Over the past two years I have been invited to speak at countless parent meetings, department meetings, board meetings, community gatherings, and access conferences about our research and my experiences as a college access advocate for all students. Through these encounters, I came to realize the vast majority of students, teachers, administrators, parents, and counselors are completely oblivious to the A-G course requirements. Teachers are often entirely unaware how their courses impact college access and a student’s ability to gain college eligibility. This is a powerful observation because it exposes two general assumptions that students and parents make about the high school’s role in supporting the path to college.
First Assumption - Students and parents assume that teachers and counselors at their high school are doing everything necessary to prepare students for college. Ultimately, public high schools are not designed for all students to attend a four-year university. Several times during my teaching career I have heard counselors say their job was to graduate students from high school and “not all students are supposed to go to college.” Unfortunately, those “not supposed to go” were often the first generation, urban students I worked with most closely.
Second Assumption - Students and parents assume that teachers, counselors, and administrators are experts about college access. Parents believe that school representatives are knowledgeable and well informed about the college access process. However, most teachers are unaware of the current admissions criteria. Further, the college access process is continually evolving. Eligible and competitive admissions criteria change so rapidly that even those dedicated full time to working in college counseling offices, intervention programs, and admissions offices cannot keep up with the increase of competition to attend the most selective universities in America. From 1998 to 2002 alone, the emergence of the Golden State Exams, the Governor’s Merit Scholarship Program, an explosion of AP classes, and the additional “G” requirement on the A-G eligibility index further complicated the arena of college access.
What do we do about this institutional failure? I encourage all students and parents to become their own agents of college access. It is essential that students aggressively seek informed advocates on their campuses. In an ideal situation, every school would have several college access advocates including counselors, teachers, coaches, and administrators.
