California Distinguished Model Program and Practices
Description
The Garden Grove Unified School District’s (GGUSD) Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP), adopted in the 2015-2016 school year, incorporates the eight state educational priorities into the district’s Strategic Plan. At its core, this Strategic Plan is built upon three fundamental beliefs promoting development of the academic and personal skills necessary to the success in the intended career path of each and every Bolsa student. To serve this objective, Goal One of academic skills and Goal Two of personal skills have been continuous and ongoing objectives of the BGHS staff. However, with the implementation of Goal Three, which focuses on preparing students to be college and career ready with an emphasis on Pupil Achievement (LCAP State Priority 4) and Pupil Outcomes (LCAP State Priority 8), BGHS began to reflect on student success after high school. There was a deliberate shift in the perception of the role of a comprehensive high school as not merely preparing students for A-G eligibility, but adopting a principle of stewardship of our pupils by explicitly facilitating the empowerment of each and every individual in becoming informed, active participants in the college enrollment process. This practice addresses state priority four (EC 52060) “performance on standardized tests...share of pupils that are college and career ready...share of pupils determined prepared for by the Early Assessment Program.” Further, BGHS’ Senior College Focus is expressed in three action steps in the GGUSD LCAP under Goal 3: Action 3A(1), “Maintain a focus on a college-going culture in all grades K-12, and expose students to various college and career options/pathways, Goal 3A(2), “Maintain a goal for all students to complete A-G subject requirements, and Goal 3A(3), “Use the CA College Guidance Initiative (CCGI) tools and resources related to college and career readiness.”
In 2011, 55% of students at BGHS were eligible to attend a four-year college according to National Student Clearinghouse data, but only 25% and 45% enrolled in four-year and two-year colleges respectively. To address this disconnect between student A-G rates and the low number of students being accepted into a four year university, BGHS created Senior College Focus. A committee of concerned teachers, counselors, and administrators looked for ways to strategically match the four-year college acceptance rate with the school’s A-G rate. Their effort engineered a school-wide, college-going culture wherein direct, individualized contact with students and formalized step-by-step engagement with parents created a multi-pronged program in all aspects of the the college enrollment process. The committee reviewed qualitative and quantitative data that impact student college application, admission, and attendance rates. It was determined that the college application process is a complex, inherently difficult system for our students and families to navigate. Based upon parent survey data, approximately 7% of our parents have graduated college, and the fact that families are largely low socio-economic and limited English proficiency reinforces our administrative concern that Bolsa’s is an educationally and financially vulnerable student base with limited access to resources beyond the school site. The College Focus group of like-minded individuals decided that through a collective effort, the team could close the achievement gap by providing decisive strategic oversight and follow-up on the part of school personnel. The vision was ultimately one of transforming the community, truly making a difference in the lives of the students as well as their parents.
The committee became a Senior College Focus Professional Learning Community (PLC) made up of teachers with a track record of innovation in this area as well as counselors and administrators who attended professional development opportunities, including CSU and UC conferences to best understand challenges within the college application and acceptance process. Training and collaboration became an ongoing effort for the team throughout the year in order to provide students with college and career units supporting them with college application. Furthermore, students were provided strategic lessons in their English classes that guided them through a multifaceted procedure beginning with college application and ending with the submission of a Student Intent to Register Form.
As a result of Senior College Focus, in 2018 A-G rates increased to 59% and, based upon National Clearinghouse data, 33% of BGHS graduates enrolled in a four-year institution with an additional 48% of BGHS students enrolled in a two-year institution. The overall enrollment for students in a post-secondary institution has increased by 11% as a direct result of the concerted efforts of the Senior College Focus team.
With the passage of time and and the implementation of experience “on the ground” with multiple levels of students, the team began to broaden its vision. Senior College Focus evolved to recognize there are multiple paths to success and therefore expanded its structures to walk students through the process of applying to a public or private four-year university and/or community college.
The Senior College Focus program is motivated by the desire to make all eligible four-year and two-year college students and their families fully aware of the entire college application and matriculation process. Students familiar with and thoughtful about their futures employ the knowledge gained to engage high school in a such a manner as to most successfully meet the college application process. The purpose of the program is to ensure the betterment of BGHS students by providing a steadfast and data-based program focused on college readiness with clear goals and guidelines for each student to attend a four-year university, two-year institution, or trade school. At its core Senior College Focus has four fundamental elements: 1) an expectation that all students will participate, 2) a commitment to addressing all aspects of the extensive enrollment process, 3) the procedure of recursively tracking eligible students throughout the application process to both 4 year and 2 year post-secondary institutions, and 4) the employment of ever present program review to ensure high level accountability.
Implementation and Monitoring
Senior College Focus has closed the achievement gap by having a team of teachers, counselors, and administrators work together to ensure Bolsa Grande students leave enrolled in a post-secondary institution. The increase seen in students applying, enrolling, attending, and persisting in college correlates directly to the system that the Senior College Focus team has developed over the years. It has expanded to include more parent and community engagement in response to the informal feedback families have provided to the school seeking support from personnel to facilitate the entire college application process.
Senior College Focus has employed an intentional concentration of steps at multiple levels, focusing on data collection and review to ensure students are completing the college application process. The program has resulted in a marked increase in the number of students meeting A-G requirements, the number of eligible students who apply to four-year and two-year colleges, and the overall number of students who enroll in a post-secondary institution.
Beginning in ninth grade, all students are strategically guided and supported in following and completing an individualized learning plan designed to meet the University of California A-G requirements. In order for all students to be given multiple opportunities to be A-G eligible, they are placed in the most rigorous courses available in which they are capable of success. The premise of Senior College Focus is to instill a culture in which students embrace challenging opportunities to fully realize their academic potential. Students and parents need to be continuously informed of the requisite criteria to meet and exceed the minimum application requirements, and focus on an intentional plan (e.g. third year of science, revalidation, demystifying the CSU eligibility index, PIQ) to create highly competitive applicants.
Consequently, BGHS course offerings and placement have evolved over the years to provide students with as many options as possible to exceed the minimum course requirements to apply to a four-year university. Not surprisingly, Senior College Focus has aspired to do even more than even this. Throughout the school year, counselors audit transcripts for every student to ensure enrollment in the most challenging coursework in which they can be successful. These audits mandate counselors have individualized conversations with students and their families to guide them in course selection and enrollment with the goal of maximizing both rigor and academic success for each student. As a result of the regular transcript audits, the guidance and administrative team is able to allocate resources (e.g. funding, staffing) to customize credit recovery course offerings for students to validate classes during the school year and summer.
Through classroom instruction, counselors and teachers engage students in grades nine through eleven in College and Career Educational Units using the College and Career Guidance Initiative (CCGI). CCGI is a program designed to prepare students to apply to four-year universities, two-year colleges, and/or vocational schools. These units provide meaningful engagement with college majors and career opportunities so that students can begin setting their own personal goals for life after high school. The in-class instruction provided by the counselors in conjunction with their English teachers helps students analyze pivotal benchmarks in determining a student’s eligibility to apply to a four-year university with a meaningfully competitive application.
One example of counselor strategic intervention, is having students take their PSAT results and connect their scores with Khan Academy in order to receive customized tutoring to improve their SAT results. To further structure the success of our students, the SAT Princeton Review is on site in order to overcome challenges our students face. The district supplements the cost of the classes for students by cutting costs from $500 to $50. Students are also provided reminders and check-ins the week of their SAT test to ensure they have all the materials needed and are placed in the best position for success on test day.
What happens through the junior and senior years is crucial. A number of very key steps guide the way.
As a result of the College and Career Educational Units and continuous follow-up regarding standardized testing (e.g. SATs, ACTs) by the end of eleventh grade, all students have a college and career readiness profile, one that is developed as a result of a series of career/personality inventories, transcripts, PSAT, SAT, and/or EAP results.
Parents become increasingly involved and, perhaps most importantly, more knowledgeable throughout the process. BGHS recognizes that choosing a pathway for a student is ultimately a student and family decision. Therefore, parents are invited to attend all of the Senior College Focus events, such as College Night, FAFSA night, Understanding Your Financial Award, Career Fair, etc. Furthermore, as students begin to choose their pathway throughout their junior and into their senior year, individual parent contact becomes more frequent to ensure students have support at home as well as in school. By the time students are seniors, they will have experienced a three year journey of exploration closely examining a variety of college and career options through CCGI and continuously updating their personal senior college focus plan to track their own A-G eligibility.
Senior College Focus has morphed over time to help further encourage all students in developing their goals after high school, but also enabling them to understand the steps involved in strategically pursuing their dreams. Through the collaborative effort of the Senior College Focus PLC (i.e. teachers, counselors, administration), the program has expanded to incorporate structures to systematically support students as they apply not only to four-year universities but to community college certificate/vocational programs as well. Students are able to move along each pathway based upon changes that may occur during their senior year. To that end, 98% of eligible students have successfully completed their application before matriculating from BGHS.
Students eligible to attend a four-year university are identified and enrolled as a result of ongoing data collection and individual and collective engagement by teachers, counselors and administrators with both students and parents. Our team analyzes college entrance requirements and eligibility indexes to determine the GPA range required for college admission, resulting in all students with higher than a 2.4 GPA being identified. We evaluate student transcripts to determine A-G eligibility and collect SAT, ACT and EAP statuses. Each student is provided a hard copy of her college and career portfolio, which includes all of the data above with recommendations of schools to apply to based upon results. Students are guided to apply to a safety school, target school, dream school, CSU, UC, and/or private school. Senior English teachers have implemented the writing of personal statements as part of the curriculum. Also, under the guidance of counselors and administrators, English teachers review data and employ systematic oversight of students as they register and test for required college entrance exams.
Students receive portfolios in English class as they are walked through the application process by the counselors. Our English teachers monitor the college application process based upon the team’s quarterly collaboration. Every quarter there are “soft deadlines” that students need to meet to ensure they remain eligible to enroll in the school of their choice. Data (e.g eligibility index, CSU submission, UC submission, sending SAT/ACT scores, 7th semester transcripts, FAFSA, Dream Act) is collected to monitor student submission of college applications. Extensive general and individualized information is provided to students regarding admissions from local college experts.
The month of October is dedicated to presentations by college admissions counselors from different private and public universities providing insight to students about schools under consideration. Additionally, representatives from Berkeley and UC Irvine present information sessions providing Personal Insight Question strategies and tips to students. In essence, from the day a senior registers to the submission deadline, Senior College Focus provides in-class instruction, college workshops, and one-on-one support to seniors applying to college. Furthermore, in the final days prior to the submission deadline, counselors individually aid students in completing the necessary steps, going so far as face to face counselor-parent conferences emphasizing the importance of not removing options prematurely in order to facilitate the successful application process.
Senior College Focus addresses not only the college application itself but also the financial aid process. The FAFSA and Dream Act process starts in the classroom with the counselors guiding students step by step in their English class. Then students are guided by their English teacher to attend available after-school workshops held in the school media center in order to complete their financial application. After all of this, any student who does not submit a financial aid application by February is systematically provided guidance in small groups by counselors for timely submission of the application.
Another way to help students fund college is through scholarships. Beginning in February, counselors teach students in their English classes to create a Fast Web account in order to apply for scholarships. English teachers require students to apply to at least one scholarship. In addition, the majority of our students meet the criteria for a Cal Grant, which includes low to middle income students with a GPA of a 2.0 or higher. The guidance team pays close attention to their status to ensure the California Student Aid Commission has all the student information needed to process their applications.
As students begin hearing from colleges, in an effort to document program effectiveness, the team collects data about where individuals have been accepted, thereby providing feedback on program success. On average, based upon the internal data that is collected, approximately 88% of students who meet the requirements to apply to a four-year university are accepted into at least one or more CSU or UC schools. BGHS has also developed strong relationships with CSUF by inviting university representatives to present process details to our students during school on Next Steps after college application submissions. With the onset of the Early Start program by the CSUs, our team reviews Early Assessment Program (EAP) results. Students who are identified “conditional” are reminded that they will be deemed college-ready in English and Math upon passing their ERWC and Advanced Algebra courses. Students deemed “not ready” are provided information and directed to applications to register for Early Start classes at the CSUs, thereby made aware of and encouraged to begin their freshman year in college on track. Before the May 1st college acceptance deadline, English teachers individually oversee that all students intending four-year college attendance do in fact submit their Intent to Register and the requisite deposit, the final stage in the acceptance process. This data is pursued by the Senior College Focus team to schedule follow-up meetings with students in need of support.
For students who do not meet the requirements to attend a four-year university, extensive support is provided through Senior College Focus in order to help them navigate application to either community college or vocational school, securing priority registration, applying for scholarships, and completing a financial aid application. Based upon the data collected internally, 98% of these students leave BGHS enrolled in a community college while the remaining 2% opt to enroll in the military. Counselors work with teachers to provide all students with college portfolios, thereby providing them with all of the necessary personal information needed to complete community college, financial aid, or Dream Act applications. Every step begins with in-class instruction provided by the counselors. After the initial overview of the application, teachers work with students to complete the next steps. If students do not complete the applications in class, the counseling team provides after-school individualized support based off the feedback provided by the teachers.
Over the years, local community institutions such Santa Ana College, Golden West, Cypress, and Orange Coast College representatives have provided one-on-one support and classroom presentations regarding not only the application process, but the steps needed to qualify for priority registration. These steps include completing the college application, participating in an orientation, developing a student educational plan, verifying the student eligibility for college-level math and English, exposing them to local campuses through field trips, and meeting with a community college counselor. Additionally, as part of the transition process for students with special needs, individualized consideration is given to students with IEPs in order to ensure they are aware of the learning centers located on college campuses.
Throughout these lengthy processes, all steps are monitored using the Senior College Focus data collection(i.e. four-year university path, two-year community college path). All data is regularly updated and shared with the guidance team and senior teachers. Also, the Senior College Focus team meets regularly in order to share updates, reflect on practices, and plan for upcoming deadlines.
in 2009, well-known educational researcher John Hattie published a meta-analysis of 50,000 research studies involving millions of students. Therein he cites over 200 factors impacting student achievement. According to Hattie, the factor that most impacts student achievement is Collective Teacher Efficacy. This can be defined as the collective belief that the staff has the ability to positively affect student achievement regardless of other factors (e.g. home life, socio-economic status).
At Bolsa Grande High School, we are proud to say that this mindset constitutes the very foundation of Senior College Focus. Most of our families are first generation immigrants who face many economic challenges as well. The parents rely on us to guide their children as we would our own, with conscientiousness, ever mindful of educating them to the possibilities of reaching the American Dream.
It is with the school motto “Imagine. Believe. Achieve” that we strive to ensure every student leaves BGHS enrolled in a four-year university, two-year institution, or certificate/vocational program,raising the bar of success for all members of the BGHS community. Yet another study from 2009 puts it this way: “There is consensus that education brings a range of returns (monetary and nonmonetary) that benefit both the person investing in the education and the community in which they live” (Stiglitz, Sten, Fitoussi). From the inception of Senior College Focus, the elevation of an entire community by way of the transformation of student minds has been the driving paradigm. The success of the program and increase of students who apply and attend a four-year or two-year college is a direct result of the shared vision, the selfless and timeless teamwork of the staff involved, the synergy of the guidance staff, teachers, and administration. This remarkable team consistently assesses and refines the program to ensure we are providing the most comprehensive and intentional support we can in order to positively influence the post-secondary success of our students.
Results and Outcomes
Senior College Focus was designed in 2011 to specifically address the disconnect between students’ A-G rates and the disproportionate number of students not accepted to four-year colleges. It has evolved into a comprehensive program addressing all student needs by providing extensive support through the college enrollment process for students attending both four-year universities and two-year educational institutions.
Consequently, BGHS has seen great growth in the number of students leaving high school enrolled in higher education with a post-secondary plan. This program has had a significant impact on BGHS students, changing the very culture of the school. By the end of 2018, the percentage of students who met their A-G requirements had increased to 59% from 38% in 2009. The number of students who enrolled directly in a four-year university moved from 134 students in 2011 to 171 students in 2018. 213 students enrolled directly in a two-year college in 2011, whereas 242 students enrolled immediately in a community college in 2018. The Class of 2018 had 33% of students enroll in a four-year university with an additional 48% enrolled in a two-year community college, for an increase of 11% of total enrollment since 2011.
In 2018, BGHS was the third highest high school feeder to California State University, Fullerton. With the increasing competitiveness of the admissions process for four-year universities and many of our students/families concerned about paying for college, our team is continuing to reflect on ways to provide even more assistance in finding financial resources (e.g. FAFSA, Dream Act, grants, scholarships). According to the 2018 senior exit survey, 70% of our students were awarded financial aid. Additionally, based upon the most recent National Clearinghouse Data, it was reported that students from BGHS who enrolled directly into college remained in college two years later for a persistence rate of 90%.
The quantitative data is also supported by the qualitative data collected through various surveys. According to our Class of 2018 senior exit survey, students reported, “My high school exposed me to college level material. My high school also guided me through the application and financial aid process, giving me the support I needed so I don’t fall through the cracks.” Another student stated, “My high school has prepared me for success by surrounding me with individuals that strive to learn. Throughout my high school career, I have met a multitude of many different individuals that are all striving for success, which pushes me to be more successful. I have also met a large variety of teachers, some of which have pushed me to heights that I did not even imagine were possible for somebody as average as I am.” Based upon the anecdotal feedback we have received over the years, it is apparent there is a college-going culture that has permeated the hallways of BGHS.
Senior College Focus began as a small committee of like-minded collaborative individuals searching for ways to uplift a community by providing our students with targeted support, thus enabling them to apply and enroll in higher education. However, what that small committee of concerned educators was able to do was collectively work together to develop a school-wide paradigm shift into a college-going culture, where all students are active stakeholders who submit competitive college applications.
The belief that all A-G students can confidently explore a variety of economically viable pathways has become the new norm. Moreover, Senior College Focus has been able to provide strategic support for all students in order to help them acquire the college and career readiness skills needed to make informed decisions regarding their pathways after high school.
The Senior College Focus program is the site implementation of the LCAP focus on pupil achievement and pupil outcomes and is motivated by the desire that all college eligible students and their families become fully aware of the entire college application process: it is a comprehensive support system enabling these families and their students to secure their future. At its core Senior College Focus has four fundamental elements: 1) an expectation that all students will participate, 2) a commitment to addressing all aspects of the extensive application process, 3) the procedure of recursive tracking, and 4) the employment of ever present program review to ensure high level accountability.
To be true to these principles is, as can be imagined, an all-encompassing and daunting challenge for each and every participant involved. Nethertheless, the demonstrably tangible improvement in the lives of our students and the entire community has resulted in an unsurpassed personal and professional gratification.