College Success: How Eighth Grade Can Define A Student’s Future

Red flags show whether a student will finish college or not, according to a study.

In the United States, many students never graduate from college. Why do they drop out? Various research identifies that some factors such as gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic level influence the performance and dropout of students. However, a recent report identifies areas of opportunity and strategies for US school districts to improve college readiness for students.

The Barr Foundation, in collaboration with the firm EY Parthenon, released the report “Planning for Post-secondary Success for All Students,” arguing an alternate reason. The report concludes that students’ future begins to be decided from eighth grade.

The study tracked 7,000 students from Massachusetts, New England, Connecticut, and Maine, in the United States, from eighth grade to the first two years of college. The authors concluded that racial and socioeconomic gaps are the significant impediment to entering a higher education institution and that once inside, these barriers diminish in importance.

The study data revealed significant gaps in demographically diverse school districts between one group and another. Among those interviewed, those who define themselves as White and Asian were shown to have a 60% chance of being admitted and successful in college, compared to less than 40% for African American or Latino students.

The report shows four warning indicators to watch from the eighth grade. The following red flags can have an impact on the academic performance of students once in college:

1. Attendance: if they miss classes a lot

2. Behavior: if they are suspended, for example

3. Fail: If one or more courses fail, with an emphasis on writing, reading, and writing, or math

4. Performance on standardized tests: If the student fails this state test

According to the research, just one of these signs is enough so that the probability of studying four years in university is reduced by five times compared to their peers. However, not all students show a warning indicator, so the report recommends paying attention to the third point. Those who do not fail subjects are 2.5 times more likely to succeed at the higher level than those who did.

For the authors, this means that your middle school performance can impact your ability to graduate from college, land a good job, and earn a good salary. Therefore, they emphasize the importance of monitoring and supporting students who show these signs. There are many potentially intervening points. The authors also point out the importance of the ninth grade; those students within the investigation who have a good performance will succeed at 71% post-secondary. On the contrary, very few students who are not well-developed experience such a high success rate.

On the other hand, the report indicates that rarely, students go from one category to another. In other words, 89% of the students that the authors consider being on a good path to college remain that way until graduation. In comparison, those students who already show difficulties with school performance from middle school have an 85% probability that these conditions will remain until university.

Another factor is the education they receive. In advanced classes or international baccalaureate (IB) courses, students understand the rigor and relevance of the courses. They can imagine how they apply in the real world, compared to students in regular classes, where the interviewed students expressed that they did not see the purpose of their courses.

But the downside is that not everyone has access to these courses, even within the same school. Those who are economically disadvantaged are 75% less likely to access one, and within this percentage, if they are black and Latino, it is reduced by 60% more.

The research found several key points where schools can improve how they support and define post-secondary success:

• Guidance Counselors: In all the surveyed districts, each counselor has more than 300 students. This makes it difficult to dedicate the time that each student really needs.

• Many staff avoids expressing a “college for all” or “college for the majority” message. Also, they don’t define affordability and what they need to be successful after middle school.

• Few activities in senior year of middle school and freshman year focused on preparing them for college. This becomes even more serious when their parents do not have a professional degree and have no one to turn to for advice or guidance until the last years of middle school.

The study concludes by emphasizing that as technology and innovation continue to change the world of work, it is critical to provide the best education and support for students to succeed. However, it seems that this effort is focused on the last years of middle school or while they are in college. There is no comprehensive monitoring or evaluation of students and their results from middle school.

Both students must prepare for their future after graduating from middle school, and institutions must provide the necessary support to advance them to finish middle school and college. The problem is that the K-12 system and college data are often separate and difficult to link, so much of their help is limited. This information needs to be linked to see a student’s red flags in time and provide the necessary support to achieve post-secondary success.

Translation by Daniel Wetta.

Paulette Delgado

Share

This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0