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

A Blueprint for Success
ties for personal growth and community service are at the heart of producing consistent
and positive outcomes. CB-STL’s know-how in the area of program implementation is
rooted in the conviction that generational change requires a commitment to braided services
that are “strong and long,” stable and unyielding, even in the most turbulent times.
College Bound St. Louis achieves their goals by being “an organization driven by research, a commitment
to higher education, and a desire to learn and improve.” CEO Zarin indicated that “the
staff are continuously engaged in studying and sharing knowledge on issues related to education,
generational poverty, cultural capital, service learning, behavioral change and technology — as individual
contributors and as a team.” To support and facilitate this, CB-STL encourages staff participation
in professional development opportunities, including national and regional conferences, offsite
learning workshops, classroom observation, one-on-one business coaching, and visits to other
college access organizations to gather promising practices. CEO Zarin noted, “this learners’ mindset
has allowed College Bound St. Louis to develop a deep and thorough understanding of the issues in
our field, and to gain the trust and confidence of school leaders, students and families. It has also
allowed us to select carefully among different program models so we can apply new learning with a
balance of enthusiasm, thoughtfulness and intention.”
Lessons Learned
The College Bound St. Louis program has evolved since it first began operation in 2006. CEO Zarin
explained that the program started out as something completely different from what it is now: “In
the first year, we thought that if we provided students with standardized test preparation and guided
students to well-matched colleges that would be enough to get students to succeed; we did not realize
just how robust the program needed to be to effectively support students to complete college.”
Similarly, College Bound St. Louis originally served students at the end of their sophomore year in
high school, hoping that with assistance and support, students would be able to “move the needle”
towards college success. Unfortunately, CB-STL staff soon discovered that their vision had come a
little short: student course selection was poor and there was not sufficient engagement with program
staff. They also realized that students were not adequately prepared for college-level math, as most of
the students who had top grades in high school could still not place into college math and even those
who did place into college math tended to fail it. This prompted College Bound St. Louis to start
working with students before sophomore year and CB-STL added the early awareness component to
the program to begin outreach to students in 9th grade. Academic rigor and support through tutoring
was also added to the program. In addition, CB-STL shared data from their first cohorts with
school district members to demonstrate that high grades in high school math courses were not correlating
with students’ capacity to place into or pass entry-level college math.
A major unexpected lesson learned was that even the highest performing students (valedictorians and
students who had taken honors classes and had high GPAs were “devastatingly unprepared” for college-level
course work, which “paved the way for attrition.” Further, in the early years of the pro-
Educational Policy Institute 38 www.educationalpolicy.org