Support high school selection by expanding school fit beyond programs to commute, safety, and family circumstances¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

An implementable advising strategy drawn from coordinators' high school application work: staff begin with a programmatic definition of fit and then broaden it to the student's real constraints. The report states staff "later expanded school “fit” to include a student’s commute and safety, as well as their families’ concerns, limitations, prioriti es, and history with the school." Because families made the final enrollment decisions and counselors handled parts of the application, buy-in from both was treated as critical throughout the process.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Buy-in and support from families and school counselors, who complete parts of the application such as sending transcripts and test scores
• Early coordinator presence in the school year, since application deadlines fall in December of eighth grade

Constraints¶

• The workload of getting every student identified, applied, and admitted to good-match schools required, in the report's words, a tremendous lift

Target Learners¶

• Eighth-grade students in an open-enrollment urban district choosing among many high school options

Target Learning Goals¶

• Identifying and applying to good match and fit high schools
• Completing high school applications by deadline

Related Strategies¶

• Offering Multiple Options for Family Engagement

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Cowhy, J.R. & de la Torre, M. (2017). The Success Project: The Implementation and Early Outcomes of a Middle Grade Program. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/success-project-implementation-and-early-outcomes-middle-grade-program