This Thursday, join 蜜桃影视 and the Progressive Policy Institute for a special conversation about how rural collaboratives can transform life trajectories for rural high school students and create sustainable economic development for their communities. 

The Rural Collaborative model, inspired by Texas鈥� Rural Schools Innovation Zone (RSIZ), aims to better align educational pathways with local economic needs. Speakers will include RSIZ Executive Director Michael Gonzalez, Texas State Rep. Brad Buckley, Colorado State Rep. Eliza Hamrick and Empower Schools CEO Alyssa Morton. RSVP right here. 

Sign up for the Zoom or tune in to this page Thursday at 11 a.m. ET to stream the event.

More rural education and career pathway coverage from 蜜桃影视: 

• Q&A: Nation鈥檚 First School Counselor Residency Launches in Rural CA 

• NJ Nonprofit Offers Hands-On STEM Learning to Low-Income Students at 150 Schools

• Campus Road Trip Diary: 8 Things We Learned This Year About America鈥檚 Most Innovative High Schools

• Report Shows Millions of Rural Students Facing Multiple Crises after COVID

• STEM with a Purpose Sparked Better Learning, and a Patent, for My Rural Students 

While applications for federal student aid dropped by double digits across all 50 states this year, those with universal FAFSA completion policies seemed to fare slightly better, with the majority performing in the top half of the country.

Of the 10 states with the highest completion rates, three 鈥� Louisiana, Illinois and New Hampshire 鈥� have mandatory FAFSA policies for high school seniors. Across all states, Connecticut had the highest completion rate among high school seniors and Alaska had the lowest, according to the

Indiana saw the smallest change year-over-year in its completion rate and Tennessee had the greatest year-over-year swing, with a 44.3% drop 鈥� though it still had the second-highest completion rate in the country. Typically, the stronger states were last year, the further they fell this year, according to the network.

Experts attribute this relative success to the mandatory states having supportive infrastructure that provided students with the tools they needed to navigate the submission process in what has turned into a notoriously problem-ridden year.     

But no state has emerged from the process unscathed. 

鈥淲hile there is certainly some variation across the states, the pattern holds,鈥� said Katharine Meyer, fellow at the Brookings Institution鈥檚 Brown Center of Education Policy. 鈥淲here submissions are down, completions are down. There are large gaps between the high-income and low-income high schools and then it鈥檚 just the magnitude to which those play out in different states.鈥�

This year marked the release of the new form following the , which was meant to streamline and simplify the historically complicated application for federal student aid, expand access to Federal Pell Grants for low-income students and change the way expected family contribution is calculated. But a botched rollout marred by delays and technical glitches 鈥� particularly for students whose parents are undocumented and don鈥檛 have Social Security numbers 鈥� has led to a dramatic drop in the number of students who have been able to submit the form. That’s left seniors in a lurch and both high schools and colleges scrambling.

Not all students have been impacted equally, though. Among those at higher-income schools 鈥� where fewer than half of students qualify for free or reduced-priced lunch 鈥� about 36% completed the FAFSA this year, while only about a quarter of students at lower-income schools have, according to the college attainment network. The year-over-year drop is also significantly higher for students at low-income schools with an almost 10-point difference. 

鈥淚t’s the lowest-income students, the first-generation students, who don’t have additional resources to guide them through this process, who are ultimately paying the price for this rollout,鈥� said Meyer, 鈥渨hich is awful because the entire goal of the FAFSA Simplification Act was to target and support those students and make this an easier process.鈥�

While there have always been gaps between students who have extra support and those who don鈥檛, the added complexities and 鈥渕inefields to navigate鈥� on this year鈥檚 form exacerbated them, she added.
Overall, there鈥檚 been a in the number of forms submitted as compared to the same time last year, according to 蜜桃影视鈥檚 analysis of U.S. Department of Education data, and a in the number of forms that have been completed without errors, according to the college attainment network, whose members include school districts and nonprofits.

As of April 9, 16% of FAFSA applications still needed student corrections and about 30% of forms were potentially impacted by processing or data errors, according to a released by the U.S. Department of Education.

The completion rates are of particular significance, according to Bill DeBaun, the network鈥檚 senior director of data and strategic initiatives.

鈥淐ompletions remain the target for NCAN and our members, and it鈥檚 what we鈥檙e encouraging the field to pursue,鈥� he wrote to 蜜桃影视. 鈥淗aving a college-intending student who was motivated enough to submit the FAFSA, but who did not connect with financial aid because of an error that they didn鈥檛 correct, is a tragic outcome.鈥�

Sheri Crigger, a college counselor at the School of Cyber Technology and Engineering in Huntsville, Alabama, said the biggest challenge is for students who still don鈥檛 have FAFSA results or aid packages from schools, even as the traditional May 1 decision day deadline quickly approaches. Normally by now, she said, kids would be announcing where they鈥檙e headed in the fall and wearing their new schools鈥� colors. Instead, she said, there鈥檚 just a feeling of uncertainty.

鈥淚 feel for them because there’s not a fix for that until they have the information they need,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 like to be able to kind of point them in a direction [but this year] there is no direction.鈥�

Changing the mindset from optional to required

Nationally, seven states 鈥� Illinois, California, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, Indiana and New Hampshire 鈥� have implemented universal FAFSA policies and five additional ones 鈥� Connecticut, New Jersey, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma 鈥� have passed them, according to the network. Louisiana, which was the first state to implement a universal FAFSA policy in 2018, to roll theirs back this year. State lawmakers said they were reversing course for a range of reasons, including arguments that the policy prioritized college over trade schools 鈥� although federal aid can often be used for the latter 鈥� and that completion is a for families.

Elizabeth Morgan, the attainment network鈥檚 chief external relations officer, disagreed with their line of thinking.

鈥淯niversal FAFSA is not about penalizing students or holding students back,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about changing the mindset from optional to required.鈥�

Students 鈥� especially those from lower-income backgrounds 鈥� don鈥檛 always realize that financial aid is available to them until they submit their FAFSA form, Morgan added. They also might not know that the aid can be used at institutions other than four-year universities, such as trade schools and community colleges. Filling out FAFSA, she said, is important for these students because it fixes these misconceptions.
In states where there are mandates or universal FAFSA rules, schools are more likely to integrate support for completion into the school day and create more of a culture around it, leading to a significant increase in filing, according to Meyer, the Brookings fellow. Events such as FAFSA drives can also help to in a typical year by providing families with the tools they need to navigate the cumbersome, complex process.

When looking at the list of top submitters this year, a lot of them are states that have these mandates in place, Meyer said, suggesting that universal policies may have helped insulate them 鈥� and their students 鈥� during the messy rollout.

鈥淭hey still aren鈥檛 good FAFSA submission and completion numbers鈥� but it is less bad than in some other states,鈥� she said.

Some experts in the field remain anxious that this will be an ongoing issue in future years. Meyer warned that there are already signs that next year鈥檚 form won鈥檛 be released on time once again. If the form is delayed but not riddled with errors, she added, students may still avoid this year鈥檚 chaos, especially since institutions are staffing up in anticipation.

鈥淚 do think long term I am an optimist,鈥� she said. 鈥淚’m hopeful that this act will ultimately increase college access for those students, but it’s a bumpy couple of years in the process.鈥�

Alabama鈥檚 unemployment rate currently sits at the lowest number in state history: 2.2%. 

But with just 51,445 unemployed workers in the state, according to the most recent data from , there are still about 126,346 open jobs in Alabama. 

Placing those numbers beside Alabama鈥檚 mediocre population growth data (4.82% growth since 2020), it鈥檚 clear that Alabama won鈥檛 likely be able to fill all of those openings with unemployed Alabamians or transplants from other states. 

Instead, some experts say the state should look inwards. Specifically,  that officials should turn to their schools.

In West Alabama, that is exactly what some Tuscaloosa leaders have been focused on since 2017: connecting education and industry to directly prepare students for the workforce while they鈥檙e still in high school.聽

A partnership between the Tuscaloosa County School System, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, the nonprofit West Alabama Works and聽聽created a pilot program in modern manufacturing within Brookwood High School that has since been replicated in 24 schools across Alabama.聽

It鈥檚 built around what they call modern manufacturing career and technical education (CTE), and across schools, the program educated nearly 400 students .

鈥淭he success of this program really goes into the industry,鈥� Brookwood CTE Principal Tripp Marshall said. 鈥淥ur center is a lot different than most high schools, I’d say, because we’re totally industry-driven. What we want to do here, what we want to become, what we want to grow our kids who are our products into is specifically industry-driven into what they need.鈥� 

What students need to learn

Even though Brookwood is a blue collar town like many others in Alabama, Marshall said that when they started building out the program, he was shocked by how few technical skills kids have.

鈥淏elieve it or not, there are a lot of students in this generation of kids that do not know anything about tools,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat was the biggest crunch as far as what our industry needed, some kids that actually knew how to hold a hammer, and that鈥檚 what we gave them.鈥�

The curriculum starts with the core skills from the : safety, hand and power tools, construction math, materials handling, construction drawings, rigging and employability. 

Then, students move on to train for certifications from the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council. These certifications have , and Marshall said the school also benefits from students earning them. 

The Alabama Department of Education, or proof that the student possesses the minimum skills required for entry-level employment.

鈥淭hese generalized skills for an industry, for construction, weigh in heavy favor for our industry partners because they realized that if these kids don’t have these skills, they’re going to spend a lot of time and money trying to train them,鈥� Marshall said.

How Brookwood got students to buy into the program

In the first year that Brookwood High School鈥檚 manufacturing program was up and running out of its shiny, new career annex, there were only 16 students enrolled. 

The program was perfectly designed with the contributions of industry partners, but Marshall and other school administrators had to actually find enough students to go through it. That鈥檚 when they turned to YouScience, a company that specializes in connecting students with the industries for which they are best suited. 

鈥淭he research has found that if you connect a student with a career outcome of any kind that’s personalized to them as an individual, their academic engagement rates and their academic performance all skyrocket,鈥� YouScience CEO and founder Edson Barton said. 鈥淚t boils down to kind of Psychology 101. Everybody needs a purpose, and if you don’t have a purpose for what you’re doing, then you lose interest.鈥�

Students at Brookwood take the YouScience career test in the ninth grade, and by examining their aptitudes, the results point students to specific career sets that they may never have considered before. 

Barton said the YouScience test works beyond the capabilities of a standard interest survey, so it avoids pigeonholing students based on stereotypes and internal biases. 

Thus, instead of questions like 鈥淒o you like woodworking?鈥� or 鈥淒o you enjoy taking care of others?鈥�, the YouScience test has students complete a series of brain games to demonstrate whether they have aptitudes for skills like idea generation or numerical reasoning. 

When Brookwood students show a propensity toward manufacturing or engineering, counselors suggest they enroll in the CTE program. After the first year of testing, about 75 students tested with those aptitudes, and the program grew from its initial 16 students to 55.

Now, as the program looks to begin its sixth year, 180 students plan to take CTE classes. 

A student鈥檚 perspective

Three years ago, current Brookwood senior Mariana Zapata was one of the students who tested strongly for manufacturing. Her guidance counselor suggested that she enroll in the CTE program, but because she had always planned to go into the medical field, Zapata was unsure. 

She needed an elective credit, though, so she decided to give the class a chance. 

鈥淚 didn’t know anything about manufacturing. Like I didn’t know what the term was or anything, until I started taking the class and then learned that manufacturing is building and the processes of fabricating things,鈥� Zapata said. 鈥淲e would make projects, and we would work together in the classroom. It was more hands-on than any other class, so that’s what I really enjoyed about it.鈥�

After her first year in the program, Mercedes-Benz offered Zapata a paid apprenticeship at its plant in Tuscaloosa. She spent her junior year working there three days a week, and it鈥檚 her summer job too. 

With the money Zapata earned at Mercedes, she was able to save up and buy her own car. 

鈥淚t took a while, but I was able to do it,鈥� Zapata said. 鈥淚 really enjoyed doing it and earned good money as a part-time job. I learned a lot about that industry that I wouldn’t have known if I’d never taken the class.鈥�

While Zapata said she still plans to stick with her goal of pursuing a career as an ultrasound technician, she鈥檚 proud of the work she accomplished in the manufacturing program. She learned hard skills, helped get cars built and made enough money to achieve her goal. 

鈥淚t was an opportunity,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd I took advantage of it.鈥�

This story was originally published in

I never heard the shot, but the impact of the bullet that struck my leg just below the knee has reverberated throughout my life. As I laid on the ground of my East Oakland neighborhood, next to the bike I had been riding to high school, the first thing I heard was the sound of my screams. I was 16, victim to a random drive-by shooting. When I returned to school six weeks later, there were no words of encouragement or comfort, just the silence of a school system that chose not to care or value undocumented teens like me. 

I came to the United States from Uruapan, Michoac谩n, Mexico in 1999. I dropped out of high school three different times, and in 2009 I finished high school at an adult program in San Leandro. I know firsthand how, whenever the school system loudly slams a door, it drowns out the hopeful inner voice that all young people have. In my case, that voice was muted for a long time until, two years later, I saw an opening at an East Oakland elementary school for an attendance clerk. People around me at the time were either janitors, construction workers, or making illegal sales on the streets. I wanted to change the narrative. I walked in, applied, and got the job.

I went back to a school building 鈥� the type of place that had failed me 鈥� for a few reasons. First and foremost, I鈥檇 always wanted to be an educator. But those dreams were quashed when I found out that I was undocumented, and access to higher education was difficult and expensive for someone like me. It was also in part an act of resistance to challenge the status quo and disrupt a system that didn’t work for me. And, I wanted to make my mom proud. 

At the elementary school, the energetic buzz and laughter of students who looked like me sparked a determination to become the adult I never had at school. I worked as an office manager, yard supervisor, parent liaison, translator, after-school coordinator, and paraeducator. Eventually, in 2017, I co-founded in Oakland and became dean of students. Every day, I choose to hear my students鈥� voices and ensure that the world does, too. 

Many of the friends I grew up with felt tensions between school and 鈥渢he real world.鈥� Some of us needed to earn money for our families, many were bored, and most of us couldn鈥檛 see how what we did every day in high school would help us when we got out. There is a misconception that students growing up in poverty don鈥檛 think about their future. The opposite is true. Unlike young people with more advantages, we can鈥檛 just trust that there鈥檚 a backup plan to guarantee that everything works out.

Latitude High School is about 14 blocks from the street where I was shot as a child. We are a four-minute bike ride from Fruitvale Station, by the police. Students of color make up 94% of our school, and the majority are growing up in poverty. We鈥檙e only a 30-minute drive from the global headquarters of some of the world鈥檚 largest tech companies, but for most students in Oakland, those opportunities will remain distant and out of reach unless their schools build intentional pathways.

Read more about how to build trusting relationships with students at your school in The XQ Xtra 鈥� a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

That pathway to student success begins with a sense of belonging. Caring and trusting relationships aren鈥檛, contrary to popular belief, the icing on the cake of academic rigor. They are the main ingredients, which is why Latitude partners with the XQ Institute. is one of six research-backed for successful schools. Our students thrive when they have adults who know them, believe and trust in their ability to learn and create the safety where students can discover their identity. This type of environment results from intentional choices in our school鈥檚 structures and curriculum 鈥� like our focus on integrating community issues and culture into coursework.

When I was shot, my school offered no support because of decisions adults made long before that moment. They may not have predicted that specific trauma, but I was a young person growing up in a neighborhood wracked by violence, living with my brother and without either of my parents. A school that saw me and cared about my future would have been ready to support me instead of letting me drop out. As students build their paths, we are responsible for looking around the corner, anticipating where the road will get rough for them.

As educators, we can help students overcome challenges by intentionally using our space and time. For example, we know the college application process is tough for many students and families. In response, we at Latitude dedicated the time and people to guide and support students at every step of the way, from having highly personal conversations about their choices to ensuring that they submit their applications on time. 

Our country asks schools to do a lot these days, but the load can be lighter by planning for what our students need and want, not just what the system requires us to do. At Latitude, these conversations and choices led to every one of 2022-2023’s 12th graders being accepted into at least one two-year or four-year college.

At Latitude, we emphasize place-based learning by tapping into the assets of the Bay Area, including our local Oakland community. This approach to learning has a dual impact. Our students recognize the unique value of their cultures and communities while immersed in meaningful learning that will prepare them for their lives after high school. In 2021, I taught a senior course on entrepreneurship. Each student applied core academic skills to develop a concept for a clothing brand they later marketed and sold at a community pop-up event. Experiences like this have taught us that learning must take place in the real world for students to remain motivated to succeed.

Ensuring workplace experiences and internships are student-centered by matching them to students’ passions and aspirations is essential. It is just as crucial that student workplace experiences work hand in hand with what students learn in the classroom. The real magic happens when each lesson, project, and workplace activity builds on each other to develop skills and a sense of self-worth. Our students must constantly evaluate what they can afford to give their time and attention to. That鈥檚 why 100% of Latitude鈥檚 class of 2023 completed at least one internship. 

Our students can choose between multiple internship opportunities, from university research to aeronautics. We also have partners in construction and the building trades. Sometimes schools, with the best intentions, get so caught up in encouraging students to dream about a good career that it creates too narrow a definition of success. As a result, some students can鈥檛 see themselves fitting into that type of success. In every industry, there are good jobs and jobs that trap people in cycles of poverty. Our are vital in providing students with the options and agency to choose their path. We are responsible for building partnerships that provide enough range of experiences so all of our students’ paths bend toward success. 

I went through high school feeling isolated and abandoned. It wasn鈥檛 just at a single school. The entire education system made decisions that failed me. Now, I’m on my way to earning my bachelor鈥檚 degree, and hope to pursue a Ph.D. in education. Looking back at when I first applied for that role as an attendance clerk, it was the beginning of me redefining 鈥渟uccess.鈥� 

I am fortunate every day to be part of a team of adults who make decisions that provide students with a sense of belonging and the learning experiences that will prepare them for success. I know that millions of students throughout the country feel the way I did at their age. I also know that millions of adults in communities across the country want better for their young people. If we can change high school, we can change the entire education system and give our students a path to the lives they deserve. 

Do you want to learn more about how to rethink high school? The XQ Xtra is a newsletter for educators that comes out twice a month. .

Disclosure: is a financial supporter of 蜜桃影视.