We are approaching that stressful time of year when high school seniors learn if they are accepted into the colleges of their choice and colleges wait expectantly to learn which of those students will decide to deposit and enroll. March 15 – May 15 are tough months in the world of college admissions.
Until quite recently, I spoke about the problem of silos within education: within a single institution (across disciplines and among faculty/ staff/ administration) and across institutions throughout the educational pipeline. Pre-school programs are often separated from K-8 institutions; high schools stand alone too, separated from most K-8 schools on the one end and colleges on the other. I suggested a solution: silo-busting.
However, I have come to the conclusion that silo busting is passé, or at least a poor metaphor for what we need to ease the tensions of collegiate admissions as well as solve tough problems and prepare students for the world they are entering. I am now a proponent of silo-linking. Here’s what led me to this new position—one that preserves silos but seeks the value of their engagement with each other.
Most entrenched social problems cannot be solved by expertise in a single silo; we need the expertise within multiple silos. If we want to address, for example, the marked differential in educational attainment among low and high income students, these disciplinary specialists, among others, need to share their wisdom to fashion solutions: economists; psychologists; sociologists; educators from pre-K through high school; health professionals (especially with expertise in pregnancy and neonatology). Also, with insights and perspectives from multiple established sources working in collaboration, creative and realistic solutions are more probable. We can construct silos as separate containers in the real world, but problems that matter seep across these person-made silos.
Were we to have silo-linking across the educational pipeline, we could ease the whole college admissions process. Here’s why. When high school seniors send off their college acceptance letter, their high school considers its job done. Check the box: matriculation to college—yes. The high schools close in June, and most school counselors and teachers literally leave the building. No one is there from the high school to see if the students actually go to college—enroll where they said they were enrolling, show up for orientation, move to campus or attend classes. The colleges handle the latter group of issues, ensuring that new students appear and that “melt” is minimal.
But, we know that some students, particularly first generation, low income, Pell-eligible students, do not actually appear on the college doorstep. Something happens between the time they say yes and when they are to show up on campuses. We can speculate on the whys: they find a job and need to work to support themselves and their family members; financial aid packaging did not come through; their friends are not heading off to college; their parents are not pushing them, neither are their school counselors. If someone is scared to transition to something new, it is not surprising that it is hard to leave home.
