HOLISTIC SUPPORTS TO HELP STUDENTS CONNECT, THRIVE, AND PERSIST IN COLLEGE

March 1, 2022

The pandemic has had a serious adverse impact not only on high school students, but on college students as well, especially first-generation students. The deterrents include food and housing insecurity, barriers to social connection, and even the allure of earnings from short-term employment.

In this Pathways to Adult Success Solutions Forum, we heard how two seasoned non-profits are adjusting to identify and meet these challenges in collaboration with schools, colleges, and other community partners.

Future Grads with Monique Gagnon, Sr. Director, Measurements and Impact, and Esme Ortiz, Vice President, High School and Postsecondary Programs, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula (California)

Achieve Atlanta Scholars with Susanne Diggs-Wilborn, Vice President for College Success, Achieve Atlanta

ENGINEERING STUDENT SUCCESS IN PANDEMIC-IMPACTED TIMES

January 25, 2022

The continuing and long-term impacts of the pandemic challenge us as never before to establish ways to provide all students with the supports they need to develop their full potential. In this Pathways to Adult Success Solutions Forum, we engage with two collaborative efforts creating new structures and systems to meet this challenge.

Student Success Systems — The GRAD Partnership for Student Success shared its vision for scaling high quality student success (on-track) systems to enable all students to graduate from high school ready for college and career. Partner organizations include

The American Institute for Research (AIR)
The Network for College Success
The BARR Center
Talent Development Secondary
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD)
The Rural Schools Collaborative
The Schott Foundation
The Everyone Graduates Center

Presenters:

Jenny Scala, Principal Researcher and Practice Area Director, AIR
Angela Jerabek, Founder and Executive Director, BARR Center
Kelly McMahon, Evidence & Analytics Associate, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Tara Madden, Chief Program Officer, Talent Development Secondary

Student Success Coaches — City Year presented its recent work with collaborators to create the conditions needed to scale student success coaches, a new category of people working in schools to support students’ holistic academic and social-emotional development throughout the school day and year, especially in schools where students face the greatest barriers to opportunity.

Presenter:

Jonathan Mathis, Senior Vice President, Education Policy and Systems Change, City Year.

PRESENTATION RESOURCES

MEETING THE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION & POSTSECONDARY SUCCESS CHALLENGE FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

December 14, 2021

This Pathways to Adult Success Solutions Forum featured Lindsay Kubatsky and Joey Hunziker from the National Center for Learning Disabilities, who presented research that shows the ways students with disabilities experience school and the transition into adulthood. They shared findings from several focus groups and discussed policy implications, drawing from student voices on what practitioners and policymakers should remember as they build systems to graduate students with disabilities.

Johns Hopkins University researcher Robert Balfanz also highlighted findings from the recent Building a Grad Nation report: in a growing number of states, students with disabilities are disproportionately not graduating on time, in some cases accounting for one third or more of those who fall off track. Dr. Balfanz discussed how this varies across states and what it will take to reverse this trend.

BUILDING STUDENT AGENCY TO BOOST SUCCESS IN SCHOOL & LIFE

November 16, 2021

This Solutions Forum featured PAS Learning Community members—including two 2020-21 PAS Design Challenge awardees—who are developing systems that empower underserved young people to set and reach personal goals leading to long-term achievement and success, despite the hurdles they face in school and society.

~ Dr. Michelle Caldwell, Director of Student Success, College Advancement Mentor (CAM) Network, Kristin Labs, Gateway Scholars Program Manager, and Dr. Keith White, Director of Research and Effectiveness, Public Education Foundation (PEF) Chattanooga: College Advancement Mentors (CAMs): Next-Level Support for Increasing Students’ Postsecondary Persistence and Completion

and 2020-21 PAS Design Challenge awardees:

~ Abiodun Durojaye, Executive Director of the Career Bridge, National Louis University, Chicago: Innovative Career Preparation Model to Drive Equity in Student Employment Outcomes

~ Sarah Frazelle, Director of Early Warning Indicator Systems and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, Puget Sound ESD, and Eric Meredith, Data Analyst, Montana University System: Student Voice Data System

RE-IMAGINING HIGH SCHOOL FOR A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD

October 19, 2021

The pandemic has brought into stark relief the how difficult the journey through high school towards post-secondary success is for many students, in particular those who live in underserved communities. In order to build pathways to adult success for all students, we will need to reimagine high school. The pandemic provides both opportunities and challenges for this work.

The following speakers shared about ongoing efforts to reimagine high schools for a post-pandemic world.

~ “Leveraging ESSR Funding to Redesign Credit Recovery for Learning that Matters” with Eddie Branchaud, Manager, District Consulting, and Mark Heath, Associate Consultant, Education Resource Strategies

~ “Learnings from the Cross-State High School Redesign Collaborative” with Robert Balfanz, Director, Everyone Graduates Center

~ “The Big Blur: Erasing Boundaries between High School, College, and Career” with Joel Vargas, Vice President, Jobs for the Future (JFF)

PRESENTATION RESOURCES

OPENING DOORS TO COLLEGE FOR UNDERREPRESENTED STUDENTS

September 14, 2021

The pandemic has shown how challenging it can be for students, especially underserved students, to advance from high school graduation directly into full-time postsecondary education and persist to attain a diploma. Hear from three PAS Design Challenge recipients as they discuss their projects:

~ Access Arizona State University: Virtual College Application and FAFSA Support. Sylvia Symonds, Associate Vice President of Educational Outreach, and Erin Chastain, Director of School Partnerships

~ Philadelphia Education Fund: Creating a PAS-Informed Postsecondary Fair Toolkit. Rick Moses, Director, Postsecondary Success Program, and Kelly Staskel, Program Manager, Postsecondary Success Program

~ Peer Power Foundation: Peer Power Virtual Learning Lab. Marygrace Hemme, Director of Academic Initiative and Training; Chris Xa, Chief Research Officer; and Sarah Benson, Program Director