Many of the nation’s charter schools set up shop in low-income urban areas hoping to propel students who may struggle to finish high school—let alone go to college—into higher education.
But even among the students who make it to college, national statistics paint a grim picture of what happens after they get there: Just 11 percent of low-income, first-generation college-goers graduate in six years, according to the Pell Institute, a research group that focuses on access to higher education.
Even though many charters name homerooms after universities and hang college pennants in the hallways, their alumni still face a range of challenges once they reach college, from cultural to academic.
In recent years, however, charter schools—in particular, charter school networks—have started investing heavily in supporting their alumni beyond high school graduation.
“To be quite honest, my first semester was rough,” said J’Remi Barnes, a 2015 graduate of Sci Academy, a charter school in New Orleans. Barnes is a freshman at Grinnell College in Iowa. “At Sci, they make sure you have the material down before you leave class, and if you don’t have it, they make you go to a tutoring session. Here, it’s on you.”
Besides, he added: “Going from crawfish to corn, that’s not totally ideal.”
Although studies have shown that low-income, first-generation college students are much more likely to drop out than their wealthier peers, there is little research that has looked at college persistence among charter school graduates like Barnes.
One study, published this month in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, found that, at least for students in Florida, attending a charter had a positive effect on their college persistence and later income. Charter graduates were more likely to stay in college and earn higher salaries than their district school peers, even though their test scores were no better.
When KIPP, the nation’s largest charter school network, first took a hard look at its alumni’s college-persistence rates in 2011, it saw similar results. Ten years after completing a KIPP middle school education, students were significantly more likely than their low-income peers nationally to stick with college. Even so, the outcome was still far from stellar: Only 33 percent of KIPP students graduated from a four-year university.
“We wanted to shift the debate away from focusing on college acceptance and move the debate in the charter school community and beyond to college completion,” said Steve Mancini, a spokesman for KIPP. “At that time, there were a lot of charter schools and district schools putting out press releases saying we have 100 percent graduation rates or 100 percent college-acceptance rates.”
More recently, in 2014, KIPP released a second batch of data showing that its alumni graduating from a four-year college had risen to 44 percent, but that the rate was still far south of its ambitious 75 percent goal.
To increase college persistence among alumni, KIPP has focused more on teaching nonacademic skills such as perseverance and providing intensive counseling in high school and beyond.
The network has also entered into partnerships with more than 70 universities. The universities commit to taking groups of eight to 10 students from KIPP or similar schools, so the students have peers from similar backgrounds to lean on. The schools also agree to give those students additional support on campus, such as assigning a point person for them to go to with questions or problems.
It’s often smaller challenges that can derail low-income, first-generation college students, like navigating a complex university administration without guidance, or not having the money to cover textbooks or travel costs home.
“We tend to focus a lot on the big things, but paying attention to the lived experience of students and the smaller struggles that we can help them with makes a big difference,” said Jenny Nagaoka, the deputy director of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. “If you’re accepting low-income students and you really want them to graduate, it’s not enough to give them a full financial-aid package; there are a lot more specific things that institutions need to be paying attention to and providing.”
Many network charter schools that place a heavy emphasis on getting into college are characterized as “college prep” or “no excuses.”
Beyond festooning their buildings with college-themed decor, those schools also typically have strict rules for behavior: Students must wear uniforms, follow teachers with their eyes at all times, and walk along taped lines when changing classes, to name a few examples.
Those policies have been criticized, not only because they can lead to ballooning suspension rates, but also because they might undermine a student’s ability to meet different expectations of a college setting.
“The big thing that happens to children when they go to college is they’re more called upon to be independent learners,” said Gary Miron, a professor of education at Western Michigan University. “For some charter schools when they have this very rigid discipline [and] incredible behavioral modification, everything is really scripted.”
Preparing students for the ups and downs of college—and not just the academics—has become key to New Orleans’ Collegiate Academies college-persistence efforts.
Ninety-eight percent of graduates from the network’s three schools, which include Sci Academy, are accepted into college, according to Collegiate Academies. But many of its alumni drop out, especially between their first and second years in college. Today, Barnes is among about half the network’s alumni—which so far includes graduates from four classes—who started college and are still attending. “We’re definitely working to make that less of an issue,” said Lauren Katz, the director of college completion for the network. “There is always some sort of college transition. What we try to do is gradually instill more independence and leadership so that when they go to college, they are more prepared.”
All seniors at Sci Academy are required to take a special course focused on building skills such as good study habits and financial literacy. Staff members teach students how to calculate their GPA to see if they’re at risk of losing their scholarships, and they provide assistance to them as they fill out housing and financial-aid forms.
As a major part of her job, Katz also visits graduates on their college campuses to check on them and refine the network’s college-prep programming back in New Orleans.
“I had a few students talk about how, in their college math classes, their professors will just run through a few practice problems instead of explaining the concept,” said Katz. “So, I talked to the head of our math department, and then our senior-year math teacher started incorporating that into her classroom.”
Nagaoka, the University of Chicago researcher, said some charters have amassed crucial knowledge on how to help poor students through college.
Nagaoka has doubts that many traditional school districts would be able to muster the resources to offer similar supports. But, she said, the programming and ongoing supports that some charter networks have refined—and their positive results—could spur broader interest in college persistence among nonprofits and foundations. That could, in turn, benefit larger groups of students.
Still, there are issues that specialized college persistence programs can only do so much to tackle.
Students may still have to adjust to different cultures. And they still get homesick—something that Barnes worried about as he prepared to leave for college last summer.
Barnes is attending Grinnell on a Posse Scholarship, a national program that groups scholarship recipients into cohorts from the same city and sends them to college together. He said his posse has helped him adjust to life at a small, private liberal arts school.
“It’s a culture shock,” he said. “I’m coming from New Orleans where it’s majority black, most of the community I’ve seen and interacted with is black, and then you come to Grinnell, and it’s just different.
“Having my posse here, … I was never alone,” he said, “even when I was struggling with my schoolwork, I could lean on my posse.”
But, Barnes said, he doesn’t think his situation is unique.
“From what my adviser said, he said everyone struggles in that first semester, so I shouldn’t worry about it too much. So, I’m guessing it happens to just about everyone.”
D’Andrea Jenkins, Science teacher at Collegiate Baton Rouge, is the fourth Teacher Feature of the 2017-2018 school year. D’Andrea thinks outside the box to create an extremely challenging and extremely e…
The Healthy School Food Collaborative is participating in the 2018 Summer Food Service Program. Meals will be provided to all eligible children without charge. Acceptance and participating requirements f…
NEWORLEANS — If Domonique Crosby has her way, she will graduate from high school this spring at age 20. To her, earning her diploma, even two years late, feels like so…
The RSD-Collegiate Academies is participating in the Summer Food Service Program. Meals will be provided to all eligible children without charge. Acceptance and participating requirements for the progra…
Eric Parrie, a Social Studies Teacher at George Washington Carver High School, is the third Collegiate Academies’ Teacher Feature for the 2016-2017 school year. Eric is a larger than life character engag…
Victor Jones, English Teacher at George Washington Carver Collegiate, is the second Teacher Feature of the 2016-2017 school year. Victor uses his big personality and bigger vision to support his students…
Leah Lykins, AP Environmental Science Teacher at Abramson Sci Academy, is the first Teacher Feature of the 2016-2017 school year. Leah empowers her students to engage with their data in deep, meaningful…
The U.S. Department of Education announced yesterday a $4,982,968 million grant awarded to Collegiate Academies. This five-year grant under the Charter Schools Program...
Kelsey Lambrecht (GNO ’09) is the founding School Leader for Collegiate Baton Rouge. As a special education teacher and Director of Intervention, Kelsey helped to found several special programs for Colle…
Sara Mich, a Sci Academy English Teacher, is the first Teacher Feature of the 2015-2016 school year. Sara’s strong focus on constant personal and scholar growth creates a classroom where students achieve…
Phil Galia, US History teacher at Carver Collegiate, is the second Teacher Feature of the 2015-2016 school year. In class, Phil supports his scholars in forming and expressing their own opinions, while a…
Ben Ifshin, one of Sci Academy’s Biology teachers, is the third and final Teacher Feature of the 2015-2016 school year. Ben Ifshin’s class has a deep empathy for student experience, combining joy with su…
Evan Stoudt, New Orleans native, set to lead Collegiate Academies’ new high school in New Orleans East. Get to know Evan through a recent interview about his vision for the future of Livingston Collegiat…
Sci Academy in New Orleans has positioned itself as a hub of innovation within the city’s charter school community. Teachers and staff constantly seek out new ways to better their scholars’ educational e…
Setting ambitious yet attainable goals for all scholars is essential to Collegiate Academies’ success. In my previous post, I outlined the overall goals for special education and inte…
The Times-Picayune recently published a series of articles about the state of public education in New Orleans. Collegiate Academies was spotlighted in several of the pieces. Click here....
Rachelle Carter, a scholar at G.W. Carver Preparatory Academy, and Brittany Cadogan, a scholar at Sci Academy, were both named Cox Inspirational Heroes during the 23rd annual ceremony on April 28th. We a…
For a little over a year, I’ve been blending technology with traditional instruction in my Algebra I classroom to support my scholars. Introducing blended learning techniques to your classroom can be ove…
Collegiate Academies students gathered Friday (May 1) with their teachers and family to celebrate upcoming graduation by making a heartfelt effort to break a world record. They did not grow a very long b…
At the last Data Day of the 2014-2015 school year, G.W. Carver Collegiate Academy English III instructor Quinn Sears received the distinction of Featured Teacher. Read on below to learn more about Quinn’…
Raven Matthews, a member of Sci Academy’s Class of 2012, gave the following speech in front of dozens of people at America Achieves’ New Orleans conference on Saturday, March 7th.
Last week, Doug Lemov wrote about a new after-school tutoring initiative at Sci Academy in his Teach Like a Champion blog. Read more from Doug Lemov below, and visit the original blog post here.
In my early years as a teacher, there were times that I measured my success by how clean my hands were at the end of the day. I knew I had a rough day when I lost my whiteboard eraser and, in the interes…
At our Data Day in January, Samara Levy, Sci Academy’s Algebra I Teacher, received the distinction of Featured Teacher. Today, we invite you to get to know Samara in more detail, learning about how she a…
On a daily basis, we are confronted with the need for schools like ours to exist for hundreds of thousands of kids across the country. In America, the income gap continues to determine life outcomes, and…
Like any successful endeavor, defining the goal at the start of a new program is critical to achieving success in the end. At Collegiate Academies, this philosophy holds true for planning Intervention an…
I stepped onto the first bus, ready to greet the crowd of students with a warm smile and to welcome them back from their holiday break. I was bundled up in layers in an attempt to keep out the cold. Th…
The “Teacher Feature” recognition is a short, funny, and moving video to celebrate one teacher across CA. We choose a teacher who exemplifies the values…
As 2014 drew to a close, four Sci Academy seniors celebrated the end of a lengthy college application process. After months of campus visits, dozens of late nights refining and editing personal statement…
Attention readers of the Collegiate Academies Blog: We are very excited to introduce the Collegiate Academies School Leader Fellowship! To learn more about the Fellowship, you can visit our website, and…
A few weeks ago, we revealed the second Teacher Feature of the school year. This Teacher Feature was particularly notable because it represented the first time in Collegiate Academies history that a teac…
Our scholars (really, all high school kids) need intense academic preparation to be college-ready. From phonics and pre-Algebra to AP Literature and Calculus, the intellectual work of moving from middle…
The mission of Collegiate Academies is to create and support schools that prepare all scholars for college success. We decided to sit down with Benjamin Marcovitz, Collegiate Academies’ Chief Executive O…
The “Teacher Feature” recognition is a short, funny, and moving video to celebrate one teacher across CA. We choose a teacher who exemplifies the values…
On Sunday, November 9th, two high-stakes battles were being waged at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. As the Saints and the San Francisco 49ers went head-to-head on the field, the high school students who ho…
In late September, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and the National Women’s Law Center released a report on the systemic barriers faced by African American girls in schools across the country….
Last week, we shared Part 1 of our Featured Teacher Spotlight: a Q&A with Jane Shiu that explores Jane’s background and her time at Sci Academy. This week, we dig deeper into our conversation with Jane t…
Following the reveal of our Teacher Feature each Data Day, we’ll be posting interviews with each of our featured teachers so that you can get to know more about them: what led them to teaching, the techn…
In the past several decades, Singapore has rapidly climbed up the international education totem pole. According to the George Lucas Educational Foundation, Singapore’s schools have developed a reputation…
If you work in schools, you know that teachers are among the hardest working and least recognized groups of workers we have. Across our country, teachers put in extra time for their students, take work h…
This summer, I had the great pleasure of sitting down for an interview with Lakethia Hampton, the aunt of one of the girls on the Sci Academy volleyball team. Having coached volleyball for the past four…
On Collegiate Academies’ three campuses, the new school year has officially begun: the hallways smell of fresh paint, scholars are eagerly cracking the spines of new books, and the skillful drumming of t…
Welcome to the Collegiate Academies blog, your one-stop shop for news, announcements, updates, and ideas from the Collegiate Academies community. Here, you’ll find stories about the milestones that are m…
The digital bell sounds, and students at Arthur Ashe Charter School in New Orleans’ Gentilly neighborhood file into the classroom. They sit down and immediately get to work: Put on headphones, pull up th…
Saturday service learning projects at Carver Prep and Carver Collegiate help students at the open-enrollment New Orleans charter high schools build their college résumés while learning that community ser…
The 55 seniors wore high school uniforms, college sweatshirts or dress shirts, and they squinted into a future so bright they’ve gotta wear shades. Or maybe it was just the late-spring sun falling on Gal…
The first Maker Faire in New Orleans was held over the weened. It was hosted by a new school incubated by 4.0 Schools and New Schools New Orleans (NSNO)– Bricolage Academy. Matt Candler, founder of 4.0…
Jim Kline, Senior Seminar teacher at New Orleans’ Sci Academy and 4.0 Essentials alum, is using principles of design thinking to confront challenges with college persistence. And his kids are engaging wi…
It’s one thing to say all students can learn, but making them believe it—and do it—can require a 180-degree shift in students’ and teachers’ sense of themselves and of one another.
As far back as middle school, Tanara Thomas had her future mapped out: Finish high school, attend Delgado Community College for two years and then transfer to LSU. Growing up in one of the poorest neighb…
Sci Academy’s cheerleading squad burst into the packed auditorium at Greater St. Stephen Baptist Church in eastern New Orleans, cheering “We are the best, we’re headed for success, passing by all the res…
Pamela Morrell sat nervously in the third row Thursday evening among the lines of blue chairs set up in the school cafeteria at Sci Academy, a charter high school in eastern New Orleans.
The ninth-graders in Isaac Pollack’s physics class at New Orleans Charter Science and Math Academy were eagerly participating in a lesson on displacement and distance.
Charter schools just got the gift of a lifetime. Yesterday, Oprah Winfrey gave out the last Oprah’s Angel Network grants – and the recipients were all charter schools. How’s that for going out with a…
