College access and readiness supports

Before making investments in this strategy, city and county leaders should ensure it addresses local needs.

The Urban Institute and Mathematica have developed indicator frameworks to help local leaders assess conditions related to upward mobility, identify barriers, and guide investments to address these challenges. These indicator frameworks can serve as a starting point for self-assessment, not as a comprehensive evaluation, and should be complemented by other forms of local knowledge.

The Urban Institute's Upward Mobility Framework identifies a set of key local conditions that shape communities’ ability to advance upward mobility and racial equity. Local leaders can use the Upward Mobility Framework to better understand the factors that improve upward mobility and prioritize areas of focus. Data reports for cities and counties can be created here.

Several indicators in the Upward Mobility Framework may be improved with investments in high-quality programs. To measure these indicators and determine if investments in this strategy could help, examine the following:

• Preparation for college: Percent of 19- and 20-year-olds with a high school degree. This is available from the American Community Survey.

• Employment opportunities: Ratio of pay on an average job to the cost of living. These data are available from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.

• Social capital: Number of membership associations per 10,000 people and the ratio of residents’ Facebook friends with higher socioeconomic status to their Facebook friends with lower socioeconomic status. These data are available from the Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns and Opportunity Insights’ Social Capital Atlas, respectively.

Mathematica's Education-to-Workforce (E-W) Indicator Framework helps local leaders identify the data that matter most in helping students and young adults succeed. Local leaders can use the E-W framework to better understand education and workforce conditions in their communities and to identify strategies that can improve outcomes in these areas.

Several indicators in the E-W Framework may be improved with investments in high-quality programs. To measure these indicators and determine if investments in this strategy could help, examine the following:

• Access to college and career advising: Ratio of number of students to number of full-time equivalent (FTE) counselors or percentage of students using academic advising and career counseling services.

• Access to college preparatory coursework: Percentage of high schools offering college preparatory coursework, such as four years of English, four years of math, three years of laboratory science, and more.

• College preparatory coursework completion: Percentage of high school graduates who successfully complete the coursework required for admission to a four-year college or university.

• FAFSA completion: Percentage of grade 12 students who complete the FAFSA by June 30.

• SAT and ACT participation and performance: Percentage of grade 11–12 students who earn a “college-ready” score, based on the benchmarks set by the SAT and ACT.

• Holistic, student-centered approach: Successful programs take a comprehensive approach to helping students access and stay in college. They generally focus on four essential components, ensuring students are 1) progressing in their studies and class work (or determining whether they need tutoring and counseling); 2) are identifying and accessing financial aid opportunities on time and meeting application requirements; 3) are taking the right classes, accumulating credits, and building the skills for a career and employability; and 4) are balancing life needs and priorities while coping with the college setting. The student is at the center of all these services, with the coach paying close attention to any changes or problems that students encounter.

• Long-term, consistent relationships with students: Experts say that building a long-term advisory relationship with a student from their junior year in high school through at least the first year of college provides important benefits as they transition to a new school and living situation. This includes helping a student decide which colleges to apply to, understanding the application process, and writing application essays. In college, they help students navigate what can be a disorienting environment and any emotional problems that arise. In addition, summer programs that bridge high school and college help prepare students for a new learning situation so they feel more comfortable and confident.

• Continuous evaluation: Developing an infrastructure to collect data for ongoing program evaluation and improvement protocols is necessary to assess whether models are meeting the constantly changing needs of students. Such routine evaluations and research provide insight into the effectiveness of programs and their impact on students and inform ways to adapt to new situations, such as switching to virtual classes during a pandemic lockdown.

• Harnessing community assets: Effective programs should collaborate with organizations and services that already exist in their community, including food assistance, health, behavioral care, and emergency funding. To do this, initiatives can benefit from an early asset mapping exercise, which can build understanding of the local landscape and enable relationship building.

• Identify specific challenges for individual students: A first step for creating successful programs is to clearly define the students who require services and their needs, and build services around them. For most college access programs, this means students of color from low-income backgrounds and those who are the first in their families to attend college. Students may be unsheltered, require food assistance, and/or struggle to meet work and family obligations in addition to school.

• Considerations for rural students: Students from rural areas face unique barriers to accessing college and succeeding. Not only can they be economically and academically disadvantaged, but post-secondary opportunities will often be far away from their homes. Programs should be customized to meet these needs, with an emphasis on providing financial and transportation support, and integrating them into college social life, among other supports.

• Students: While a student’s academic performance is critical to success at school, programs must also engage students to understand their personal and work lives, family situations, and any other factors that influence progress and well-being. Continually assessing student needs, monitoring changes, articulating expectations, and sharing opportunities are essential to the success of college access programs.

• On-campus services: Colleges provide support to help students integrate into and adapt to campus life, meet financial obligations, and maintain academic momentum and progress toward graduation. Coaches build strong relationships with these offices at colleges and their leaders to ensure that students are aware of all opportunities and alternatives and can easily access the right services.

• Community organizations: Local nonprofits, social service agencies, government offices, and faith-based groups can provide an array of services and supports to students as part of long-term engagement or for emergency funding. These include food and housing assistance, tuition scholarships, and financial assistance for transportation and school supplies.

• Community colleges: Community colleges enroll large numbers of students, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, and can provide a pathway for students to enter a four-year college, although only about one-third of these students eventually transfer and fewer than half earn a degree. Collaborative and cohesive coaching teams address known barriers facing community college students and provide support and information on credits, majors, dual enrollment programs, and career opportunities if they choose to continue at a four-year institution.

• Address financial barriers: With financial concerns at the forefront of student and family decision-making about college, it is important that they consider different financial solutions, including scholarships and direct funding, and have access to financial counseling and informational resources that explain expenses in clear terms. Programs should help families chart a path to affording college and effectively communicate information about paperwork, upcoming deadlines, and requirements for receiving financial assistance.

• Overcome administrative hurdles: In addition to affordability, college access is often hindered by significant administrative obstacles such as preparing for and taking standardized entrance exams, completing applications, securing recommendations, and planning for the transition from high school to college, including an adjustment to living on a campus versus at home. Programs are designed to develop clear and consistent strategies to address common barriers to entry and success.

• Engage early: College access supports are most effective when they are introduced to students and their families years before college enrollment; many programs launch as soon as a student begins high school. Doing so allows families to better develop financial plans, lets students shape their high school experiences to support their postsecondary goals, and helps schools set expectations for college enrollment and graduation.

• Cultivate partnerships: Building partnerships with individual coaches and mentors, schools, and community-based organizations helps identify and recruit students who face significant barriers to college entry. These partnerships can also inform strategies and tactics used by coaches, such as priorities for individual sessions or recruiting tactics. The partnership also might create a relationship for the student and the school with a 4 year university, to help acquaint the student with academic life and culture.

• Persistence: Closely tracking whether a student makes academic progress from one semester to the next and ultimately persists by enrolling in the next year of college is critical to guiding them toward completion and graduation within six years. Experts say the second and third semesters are particularly important, with the gap between the freshman and sophomore years marking a turning point for potentially dropping out.

• Debt: Financial concerns are paramount for most students in college access programs, and keeping tabs on debt accumulation, loan repayments, and financial application deadlines helps coaches lower the risk of financial problems for students. These coaches also monitor financial subsidies and interest rates on student loans and can address concerns whenever a student’s debt load is becoming too high.

• Credits: To meet credit requirements for degree completion, coaches monitor course loads and credit accumulation to ensure that students will be able to graduate on time. If a student falls behind, they can step in and offer advice on tutoring or suggesting taking summer courses, or other ways to increase credit accumulation.

• Positive experiences: Coaches are considered partners with students and therefore need to know whether the particular model they are using is having an impact, whether the student remains engaged, and whether the advice they are giving is productive and helpful. To improve coaching services and inform practice, coaches regularly collect data from student surveys and advisor case notes on their experiences and interactions, and adjust their model in real time.