BALTIMORE
(May 10, 2018)
– Today the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) released a report entitled "
Improving Baltimore Students' Access to College: A Qualitative Study of Two CollegeBound Delivery Models
." The report describes the positive impact CollegeBound advisors make at Baltimore City public high schools in working one-on-one with students to help navigate the complex college and financial aid processes. A CollegeBound advisor's individualized college counseling results in school-wide increases in federal financial aid (FAFSA) completions, college applications, and college enrollments.
Baltimore City Public Schools' CEO Dr. Sonja Brookins Santelises said, “CollegeBound is a highly valued partner of City Schools. This BERC report highlights the ways that CollegeBound advisors provide strategic support to our high school students in understanding the college process, finding a good college fit, and pursuing the means to pay for it.”
Specifically, the report studied the impact of two CollegeBound advisors: a "roving" advisor who split time among three schools that did not previously have a CollegeBound advisor; and a second full-time advisor added to a school that previously had only one CollegeBound advisor. In both cases, the CollegeBound advisors positively impacted the percentage of high school seniors who completed the FAFSA, applied to college, and enrolled in college.
The report found that the CollegeBound advisors "went beyond typical accessibility to students, offering them their cell phone numbers and reassurance that they were available at any time. They worked to gain students' trust by engaging them with warmth and using positive affirmations that their larger goals could be met by addressing each necessary step in time. . . . Trust between [CollegeBound advisors] and students then grew over time as steps were successfully completed, and trust with families grew over time, too."
CollegeBound thanks Baltimore City Public Schools for its longstanding support of CollegeBound and thanks the Poly Foundation, the Shelter Foundation (Patricia and Mark Joseph), and the Weinberg Foundation for supporting the two delivery models highlighted in today's BERC report.
About CollegeBound
For 30 years, the CollegeBound Foundation has worked exclusively with Baltimore City public school students, many of whom are low-income and the first in their families to attend college, to help navigate the path to and through college. Co-founded in 1988 by Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) and the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC), CollegeBound today has college advisors in 18 Baltimore City public high schools and 2 middle schools. All Baltimore City Schools' graduating seniors are encouraged to apply to CollegeBound's need-based "Last Dollar Grant" and college scholarship portfolio, valued at close to $3 million annually. CollegeBound stays with Baltimore City public school graduates through college graduation through the College Completion and Urban Scholars Programs. For more information, please visit
collegeboundfoundation.org
.
Contact:
Cassie Motz
Mobile: (202) 494-5469
300 Water Street, Suite 300
Baltimore, MD 21202
