;)
When Nadia was in high school, her teachers and administrators portrayed college as the only realistic pathway to a respectable career.
鈥淐ollege, they make it seem like the end-all, be-all,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f it鈥檚 not college, I鈥檒l visit you at the drive-thru once a week, that type of thing. There鈥檚 kind of like this dark hole. Anything outside of it, you鈥檙e not a part of moving up in society in a way.鈥�
Faculty at April鈥檚 school across town, meanwhile, presented college as one of several possible routes to economic opportunity.
鈥淭he teachers let us know that they want us to do better with our lives,鈥� she said. 鈥淕o to college, even start your own business. Mostly everybody has a class and can get a license for (an industry). So even if you don鈥檛 go to college, you can start your own thing.鈥�
The reason why Nadia and April had such different experiences is directly related to the type of schools they attended.
Nadia, like , went to a school where students need to meet certain GPA, attendance and test score requirements in order to be admitted. These are known as 鈥渃riteria-based schools.鈥�
But April attended what I call an 鈥渙pen-access school鈥� 鈥� an umbrella term for the different types of schools that don鈥檛 have competitive admission standards. These schools serve students who are from the surrounding neighborhood or interested in a particular 鈥� such as culinary arts, digital media or health-related technology 鈥� and 59% of Philly students attend those kinds of schools.
Between February 2022 and May 2023, I conducted 73 in-depth interviews with 12th graders, counselors and principals at two criteria-based and two open-access high schools in Philadelphia. The names Nadia and April are pseudonyms, as are all the names used in this article, to protect the research participants鈥� identities.
In published in the journal in June 2024, I find that criteria-based and open-access schools have very different structures in place 鈥� specifically around curricula and counseling 鈥� designed to position their students for success after graduation.
Different routes to social mobility
The admission processes that determine which side of the divide students end up on has been the subject of because the stakes can be momentous. The high school a student attends is strongly , .
For example, in criteria-based schools, just over 75% of the class of 2023 went to college in the fall after graduation, according to my calculations using . At open-access schools, only 38% did.
When it comes to classroom instruction, Philly鈥檚 public high schools face a trade-off between emphasizing academic and technical skills.
Criteria-based schools focus almost exclusively on academics and, in the process, send students strong messages about the necessity of four-year college. Students at these schools often doubt the viability of other routes to economic stability and prosperity.
鈥淲hen I was a freshman, they did an assembly for all the ninth graders,鈥� recalled Laurence. 鈥淎nd the principal said on the microphone that if you don鈥檛 want to go to college, you should transfer.鈥�
Open-access schools, by contrast, often integrate career and technical education, or , into the curriculum. Students learn specialized skills and that translate directly to the labor market.
This approach , whether for financial, academic or personal reasons, such as caregiving responsibilities. Still, school leaders acknowledge that vocational training can come at the expense of academic rigor.
鈥淗ow do I transition someone who鈥檚 been working for the past 10 years on diesel trucks in a shop and get them to teach and manage three classrooms full of kids for 100 minutes, 160 minutes and 100 minutes a day?鈥� asked Mr. Clark, the principal of an open-access school. 鈥淭hen you want me to pile on top of that, 鈥極h, yeah, and I need you to get them to analyze an author鈥檚 purpose in a text and be able to solve quadratic equations.鈥� I would love to be there. But just being honest with you, that鈥檚 pie in the sky.鈥�
Counselors stretched thin
In my interviews, I also found that open-access schools have far less energy and resources to expend on college advising than their criteria-based counterparts.
Guidance counselors have historically been vulnerable to budget cuts, particularly at open-access schools. Between 2010 and 2014, fiscal crises caused the district to working in neighborhood high schools 鈥� a category of open-access schools 鈥� from 91 to 35.
The that characterize open-access schools compounds the issue of high student-to-counselor ratios. Social-emotional issues stemming from students鈥� trauma and material hardship can crowd out the individual attention that counselors would otherwise grant college-bound seniors.
鈥淚 have to address these needs,鈥� said Ms. Allen, principal of the other open-access high school in my study. 鈥淚 have two social workers in here. I have a behavioral health counselor. I have (a nonprofit partner) in here that helps with homelessness. That鈥檚 basically what I鈥檓 worried about right now. Most of my money goes to special education, behavioral health needs. So that鈥檚 what (open-access) schools are turning into. That鈥檚 what we became 鈥� a super high-needs school.鈥�
A mismatch with students鈥� ambitions
Poverty and its related challenges are an important reason why open-access high schools are oriented to students鈥� immediate needs. They often accommodate students鈥� work schedules with early release policies that allow seniors to take as few as two academic classes per day.
鈥淲e have different scenarios that can help (students) in the short term,鈥� explained Mr. West, a guidance counselor at an open-access school. 鈥淲e try to provide them opportunities to get money now because I know it鈥檚 important to a lot of these kids.鈥�
In spite of their financial constraints, students at open-access schools still commonly aspire to college. Fully two-thirds of the students I interviewed in these schools intended to enroll in either a four-year or a community college directly after graduation.
Their schools鈥� short-term outlook, then, creates a mismatch between students鈥� college ambitions and the limited institutional support available to them. As a result, many students from first-generation families that I interviewed were left to wade through complex financial aid forms and juggle application deadlines largely on their own.
Meanwhile, criteria-based schools are able to prioritize college counseling because their student bodies are more socioeconomically diverse. The ones I observed during the study used discretionary funds to hire to them by the district and devoted instructional time to guide students through the college process.
The district鈥檚 criteria-based and open-access schools are united by a shared mission to help their students achieve economic and career stability. At criteria-based schools, getting ahead in life is synonymous with college. While open-access schools also encourage college attendance, they spread themselves thin to support students with a wide range of short-term challenges and long-term goals.
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