Middle Schoolers Getting Prepped for College

Middle school students are being asked to do much more than take prealgebra these days; they’re being asked to start launching their future careers.

A rise in college- and career-readiness programs targeted at middle schoolers, particularly disadvantaged ones, has been spurred by mounting research that shows middle school is a key time to improve the academics and attitudes needed to succeed in high school, college, and beyond.

But successful programs aimed at the middle grades cannot focus solely on mapping out coursework and taking standardized tests, educators say. They have to reach young adolescents in innovative ways that combine the efforts of parents, schools, and the community to set those students on a path to a better future. Students have to especially feel they are pursuing their own goals.

“Young adolescence is a time of exploration and wonder, so the middle grades are a critical time for students to begin considering their life beyond high school,” said Patti Kinney, the associate director of middle-level services for the National Association of Secondary School Principals. “Effective middle-grades schools help students understand their potential and give them multiple opportunities to explore the future through a variety of experiences, support, and guidance.”

What Do You Want to Be?

Beginning this school year, Mississippi 8th graders are not just deciding “what they want to be when they grow up” but figuring out the necessary steps to become what they want to be. Pathways to Success, a new initiative spearheaded by the state education department, has students select a career and then map out the path they would need to take in high school and college to enable them to work in that field, an effort to encourage students to set higher goals for the future.

Other college- and career-readiness programs targeting middle school students are also cropping up around the country.

Some, like Mississippi’s, are just beginning. Others are expansions of established high school programs into the middle grades, and still others are ramped-up versions of existing middle school programs.

Research showing that the middle school years may determine students’ future academic achievement has encouraged that growth, said Steve Kappler, the assistant vice president of educational services at ACT Inc., the Iowa City, Iowa-based college-entrance-exam company.

ACT researchers found in 2008 that the academic level students achieve by 8th grade has a bigger impact on college and career readiness and success than anything that happens academically in high school. And last year’s “Building a Grad Nation,” released by Civic Enterprises, a Washington-based public-policy advising firm, and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, found warning signs that a student may not finish high school appear as early as the elementary and middle grades. Interventions are called for, particularly in middle school, when indicators show students are on a fast track to dropping out in high school, the study found.

Mr. Kappler said the ACT has seen about a 40 percent growth in the past five years in the sales of EXPLORE, a test it produces that shows 8th and 9th graders’ weaknesses in core subject areas. The test is supposed to help educators target students earlier who might need extra help to meet high school prerequisites for college.

But getting students academically up to par is not the only thing students need to succeed after middle school, the research says. To overcome some potential barriers to college readiness, the ACT this past year also launched ENGAGE, an assessment program for middle and high school students that helps spot weaknesses in the behavioral and attitudinal—as well as academic—traits linked to long-term education and career accomplishments.

Developmental changes and heightened social pressures make middle school a challenging time for many students, said Deborah Kasak, the executive director of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform, a Savoy, Ill.-based alliance of educators that works to improve the quality of middle schools nationwide. But it’s also an important time to reach them about taking the right steps for the future, she added, but not solely by demanding students take certain classes before they enter high school.

“We need to instill in our students the habits of mind, skills, and work that will prepare them well for the future while remembering they are still young adolescents,” Ms. Kasak said. “We don’t want to forget they are still learning about themselves, thinking about options, and really thinking for the first time about what they may want to do now and when they graduate.”

Support Systems

Role models, like parents and teachers, are seen as crucial to fostering a better attitude about future pathways for middle school students. A number of middle-school-focused college- and career-readiness programs do significant outreach to parents and teachers for that reason.

In Columbus, Ohio, Blueprint College: 2.0, a college-readiness initiative supported by the school district there, Ohio State University, and the nonprofit I Know I Can, reaches out not only to the 11,000 middle schoolers in that district but their parents, too. Since 2009, a series of workshops on college and career awareness for middle school students and their parents have been provided in the city, the majority of whose students are from underserved populations. Families whose children may not be on a college track are actively recruited.

At the workshops, middle schoolers participate in engaging activities with college students and staff members aimed at understanding college’s role in achieving career and life goals, while their parents learn about financial aid, prerequisite classes, and the college-application process.

“If you don’t reach students during middle school, they don’t realize the clock is ticking when they arrive at high school,” said Amy Wade, the I Know I Can director of early awareness and grants. “While they will have options, they won’t have as many options if they don’t think about planning and preparing for college early and often.”

For most parents, it’s not a lack of interest in their children’s future, but lack of know-how, she said. Many are unaware of the likelihood their child could attend college or ...

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Special coverage on the alignment between K-12 schools and postsecondary education is supported in part by a grant from the Lumina Foundation for Education, at www.luminafoundation.org.