Many seniors may have to sacrifice plans from prom to college
After falling in love with the California weather on a trip to San Diego last year, Jacqueline Ricalday started dreaming about leaving the Texas heat for college on the sunny West Coast.
Faced with the possibility of expensive out-of-state tuition, Ricalday, a senior at Houston ISD’s Northside High School, took a paid information technology internship and parttime job at an ice cream store while also attending classes.
Her plans were well in motion — until the novel coronavirus pandemic reached the state this month, her internship went on hiatus and her hours at the ice cream shop were cut.
“It’s really affecting what I would do in the future,” said Ri
calday. “I have to re-evaluate everything. See what’s safer, what’s better economic-wise, if I should maybe stay here in Houston and try to go to (University of Houston-Downtown). Maybe it means going the easy way rather than exploring the world.”
While the COVID-19 pandemic has left virtually no Houston-area resident untouched, the region’s 100,000-plus high school seniors are particularly feeling the impact. The prospect of a long-term shutdown of public life not only threatens classic, nostalgia-inducing moments — walking across the graduation stage, dancing at prom, playing hooky on senior skip day — but complicates looming decisions they face about where to commit to college.
The pandemic’s ultimate effect on the region’s seniors remains in flux, largely because schools districts have not announced cancellations beyond mid-April and colleges could still make accommodations. However, public statements by political, health and education leaders suggest local seniors might not return to in-person classes before the end of the school year.
“There are lots of little things that I know are privileges, but we’ve looked forward to them for the entirety of our time in school,” said Shelby Couchman, a senior at Dobie High School in the Pasadena ISD. “It’s a seminal time, and hearing it all might get canceled is really shocking.”
Looming deadlines
The uncertainty weighs on Houston’s collegebound seniors, many of whom face a May 1 deadline to commit and send deposits to postsecondary institutions. Colleges and universities are in the final stages of notifying students about admissions decisions and financial aid packages.
The economic cost of the COVID-19 crisis on students and families will affect decisions made by seniors like Johana Chavez, the salutatorian of Robert E. Lee High School in the Goose Creek CISD. Chavez’s college choice partially depends on whether she can get scholarships, regain her summer supermarket job and earn college credit through Advanced Placement exams.
Chavez said she worries about getting access to her transcripts for scholarship applications amid Goose Creek CISD’s shutdown and wonders about how her five AP exams will work.
“University of Houston is cheaper, so it’s a more realistic school that I would go to,” Chavez said. “But if I get enough scholarship money, I would go to (University of Texas at Austin) because that’s my dream school.”
Elena Guerra, the director of operations for Houston-based Bright Futures Consulting, which advises students on college admissions, said the pandemic could cause a myriad of issues for seniors, with the most significant impacts felt by first-generation college students from lowerincome families.
Guerra noted that many students wait until March and April to visit out-oftown colleges for the first time, choosing not to spend money on a trip until they have been accepted. Completing scholarship applications could become more burdensome, particularly for students who don’t have computers and Internet access at home, she said. The cancellations of college-admissions tests like the ACT and SAT through May also could hurt students planning to retake the exams and boost their scholarship odds.
“It’s more about the obstacles that just got in their way in what was already a very obstacle-laden journey,” said Guerra, whose company advises about 100 students.
Some colleges and testing organizations have started making accommodations for seniors.
Nearly 250 schools, including nine in Texas, have extended their admissions deadline to June 1 or later, according to data compiled by Admissions Community Cultivating Equity & Peace Today, a grassroots group of college admissions professionals.
The College Board also announced it will administer online, 45-minute Advanced Placement tests with only free-response questions — requiring a composed essay — this year. The organization also extended deadlines for art and design, computer science, drawing, research and seminar course submissions.
Diplomas in question
Similar to college-bound students, the region’s struggling seniors also are in limbo with regard to their graduation prospects.
Under normal circumstances, students earn diplomas by passing five state-issued end-of-course standardized tests — two English exams and one each in algebra, biology and U.S. history — or receiving approval from a schoolled committee.
Texas Education Agency officials have canceled state standardized exams this school year and waived the five-test graduation requirement this year. However, students who have not passed all of the exams still must earn approval from a committee, most often comprised of a school principal, a department chair, a teacher and a parent. Committees must be established by June 10, with no state-mandated date for issuing a decision.
Linda Macias, Cy-Fair ISD’s chief academic officer, said her district likely will wait until mid-April to finalize plans for evaluating seniors in danger of failing to graduate.
“We’re really working on that, but we’re waiting on better guidance” from the state, Macias said.
Missing out
For all students, school shutdowns threaten to deny them much-anticipated experiences that represent the culmination of high school.
Couchman, the Pasadena senior, had planned to attend the prom, collect yearbook signatures and participate in the district’s annual cap-and-gown walk through elementary campuses. Most of all, she looked forward to walking hand-in-hand across the graduation stage with her 20-year-old brother and fellow senior, Zachary, who has Down syndrome.
“That literally was going to mean everything to me,” said their mother, Kristine.
While local school districts have not announced changes to graduation, several Texas colleges and universities have postponed spring commencement. The holding of proms now also appears unlikely, given that local and federal officials have advised against gatherings of 10 people or more for the foreseeable future.
The pandemic’s impact on senior events weighs on Conroe ISD Superintendent Curtis Null, who addressed upperclassmen during his announcement that the district’s campuses would remain closed through April 10.
“As quickly as things have changed over these last few weeks, it’s impossible for me to make a promise to you right now,” Null said.
“But I do want you to know that we understand how important they are. And if we have to make changes to those events, we’ll do everything we can to make sure they’re as special as they deserve to be. You’ve worked for 13 years to get to this point, and we want to celebrate you.”
Ricalday, the Northside High senior, said she has applied herself for the past four years with a specific goal in mind: Finishing in the top 10 percent of her class, which would allow her to sit on stage during commencement.
“I knew if I were at the top of my class, they would introduce us first and I wouldn’t have to wait so much for them to call my name,” Ricalday said. “I have so much hope that we’ll all go.”
“There are lots of little things that I know are privileges, but we’ve looked forward to them for the entirety of our time in school.”
Shelby Couchman, a senior at Dobie High School in the Pasadena ISD