans to take his associate degree to a four-year college to study mechanical engineering. When asked about the difference between college and high school, he said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 more self-paced. You got to be on it. Nobody gonna be sitting there telling you, 鈥榊ou got to do this.鈥� 鈥�  

At the same time, GEO students know they have adults in their corner when they need support. When asked who they go to if they have a problem with a class, students immediately named three or four school staff members, including Grimes.

As education leaders explore new pathways to advanced learning in high school, the partnership between GEO and Baton Rouge Community College could be a model for other schools and communities. Sometimes, what works is obvious: set high standards for students and don鈥檛 let them quit, even if they stumble along the way; find a good postsecondary partner; and hire staff who are willing and able to see students for the young adults that they are. 

Twenty years later, the lack of child care still keeps millions of parents from entering or remaining in the workforce 鈥� and the pandemic has only exacerbated this issue. A Census Bureau survey found that in just the first two weeks of February, nearly people missed work to care for children who were not in day care, and it is the reason cited by who left the workforce during the COVID. In the last few years, over have closed, and many more still operate at a limited capacity. The crisis is especially acute in predominantly .

But an equally devastating consequence is that it makes enrolling in and finishing college nearly impossible for millions of parents. For mothers and fathers with low incomes, a postsecondary credential provides the most reliable pathway out of poverty. Yet for these parents, who are also disproportionately Black, Indigenous, and Latino, there is limited access to child care, both on and off campus.

This is one of the top reasons student parents are to complete a bachelor鈥檚 degree within five years than those without children. The college affordability gap is also wider for student parents 鈥� when the cost of child care is factored in, the out-of-pocket cost to attend a public college is often two to five times . of student-parents live near or below the poverty line, and high child care costs only add to their financial burdens. Underresourced families devote an to child care expenses; across the country, the cost of a spot at a child care center exceeds the average at a public four-year university. These exorbitant expenses can force parents to rely on makeshift forms of child care and prevent them from pursuing opportunities that could lead to higher earnings 鈥� like a聽degree.聽

Recent bills like the American Rescue Plan Act show how adequate investment and policy can make a difference. Its temporary funds provided $39 billion in emergency support for child care, preventing some 3.2 million slots from disappearing. But without long-term solutions that address rising child care costs and declining access to quality care options, student-parents are likely fighting a battle with no end in sight. Families need policies that create a long-term impact and clear a pathway to economic mobility, including the possibility of earning a postsecondary credential. 

Higher education leaders and policymakers must rally around the success of student-parents and their children. One of the first steps should be collecting data on the parenting and caregiving statuses of students at colleges and universities. This is essential to improving college completion rates for student-parents. Without comprehensive data, it is impossible to understand the hurdles and barriers that prevent these students from attaining academic and professional success. 

Federal agencies such as the U.S. Children’s Bureau must increase funding for child care and back efforts to lower and stabilize the cost 鈥� particularly for services provided at community colleges and other colleges and universities that especially serve minority populations, which is where the largest share of student-parents can be found.

Policymakers and college leaders should also consider the benefits of two-generation educational programming 鈥� for example, providing student-parents with child care for their younger kids that ensures they are developmentally, academically, and emotionally prepared for kindergarten and beyond. Barriers to child care have multi-generational impacts felt most acutely by . Programming that solves child care concerns while providing early childhood development is critical, as it eases student-parents’ path to college completion while preparing their children for early academic success. Transforming colleges and universities into hubs for flexible, adaptable and strategically designed two-generation programming sets the stage for lasting ripple effects, helping parenting students and their families to thrive personally, academically and professionally.

Lastly, colleges must adopt practices that highlight the resources accessible on their campuses. They should encourage student-parents to share their experiences, as this will lead to an environment where those in similar situations feel supported and comfortable enough to seek assistance. In addition to offering basic aid, colleges and universities should also provide student-parents with information on career development opportunities and public assistance programs that would best fulfill their needs.

Finding the way out of the child care crisis will benefit millions of families, putting money back into the economy and making success stories like mine a lot more common. 

Every year, as much as one-third of college-bound high school graduates to their first day of class. It鈥檚 all too easy for students to miss important deadlines, forget about necessary paperwork or get lost in the byzantine financial aid process. Known as summer melt, this phenomenon has long plagued high schools and colleges.

In response, savvy schools and nonprofit partners in the college access field have turned to virtual advising to keep students on track when they cannot meet in person over the summer. In Connecticut, for example, sends text messages to thousands of students in nine high schools. The program has been so successful that the Connecticut State Department of Education is now offering access to the texting software to 26 additional schools.

These kinds of practices were crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic, as millions of students facing overwhelming financial and academic challenges were unable to connect face-to-face with counselors and advisers. The number of students completing their Free Application for Federal Student Aid 鈥� FAFSA 鈥� , and schools doubled down on virtual advising strategies to help combat this COVID melt. Now, those same strategies can serve as a foundation for a more flexible, impactful approach to counseling moving forward.

Here are three steps schools can take to create an effective virtual advising program that can serve students far beyond the pandemic.

First, schools must decide how they will communicate with students virtually. The best programs will make use of a variety of platforms, including texting, email, social media, videoconferencing and newsletters. It鈥檚 easy to drown in a sea of options, but the choice among the many available platforms should be driven by both the kinds of interventions a school hopes to offer (e.g., one- or two-way texting, social media campaigns and outreach, virtual meetings with students and families) and the kinds of students the school serves. If students lack regular access to email outside school, for example, an email campaign may be of little use.

Second: Data is key. Without it, schools are in the dark, and virtual counseling efforts will fail. Schools cannot text students reminders without first creating a database of students鈥� and parents鈥� phone numbers. A robust system of virtual advising is built on data.

Grade-point averages, coursework and standardized test scores are all vital pieces of information that can help schools develop stronger, more effective advising solutions. Schools must also collect data on the impact of their advising programs. They should set clear goals and milestones and then measure whether those are being reached. Clear data-sharing agreements between districts and schools and the community-based organizations and vendors with whom they partner will be critical in avoiding any confusion over what data is available and how it can be used.

Finally, schools must avoid an ad hoc approach and instead determine what interventions make sense for their communities and individual students. When FAFSA deadlines approach, schools might want to roll out a community-wide campaign, sending every student an email or a text message with reminders of important dates and forms and links to . They could organize Zoom calls with small groups of students to discuss their college plans and what steps they are taking. Triaging is important: Some students may need one-on-one advising sessions to address their questions, while others might require a lighter touch.

Schools should let data inform what interventions are needed for which kinds of students, and when. Directly asking students about the level of support they鈥檙e interested in will help guarantee they get what they need. Having a clear plan in place will allow schools to determine how to best make use of their limited time and resources so students receive the right kinds of care and support.

To help, the College Advising Corps to help districts, schools and community-based organizations like college access programs choose the right types of communication for them and parse the large variety of available platforms, from texting tools like Remind and SignalVine to virtual meeting services like Zoom and Google Hangouts. The 500 members can help districts and schools support their students as they navigate college-access mile markers like FAFSA completion and comparisons of financial aid offers. The offers districts a rich library of resources.

Additional aid is coming in the form of more than $120 billion in the American Rescue Plan鈥檚 Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund to help state education agencies, districts and schools support existing initiatives and create new ones. , including on college and career readiness.

While COVID-19 has challenged even the best-laid education plans, it has also spurred developments in support that may serve students well for years to come. By creating a thoughtful and robust virtual advising plan, schools can help ensure that their students have the support and resources they need to keep moving forward on their college journey.

Bill DeBaun is director of data and evaluation at the .