Reversing the trend will require stakeholders, from college administrators to state legislators, to act with urgency and pragmatism. The following four shifts are crucial for this to occur: 

First, high school college counselors and university admissions teams must frame college as a financial investment. Nationally, men cite college’s financial burden as a major factor for not enrolling, while women are overrepresented in the lowest-paying majors. This signals that it’s time to abandon the framing of college as an endeavor that is more social than academic. Despite growing angst about crushing student loan debt, college visits and marketing materials still often focus on factors like niche interest clubs, sorority rushes, sports teams and events, or a school’s geographical location. These non-academic factors drive college selection and spending and help to explain why twice as many American first-year students live on campus as their Canadian counterparts. 

College’s foremost value proposition lies in aligning advanced skills with marketplace demands, including forecasted trends. For instance, the demand for data scientists is from 2023 to 2033 — much faster than the average job growth rate. College advisers need to crunch the numbers with students and their families to ensure they are aware of the variety of professions, trades and the earning power of various college degrees.

Second, state legislators need to make it a central priority to expand opportunities for high schoolers to earn college credit. Entering college with some credits already in hand is like starting at first base instead of home plate. States can look to Ohio’s College program, which funds qualifying students’ costs to acquire college credits in high school.

Meanwhile, schools and districts can implement early college and dual-enrollment programs, Advanced Placement courses and the credit-by-testing College Level Examination Program are available for free or at a nominal cost. They can trim tuition expenses, bolster students’ self-perception as capable of succeeding in higher education, increase the odds of graduation and shorten the time to earn a degree by a semester, a year or more. In  England, for example, a standard university degree takes three years to complete and the graduation rate hovers around 80%; in the U.S., earning a degree takes four years — or more — the graduation rate is about 50%, and have some college education but no degree at all.

Third, college administrators and deans should take advantage of advances in artificial intelligence to increase graduation rates. In 2016, John Jay College used AI and predictive analytics to identify seniors at risk of not graduating. The initiative boosted completion rates by 34%, adding 600 graduates in the two-year pilot. AI predictive modeling is now in use at multiple City University of New York campuses and has increased graduation rates at state schools like Georgia State University by a significant percentage. Use of this technology to identify and follow up with vulnerable students is important, because everyone benefits when more seniors graduate from college on time. 

Fourth, education policymakers across the country need to embrace the fact that not everyone wants, or needs, to go to college. Bachelor’s degrees do confer significant advantages for those who earn them, but there are other postsecondary pathways to fulfilling, well-compensated vocations. For example, electricians, who gain entry to their trade through apprenticeships or technical schools, earn a median salary of $62,350 per year — more than $10,000 above the national average of all workers — while dental hygienists train in community college and have a median pay of $94,260 yearly. 

Intriguing coursework and exciting social escapades do make for memorable undergraduate experiences, but college is not summer camp; it is an investment in Americans’ individual and collective futures. In the face of declining enrollment, now is the time for policymakers, high school counselors and university administrators to respond to new realities by making these needed changes.

Not many make it all the way through to graduation. And for those who do, even with a degree, entering the workforce can be equally difficult.

If they come from a family that struggles to make it from one paycheck to the next, they’ll feel pressure to contribute right away, which may lead them to accept jobs below the education level they worked so hard to attain. First-generation graduates are 8% more likely to take a job that their bachelor’s degrees.

They need help, clearly. That’s why my organization, Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, has been running a College and Career Success Program for about five years. Some 600 students have participated in that time, and around 350 undergraduates — all of whom are former Littles in our other programs — are in this project now. The majority attend the State University of New York or City University of New York, but participants are enrolled at about 75 schools across the country. Most are in bachelor’s degree programs, but we support students at community colleges as well.

The idea is simple: Littles have the opportunity to opt into our College and Career Success Program while they are in high school. We help them identify colleges as juniors and apply, with the support of a counselor. After graduation, they’re able to formally join the program, which guarantees them support through college and into their first career job. They then connect with a mentor, or Big, who checks in on the students throughout their undergraduate years and ensures they have the support, guidance and resources they need to graduate. It is the role of the Bigs to explain their own journey and the help they accessed along the way. This is important because many students feel they have to do it on their own and that asking for help is a sign of weakness or failure. But in reality, no one succeeds alone.

Students and mentors have a monthly check-in guide that brings structure to their conversations around college persistence and success. These check-ins have themes that shift each semester, covering everything from navigating campus life to laying the foundation for success after graduation. They include understanding and accessing college life and resources; getting engaged on campus in ways that align with interests and potential career aspirations; identifying a peer group that can support overall college and career goals; and identifying opportunities on campus that can introduce a potential career path and bolster a resume. 

During the first two years of college, these check-in guides are meant to help students stay on track to graduate in a major they are interested in. Right now, it’s working for 82% of our college students.

The conversation shifts starting in the third year toward career exploration and access. We leverage corporate partners to offer what we call Career Pathways programming, which pairs college students with a mentor in an industry they are interested in. Career Pathways are done in cohorts with 15 students and 15 employees from a company or professional organization. They meet weekly for 10 sessions, where students learn about the different careers that exist in a particular industry.

Students have the chance to identify a career and then map out with their mentor actions they can take in college to build their resumes. They will also participate in informational interviews with someone who has the job they want and have an opportunity to connect with the entire cohort of mentors to build their professional network. We also ask mentors to share their professional networks and opportunities with the students.

It’s still early, but results are promising. We had our first graduating class last year, and 80% of participants left the program with a career job or internship. If those results continue, scholars in our program will make it to the finish line and be positioned well for the life that starts beyond it.Most professionals know that embarking on a path to career success takes more than just a degree. It also needs the helping hands and guidance of a network that can open doors that students might otherwise not have access to. The norms of campus life and college resources are unknown to most first-generation students, as is the concept and importance of networking. We hope this program helps level the playing field for these young people.

The study followed 23,000 students starting with their freshman year of high school in 2009. Though 74% enrolled in college after graduating, almost half didn’t receive any postsecondary credential by June 2021. They are the fifth group the NCES has tracked for postsecondary outcomes, but the first cohort it began tracking in ninth grade. The studies allow researchers and policymakers to have a better understanding of students’ educational experiences beyond high school.

The previous group of 2002 graduates had a higher college enrollment rate, at 84%, and a completion rate of 52%. Though the study doesn’t include direct insight from students about why they may not have finished their education, it does give a snapshot of graduating seniors during that time. The 2013 cohort’s diverse set of characteristics such as their gender, race and income, paired with the economy, likely played a role. Additionally, students who were still in school at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 likely had their learning disrupted.

Elise Christopher, director of the NCES longitudinal studies, says the 2008 Great Recession could have influenced how this cohort thought about life after graduation and entering the workforce. She also points out that the No Child Left Behind Act could have had an effect.

When the study was being designed in the early 2000s, there was a lot of policy focused on degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering and math. But, Christopher says, No Child Left Behind strongly emphasized math and reading, which put it at odds with the STEM pipeline push. The new study found that students who attended postsecondary education in the 2013 cohort mostly pursued degrees in non-STEM fields. Over 80% of students who earned a degree were in an unrelated field. Of the males who completed their higher education, nearly 30% were in STEM fields, as were nearly 14% of females. By race, Asian students had the highest percentage of STEM degrees and certificates, at nearly 34%.

Among the students who enrolled in postsecondary education, more than half were female. Thirty-nine percent of them earned a bachelor’s degree and 32% attained no credential. Though male students had a lower enrollment rate, at 44%, 38% similarly earned bachelor’s degrees.

The study also examined students by race. Although white students had the highest enrollment rate (53%), Asian students were the top earners of bachelor’s degrees, at 56%. Hispanic and Black students had the second-and third-highest enrollment rates, though far behind white students, at 20% and 12%, respectively. Despite pursuing higher education, 46% of Hispanic students and 56% of Black students earned no postsecondary credential.

The NCES also looked at the income and education levels of the students’ parents. About 80% of those whose families earned more than $115,000 completed their degree or credential, in comparison to 49% of students whose families earned under $35,000. Of students whose parents had a high school education or lower, nearly 40% didn’t pursue higher learning after graduation.

“It’s very important to understand what’s happening in ninth grade,” Christopher said. “But we really don’t know the full measure of those impacts of those educational experiences until we get these long-term outcome data.”

The data, released by the and the , found about one-third of community college students transfer to a four-year school with less than half graduating within six years — equating to the net completion rate of 16 percent.

But the report, in collaboration with the , saw even smaller completion rates for students who are Black, Latino and low-income at 9, 13 and 11 percent respectively.

John Fink, a senior research associate at the Community College Research Center, said this is because the transfer system is “riddled with barriers” from the historic lack of collaboration between community colleges and four-year schools.

“It’s not an equitable system when we rely on [community college] students to come in with knowledge of this hidden curriculum on how to transfer instead of holding institutions responsible for creating clear pathways and adequate advising along the way,” Fink said.

The confusion and lack of clarity has added to students’ growing disdain for working towards a four-year degree as recent enrollment gains come particularly from community colleges with a vocational program focus, Fink said. 

“The [transfer system] largely replicates existing societal inequities,” Fink said. “The folks who are going to community college in large numbers are from communities that have historically had less access to bachelor and graduate degrees — like low-income and students of color.”

“If there’s no additional resources and support to make up for this, you can expect to see these disparities in completion outcomes,” Fink said.

Disparate Bachelor’s Degree Outcomes

The report showed mixed four-year completion outcomes from community college transfers demographically, Fink said. 

Low-income, Black and Latino students saw completion rates below the national average, in addition to men and students 25 years or older.

But high-income, Asian and White students saw completion rates above the national average, in addition to women and students 18 to 19 years old.

Fink said completion rates have increased slightly compared to previous years — jumping from 14 percent in 2016.

But he noted the increase is “not a lot [and] definitely not where we need it to be.”

“There is so much potential here to create greater economic mobility, to further diversify student bodies and to bring in community college transfers that can perform at the same if not higher rates than non-transfer students,” Fink said.

Fink said creating a “sense of belonging” on campus and expanding core practices such as dual enrollment will greatly improve transfer completion outcomes.

“Visibility, belonging and inclusion are important things to think about in order to change some of these dismal outcomes nationally,” Fink said.

‘Exclusionary’ Transfer Practices 

Dr. Marielena DeSanctis, president of the , said the completion disparities for students from low-income backgrounds are troubling.

“There’s plenty of data that speaks to more and more jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree, so it’s concerning when you start limiting the number of people that can attain one,” DeSanctis said.

DeSanctis, who previously worked at , said Florida has a very different landscape for students to transfer from a community college to a four-year school compared to Colorado.

“There was no question that the courses you were taking were going to transfer and that it was going to be equivalent credits [but] here in Colorado that’s not the case,” DeSanctis said, noting the harm of “exclusionary” transfer practices she’s noticed from four-year schools.

“Because community colleges tend to be more racially and ethnically diverse, we should be telling students that community college is a vehicle to transfer to a university — particularly students that are ready to change the trajectory of their lives,” DeSanctis said. 

Debi Gaitan, vice president of student services at , agreed with DeSanctis, adding that constraints placed on students from low-income backgrounds shouldn’t hinder them from having access to a four-year school whether they decide to transfer or go straight into the workforce.

“San Antonio is very much a city where we can see where our communities of poverty reside and they feed directly into our institutions,” Gaitan said, noting that her students are often part-time, caring for family members and working to make ends meet.

“We want to ensure the stigma of not completing is not placed on this population,” Gaitan said. “It’s more about ‘did they reach their goal of being able to get a better job with better income to get out of poverty.’”

Gaitan said it’s important for both community colleges and four-year schools to actively reach out to students from low-income backgrounds.

“Students that have choices and are resourced know about us and know what we have to offer,” Gaitan said. “Therefore we need to shift to the communities that don’t know we’re here…[because] students from intergenerational cycles of poverty need those same resources our upwardly mobile, higher income communities already have.”

Gaitan said resources that have been effective in her community include counseling programs and “apartment starters” where students have access to microwaves, washing machines and other household needs so they can focus on their studies.

“These are communities that need us to be different and need us to be doing more,” Gaitan said. “We want as many people in higher education to know this as possible because that’s how we have learned and that’s how we have adopted and adapted some really promising practices.”

This article is part of a series in partnership with reporter Joshua Bay’s highlighting the struggles of community college students.

While overall completion rates for students nationwide stalled at all colleges, Black and Latino students’ saw success at community colleges, which were prepared for pandemic challenges with tools in place like online classes for working students.

“[Community colleges] were better situated to handle the disruption from in-person to online courses…and that, in fact, led to greater retention rates,” said Josh Wyner, founder and executive director of the .

Analyzing trends for students six years after enrolling in postsecondary education, a from the found a 62.2 percent completion rate for those starting in fall 2017 — a stalled number compared to 2015.

But, Black and Latino students’ who enrolled in fall 2017 saw completion rates decline to 43.4 percent and 50.1 percent respectively — a 0.5 and 0.2 percentage point drop compared to those enrolled in 2016.

Wyner said the imbalance for Black and Latino students came from either the need to work when parents lost their jobs or the need to take care of siblings because their parents didn’t have jobs during the pandemic where they could work from home.

“Income and wealth disparities often prevented students from these groups from not only enrolling in college in the first place but also staying when there were disruptions,” Wyner said.

At public four-year colleges, Black and Latino students saw steeper completion rate declines to 48.7 percent and 56.1 percent respectively — a 1.5 and 1 percentage point drop compared to those enrolled in 2016.

In contrast, Black and Latino students at community colleges increased to 31.6 percent and 38 percent respectively — a 0.5 and 0.1 percentage point gain compared to those enrolled in 2016.

Wyner said the completion rate hike at community colleges was because those schools historically enroll students with diverse educational needs, and by necessity, were already invested in online learning pre-pandemic.

Amrit Ahluwalia, director of strategic insights at , said in a statement in response to the report that the increase in community college completion rates show how young students view college as a “means to an end.”

“When they get the learning they feel they need to support their short-term employability, they find jobs and leave their programs,” Ahluwalia said.

Wyner said because Black and Latino students often come from lower income communities, they view community college as a more attainable means of education.

“On average, tuition for a public institution is twice the rate at a four-year college than a community college,” Wyner said. “So it would make sense that if income correlates [completion declines for Black and Latino students] would be felt more in the four-year space than the community college space.”

This comes as more than 2.4 million students enrolled in postsecondary education for the first time in fall 2017 — an increase of 1.2 percent compared to 2016.

“Not only have fewer of the 2017 starters completed as of 2023, but the data also show fewer still enrolled, suggesting that this is more than just a matter of slower progress during the pandemic years,” Doug Shapiro, executive director of the research center, said in a statement.

In addition, the gender gap continued to grow for those enrolled in fall 2017 — with a completion rate of 65.6 percent for female students compared to 58.4 percent for males.

Wyner said the low number of colleges providing hands-on learning had a disproportionate impact on male student retention.

“There’s pretty good evidence that adults learn better when theory is taught alongside hands-on learning,” Wyner said. “I do think that is something that really needs to be thought about as a way to bring men back into higher ed.”

He added how this is especially true for male students who feel disconnected from learning because they were raised in families that worked blue-collar jobs without needing a degree.

Moving forward, Wyner said colleges need to fully address the value they offer to students so they continue to stick around despite their life circumstances.

“If your programs aren’t actually delivering value to students, they may be making entirely rational decisions to leave,” Wyner said.

KIPP middle and high school students were 31 percentage points more likely to enroll in a four-year college within three years of high school versus those students who were not selected, according to And their likelihood of graduating college within five years after high school shot up by 19 percentage points.

Among Mathematica’s sample of students, the effect of attending both a KIPP middle school and high school was so large that if it were applied to all students nationally, the longstanding college completion gap between Black and Hispanic students and their white peers would nearly close.

“The magnitude of these impact estimates is large, and effects of this size have substantial policy relevance,” the researchers write. 

KIPP, which got its start in Houston in 1994, now serves 120,000 students across 21 states and Washington, D. C. It currently operates 117 elementary, 121 middle and 42 high schools. 

KIPP enrolls mostly Black and Hispanic students from low-income communities, children who have been historically underserved and have lower high school and college completion rates. 

KIPP places much emphasis and resources on supporting its alumni through college and into their early careers. The model of following through with children beyond high school has seen tremendous success elsewhere: Students who participated in Chicago’s program, which spans students’ junior and senior year of high school in addition to their freshman year of college, had a 40% greater chance of earning a bachelor’s degree than their peers, a recent study found.

“We just have an unyielding belief in children and … we’re frankly willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that every child fulfills their potential,” said Shavar Jeffries, who joined the KIPP Foundation as CEO in January 2023.

The study tracked 2,066 students who applied to 21 KIPP middle schools in 2008, 2009 or 2011. Mathematica senior fellow Philip Gleason first studied KIPP in 2007, four years after his company began a broader that showed marked improvement in the achievement of children who attended charters in city centers.

“We wanted to know what was going on in these schools and KIPP was the largest network of charters that served students in urban areas,” he said. 

The 2007 study showed KIPP middle school students outperformed their peers — children who applied to the program but were not selected through the lottery system — in both reading and math. 

In this latest report, Mathematica went back to the students in the 2007 study to see whether they attended or completed college, using data obtained through the National Student Clearinghouse. 

While the findings were consistent with their earlier work, Gleason found the degree to which KIPP middle and high school students outperformed their peers surprising. 

“The earlier studies were also positive in terms of their impact on academic achievement,” he said. “But what we did not know was how important the combined effect of going to a KIPP middle and high school would be.” 

Jeffries attributes the results to KIPP’s academic program — and to its efforts to counsel students long after graduation. 

“We are very intentional,” he said, adding that staff work hard to help every high school student find their path. “We have partnerships with well over 100 colleges throughout the country. We do a lot of work to match students with postsecondary placements.”

He said, too, that staff believe in the success of all students. 

“We go above and beyond,” Jeffries said. “We tend to have longer school days and longer school years. And we use data in very intentional ways so that in our classrooms, on an ongoing real-time basis, we can differentiate our instruction based upon where a kid is at any given point in time.”

While Jeffries said the network is very focused now on learning loss recovery following the pandemic, there are plans over the next five years, a KIPP spokesperson said, to open as many high schools as possible with an aim that every KIPP 8^th grader would be able to attend a KIPP high school.

Some 70% of students offered admission to a KIPP middle school attend one, the study found. Roughly 75% of these students graduate from those schools and approximately 71% of these graduates continue on to a KIPP high school.

Makala Faniel, 25 and who enrolled in KIPP WAYS Atlanta in fifth grade, credits the program with much of her academic and professional success. 

College readiness was built into the curriculum, she said, and counselors routinely helped students research universities, choose the right Advanced Placement courses to boost their chance of acceptance, fill out the Common Application and apply for key programs within a particular school.

Faniel visited the University of Pennsylvania as a middle schooler and would graduate from the college in 2020 with a degree in material science. 

“That early exposure really helped,” said Faniel, who is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in bioengineering at Georgia Tech University. 

She said KIPP’s partnerships with colleges and universities provided much-needed support: Faniel was in regular contact with other KIPP students at UPENN who helped her navigate next steps. 

Even after college, when she was first considering graduate school, she once again called on KIPP resources. 

“I talked to a lot of my former teachers when I was thinking about grad school, trying to figure out what do I do? How do I apply? What do I need?” she said. “I changed majors between undergrad and graduate school, so I talked to them about making that transition.” 

Ivelyn Camano-Lucero, 16 and a senior at KIPP NYC College Prep, hopes to study computer science at Yale. 

She will be among the first in her family to attend college: Her older brother was a student at Syracuse University while her sister studies at Fordham. All three attended KIPP schools. 

The youngest of the trio, Camano-Lucero, who lives near the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, wants to become a cybersecurity engineer. 

She talks often with other students about her plans beyond high school and noticed that those who attend other public schools don’t seem to have as much support. 

“When I talk to my friends about my career counselor, they aren’t familiar with that,” she said. “I think that aspect is pretty different.”

Kelly Gallagher, KIPP NYC manager of college counseling, said the counselors on staff have manageable caseloads: a maximum of 60 students each, allowing them to work closely with each of them.

Counselors edit college essays, talk to the families about their student’s next steps, explain the documentation needed to obtain financial aid — and how to appeal when schools don’t provide enough, among a host of other duties, Gallagher said. 

Another set of staffers, the College Success Team, visit students at college at least once per semester, she said. Students who are headed for the military, seek to pursue certifications or enter the workforce also have designated staffers to help them progress. 

“This is my 10^th year at the high school and I have former students who are now my coworkers,” Gallagher said, adding it’s not hard to focus KIPP students’ attention on college. “They are excited about it.”

The Mathematica study released today leverages the lottery-based samples from the earlier research and was funded by , a philanthropy which has given millions of dollars to KIPP since 2011.

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the City Fund provide financial support to KIPP and ����Ӱ��.

In our home state of Connecticut, more than require higher education, yet only of high school graduates from low-income backgrounds earn a college degree within six years. Through our Pledge to Advance Connecticut (PACT) program, the state’s are essentially free — but only if students complete the FAFSA.

The pandemic forced the education community to reimagine how we support schools and students in pursuit of college and certificate programs. So in December 2020, leveraging federal American Rescue Plan Act funding, the Connecticut State Department of Education, the Office of the Governor and the launched the . The idea was to partner with high schools in new ways to improve their FAFSA rates.

Now in its third year, the investment is paying off for over 21,000 Connecticut students who have already completed the FAFSA. In March, Connecticut’s FAFSA completion rate , up from 45.8% in 2022 and surpassing the .

How is Connecticut moving the needle on FAFSA completion and advancing the goal of postsecondary success for all students?

• Partnerships to Build Capacity: Over the past three years, schools with low FAFSA completion rates and high concentrations of need have been invited to participate in the FAFSA Challenge. School leaders and educators participate in a statewide community of practice, meeting monthly to educators review data, share promising practices, and troubleshoot barriers and obstacles. Schools also participate in monthly coaching with RISE, and educators have access to free FAFSA training via . Additionally, the department has partnered with colleges and community-based organizations to better connect schools, students and families with service providers.

• Resources to Fund Innovation: Through American Rescue Plan funding, schools participating in the challenge receive microgrants to pursue innovative strategies to promote FAFSA completion, such as family events, communications campaigns and staff stipends. For example, Norwalk’s Brien McMahon High School formed a FAFSA Task Force of teachers and counselors who receive training to support a caseload of students. Together they review data, share ideas and stay motivated as a team working toward a shared goal. Bridgeport’s Central High School expanded its family engagement efforts. Counselors reach out to caregivers of students who have not completed the FAFSA and promote the campaign through school signs and raffles that recognize students after they complete this important milestone.

• Data to Drive Action: Too often, educators lack the user-friendly data necessary to provide students with timely and equitable support. A new and data tools allow schools to monitor their progress daily and personalize support for students and families. These tools also promote shared accountability for results. They were made possible through a data-sharing agreement among the department, the Office of Higher Education and school districts. Gov. Ned Lamont’s 2021 workforce bill further spurred FAFSA completion and the focus on these data by requiring school districts to adopt policies to improve completion rates.

The FAFSA Challenge represents a coordinated, collaborative and multifaceted approach to promote FAFSA completion. In 2020-21, schools participating in the challenge increased their completion rates by 4 percentage points, and in 2021-22, that number doubled to 8 points. Building on the successes of the first two years, the 57 schools participating in the 2022-23 FAFSA Challenge are already on pace to exceed these results by the end of the school year.

Schools are working together in new ways to promote FAFSA completion and postsecondary success, closing opportunity gaps for students and enabling them to achieve their dreams despite financial barriers.

We challenge other states across the country to make FAFSA completion a core component of their education and economic recovery efforts. Connecticut’s approach is customized to its needs, but also highly replicable. By working together to improve educational outcomes, state policymakers and their partners can contribute to increased employment, decreased incarceration, and better economic prosperity for local communities and the nation. 

Outcomes were significantly worse for minority groups, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, which released the findings earlier this week. 

While 40.7% of white students who experienced an abrupt closure completed their studies at other locations, only 25.3% of Black students and 26.4% of Hispanic students did the same. Just 32.9% of American Indian and 36.4% of Asian students also met that goal. 

The findings were based on the records of 143,215 students at 467 institutions across the country, nearly half of which were in the private, for-profit, two-year sector. Nearly 55% were female, 25% were white and 34% were 30 or older at the time. Almost 83% experienced closures at for-profit institutions. 

“Less than half of those students — 47% — ever re-enrolled at another post-secondary institution,” said Doug Shapiro, the Research Center’s executive director, speaking of the students as a whole. “So, their school’s closing effectively closed the doors on the student’s educational dreams.”

Of those who did re-enroll only 36.8% earned a postsecondary credential: More than half left their new school without earning any credential, Shapiro said. 

Roughly 100,000 of the students in the study attended campuses that closed abruptly, leaving them to scramble for transcripts that were often unavailable, making it even more difficult for them to pursue their degrees. 

Researchers say states can play a greater role in preventing abrupt closures by enacting more stringent initial authorization practices for these colleges and by providing oversight in the years that follow, in part by monitoring student complaints and implementing a regular, more rigorous renewal process. 

Rachel Burns, a senior policy analyst with the State Higher Education group, acknowledged that it can be difficult for students to take a more proactive role around the issue. While private for-profit schools have for , ensnaring thousands, including minorities and , into expensive, worthless programs, many of these schools still have appeal. 

“There are already reasons to be skeptical of some of those institutions but sometimes those are the best options for students that need flexible schedules,” Burns noted, adding students would be wise to keep current copies of their transcripts and educate themselves about the transfer process. 

Not only did closures disrupt or end students’ education, but it left them in debt. The federal Department of Education allows for the discharge of federal student loans for eligible students when their schools close, the report states, but not everyone qualifies or successfully completes the process.  

A Government Accountability Office report from 2021, researchers said, shows that of 246,000 who weathered school closures between 2010 and 2020, only 80,000, or 32.5%, had their . These students, the GAO reported, collectively owed $4 billion, with the median debt hovering around $9,500 per student. 

The study found, too, that private for-profit, two- and four-year institutions enroll a disproportionately large number of students of color: in 2018, 12% of all students of color enrolled in postsecondary institutions eligible for federal student aid attended for-profit institutions.

Re-enrollment rates overall were highest among women at 49%, white students  at 62.5%, and traditional college-age students with the youngest, those 18-20, fairing the best at 54%.  

Those who re-enrolled within one to four months were the most likely to earn a credential, coming in at 47.6%:  Those who waited a year or more were the least likely at 18.7%. 

In several ways, the long-term findings on college closures mirror the nearer-term impact of the pandemic when college enrollment plummeted, particularly at community colleges which serve many low-income students of color. 

Nearly 12,000 campuses of institutions of higher education closed during the years examined by the study — often because of loss of accreditation related to financial challenges — and more have been added to the list since then, including Lincoln College of Illinois. 

The 157-year-old school survived a major campus fire in 1912, the Spanish flu of 1918, the Great Depression, World War II, the 2008 global financial crisis, according to its announcement, but it and the impact of a crippling cyberattack.

 The school, many of them first-generation college-goers, shuttered in May. Roughly 44% of the student body was Black. 

Student Jaylah Bolden, who has since transferred to another school, earlier this month that many of her friends were not able to make that leap and now are not enrolled anywhere.

“They lost their faith,” she said. “We didn’t give up on school. School gave up on us.”

Researchers said abrupt closures in the private, for-profit four-year sector had the worst and most profound impact on re-enrollment rates.

This marks the first of three reports. The second, expected in early 2023, will quantify closures’ impact on students by comparing them to those whose schools did not shutter. The last will examine how state policies affect student outcomes, comparing students who experienced closures in states with stringent protections against those attending schools without such safeguards. No release date has been set for the final report.

Why are students of color and those from dropping out at ? 

Early in my career, I taught at one of the most exclusive private K-12 schools in the country. It wasn’t unusual to hear a student talk about a recent trip to Europe or reference private tutors. Most of these students were hardworking kids who were fortunate to have been born into wealth. While many had a certain awareness of their privilege, they were often completely unaware of just how much it afforded them. I wasn’t either, until I went to work at a very different school with a completely different population.

When I started at , a public charter school network in South Central Los Angeles serving mostly low-income students of color, I was immediately struck by the lack of access to the social capital that contributes to success in college and beyond — access to experiences and opportunities that wealthy, upper-middle-class and even middle-class students often take for granted. For example, learning how to network and build a resume from internships and being exposed to different cultures and customs from a travel experience. 

These experiences are no guarantee of success in college and beyond, but even before the pandemic, of the 1.3 million low-income or first-generation college students who enrolled each year graduated and secured a strong first job or entered graduate school. Now, that number is . A from the Journal of College Student Retention found that social capital significantly influences graduation rates, student debt level and loan default rates. Having taught at a school where social capital was omnipresent, followed by one where it barely existed, I was able to see just how crucial social capital is and how it helps develop the soft skills that many researchers suggest are the in college and the workplace. 

In 2015, I had the opportunity to start a network of public charter schools in New Jersey. I founded with the mission to see our scholars to and through college. It was clear that fulfilling our mission would take more than just rigorous academics. It required a school community that would introduce students to experiences and opportunities that would help them develop a cultural fluency that will empower them to thrive anywhere.

I’m proud of the work we are doing at CAPS to fulfill this mission: At our Paterson school, scholars are immersed in robotics competitions and podcast production. In Plainfield, our first senior class worked with college essay tutors to help them craft compelling applications; 100% were accepted. And at CAPS Asbury Park, we’ve partnered with local businesses to offer scholars summer job opportunities such as a management track summer internship at a popular restaurant and leadership roles at the Boys and Girls Club organization. Students also go skiing for six weeks every winter, taking lessons so they can learn a sport they likely wouldn’t experience if not for the school. 

This summer, we teamed up with Princeton, Harvard, Oxford and other elite universities to offer a residential summer school program, giving scholars early access to college-level courses at the world’s leading academic institutions. They learned from tenured professors, explored the campuses and learned that they belong there just as much as any other student. We are also building strong relationships with diverse businesses to develop internships on Wall Street and at top-tier law firms and hospitals.

These activities are foreign to hundreds of thousands of students across the country. Yet these types of opportunities are what build social confidence and a sense of belonging that help students thrive. This is precisely what social capital is all about, and it matters.

We believe that if students from low-income families gain access to the same support and opportunities as their more affluent peers, they will excel. This is reflected not only in , but in the enthusiasm from our scholars as they embrace these opportunities. Schools must make building social capital a priority to close the opportunity gap, provide truly equitable outcomes and ensure long-term success in college and beyond. Students cannot get to and through college without it. 

The nation’s largest group of K-12 charter schools said last week that the will provide four years of mentoring, summer internship assistance, financial literacy training, networking advice and funding to defray college costs — supports valued at $60,000 per student. The grant covers 50 students a year, up to 250 students over five years.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for ����Ӱ�� Newsletter

For KIPP students such as Harlem-raised Airam Cruz, who landed a spot in a prestigious high school as a result of attending a KIPP middle school, and then entered Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, these networking-assist scholarships mean everything.

Cruz, who was chosen for a similar (which inspired the Rales) got a summer internship at a computer gaming company as a result of meeting the company’s chief executive officer at a 2018 Silicon Valley dinner hosted at the house of Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg Goldberg is her late husband.

Also as part of that Goldberg scholarship program: Cruz, now 21, had his own mentor for four years of college, former Samsung Chief Innovation Officer David Eun. “I texted him almost any day about anything. Life advice, school advice.”

What’s truly newsworthy about the Goldberg and Rales scholarship programs is why they are needed in the first place.

Two decades ago, KIPP and other top-performing charter networks started out with a simple promise to parents: Send your sons and daughters to our schools and we will get them enrolled in college. As years passed, however, every charter network found out that enrolling in college wasn’t the same as graduating.

As early as 2009, KIPP leaders realized their college-going students were falling short on actually graduating, and in April 2011 released a starkly worded revealing that only 33 percent of its KIPP middle school students were graduating from four-year colleges within six years.

While that rate was three times the national graduation rate for low-income, minority students, it was far below what KIPP had predicted: a graduation success rate of 75 percent. That was a wake-up call for KIPP, which launched aggressive changes including expanding its network to opening elementary and high schools to give students more time on task with KIPP teachers and counselors.

While those changes, and similar ones at other college-focused charter networks around the country, succeeded in boosting college graduation rates, KIPP and others soon discovered yet another unpleasant reality: simply earning a college degree wasn’t enough. Too often, their graduates settled for jobs that fell short of the kinds of professional opportunities landed by white and Asian college graduates.

That amounts to underemployment, explains Tevera Stith, senior director for National Alumni Impact at KIPP.

“We see more and more students not having access to proper networking who then struggle to get the kind of work experience needed to land the perfect first job that will propel their career,” said Stith For college students coming from middle- and upper-income families, those internships and first-job connections often come from family connections.

A 2016 survey of KIPP college graduates revealed that roughly half felt they were underemployed. The most common reason is having to pass on unpaid internships during their college years.

“When they can get a paid job at a local supermarket they are absolutely going to take that supermarket job,” said Stith.

Programs such as Rales offer students salaries for summer internships that don’t pay.

Underemployment is what I saw first hand when reporting the book, , which documented the first graduating class at KIPP’s Gaston College Prep, a school in rural North Carolina located in a town where college graduation is not an expectation. But in this class, 61 percent of the graduating seniors earned four-year degrees within six years, a rate that exceeds the degree attainment rates for middle-class students.

While that success rate was impressive, it soon became clear that a fair number of those alumni didn’t consider themselves successes in life, at least not when compared to middle-class college graduates. While they were all employed, their jobs often fell into the category of underemployment, such as a finance major working as a bank teller.

These latest iterations in the learning curve around what it takes to get low-income minority students into college, through college and into a job commensurate with their skills, explains the multiple name changes for KIPP’s college promotion programs. It began in 1998 as Kipp To College, then in 2008 became KIPP Through College. In 2021 it became which acknowledges both the need to help students with non-college careers and that even college graduates need ongoing assistance.

Other charter networks make similar efforts. The New York City-based Success Academy schools, for example, have their .

The Northeast-based , which usually turns in the top college graduation rates, rivaling the success rates for middle-class students, also recognizes the need for follow-up support. Uncommon is building a network to link all its alums and connect them to outside organizations for career support.

Chicago-based Noble Network of Charter Schools offers one-on-one career counseling and networking events as well as employer programs like .

Aide Acosta, Noble’s chief college officer, said a 2016 survey of their alums showed that six months after earning college degrees only 41 percent had full-time employment or were in graduate school. Compared to middle-class college graduates, she said, “our students were having different career exposures.” After launching Noble’s coaching/job placement efforts, that number is now up to 80 percent.

Some students get exposed to multiple programs. Kourtney Buckner, for example, attended a KIPP middle school in Atlanta. KIPP then helped her win acceptance at George Washington University. Buckner, a junior who plans on being a lawyer, has a KIPP college adviser who checks on her and the network helped her land a KIPP-supported summer internship at a Washington-based nonprofit.

At the same time, Buckner is also a scholar, a program that ensures first-generation students find a network of similar students to support them in college. “Having a Posse cohort here has made all the difference,” said Buckner. “I have nine other (Posse scholars) here and I also have a Posse mentor.”

Applications for the Rales Scholars Program opened Oct. 1 to KIPP high school seniors or KIPP middle school alumni now in their senior year. The first group of Rales scholars will join the program in May 2022.

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York provide financial support to KIPP and ����Ӱ��.