Class of 2025: Junior year brings new expectations and worries about life after high school

Several students are behind on credits and trying to catch up.

Some are struggling to stay motivated as school gets more difficult, or as they see opportunities outside of school.

Others are excelling in class but are already worried about what comes next.

Beside them, the adults in their lives — their teachers and parents — are setting high expectations and offering what support they can. But even more than in years past, the students are learning that success is largely up to them.

The Class of 2025 is heading into its last year of high school. They represent the first class expected to meet a goal the state of Oregon set in 2012, that every student would successfully complete high school.

The 27 students OPB has followed through this project have faced difficulties, just like their counterparts across Oregon and the country. None were as profound as the pandemic that disrupted critical years in middle school, causing losses in learning, skill-building and connection to school.

To give a measure of privacy to the students and families we’ve been following for the last decade, we don’t use participants’ last names.

Class of 2025 student Kaylie struggled with low attendance her sophomore year — missing more school days than she attended. In her junior year, she remained a student at David Douglas High but moved away from Southeast Portland to live with her dad in Estacada.

With a smile, Kaylie describes Estacada as “calm and quiet” in contrast to her old neighborhood.

“I never hear police sirens here like I did in Portland.”

In spite of the 45-minute commute each way, Kaylie’s attendance and grades improved. Maybe fewer distractions and calmer surroundings helped. But her dad Kelley was part of it, too.

“Moving in with me has impacted her grades because I hold her accountable,” Kelley told OPB. But Kelley is quick to point out that Kaylie’s goals, like earning a diploma and possibly going to college, are Kaylie’s to set.

“I am not pushing her, it’s whatever she wants. If she tells me she wants to graduate, as her parent, it’s my job to hold her to that,” Kelley said.

In the Class of 2025 Junior Year documentary, David Douglas High School principal Greg Carradine acknowledges that he didn’t notice the repercussions of the pandemic as quickly as he would have liked.

“I didn’t realize — just the amount of culture that had been lost in David Douglas High School,” Carradine said. “No one’s in the building, so we didn’t have anyone to pull, you know, our sophomores and freshmen up. And so now some of those things had to be rebuilt. I wish I’d have known how to recognize that sooner.”

At the same time, families faced lingering health challenges, and teachers were struggling with students feeling less engaged with school. Class of 2025 student Osvaldo spoke of taking a “mental break” in the spring that ended up hurting his grades.

“After I took the mental break, I rechecked on my grades, and it was just like, ‘Wow, I need to really get it back together,’” Osvaldo said.

Other students spoke openly of wanting to get school over with, more than a year before graduation. Class of 2025 student Rayshawn attends the small alternative program, Rosemary Anderson High School. He says school isn’t hard if you put in the effort. But he sees fewer students his age who are really engaged and excited about being at school.

“I don’t think nobody [in] my generation wants to actually be at school,” Rayshawn said. “I think we have to, but we’re just waiting to start our lives, start our trades, start our own business and stuff.”

Teachers are seeing a problem with the detachment and disengagement Rayshawn and Osvaldo described showing up in other ways. David Douglas English teacher Tracy Apple saw students giving up when things got tough. That worries her.

“What’s going to happen out in my community when they try to open a small business and they keep running into red tape, is that person going to quit because they can’t find the resources or are they going to push through?” Apple asked.

Questions like Apple’s aren’t that far off or abstract. Students in the Class of 2025 are, for the most part, now 17 years old. When OPB’s project started, they were 5 or 6. They’re practically adults and starting to wrestle with grown-up questions and problems.

And some familiar questions are taking on new relevance.

OPB would often ask students what they wanted to be when they grew up — starting when they were in first grade and regularly throughout the multi-year project. For Class of 2025 student Josh, playing pro basketball was often part of his answer. But as a junior, with college and career decisions getting closer, Josh started to look more seriously at other plans.

“I was thinking about probably trying to major in science, just hands-on life science,” he said. “Sometimes I worry about the future and like what I’ll do in the future or if things will come too fast, and I just worry about how my future will be and if anything will go wrong.”

Josh’s time and energy started to move in new directions in his junior year, as he spent time as a classroom assistant, grading papers and offering other help to one of his teachers. And Josh has maintained solid grades — and was one of a number of OPB’s Class of 2025 students invited to a “half grad” event at the beginning of his junior year to celebrate being on track.

Class of 2025 student Ava is on track to graduate on time and stays motivated by spending nearly all her waking hours during the week in class, studying or in school activities. She has a goal for what she wants to do after high school, but the path isn’t familiar.

“The only thing I’m really worried about is college,” Ava said. “None of my family has actually been to college before, so I want to be one of those people to do it.”

As the Class of 2025 inches closer to graduation, family, especially parents, are critical.

Class of 2025 student Anais jokes with her mom and considers herself “lucky” to have such a sensitive adult in her life to lean on. Like Ava, Anais looks at life after high school — paying bills and finding a job — as daunting.

The transition a year from now from high school student to what’s next is quietly nerve-wracking for parents, who’ve spent years supporting their kids through school.

Anais’ mom, Josette, emotionally describes the mixed emotions she’s already feeling as her daughter turns the corner toward the end of high school.

She wants Anais to graduate. But she doesn’t want her to leave home.

“Because she’s my best friend.”

Class of 2025: Junior Year is available online starting Sept. 16 and will have its broadcast premiere on Sept. 23 at 9 p.m. on OPB TV.