Making College Readiness a Reality, HECA 2006-2009

Download the project's synopsis and goals

Synopsis

This three-year P-20 project has three goals:

1. to expand a successful college readiness program for non-traditional students at Springfield’s Lanphier High School to the other two high schools in the district, so that the program becomes district-wide;
2. to adapt and replicate the Springfield model in two other large unit school districts with similar demographics, in order to establish college preparation programs in conjunction with higher-education partners and to develop a replication "toolkit" for use by other districts in the state; and
3. to provide the state with research and data analysis to inform policy-making related to effective college preparation.

The project has accomplished all of its first-year objectives. Springfield has established program structures and personnel at its two additional high schools and begun implementation there. Bloomington District 87 and McLean County Unit 5 districts have developed replication plans, identified cohorts of participating students, and established project infrastructures and personnel for implementation in the 2007-08 school year. Project personnel have established quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis protocols, and have begun both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. Toolkit components are being defined and artifact collection has begun.

In the second year of the project, districts began to institutionalize their pipeline programs through redefining job descriptions and making budget commitments and providing services to students and parents with their higher education partners. Both process data and outcome data will be collected and analyzed. Preliminary data was available by the end of the second project year. The project staff also began to engage the Large Unit District Association (LUDA), which includes Chicago 299, with project presentations and a symposium for recruiting additional districts and schools to begin planning for model adoption/adaptation.