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Session Title: Student Resiliency and Post-Secondary Education Success: Lessons From the Field
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Panel Session 367 to be held in Wekiwa 8 on Thursday, Nov 12, 3:35 PM to 4:20 PM
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Sponsored by the College Access Programs TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Ruanda Garth-McCullough, SUCCEED Consulting, asmamali@yahoo.com
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| Abstract:
Post-secondary academic success for at-risk students depends on a variety of factors-- academic achievement, student support, and personal resiliency, and community/family characteristics. In this panel, we propose to explore the factors which influence at-risk student's success in college, based on the support and resources they received during high school through a case study of two programs. The first presentation will focus on the results of the first year of a four-year evaluation of a college preparatory charter high school in Chicago. Located in one of Chicago's lowest income neighborhoods, the high school has developed a four year curriculum and system of support to help at-risk students gain admission and succeed in college. The second presentation will describe an evaluation of an innovative program funded by the Illinois Education Fund to support first-generation, at-risk African American males in three Illinois area high schools. Focusing on the high school seniors, the program mentors and provides financial aid to first-generation African Americans males. Early results indicate that both programs have been successful in securing college admissions for the students. However, college success and graduation may be more elusive.
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Student Resiliency, and College Success: An Evaluation Story of a Four-Year College Preparatory High School
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| Ruanda Garth-McCullough, SUCCEED Consulting, rmccul1@luc.edu
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| Asma Ali, University of Illinois at Chicago, asmamali@yahoo.com
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| Raquel Farmer-Hinton, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee,
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| Teresa Sosa, SUCCEED Consulting,
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| Rolanda West, SUCCEED Consulting, rwest@luc.edu
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North Lawndale College Preparatory High School was founded in 1996 to provide educational and social supports for students from academically high-risk communities. In the North Lawndale community where the school is located and derives a majority of its students, only 17% of students graduate from high school (Census, 2000). The systematic evaluation project will investigate how the college preparatory charter school's structures and support programs contribute to the academic persistence of the graduates, including the students' resiliency and its' influence on the students' aspirations and achievements. Specifically, the evaluation will focus on assessing factors contributing to student success and resiliency, including academic achievement and social support. The primary purpose of the evaluation is to document and analyze NLCP's practices as well as the success and challenges of its students once they matriculate to college. More specifically, this evaluation seeks to explore the students' resiliency and its' influence on the students' aspirations and achievements (Freeman, 1997; Kozol, 1991; Ladson-Billings, 2006; McDonough, 2004).
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Supporting College Admission and Success: The Black Men on Campus Program Evaluation:
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| Shaunti Knauth, National-Louis University, shaunti.knauth@nl.edu
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In 2008, the Illinois Education Fund implemented a program designed to increase the rates at which young African-American men applied to and entered college. Black Men on Campus (BMOC), was implemented in a pilot phase in three Chicago high schools. BMOC's approach was to proactively support African-American male high school seniors in applying for college and financial aid, with the program components delivered by young African-American males who had been successful in college.
The initial evaluation found BMOC to be highly successful. Students and counselors considered BMOC's approach valuable and distinctive for the level of support and the role models it provided, even in relation to intensifying CPS efforts to increase college attendance by its graduates. BMOC participation showed a positive effect on the number of completed college applications at two sites. The continuing evaluation is using an innovative approach that incorporates ongoing journal reflections by students.
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