What makes a difference in postsecondary outcomes -- a preliminary analysis of a college readiness support services program

• In Event: Mapping students' pathways through and the outcomes of higher education

Proposal

This paper explores the preliminary results of the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program (GEAR UP) in three school districts in Pennsylvania. The project aimed to increase the number of students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education institutions in low-income areas. In other words, the program focuses on postsecondary enrollment and persistence, as well as ensuring all students, regardless of the economic area where they are from or whether they are first-generation college students, have access to higher education and have the knowledge to be successful. The paper relates to the conference theme of the Power of Protest as without education, people generally do not have the ability to critically evaluate situations and take action.
GEAR UP-3 was a seven-year grant. The grant provided services to students beginning in 7th grade , the 2014–2015 school year, through 12th grade and into their first year of postsecondary education. The goals of the grant were to increase student achievement, develop a sustainable college-going culture, and establish a shared community vision for equitable college access and success. These goals were to be achieved by a range of services such as tutoring, counseling, workshops, and college visits. The service activities were provided with the following purposes: 1) implementing evidence-based instructional strategies, using data to identify gaps in instruction, increasing the number of students who take rigorous courses, and providing academic support, 2) helping students to explore careers and requirements, understand college entrance requirements, increase their financial literacy and financial aid options, identify their best college fit, and improve non-cognitive skills, and 3) helping the parents understand the need for students to take rigorous courses, understand college entrance requirements and financial aid options, improve their financial literacy, and learn how to identify the best college fit.
Literature on similar college access programs has found positive benefits for students that are considered disadvantaged and that are from low-income areas, including improved academic performance and college preparation (Calaff, 2008; Martinez and Klopott, 2005).
The theoretical challenges discussed in this paper are to evaluate the preliminary results of the correlational analysis of the services provided and postsecondary outcomes. The outcomes are defined as enrollment rate and first-year-to-second-year persistence. The analysis looks at the relationship between the outcomes and the dosage of the services the students received and examines if there are any differences by dosages and number of years of high dosage participation. The hypothesis is that controlling for student background characteristics, a greater number of hours of participation in services during the seven years of the grant, the greater the likelihood of the students enrolling in post-secondary education institutions, as well as a greater rate of retention.
The analysis conducted descriptive and correlational analyses to examine the relationship between secondary services and outcomes of interest by the intensity of a student’s participation in services, defined as “high dosage” vs. “non-high dosage”; by the number of years of high dosage participation (for all 4 years of high school, possible maximum of 4 years). We compared the association controlling for student background characteristics. The analysis included secondary data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) and service data from a web-based system (Cayen).
The results showed that the number of times the student participated at “high dosage” mattered. The more years the student participated at a “high dosage” level, the higher the likelihood of enrollment was. We discuss the process of determining how to determine students who participated at a high dosage level and how to capture participation over the seven implementation years, and the results for different sub-groups of student background characteristics, such as sex and IEP status. We conclude the paper by discussing the possible implications of the findings for future projects of a similar nature.

Authors

• Saori Iwamoto, FHI 360

• Felix Fernandez, FHI 360