Reconnecting Recent High School Graduates With Their Education Aspirations
Summary
The high school classes of 2020 and 2021 have endured massive disruption to their education. After graduating from a high school experience that was dramatically different from the one they began, many are postponing or canceling their postsecondary education plans — even after, in many cases, applying and being accepted to college. These declines in postsecondary enrollment threaten to widen attainment gaps among low-income and first-generation students, as well as students of color — groups that postsecondary institutions already struggle to engage and support.
Stress and anxiety, followed by financial pressures, were most influential on disrupted students’ decisions to delay their education. Health concerns and caregiving responsibilities were more likely to cause enrollment disruption for Black students. Almost one-third of Black students were influenced in their enrollment decision by the need to care for a family member, compared with 28 percent of Latino students and 23 percent of white students. Latino students were most likely to be influenced by financial pressure.
The Class of 2021 was disrupted earlier in the college-going process compared to the Class of 2020. Many disrupted students in the Class of 2020 already had applied and been accepted to college, but this was less often the case for the Class of 2021. Among disrupted students in the Class of 2020, 40 percent had received an acceptance letter, while among disrupted learners in the Class of 2021, only 23 percent had been accepted into a college or program. Black and Latino disrupted students were more likely than their white peers to have progressed further in the enrollment process.
Disrupted students identified guidance, affordability, and stronger connection to careers as the most helpful solutions. Having an advisor to guide them was ranked as most helpful, followed by understanding how to both earn and learn successfully at the same time, easier access to financial aid, and better information on career pathways.
To better understand the extent of the disruption, the challenges driving so many to veer from their planned pathways, and the potential solutions that could reconnect them to college, Strada Education Network surveyed more than 1,000 graduates from the classes of 2020 and 2021 who had intended to enroll in education after high school but decided to postpone their plans. They tell us that better guidance on their pathways, support to understand and access financing, and clearer understanding of the connections between education and a career would be the most helpful resources for them to reconnect with their education aspirations.
Disruption, Deferral, and Challenges
Before deciding to change their education plans, most students had made some progress toward enrolling. More than three-quarters of the disrupted students in the Class of 2020 and nearly that many in the Class of 2021 had spoken to an adult at their high school, such as a teacher or counselor, about getting more education. Not surprising given the timing of the pandemic, those from the Class of 2020 made it further on the journey toward enrollment than did their peers in the Class of 2021. More than half of surveyed disrupted students from the 2020 graduating class had applied to college, and 4 in 10 had received an acceptance letter and applied for financial aid, while for the Class of 2021, 35 percent applied for admission, 23 percent received an acceptance letter, and 29 percent had applied for financial aid.
Disrupted students from the Class of 2021 disconnected earlier in the process
Students of color made greater progress toward enrollment than white students did. Among these disconnected high school graduates, Black and Latino students were about 10 percentage points more likely than their white peers to have applied to a college and applied for financial aid. Black students were also nearly 10 percentage points more likely than white students to have been accepted to a college or program.
These results mirror previous Strada research, which has found that Black and Latino students are more interested in enrolling in education, but also more likely to have had to step away due to the pandemic.
Disrupted Black and Latino students got further in the process before disconnecting
With so many students having made it as far as receiving an acceptance letter, what happened that caused them to choose not to enroll in college? When asked about the largest influence on their decision not to get more education right away, the two biggest factors far outweighing the others were stress, anxiety, or uncertainty (39 percent) and financial pressure or affordability (26 percent). Stress and anxiety and financial pressures are also the largest challenges identified by currently enrolled college students in the fall of 2020. Just as the pandemic led to intertwined health and economic crises, these factors can be exacerbated by one another.
Disrupted Latino students were more likely than others to feel financial pressure, and disrupted Black students were more likely than others to be influenced by health risks
Potential Solutions
What will it take to reconnect these learners to education pathways? The insights that disrupted students shared in their survey responses point toward solutions in the areas of guidance, affordability, and connecting education to career. These areas are reflected in the highest-ranking solutions, as chosen by these recent high school graduates.1
Having an advisor to help with financial aid, choosing classes, and finding a career path was the most helpful solution. Second-most important was the ability to get an education while still earning money, and third-most important was an easier process to get financial aid to pay for school. Fourth was clear information on the jobs people can get with different education options.
Guidance, affordability, and connection to career are the desired resources
Guidance
Having more guidance could potentially help alleviate students’ No. 1 barrier: stress, anxiety, and uncertainty. Students ranked having an advisor as the most helpful support they could have in their pursuit of further education, as seen in the chart above. Most of these students (58 percent) would be the first in their families to pursue any type of post-high school education, and only about half say they know people who could help them find a way to get the education after high school that is right for them. Guidance from an advisor could fill in these knowledge gaps with information students are not receiving from their families or communities. Lack of social capital is more acute for Black and Latino students; only 42 percent of Black students and 46 percent of Latino students say they know people who can help them in this way.
Only half of disrupted students feel they have the needed social capital
Furthermore, students believe COVID-19 has made it more difficult to find information about options for education, how to apply, and how to pay for education after high school. This feeling is particularly strong among low-income graduates, 61 percent of whom believe it has become more difficult to find information about how to pay for education, compared to 45 percent of graduates who do not identify as low-income.
Lower-income disrupted students are much more likely to say it has become more difficult to find information and guidance.
Both students and higher education leaders are pointing toward the same solutions. In a panel of experts convened by Strada in March, key solutions identified for supporting learners were: providing as much clarity and consistency as possible to make enrollment easier to navigate for students and reduce stress; making a greater investment in advisors to support prospective and current students; and training faculty to advise students in their postsecondary pathways and connect them to resources to support their mental health. Clearly providing navigation and guidance is key to re-engaging learners on their education pathways.
Affordability
At the same time that many students find it harder than ever to find information about how to pay for school, a majority name financial pressure as an extremely or very influential factor in causing them to delay their education.
Concerns about cost carried over into the ways in which some students have revised their education plans. Among those still likely to enroll in additional education in the future, 35 percent said they would choose a less expensive program. Almost as many (31 percent) said they would choose a program closer to home than what they originally had considered.
Seven in ten disrupted students have changed their plans for future education
Black students were most likely to have changed their plans in these ways, with 40 percent of Black students indicating they would choose a less expensive program, compared to 33 percent of white students. Likewise, 37 percent of Black students said they would attend a program that was closer to home, compared to 29 percent of white students.2
Black disrupted students are most likely to have revised their postsecondary education path
Finally, students say that ways to earn money while learning and easier access to financial aid would be among the most helpful supports to their future enrollment. Finding ways to alleviate financial barriers is essential to helping these students achieve their education aspirations.
Connection to Career
Students prioritize education as a means to a better job. And they believe in its promise. When considering future education, most students believed that it would help them get a good job (69 percent). Students also indicated they are seeking more information to help them understand how education would prepare them for a career: Clear information on the job opportunities associated with different education options is ranked among the most helpful supports. Yet uncertainty about whether education will be worth the cost is widespread among disrupted learners, with 55 percent saying they are either unsure or do not believe education will be worth the cost. Prior Strada research has shown that among prospective students, current students, and alumni, clear connections to career are powerfully linked to beliefs that education is worth the cost.
When considering more education, the majority of disrupted students believe in its promise and in themselves—but question its value
Conclusion
Even among this group of high school graduates who decided not to pursue their educational plans, the vast majority still want to come back. Almost two-thirds say they are very or extremely likely to continue their education in the future, while almost all are at least somewhat likely to do so. Their aspirations sound a hopeful note in a year when postsecondary enrollment has experienced historic declines. Given the progress that so many disrupted learners made toward achieving their college dreams — especially students of color, who were more likely to have applied and been accepted to college before abandoning their plans — the right interventions, provided quickly, could bring these students back.
Survey responses from these disrupted learners indicate they already are thinking about the solutions they would need to continue on to postsecondary education. Many of the same solutions they point to are already priorities for higher education leaders focused on how to reconnect with students and create more equitable access to educational opportunity. These solutions — such as better guidance in navigating the education journey, expanded access to financial aid and other supports, and stronger connections between education and career pathways — can help students stay enrolled, achieve their goals, and realize the value of postsecondary education.
Recommendations
Strada and its research partner, Heart + Mind Strategies, conducted this online survey from April 30 through May 16, 2021. Responses were drawn from recent high school graduates of the classes of 2020 and 2021 who had wanted to get additional education after high school but decided not to enroll immediately. Total n=1,212. Class of 2020=626, Class of 2021=586.A theoretical margin of error based on a probability sample of size 1,200 would be +/- 2.8 percent at 95 percent confidence. This is not a probability-based sample, and a margin of error cannot be estimated. Based on experience, we believe the sampling error would be at least this number.In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
- Respondents were presented with different potential solutions and asked to rank which ones were most and least helpful. The choices were randomized and repeated in different combinations in a Max Diff exercise. The numbers are relative in that a solution ranked as an 8 would be four times more likely to be chosen than a solution ranked as a 2, for example.
- Latino students were more likely than white students to say they would attend a less expensive program or a program closer to home, but with the sample size of Latino disrupted students in this survey (n=329), the difference with white students was not statistically significant.
