I have been teaching long enough that the group of students in my first year teaching kindergarten at my current school, are now seniors in high school.  The following year, I taught second grade, and those students graduated last June.  Some of these students were also in my class when I taught fifth and sixth grade, as I have moved up in grades as they have.

I am in touch with several former students and I know what their plans are, but I want to know about all of them.  I want to know what happened when they left the classroom we created together and went out into the world.  I have decided I am going to try to keep track.

Of the current seniors, their plans are just formulating.   Most of these students haven’t heard yet from colleges.   I wrote before about the two young men who participated in early acceptance for Humboldt State University.  Another former student has been ‘decision deferred’ (not really a rejection, but not an acceptance either) from MIT and Cal Tech.   She has yet to hear from the other places she applied to – the UC system has been so overwhelmed and decisions from them aren’t usually sent until early spring.    Others, I know, have planned on attending the local community college (they call it “Harvard on the Hill”) for both budgetary and academic reasons.  With the current economic situation and the hike in fees, some parents cannot afford to send kids away to college.  Other students didn’t take the required classes to go to college or they didn’t get good enough grades. 

For those that graduated last year, it is harder for me to track.  Many of them I haven’t seen since they left elementary school, and I don’t know where they attended junior high or high school.   I see some working in town, but I don’t know if they are working or working and going to college.   I know a few of them attend the local community college, some because they didn’t get into the university of their choice due to cut backs in admissions last year.  I know of one at San Francisco State, but this is the only one of that group that I know for certain is in a four year university. 

I have the expectation that everyone who comes through my classroom will attend some form of post-high school education.  Some will go to the local community college, some will take vocational education courses, I but I assume the majority will go to four-year universities.   Going forward, I intend to keep a posted list of the colleges and universities my former students attend.  I want the students who sit in these chairs, at these desks, to know that going to college is not only an option, but a realistic expectation for them.  That college isn’t for other kids, but for kids just like them.