School districts across the U.S. have the leverage to significantly change students’ postsecondary outcomes. The lessons students learn, the services they receive, and the preparations they make are crucial to their success after walking across the graduation
stage. A new NCAN report examines four school districts’ efforts to improve their students’ postsecondary outcomes.
"Moving the College Access Needle for the New Majority: Lessons From Leading Communities" offers concrete strategies for school districts across the country who want to transform their practices around postsecondary transitions. The report notes, "Whatever
the starting point, there is something for everyone interested in moving the needle for the new majority."
Rudy Ruiz, a partner at FourPoint Education Partners, authored the report. Support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York
made its publication possible, for which NCAN is grateful.
The report focuses on four districts:
The School District of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania)
Miami-Dade County Public Schools (Florida)
School District of Lancaster (Pennsylvania)
Brownsville Independent School District (Texas)
Three assertions guide the report’s approach:
Most school districts are not looking at data to understand matriculation, persistence, and completion patterns after high school, but such data are easily and affordably available through the National Student Clearinghouse.
Preparation for college requires students and staff to have a thoughtful approach to classes in high school; support for navigating the college process; and helping each student find the right postsecondary pathway. Many schools do not presently have
this capacity.
Schools do not have to do this alone. Many community-based organizations can help with providing student supports.
Each district’s profile includes evidence of their postsecondary outcomes and growth as well as their guiding principles and key practices.
The School District of Lancaster provides an example of a concrete practice that has helped to make the district’s students successful: making it fun and easy for teachers and others to get involved with postsecondary advising. To help build a culture
of college-going in schools, the district started “College and Career First Fridays” where teachers were encouraged to wear apparel from their alma maters. Enthusiasm around that practice “has steadily grown into a strong system of comprehensive advising
across school staff roles.”
Dr. Damaris Rau became the district’s superintendent in July 2015, and the following year students’ first-year enrollment rate was 38%. Since then that rate has climbed up into the mid-40s.
Dr. Jeremy Raff, coordinator of College & Career Services, (left) with Dr. Damaris Rau, School District of Lancaster superintendent, on a College and Career First Friday. (Photo courtesy SDOL)
As for the other districts, it’s true that Brownsville ISD, the School District of Philadelphia, and Miami-Dade County Public Schools are much larger than the average school district nationally. Still, there is very little in this report that isn’t replicable
or adaptable elsewhere on a smaller scale.
This report is an important new addition to NCAN’s work focused on how K-12 districts and schools can transform students’ postsecondary trajectories. Although the majority of NCAN members are (and historically have been) community-based organizations,
the size of the need for college access services nationally is so great that meaningfully engaging districts and schools in delivering those services is critical, especially for students from low-income backgrounds, students of color, and first-generation
students.
Interested in more success stories from districts and schools? Check out 2020’s “The Data That Matter and the Plans That Work,” which focuses
on five districts NCAN worked with during the To & Through Advising Challenge. NCAN maintains a set of resources that can assist districts and schools with changing their practice no matter
the current state of their practice.
Stay tuned for more releases related to transforming postsecondary transitions in districts and schools. Have questions about the paper? Reach out to Bill DeBaun, director of data and evaluation, at debaunb@ncan.org.
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