Education Week - June 11, 2014 - 33

work and high school achievement levels affects a student's
chance of succeeding in college. But other factors such as educational
aspirations, early access to information about postsecondary
options, perceptions of college costs and the availability
of financial aid, and support during the difficult-to-navigate
college-application and financial-aid processes are also key factors
that shape students' enrollment decisions. For historically
underserved students, these other components of college readiness
shape, and far too often constrain, their choices.
Recent research on the phenomenon of "under-matching"
underscores this point. Under-matching occurs when highachieving
low-income and minority students enroll in lessselective
postsecondary institutions or forgo higher education
altogether, despite being academically qualified to attend
more-selective four-year colleges.
While the causes and consequences of under-matching remain
unclear, the evidence suggests that students who choose
less-challenging colleges are less aware of the range of postsecondary
options available to them and less likely to take the
steps necessary to enroll in highly selective institutions (e.g.,
taking college-entrance exams, meeting with a high school
guidance counselor). These students also tend to overestimate
out-of-pocket college costs and underestimate their eligibility
for financial aid. All of these factors likely further the undermatching
problem and contribute to inequitable patterns of
college enrollment.
The good news is that there are concrete steps that postsecondary
institutions can take to combat this problem. These
relatively simple, low-cost steps include sharing information
about the admissions and financial-aid processes via strategically
timed mailings and granting automatic application-fee
waivers. The effectiveness of these interventions has been empirically
demonstrated: Low-income, high-achieving students
who received mailings from the Expanding College Opportunity
Project, an effort involving numerous higher education
institutions and players, were significantly more likely to apply
to and enroll in colleges that more closely matched their levels
of high school achievement.
But what of those high school students from historically
disadvantaged groups who are unable to defy the odds and
become high-achieving?
Although the recent work on under-matching has garnered a
great deal of attention and excitement among higher education
stakeholders, a majority of low-income and racial- or ethnicminority
students do not fit into this category. A great deal
of research suggests that postsecondary institutions should
target students earlier in their high school careers to more effectively
ensure equity in their preparation for college.
Students and their families form perceptions of college costs
long before the senior year of high school. If students believe
that they and their families are unable to afford college, they
may be less motivated to take rigorous coursework early in
high school and less likely to display key behaviors associated
with college enrollment and success.
Indeed, a body of research on the effects of state-run and private
programs that provide financial-aid guarantees to students during
middle school or the early years of high school demonstrates that
these programs promote academic preparation and college enrollment
by allaying concerns about college affordability.
While early financial-aid commitments are more costly and
College Prep
Is Career Prep
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31
with Central Piedmont, and placement of a school on
the campus of the University of North Carolina at
Charlotte is in the works.
Why are our cte, jrotc, and middle-college procomplex
than sending mailings and providing fee waivers, they
represent an active step that colleges and universities can take to
ease students' uncertainty regarding their ability to afford college.
The responsibility of postsecondary institutions to expand
college opportunity extends far beyond the steps discussed
above. While ensuring equity in college readiness is a critical
step in achieving the nation's higher education goals, colleges
and universities also must identify effective ways to support
historically underrepresented students during the transition
from high school to college and throughout their undergraduate
years. n
LINDSEY E. MALCOM-PIQUEUX is an assistant professor of higher
education administration in the department of educational leadership
at George Washington University's graduate school of education and
human development, in Washington.
grams so successful at preparing our students for a
career, the military, or college? We believe the answer
is engagement. The students in these programs, as
well as those who participate in internships during
school, have found something that engages them. Engaged
students are successful.
The story of India Gregory, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg
graduate who attended a small high school focused
on science, technology, engineering, and math,
is an instructive one.
India, now a sophomore at North Carolina Agricultural
and Technical State University (also known
as North Carolina a&t), was by her own account not
very interested in school. Especially not in math-she
barely passed state math assessments in elementary
and middle school. But all that changed when she
was introduced to work-based learning in high school,
along with project-based study. She began building robots
and Habitat for Humanity houses in high school,
and she got hooked on math. She completed Calculus
2 and had internships at Siemens and Schweitzer Engineering
Laboratories in her last two years of high
"
Why does education persist in the
artificial divide between college
and career for high school
students?"
school. Now, as a sophomore at North Carolina a&t,
she has lined up her next step: She has accepted a job
offer from Boeing, which will start when she finishes
college.
There are many students like India-students
who start out drifting and then find something in
high school that becomes a passion strong enough
to carry them to college and beyond. What can they
tell us about shaping public education? We think they
are telling us that engagement is the key: It's about
finding something students care about and following
where it leads.
Academic choice, such as the small high school India
Gregory attended, is one way to engage students.
Real-life learning experiences, including the kind of
internships India had, can also engage students.
In our district, we want every school to be a school
professional success. We can't rely on the school system
alone to provide students with those answers.
I would focus like a laser beam, using the bully pulpit
and the convening authority of the office, to break the cycle
of poverty in the neediest neighborhoods. Improving education
from cradle through career, with concurrent investments
in housing and community wellness, will have the
triple bottom-line effect of making our schools, neighborhoods,
and health outcomes better for the young and the
old. Imagine the impact on Atlanta's economy if we could
break the cycle of poverty for the 39 percent of the city's
children who live below the poverty line. Imagine if we
could do this for the nation at large. n
SHIRLEY FRANKLIN served as the mayor of Atlanta from 2002
to 2010. She is the Barbara Jordan visiting professor of ethics
and political values at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public
Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the chair of the
board and chief executive officer of the Atlanta-based Purpose
Built Communities, a nonprofit organization that helps revitalize
struggling neighborhoods while creating pathways out of poverty
for the lowest-income residents.
of choice-a school for the future, not the school we
fondly remember from the past. In this context, great
teaching, great classes, and great opportunities can
all come together.
Our focus is on customizing the learning experience
for every student, using personalized plans of progress.
We want students to become champions of their
own learning. We are working directly with partners
in the corporate world, such as Siemens, Schweitzer,
and others, as well as with our counterparts in higher
education, so that we can prepare our students for
the future. The jobs they will hold do not exist yet,
but if we can prepare them with the right mix of 21stcentury
skills, our students will be ready to succeed.
Whatever our students choose-whether it's college,
career, the military, or a mix of those things-
the engagement has to come first. That's why we've
made increased academic choice and greater personalization
the focus of our districtwide strategic plan.
We want every student to be engaged, and we know
that it's not a one-size-fits-all proposition.
Our district is a rich, diverse mosaic of 144,000 students
with 144,000 different dreams. We believe we
can prepare all of them for life after high school, and
that process begins with engaging them in learning. n
EDUCATION WEEK | June 11, 2014 | www.edweek.org/go/commentary | 33
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Education Week - June 11, 2014

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