SEE the intervention

So, what exactly is Stay the Course™?

Stay the Course™ is a program offered to community college students that focuses on helping students persist in school, so they can obtain their certificate/degree. This program was launched in 2013 by Catholic Charities Fort Worth (CCFW) and The University of Notre Dame's Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) and is rigorously evaluated through a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT). The RCT component allows us to test our theory of change that personal and institutional obstacles can be overcome through intensive case management, leading to increased persistence and degree completion.

CCFW is committed to creating programs that work, which is why we have partnered with LEO to research and test our poverty-ending solutions. By adding the RCT component to the Stay the Course™ program we are able to compare the outcomes of students who enter the program, which allows us to assess the overall impact of the program.

How does this work? Eligible students are randomly assigned to either a treatment group or a control group upon enrollment in the program. Students assigned to the treatment group will be paired with a Navigator and and receive the intervention (i.e., Stay the Course™ program services). Students assigned to the control group will not have access to the intervention, but will receive a soft hand-off to other resources available on-campus and in the community. It is important that students are randomly assigned, to ensure that characteristics between participants in each group are balanced. Outcomes are tracked for participants in both the treatment and control group, to determine how each groups compare to each other in terms of persistence and certificate/degree completion. This comparison allows us to draw conclusions in regards to the overall impact the program and whether the program is effective. To put it simply, by incorporating an RCT we are no longer having to guess whether our services are beneficial, we know.

The intervention consists of two primary components – intensive case management provided on campus and access to up to $1,500 of emergency financial assistance for non-academic needs.

Eligible students assigned to the treatment group are paired with a Stay the Course™ Navigator– a case manager who walks with students through their academic journey to help them navigate institutional and personal obstacles. Stay the Course™ Navigators provide intensive case management services that include helping identify and eliminate barriers for students, connecting students with resources on-campus and in the community, and coaching students to ensure students believe they can achieve academic success. Caseloads for Navigators do not exceed 40 students, which allows them to provide the intensive level of services required for the program with quality. Navigators and are in constant contact with students through weekly check-ins and bi-monthly face-to-face meetings, to ensure that students make regular progress on their service plan by completing an action step every 21 days.

In addition to receiving intensive case management services, treatment group students in the Stay the Course™ program have access to up to $1,500 of emergency financial assistance (EFA) throughout the life of the program, with a cap of $500 per semester. EFA through the Stay the Course™ is unique, as it is available for non-academic emergency needs (e.g., car repair, overdue rent) only. Students cannot request these funds for things like tuition or books, and have to submit evidence of need to demonstrate that receipt of the funds is "emergent."