Expand postsecondary advising during the school day

CONTRIBUTED BY: ONEGOAL AND COLLEGE ACCESS: RESEARCH AND ACTION

Students - particularly first-generation college students and students from low-income backgrounds - face a myriad of challenges as they try to realize their post-secondary dreams. Students and their families often lack access to resources that are the norm among college-educated families, specifically “cultural capital”—an understanding of the landscape of college and the college and financial aid application processes—and “social capital”—access to social networks that can connect students to college-related information and opportunities. And with the costs of attending college rising and federal and state financial aid failing to keep up with inflation, many also lack the “economic capital” needed to undertake higher education, rightfully fearing taking on extensive debt to pay for college.

Therefore, the landscape of higher education and postsecondary planning is a subject that must be explicitly taught to all students. Without sustained and dedicated time during the school day that honors the complexity of preparing for a postsecondary pathway, we will continue to see vast inequities in degree attainment across socio-economic status and race/ethnicity.

Students should be enrolled in courses in high school that ensure all—not just those with the highest GPA—are planning their postsecondary transition with an emphasis on:

• student identity and aspirations;

• best institutional “match;

• financial savvy; and

• effective mentorship and advising.

The use of school-based educators allows schools to expand the advising capacity at schools beyond overworked guidance counselors and capitalizes on teacher-student relationships to strengthen postsecondary advising. Schools and districts that invest the resources and time to pursue this strategy experience increases in on-time high school graduation, direct enrollment into a postsecondary pathway among all students, and increased persistence and completion rates in their communities.

How does the strategy create more equitable access and opportunities?

The degree divide is one symptom of a broad and deeply entrenched system of inequality. Often, programs that attempt to address inequitable access to postsecondary planning and success are delivered outside of the school day, by external mentors/advisors, and to a subset of students who may already be on the path to postsecondary success. This is not wrong; we need all of the help we can get. But, it is inequitable. Not all students have access to this type of support because by participating in programs outside of the regular school day, students must by default opt into this support.

To add to the inequality, postsecondary support is often disproportionately focused on students who pursue two-year or four-year degrees. Programs are also rarely grounded in culturally-relevant pedagogy.

An equitable, school-based postsecondary advising program moves from a model of “enrichment for some'' to “entitlement for all,” helping all students develop a multicultural college-going identity and affirming the value of multiple postsecondary pathways. As students solidify their plans in 11th and 12th grade, curricular content can be differentiated to support students on these different pathways, and teachers can guide students to the most important milestones associated with each individual students’ needs and goals.

What outcomes or benefits are associated with the strategy?

A school-based postsecondary success model that dedicates time, resources, and capacity to delivery postsecondary knowledge and advising to all students results in:

• Increased GPA

• Increased on-time high school graduation rates

• Increased seamless enrollment in a postsecondary institution immediately following high school graduation

• Decreased summer melt

• Increased persistence between a student’s first and second year of postsecondary

• Increased completion rates

• Increased capacity of school leaders and teachers to deliver effective postsecondary advising and support via a culturally responsive curriculum

Several organizations have shown evidence of these outcomes. As evidenced by a 2014 evaluation from the University of Chicago, OneGoal has directly witnessed these improved outcomes across more than 130 schools and districts across the country to implement this strategy. In fact, 86% of OneGoal high school graduates enroll in a postsecondary institution and 76% of those persist one year after high school graduation. And at schools in New York City that have implemented CARA’s whole school and peer leader programs across four years, there has been a 14% increase in postsecondary matriculation rates.

What are the budget implications for implementing the strategy?

There are direct and indirect costs that school and district leaders must consider. Embedding postsecondary access and success work into the school day requires students to be scheduled into a course, or figuring out where postsecondary content can be incorporated into existing courses. This can happen via an existing advisory period or as an elective, credit-bearing course that is added to the master schedule. Under the advisory model, teachers are trained to deliver postsecondary advising and content; districts may choose to support their capacity through per-session pay to meet monthly to do this work. Under the elective, credit-bearing model, the class would replace one period in a teacher's schedule to ensure they are not taking on a disproportionate course load.

Beyond the indirect costs, school and district leaders who do not have standardized content and curriculum will have to invest in purchasing this material. Programs like OneGoal and CARA offer standardized, research-based, culturally-responsive curriculum that is continually refined and updated, given the constantly changing field of college access. This ensures that as students are engaged in the content, and data is collected on the back end to provide educators with real-time analytics that inform whether students are on- or off-track for postsecondary success. Finally, these programs typically come with training and/or coaching for the adults administering the program who may be new to postsecondary advising and will need to build their knowledge base.

The costs will vary by school or district based on the course model and program vendor chosen, but strong programs will help schools to increasingly build the work into their own infrastructure so that costs decrease significantly over time.