Summer counseling intervention for college-intending high school graduates¶

Element · All elements
Evidence · 4 claims (3 for, 1 against) · 1 study (1 review), q3 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

Summer counseling helps college-intending high school graduates complete the steps needed to matriculate, such as "enrolling in courses, completing housing forms, registering for orientation, finalizing arrangements to secure financial aid". It involves outreach by peer mentors or college counselors via text messaging, email, phone, in-person meetings, instant messaging, or social media, typically during 1-2 months between graduation and enrollment. Across the five reviewed studies, an average of 58% of students met with a counselor at least once.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Interventions target students who intend to enroll in college and have graduated high school; there is no standard list of services, and implementation varies across sites

Constraints¶

• Typically runs for only 1-2 months in the summer after high school; costs vary from about $2-$7 per student for texting to $100-$200 per student for one-on-one counseling

Target Learners¶

• College-intending recent high school graduates, particularly disadvantaged students at greater risk of summer melt

Target Learning Goals¶

• College enrollment
• College persistence

Claims¶

• In the Castleman et al. (2012) RCT, summer counseling showed a substantively important positive effect on fall college enrollment despite non-significant test statistics [+W]
• Summer counseling has mixed effects on college access and enrollment for recent high school graduates, with a domain-average improvement index of +5 percentile points [+W]
• Summer counseling produces a small but statistically significant positive effect on credit accumulation and persistence (WWC rating: potentially positive effects) [+W]
• Three of the five reviewed RCTs found no statistically significant effect of summer counseling on fall college enrollment (indeterminate effects) [-W]

Related Elements¶

• Bridgit platform for tracking pre-matriculation tasks
• FLIGHT program (Take Stock in Children®)

Examples¶

-

Key Sources¶

• Summer Counseling. (2018). What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report, Transition to College. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/InterventionReport/693