The COVID-19 crisis puts more stress on students graduating from high school this year in myriad ways. During normal times, this transition can already be overwhelming, disappointing, and even treacherous for some students. Now, precarious financial situations, uncertainty about how colleges and universities will conduct classes in the fall, a devastated economy, and an upended job market are just a few of the issues students have to contend with, not to mention the trauma and emotional stress the pandemic creates. There's also the question of how this situation will continue to affect students' learning. Will students be disengaged or discouraged, or will they become more independent because of remote learning? With everything up in the air, this seems to be a good time to rethink the transition from high school to what comes next. Before the crisis, those of us involved in first-year college programs were tackling some issues in ways we hoped would lead to better outcomes. I'd like to revisit these with the new uncertainty and online learning in mind.
Students' Academic Preparation
Because most of my college-level teaching has been with first-year students, I focus on crucial areas of academic preparedness with new college students. Most techniques fit into the category of metacognitive ability—what Saundra Yauncy McGuire calls the ability to "become consciously aware of yourself as a problem solver …" and to "accurately judge how deeply you have learned something" (2018). Ali was an A student in high school and participated in my dual enrollment class during her senior year, but she panicked as a first-year college student when she faced studying for a psychology exam. She said she had to infer what would be on the test much more than in high school, when teachers would tell her what was important to know. Once she worked with a graduate student tutor who helped her gained confidence in her ability to decide what was most important in lectures and reading, she passed the test.
Successful online learning demands the kind of independence Ali developed. Students who are near or at the transition to college during this pandemic will need to take ownership over their own learning while knowing when to ask for a boost of support, which is something many struggle with. They will not able to just move lock-step across the threshold. More than with previous cohorts, their experience will be very much individualized. Whether it is the decision of where to go to college or how to approach learning online, these students' paths will not allow for a one-size-fits-all approach.
Personal Connections with Mentors
At Worcester State, where I teach, students are given risk assessment surveys before they begin college. These risk assessments ascertain the difficulties students might be up against and where they will need assistance. The toughest situations result when there are a combination of factors dragging a student down all at once: academic unpreparedness, family issues, caretaking responsibilities, financial issues, and mental or physical health problems. For many students, the four years (or more, with remedial classes or other hold-ups) it takes to graduate is just too long a period to keep all these challenges at bay, which is why we educators (at both the high school and college level) should do as much as we can to smooth the transition for them.
All first-year students at my college are assigned an academic success coach—administrators and faculty who receive the information about their risk scores. Why does this work? I think it is because students benefit from the personal connection of someone beyond their friends, who may or may not have the energy or skills to help them succeed. To paraphrase Mr. Rogers: If you can mention it, you can manage it. Talking about concerns and upcoming assignments demystifies them and make them more manageable. In an online environment, assessment surveys can still be administered and should be done well before students start college. Mentors could still meet with students online through Zoom or other video platforms.
Expanding Postsecondary Options
I spend a lot of time thinking about how we need to expand options for students after high school beyond an expensive college model. Too many students feel they have no other choice than to go to college, which might be of little interest to them or might not make sense for them. Underprivileged students who excel academically in high school are able to enter bridge program pipelines like Upward Bound, while students who do not perform as well academically in high school are often left out.
Students should have the option to get the same mind-expanding experiences as in college, but in a different package—one where working for money is part of the program. Apprenticeships with companies could pick right up where our vocational schools are leaving off. Although apprenticeship programs are gaining interest nationally—according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 585,000 apprentices were in programs in 2018—the number is small compared with the 19.9 million U.S. students who attended colleges in 2019 (National Center for Educational Statistics). To make progress in this area, our collective societal mindset needs to change. We need to value apprenticeship programs and other alternatives as much as college and make sure students know their options.
To address the financial situation, these apprenticeship programs need to be free and paid experiences, as compared to the few college co-op programs that exist, where students get paid for work, but also have to pay exorbitant college tuition. This kind of program could have really helped some of the students in my first-year courses over the years. My student Jess would have benefitted from a consolidated work and learning program so that she would have more time to help her family out with her mentally disabled brother. My student Max, who had a reading-related disability and ineffective study habits, told me he wasn't doing well in his classes a few months before he failed out. Max could have used another option at that time in his life as well.
Transitions in 2020
We'll see what this fall brings, but the likelihood of a hybrid or online first-year semester at college or gap years after an online senior year spring is real for many students and educators. This disruption will surely cause confusion and hardship, but I'm hopeful that it will also give us a chance to rethink what has become commonplace and explore what other options young people might have now and in the future as a college alternative.
