“Over the past three decades, our nation has witnessed great increases in college-going rates—no doubt due in part to widespread efforts by education policymakers and college access practitioners. Yet despite progress, just over half of students enrolled in four-year institutions graduate within six years (NCES 2009).”
This disparity between college access and college success rates was the motivation for the Pathways to College Network (directed by the Institute for Higher Education Policy) and the National College Access Network to release a “Research to Practice Brief” on how social supports and self-efficacy affect the success of underrepresented student populations. The brief is part of the Pathways to College Network’s effort to promote the need for college retention support services that address both the academic and social needs of college students. To learn more about the college success field, they called on Bottom Line.
Bottom Line believes as the Pathways to College Network does: that students need to be supported as both academic achievers and, well, as human beings. That’s why our College Success Program model focuses on four areas (academics, employment, financial aid, and emotional wellbeing), not simply academics. As the brief states, “In Bottom Line’s experience, the more confident its students are in their preparation and the more supported the students feel, the more likely they are to succeed in college.”
To learn more about the role of social support and self-efficacy in college retention, read a summary of the brief or the full brief.
Access, college, financial aid, higher education, IHEP, National College Access Network, NCAN, Pathways to College, policy, program model, Retention, self-efficacy, Success, underrepresented students
A visit to Washington D.C. for the National College Access Network (NCAN) conference went from educational to exciting for our staff when Bottom Line was chosen as the winner of the 2010 College Access Organization Award of Excellence. The announcement was made at the awards luncheon on Monday, October 11th by Kyle Malone, Senior Program Officer at USA Funds. This was the 5th year of the award and it comes with a $5,000 Donation from USA Funds.
As just one of nearly 300 members in NCAN who represent a variety of programs and services focused on college access and success we are thrilled that our work with thousands of students in Boston and Worcester has been recognized so highly. We believe that our model of one-on-one support is necessary to improve the low college graduation rates for our population of disadvantaged students. Currently we have a college graduation rate of 73% and we are on track to make it even higher.
From start to finish, the underlying theme of the conference was persistence through college. Many of the sessions and the key note speakers, Jim Applegate of the Lumina Foundation and Martha Kantor, the under-secretary of Education focused on this issue in their remarks. Because Bottom Line has been focused on college graduation since our inception we are hopeful that our selection as the winner of this award will further demonstrate that “getting in” is not good enough.
Thank you to the committee of voters from around the country who selected Bottom Line! We are honored by our selection and look forward to living up to the high standards this award represents.
Greg Johnson
Executive Director
Boston, College Access Award of Excellence, college access organization, college graduation, higher education, Jim Applegate, Kyle Malone, Lumina Foundation, Martha Kantor, national award, National College Access Network, NCAN, Retention, USA Funds, Worcester