Considerations for Implementing Recommendation #3...12

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1 recommendation #3: challenge business, education, parent, community, and faithbased organizations to support statewide initiatives that improve college awareness 3 Maine Initiatives to Promote College Awareness Description of Initiatives and History...9 Costs and Funding Sources...10 State Authorization...10 Evidence of Success...10 Resources...10 Ohio s Governor s Access Initiative Initiative Description and History...11 Costs and Funding Sources...11 State Authorization...11 Evidence of Success...11 Resources...12 Considerations for Implementing Recommendation #3...12

2 recommendation #3

3 recommendation #3: challenge business, education, parent, community, and faith-based organizations to support statewide initiatives that improve college awareness There are many reasons students fail to enroll in college and are not successful once they are there, including lack of preparation in high school and the inability to pay for college tuition. Many students, however, lack information that would help them address these challenges. For instance, in the academic year , 50 percent of undergraduates, including large proportions of low-income students, failed to apply for financial aid. College-awareness programs can educate students and their families about the need to get a college education, about how to prepare for college, about how to apply for enrollment, and about how to apply for financial aid. These programs can boost high school achievement by giving students the information, encouragement, and support they need to prepare for education and training beyond high school. They also can help change the culture of expectations in high school to one where all students expect to participate in some form of postsecondary education. Maine Initiatives to Promote College Awareness Description of Initiatives and History In his 2003 inauguration address, Governor John Baldacci announced a commitment to increase educational attainment in Maine. He has galvanized the efforts of a number of foundation-supported initiatives whose shared goals are to increase college awareness and attendance in Maine. These initiatives include the Compact for Higher Education, Connect Aspirations to a Plan, and College Goal Sunday. The Maine Compact for Higher Education (Compact) is a joint initiative of the Maine Development Foundation and the Maine Community Foundation. Its specific goal is to make Maine residents among the best-educated in America by The Compact is the result of a blue ribbon commission that sought to increase postsecondary educational attainment in Maine. The Compact is supported by a board with leaders from education, government, community, and business. One of its primary messages is that college should be a right and not a privilege. The Compact members identified three areas in which to develop strategies preparation for college, affordability, and retention. The group then formed three committees to work in these areas and develop action strategies. It released an action plan, and the governor received it favorably and committed to moving forward on its agenda. One strategy included in the action plan was launching a comprehensive College for ME campaign to change how Maine s residents value higher education. The College for ME campaign includes television spots and public service announcements by prominent business leaders touting the importance of postsecondary education. The Connect Aspirations to a Plan initiative was established in August of 2003 by the MELMAC Education Foundation. Its goal is to increase college enrollment in Maine from the current rate of 55 percent to the national average of 68 percent of by the year The initiative supports local programs that increase students aspirations and helps them turn their aspirations into a concrete plan for college and work preparation. Grantees include high schools, consortia of high schools and tech prep programs, community colleges, and other community organizations. MELMAC awarded 28 grants to high schools and community-based organizations in These grants serve 32 Maine high schools and 25 percent of Maine s public high school student population. Grantees provide a range of activities to students and their parents that support them throughout the process of preparing for and applying to college. Grantees provide academic advising and support, college advising and assistance in completing applications, and financial aid advising. They also implement general awareness raising activities including structured college visits for students. Grantees are required to ensure that all sophomores or juniors take the PSAT. 9

4 getting it done MELMAC grantees are charged with ensuring that all of their student participants that plan to attend college actually enroll in and attend college. In reviewing Maine Department of Education data, MELMAC found that there was a significant disparity between the number of students who were accepted to college and those who actually enrolled. To address this gap, MELMAC requires grantees conduct summer interviews with their students. These interviews provide grantees with the opportunity to address any impediments to their college plans that students have encountered since they left school and preemptively connect them with help and resources. MELMAC also requires that grantees survey every student each October to find out how many of their graduates actually attended college. If students do not enroll, they try to determine why and what high schools can do differently in the future to prevent that outcome with another student. The final program in this group of statewide initiatives is College Goal Sunday. College Goal Sunday is an annual event (held on a Sunday close to Super Bowl Sunday) where students and their families receive free assistance to apply for federal financial aid. The goal of the program is to enable families to leave the program ready to mail their free application for federal student aid (FAFSA). The Finance Authority of Maine (FAME), implements College Goal Sunday. The program is held at 14 locations throughout the state. At each site, financial aid advisors from Maine colleges and universities and FAME representatives provide one-on-one assistance to families. The program is publicized throughout the state including on statewide television. There is also an 800-information number manned by financial aid professionals available to those not able to attend College Goal Sunday. Costs and Funding Sources Funding for the Compact for Higher Education was provided by the Great Maine Schools Project at the Mitchell Institute, Libra Foundation, Maine Community Foundation, Maine Educational Loan Authority, MEL- MAC Education Foundation, Peoples Heritage Bank a Division of Banknorth, N.A., and UnumProvident. The College for ME awareness campaign will cost approximately $2 million for the period. Connect Aspirations to a Plan is funded by the MEL- MAC foundation. Between 2003 and 2006, it will cost approximately $1.1 million to fund planning and implementation grants for Maine high schools. Community organizations receive a $5,000 planning grant and two annual implementation grants of up to $30,000 for a total of $65,000. School grantees receive two annual implementation grants of up to $10,000 for a total of $20,000. Lumina Foundation for Education has provided $200,000 to support the College Goal Sunday program from Enabling Authority No legislative or regulatory changes were made, and no executive order was issued to initiate or support this business and civic partnership. Evidence of Success The ultimate measure of the success of these programs is the college enrollment rate of high school students in Maine. Many of these initiatives and programs, however, are new, and it is too early to assess increases in college enrollment that have been affected by these programs. However, Connect Aspirations to a Plan grantees have already measured some gains in students aspirations and college enrollment rates. In the first year of implementation, 2003, 61 percent of students served by community-based grantees and 59 percent of students served by school-based grantees were accepted to and planned to attend college or university. In 2004, these percentages increased to 66 percent and 64 percent of students respectively. While there was no comparison group for these findings, these percentages are significantly higher than Maine statewide averages measured in The goal of the College Goal Sunday program is to help as many families as possible complete the FAFSA. One interim measure of success is its attendance rate, since families have to attend in order to receive assistance. The program had an attendance of almost 1400 last year, a promising turn-out for the first year of the program. Resources 1. Wendy Ault, MELMAC Foundation, (207) , ault@melmacfoundation.org 2. Harry Osgood, Maine Department of Education, (207) , harry.osgood@maine.gov 3. MELMAC Foundation, Foundation. org 10

5 4. Compact for Higher Education Web site, collegeforme.com 5. Finance Authority of Maine, maine.com 6. Maine s College Goal Sunday Web site, collegegoalsundaymaine.com Ohio s Governor s Access Initiative Initiative Description and History In his state of the state address in 2002, Governor Bob Taft announced the creation of the Governor s Access Initiative that would increase the number of students entering college within five years by at least 10,000. The Governor s Access Initiative is managed by staff from the Ohio College Access Network (OCAN). The Governor s Access Initiative provides funding and state support to OCAN and is making access to college a clear state priority. As a statewide network, OCAN works to establish and support college access programs across the state by convening members and providing them with networking and professional development opportunities; developing and disseminating information; setting performance standards for staff; and suggesting ways to ensure accountability to the community and to donors and offering other kinds of technical assistance. OCAN was founded in 1999 by the KnowledgeWorks Foundation in collaboration with the Ohio Board of Regents and the Ohio Department of Education. OCAN is also supported by the Ohio Business Roundtable and has a number of non-profit and government partner organizations that aid it in many aspects of its work. Its mission is to increase awareness of, enrollment in, and successful completion of programs in quality postsecondary institutions. These educational opportunities include apprenticeships, certificate, associate and bachelor s degree programs. Through the Governor s Access Initiative, OCAN provides planning and start-up grants to communities that work to develop a college access program. The programs provide services to high school students and their families, including college admission and financial aid counseling, mentoring, SAT and ACT preparation, tutoring, college visits, and career guidance. Costs and Funding Sources The state appropriated $2 million in 2002 for the Ohio College Access Initiative. These funds support grants for new program development and implementation. Local programs are awarded a one-time, $5,000 grant for planning and $30,000 a year for up to two years for implementation. To help programs become self-supporting, OCAN requires programs to secure matching funding during the start up phase. In addition to the Governor s Access Initiative funding, OCAN receives $500,000 for operations from the Ohio Board of Regents through the college readiness line item of the state budget. Enabling Authority No legislative or regulatory changes were made, and no executive order was issued, to initiate or support this public/private partnership. Evidence of Success Governor Taft set a goal of helping 10,000 more students go to college by It is too early to assess whether this goal was met. While there has not been a study of the OCAN program statewide, positive data from mature local programs and preliminary findings from some newer programs indicate that OCAN programs are producing promising results. A study of college retention among students participating in the Cleveland Scholarship Program (CSP) demonstrated that these students had significantly higher college retention rates than similar non-participants. Specifically, CSP award recipients who enrolled in college during the school year had a three year retention rate of 63 percent compared to 39 percent for non-participants. Cleveland is the largest school district served by OCAN programs, representing about 15 percent of students served by OCAN programs. Some preliminary, positive findings from newer programs include the following: In its first year of operations the UCAN Richland County program increased the number of students applying to college by 60 percent over the prior year. In Tuscarawas County, the Accessing A College Education program saw an increase in the percentage of students who applied to college from 49 percent in 2002 to 72 percent in

6 Resources 1. Mayme Patthoff, Ohio College Access Network, (216) , 2. Tina Milano, National College Access Network, (216) , 3. Ohio College Access Network Web site, ohiocan.org Considerations for Implementing Recommendation #3 States should consider increasing college awareness by building on existing, successful local programs. A statewide initiative could tie together successful local efforts, provide a specific college access goal for the entire state to work towards, and increase funding and support for these efforts. It can also help evaluate the cost-effectiveness of different strategies and expand the number of students statewide that benefit from early awareness. In Maine and Ohio, the governors brought visibility and additional funding to existing programs. In Maine, Governor Baldacci lent his support to foundation-supported efforts throughout the state. In Ohio, Governor Taft built on an effective model to expand its benefits to more students in the state. Governor Taft also provided a specific goal to work towards helping 10,000 more high school graduates go to college by The key to college access program development is the engagement of community leadership teams. OCAN facilitates meetings among community leaders with interest in forming new programs. Community involvement in the planning and development process includes representation from the civic, business and educational sectors, as well as other non-profit organizations and citizen volunteers. A complementary working arrangement with local high school personnel is also critical for success. getting it done The Lumina Foundation for Education has provided resources to expand the number of statewide college access networks, like OCAN, and College Goal Sunday programs in states with demonstrably strong community partnerships and gubernatorial leadership. 12

7 recommendation #4