A BluePrint for Success: Case Studies of Successful - Educational ...

College & University Partnerships
A Blueprint for Success
The Partners Program currently has one relationship in place, an informal connection with a counseling
and financial aid administrator at a local community college. This relationship stemmed from
a prior work relationship between the director of The Partners Program and the administrator and
serves to benefit Partners Program students who are not eligible to go to a four-year college; they can
go directly to the administrator for assistance with financial and academic planning.
In addition, the director is exploring a formal relationship with The University of California at
Berkeley’s extension program to provide rising high school seniors with a one-week college application
boot camp class, as well as college, scholarship, and financial aid application coaching provided
by students in the graduate certificate program in college counseling. Discussions are already underway
on this partnership and The Partners Program has secured start-up funding for 10 students.
This new partnership will be piloted in August 2012.
Evidence of Success
Before the current director started in 2009, the previous director did a comprehensive alumni survey
and phone banking effort that reached 40 percent of the middle school program alumni. This effort
learned that:
98 percent of reporting alumni graduated high school on time (relative to a local rate in the
40 percent-range in the 1990s and currently in the 50 percent-range)
100 percent of those graduates had matriculated to college
95 percent of those had either graduated from 4-year college or were on track for that goal
Because the programming historically stopped when students entered 9th grade, The Partners Program
does not take “credit” for these outcomes, but rather sees itself as part of the students’ and families’
success plans. Moving forward, as the program adds more supports in high school (now) and
college (in the near future), the impact on the students’ college graduation trajectories will be more
direct, and survey efforts will more effectively reach program participants fully through to college
graduation. This is especially important knowing that the 60 percent of alumni who are lost or did
not respond to the survey are much less likely than the respondents to have graduated from college.
Through adding high school and college programming the program hopes to stay in touch with a
greater percentage of alumni and to help them achieve college graduation.
Further, the increase in the percentage of middle school participants who transition to collegepreparatory
high schools has increased from 20 percent to 50 percent in the first two years of the
High School Transition Program and is on track to achieve 70 percent with the next class.
Educational Policy Institute 99 www.educationalpolicy.org