A beloved teacher dies from coronavirus – The New York Times

Then, working with a local nonprofit group, the school shifted its strategy. Instead of trying to pole vault its top students into top schools, it tried to focus on getting everyone into a degree program. With a dedicated college-advising office and recent graduates called bridge coaches, the on-time graduation rate is now about 70 percent. In 2019, 75 percent of graduates went directly to college.

We build up our students for four years, to get to the point where theyre confident and comfortable that they belong in college, Robert Schwarz, a vice principal, told The Times. That takes a lot of hand-holding.

Updated Sept. 11, 2020

The latest on how schools are reopening amid the pandemic.

Although the pandemic hit the school and its students hard, Richmond Hill maintained its counseling program. Even as the parents of some students died or lost their jobs, most seniors stayed on track. By early September, despite the pandemic, 70 percent of the graduating class was enrolled in college.

The intensive counseling the bridge coaches provided was the key factor in persuading those students to stick with their plans, said Paul Tough, a contributing writer at The Times Magazine who spent months looking into Richmond Hills strategy.

Now, similar counseling programs are under threat as districts and public college systems face budget cuts. Student support systems like counselors are often the first to go.

When you make those cuts, you inevitably have higher drop out rates, especially for low-income students, Paul said. That feels like the part of the crisis that hasnt happened yet, but everyone can see coming.

Read more: Predominantly white districts are more than three times as likely to be open for some in-person learning, compared with districts that enroll mostly students of color, according to an analysis by The Associated Press and Chalkbeat.

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A beloved teacher dies from coronavirus - The New York Times