The Getting Ready for Success Pilot Program

Project

Overview

STATUS: Current

Basics

Issue: P-12 Education

Focus Area: High School, Transition to Postsecondary

Population: Children and Schools

Focus Population: High School Students, College Students

Locations: Washington

Intervention: Counseling/Advising, Developmental Education, Dual-Enrollment/Bridge Programs, Financial Aid, Financial Incentives

Project Overview

Roughly half of college students and close to 60 percent of community college students do not earn a college credential within six years, leaving them with poor labor market prospects in an economy that increasingly demands a credential in order to find a job. Raising the proportion of high school students who are college-ready when they matriculate could significantly increase the proportion of students who earn a college degree — the springboard to success in the labor market.

MDRC is evaluating a pilot program designed and implemented by the College Success Foundation (CSF) aimed at increasing the readiness of low-income high school students for postsecondary educational opportunities, decreasing students’ need to take developmental education courses once they enter college, and improving their success in earning postsecondary credits and degrees. The pilot program — Getting Ready for Success (GRS) — enhances college readiness efforts already underway at high schools in the Tacoma Public Schools (TPS) district and is being developed in partnership with Tacoma Community College (TCC) and the University of Washington at Tacoma (UW Tacoma).

Agenda, Scope, <br> & Goals

Agenda, Scope, and Goals

In an attempt to strengthen rates of college matriculation and persistence for low-income students, the GRS pilot program will incorporate college readiness programming and academic supports for students during their transition from high school to postsecondary education. It will also provide monetary incentives (mostly in the form of college scholarships) during the last year of high school and first year of college to increase students’ motivation to stay on track for college success.

MDRC’s evaluation will provide information about the feasibility of implementing the multiple student supports and incentives that comprise the GRS Pilot Program. It will also provide qualitative and quantitative evidence about the promise of this intervention and the potential for implementing this type of programming more broadly. The study will assist CSF and its high school and postsecondary partners in strengthening their program and its effect on the students they serve, but could also be used more broadly by high schools, postsecondary institutions, and intermediary organizations around the country looking to start or strengthen college readiness programming. Among the goals of this work is also to learn about how to coordinate more closely the efforts of colleges and high schools to prepare high school students for college.

The evaluation will address the following research questions:

What does it take to implement the GRS Pilot Program and what are the contexts, capacities, and supports needed to implement the various program components? What would it take to implement the program more broadly (i.e., offer these services at more schools and/or to more students)?
Does the program strengthen students’ awareness about how college operates and expectations for college entrance and success? How does program participation affect student attitudes, behaviors, and self-concept around college readiness?
Does the program offer promise in terms of strengthening students’ academic performance during their final year of high school, their likelihood of graduating high school and entering college, and their persistence and success during their initial semesters in college? Are there any specific program components that student participants and program and school staff perceive as being particularly helpful in working toward these goals?

Design, Sites, & <br> Data Sources

Design, Sites, and Data Sources

The GRS pilot program will target low-income high school juniors in two Tacoma high schools, Lincoln and Mount Tahoma. Approximately 100 students will have the opportunity to participate in a four-day residential college experience and a three-week academic-focused summer program during the summer between their junior and senior years. Beyond the educational benefits, this summer programming will allow students to experience college life, get acclimated to the facilities and resources on campus, and learn more about admission requirements.

During their senior year, the 100 students will be clustered into Navigation 101 advisories. Navigation 101 is a life planning curriculum offered to TPS high school students through a College Spark college readiness initiative. Clustering program students in the Navigation 101 advisories will allow them to form a cohort of “like” students, who may bond around their common effort to overcome the odds and be successful in college. This specialized senior year advisory will have an extra focus on college readiness and will help the students make the most of their senior year. The students will be encouraged to take advantage of dual-credit programs, like Advanced Placement or Running Start (a Washington state program allowing high school students to take community college courses for both high school and college credit), to get a head start on earning college credits. Students who still have developmental needs will continue to bolster their skills during their senior year and have an opportunity to enroll in a second summer bridge program before entering college. Continued support in the form of advising and mentoring is offered to students throughout their first year of postsecondary education.

Incentives totaling up to $3,000 per student will be used to motivate students’ participation in and completion of the high school and summer activities, their matriculation into postsecondary education, and their progress in the first year of college.

Based on the operational lessons learned through this pilot of the GRS program, the partners will consider replicating, scaling up, and rigorously evaluating (with random assignment) the program at other high schools.

Funders & <br />Partners

Funders

Partners

MDRC Staff

William Corrin
Project Director
Deputy Director, K-12 Education Policy Area
Corrin, who came to MDRC in 2004, has been leading random assignment evaluations of reforms and interventions at the secondary school level.
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Alissa Gardenhire
Research Associate, Young Adults and Postsecondary Education
Gardenhire currently leads implementation and qualitative research for the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration, Getting Ready for Success, and Project Rise. She also is a contributing implementation researcher for the Developmental Education Initiative.
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Susan Sepanik
Research Associate, K-12 Education Policy Area
Sepanik has been involved in several evaluations during her tenure at MDRC, including the Enhanced Reading Opportunities impact study, the professional development impact studies for second-grade reading teachers and seventh-grade math teachers, and the evaluation of Formative Assessments of Stud
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