The Power of Post Education

Duh. It's a no-brainer. I'm a proponent of post high school education. Partly because I'm a product of college/university life and also because I've seen the staggering statistics in regards to students that attend college and those that don't. I recently worked on a grant that had the following stats:

- Most 8th graders today will tell you they plan to go to college. However, only about half of Latino 9th graders graduate from high school within four years, compared to 79% of Asian Americans and 79% of Caucasians.

-A child from a higher income family is five times more likely to earn a BA degree by 24 than a child from a lower income family.

-A recent study noted that a significant barrier to higher education for low-income individuals was not a lack of opportunity, but a lack of information about college and financial aid opportunities.

You read those stats and are reminded of the power of college. Yet what are we doing collectively as an educational world to promote it, especially with those that need it most, our at-risk kids? Not much, I'm afraid.

At Outlook, we study Brain Rules, the book by John Medina. One of the rules is REPEAT TO REMEMBER. We have to repeat, repeat, repeat...if we want students to recognize and know information. Talking about and exploring what college is has to be reviewed constantly. That's why I'm so excited by our University Points program. Not that it's a competition for our students so much as it is an avenue by which we can use to talk about university life.

We can only do so much at school, I know. Parents and family have to help as well. But before we go to bed tonight, we have to ask: Did I do everything I could for the student(s) I work with?