By Noa Meyer, Partner, Philanthropy & Social Impact, BDT & Company and President, rootEd Alliance
Reading time: 5 min.
(Members of the Hollister High School Class of 2022)
Today, the U.S. has 1.4 million fewer college students than before the start of the pandemic. New data show the nation’s undergraduate enrollment declined by more than 662,000 students, or 4.7%, from spring 2021, and the annual rate of decline this spring is steeper than fall 2021’s drop of 3.1%. These declines are especially acute for community colleges,
where the majority of rural students enroll.
Students in rural settings face unique barriers to postsecondary education and training. Research shows not only are rural students less likely to enroll in college than their peers, but those who do enroll are less likely to finish. This was true before
the pandemic and has only since been exacerbated.
National philanthropic organization rootEd Alliance has pioneered an achievable solution with an amplifier effect: Dedicated college and career advising.
Launched in 2018, rootEd Alliance funds, trains, and places dedicated college and career advisors, called rootEd advisors, in rural high schools across America. rootEd advisors work alongside school counselors
to ensure every student has a strong plan for life success after graduation and resources, like financial assistance, to realize that plan. rootEd Alliance currently supports about 6,200 students in 56 rural high schools across Missouri, Texas, Idaho,
and Tennessee, and it has served nearly 12,000 rural high school students since its inception.
Since fall 2019, as the rest of the nation has seen declines in college-going rates, schools with rootEd advisors have seen college enrollment rates increase by 7%. Moreover, one-quarter of college-bound students at rootEd schools said they wouldn’t be going to college at all if it weren’t for their rootEd advisor.
At a recent Decision Day event at Hollister High School in Hollister, Missouri, graduating senior Lacey Kellett credited rootEd Advisor Arie Good for helping her
select a college and fund her education.
"After only a few meetings with Arie, she understood that the task of financial aid was daunting for not only myself but my family," Kellett said. "By the time I walked into her office for my third meeting, she was on the phone with my dad helping me
sort out the FAFSA forms."
She added, "Arie not only advised me on college and career advice, but she was willing to sit down and have a real conversation with me about pressing matters. She was always present without judgment and helped me get through a decision no matter how
big or small."
Kellett will attend Missouri State University this fall.
rootEd Alliance is now expanding its footprint. In fall 2021, for example, rootEd Alliance partnered with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Ozarks Technical Community College to launch a statewide initiative,
known now as rootEd Missouri, to place advisors in at least 135 additional rural high schools by 2023.
The initiative builds on rootEd Alliance’s strong record in Missouri, where it has worked in eight schools since 2019. In 2019-20, postsecondary enrollment at these Missouri schools grew 5 percentage points more than at rural schools without a rootEd
advisor, and students who graduated from schools with a rootEd advisor are staying in and persisting through college at a rate of up to 10 percentage points higher than their peers.
Hollister High School, where the Decision Day took place, is among that initial cohort of schools. Last year, the number of Hollister students who enrolled in college following graduation increased by 10%.
"Hollister High School has seen firsthand the value and impact of rootEd Missouri’s work on students and families," said Missouri Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven at the Decision Day event. "We’re thrilled to be able to use federal relief dollars
to make that partnership available to other rural Missouri schools, where school counselors’ plates were already full and have become even more so as our students continue to face challenges brought on by the pandemic."
She concluded, "Helping our students develop a personalized postsecondary plan really is the final piece of this puzzle—the parting gift that we in K-12 education can give our students and families. We've equipped students with a high-quality education
to be prepared for this next part of our journey—and with the help of partners like rootEd Missouri, we can be certain students have the map to get to their next destination, and beyond."
About rootEd Alliance
rootEd Alliance, Inc. is a collaborative effort founded by family business owners and philanthropists who recognize that all students need more than a high school diploma to succeed in today’s economy. Rural students face unique barriers to pursuing a
postsecondary pathway, and rootEd aims to remove these barriers and expand opportunity by investing philanthropic capital in a transformative advising model and partnering with states to bring it to scale. The rootEd model trains and places dedicated
advisors in rural high schools. This ensures students have the resources they need to chart a path beyond high school—to the military or technical school, community college or a bachelor’s degree. The rootEd model has a proven track record of success
across rural communities in Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, and Idaho. rootEd Alliance was born out of BDT & Company’s commitment to convening and catalyzing philanthropists around big ideas that are under-resourced and overlooked, with great potential
for impact. For more information, please visit: https://rootEdAlliance.org/.
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