2 minute read
MEET ISAAC
–Isaac, 11th grade
When Isaac1 walks across the stage to collect his high school diploma, with his family cheering him on, it will not be an accomplishment he takes for granted.
There was a time when it looked like it might not happen. He’d struggled during his freshman year, including experiencing a period of homelessness, and had encountered adults in school who undermined his belief in himself—
some quite explicitly.
“There were many people telling me I couldn’t make it,” says Isaac, who attends a small public high school. “I stopped going to school. I’d sign in and leave.” Eventually, his guidance counselor told him he wasn’t on track to graduate with his class.
He found himself contemplating the pain he would cause his family if he didn’t earn that diploma. “It hurt. I was looking at myself like, if my brothers can do this, why can’t I? If my mom can do this, why can’t I?”
Isaac was also struck by the realization that his lifelong aspiration—becoming a registered nurse—might slip out of reach. For Isaac, it was a goal to which he was deeply committed. “I can’t give up on a dream that I’ve always had since I was a little boy. I’m willing to take any chance in my life for this dream.”
After taking on extra credit, staying late, writing essays—“whatever it takes”—he got himself back on track to graduate.
Despite his early struggles, Isaac invested deeply in school. He did everything he was supposed to do to reach his goals.
But has school held up its end of the deal?
It’s a question that has to be asked because for too many students today, the answer is no. While more students than ever before are enrolling in college,2 far fewer are succeeding once they get there. Nationwide, 40 percent of college students (including 66 percent of Black college students and 53 percent of Latinx3 college students) take at least one remedial course,4 where they spend time and money learning skills they were told they’d already mastered in high school. A recent study found that college remediation costs students and their families $1.5 billion annually, with one in four students spending an average of $3,000 extra to earn their degrees—and since first-time bachelor’s degree candidates who take a single remedial course are 74 percent more likely to drop out, many of these students are sinking dollars into degrees they’ll never see.5 Graduates who opt for a career straight out of high school aren’t faring much better, with many employers reporting that high school graduates enter their roles missing the skills they need to do their jobs well.6
In other words, Isaac and millions of students across the country are working hard to get through school, only to find themselves ill-prepared to live the lives they hope for. They’re planning their futures on the belief that doing well in school creates opportunities—that showing up, doing the work, and meeting their teachers’ expectations will prepare them for what’s next. They believe that for good reason: We’ve been telling them so.
UNFORTUNATELY, IT’S A MYTH.
