How Can We Get More High-Achieving Poor Kids into College?
In theory, opening doors for high-achieving, low-income students – or, as we call them, “HALO” kids – should be a national obsession. Yet in practice, such students’ academic potential often goes unfulfilled.
For years, nationally representative data have suggested that, compared to their similarly high-achieving but wealthier peers, HALO students are more likely to lose ground during their K-12 careers and far less likely to go to college.
This is partly about structural challenges in our K-12 system, such as funding constraints and the number of low-achieving peers in HALO kids’ classrooms. (Research shows that funding and peers can influence achievement.) Still, the nation’s public schools aren’t powerless, which is another way of saying that neither frontline educators nor those who set K-12 education policies are blameless.
Two new studies provide a fresh perspective on the issue. The first, a national study from the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), finds that high-achieving Black and Latino students are less likely to enroll in Algebra 1 by the 8th grade than their White and Asian peers. The second, a recent Ohio study from our organization, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, highlights the frustrating leakiness of the state’s college pipeline. In 3rd grade, the Buckeye State has about three affluent high achievers for every HALO student. Yet in its selective colleges, affluent students outnumber poor students 10 to 1.
According to both studies, access to advanced coursework matters. For example, the national analysis finds that just 60 percent of high-achieving Black students took Algebra I in eighth grade, compared to more than two-thirds of Asian, Latino, and White students. Similarly, the Fordham study finds that enrolling in at least one AP or IB course increased HALO students’ college-going prospects by 29 percentage points. Yet the rate at which HALO kids in Ohio enroll in AP, IB, or other dual-credit college courses is 25 percentage points lower than the rate at which their wealthier and similarly achieving peers do so.
In addition to advanced coursework, the Fordham study suggests that peer achievement matters greatly for HALO students’ college prospects, with many high-achieving suburban districts offering superior opportunities for college-going. In other words, the core challenge is getting HALO kids in more advanced classes with other similarly high-achieving students whose presence won’t compel the teacher to engage in necessary but fundamentally distracting remediation.
Collectively, these findings suggest that policymakers and practitioners should take three steps to help more of our country’s high-performers fulfill their potential:
First, ensure that schools are supporting HALO kids by adopting universal screening to identify students who are ready for additional challenge starting no later than grade 3, automatically enrolling those who do well on state tests in advanced courses starting in middle school, and incentivizing greater access to AP and IB coursework in high school (for example, by rewarding high schools and/or their teachers for the number of students who earn a score of 3 or higher on an AP test or 4 or higher on an IB test).
Second, increase the number of high-quality options for HALO kids by expanding inter- and intradistrict open enrollment programs and increasing the number of selective magnet schools and open enrollment charter schools, helping families who are exploring these options make sound decisions by providing clear information on school report cards and offering personalized decision-making support.
Finally, expand college counseling and college-planning courses for HALO kids, who often give little thought to applying to the most prestigious and expensive institutions (many of which offer generous financial aid packages) and whose parents or guardians may have no experience with the college application process.
As that list suggests, there is no silver bullet when it comes to helping HALO kids realize their academic potential. Still, as longstanding social problems go, this one seems solvable. And, despite the limited progress that has been made in expanding access to advanced education in recent years, policymakers and practitioners can and should do more.
