The Fight to Fix North Carolina's Leaky Postsecondary Pipeline

Recently I had the opportunity to join students from John A. Holmes High School, myFutureNC CEO Cecilia Holden, and EdNC to demonstrate North Carolina's Leaky Postsecondary Pipeline and what myFutureNC is doing about it. We gathered in the school's gymnasium for the project and what felt a bit chaotic became a powerful visual of what life past high school holds for typical high school graduates.

The students represent 100 average ninth graders in North Carolina’s public school system. As I shared in the video, children start kindergarten with hopes and dreams of a bright future. When asked about what they want to be when they grow up, their eyes light up as they discuss being an astronaut, a teacher, an attorney, a fireman, etc. None say, "I want to drop-out of school" or "I want to graduate from high school, but fail to move past that."

Based on the data provided by myFutureNC, of the 100 average ninth graders in North Carolina’s public school system represented in the video,

13 will not graduate high school.

15 will graduate, but have no plans to enroll in college.

That leaves 72 students, all of whom plan to go to college.

But 19 of them won’t enroll after all, for one reason or another.

12 will enroll in college, but will drop out after their first year.

11 more will make it through one year of college, but will not complete their degree or credential within 6 years.

That leaves only 30 students.

These students will obtain some sort of college degree or high-quality credential after high school, at a community college or university.

That’s just 30% of the group we started with. If the high school graduation were only 30%, we would declare a state of emergency and significant commmunity resources would be expended to address the issue. Unfortunately, this failure to earn a college degree or industry-recognized credential within six years of high school graduation by 70% of a ninth grade class is a hidden problem.

myFutureNC graphic from EdNC

Recognizing that our state needs 2 million individuals age 25-44 with a degree or credential in 2030 and that in 2016, we only had 1.3 million, myFutureNC has stepped in. Armed with bipartisan legislative support, support from business leaders, support from community colleges and universities, and support from K-12 educators, myFutureNC has stepped forward to help the state meet this goal.

At a recent launch event, myFutureNC CEO Cecilia Holden shared the five ways that myFutureNC will be working to help obtain this goal:

• Convening and engaging stakeholders.
• Catalyzing and supporting.
• Aligning and coordinating across educational systems.
• Advancing evidence-based practices and policies.
• Measuring progress towards the goal.

Two million postsecondary degrees or high-quality credentials by 2030 is an audacious goal. But they firmly believe that collaboration, commitment and courage will equip our state for success as we position our state and its students for a prosperous future. I believe it as well. I our school system, a 78.9% cohort graduation rate in 2014 became a 91.6% cohort graduation rate in 2019. We can solve the leaky postsecondary/post-high school pipeline. It will take hard work, but I believe that we will make this happen. I believe in us.

Information for this blog post came from:

Attendance at the myFutureNC: 2020-2030 A Vision for Attainment event

A vision for attainment: 2 million by 2030 (EdNC article) by Analisa Sorrells and Molly Osborne