January Board of Ed: college access

 update on college access for class of 2021
in a given year, about 70% of graduates attend college; for some groups, it's much lower
pandemic fall of 2020: zoom in state university system
11.6% drop in community college; 7.7% drop in state universities

data on gap years; "enrolling immediately matters"
those who enroll immediately earn much more money in their 30's than those who postpone or who never enroll

equity gaps increasing in who is access college
what about this year's seniors?
90% of students who fill out FAFSA by March 15 eventually attend college
gaps, but still, "timely completion of the FAFSA matters"

Allows students and families to keep options on a the table 

"we know that we have a little time here"
"we're not on fire yet" 
applications for college are down as well
March 1 to 15 is the critical time
community college remains an option; still time to work on this
"very little direct work to complete FAFSA" done by the department
"trying to rev people up to get out to their kids"
"how we message"
met with three largest districts
"there's a lot of things counselors are doing; their plates are full"
knowing we have to change things in this matter, shifting what and how
"most of those kids, if you don't complete FAFSA, there's no college at the end of it"
enrollments are down: "that's not a gap year; that's a gap decade"
there's work to be done about this

Morton suggest a public awareness campaign
people in communities who'd be willing to speak to young people about this 
Craven: coordinated effort through community learning pods
Hills: some high schools are "doing much much better work in setting up their graduates for financial success" than others
R: can only get out to mid-30's
is there variation? Yes, there's a lot of variation in high schools in the varying rates
some doing "a better job"
Hills: if schools don't have their seniors enroll right away (he's interrupted "on average, on average")
note that these are stacked bars with delayed enrolled

Coughlin: definitely something the student advisory council willing to take up
maybe a PSA from the Department going out to families and students

Peyser: think there were 121 views of individual student FAFSA reports, with fewer than last year (from EDWIN)
"if you don't have the data, if you don't know which ones filled it out and which ones haven't completed, you can't do the work to get this done"
previously, there was an urgent sense of data being needed; concern that is lost
counselors checking "every week" to see who has and can't get it done

Morton: and we lost sounds
...
work going on with counselors?
Target resources, communications to those places that we know that this is going to make a big difference

West: indicator in real time that allows to intervene
(snaps from Morton)