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ninja-forms-uploads domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home1/diqosbmy/public_html/clients/strive-together/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131ninja-forms domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home1/diqosbmy/public_html/clients/strive-together/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131better-wp-security domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home1/diqosbmy/public_html/clients/strive-together/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131updraftplus domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home1/diqosbmy/public_html/clients/strive-together/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131At Highlands High School in San Antonio, Texas, 60 percent of seniors completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in the 2015-16 school year. That\u2019s up from 50 percent in 2014-15, and the percentage is bound to be even higher this year.<\/p>\n
At a school where nine in 10 students are Latino and where a roughly equal proportion come from economically disadvantaged families, the increase in FAFSA completions will open the door to tens of thousands of dollars in additional aid. The likely result is that more Highlands students will attend college and reap the considerable economic rewards that come with earning a postsecondary degree or credential.<\/p>\n
Roxanne Rosales, a senior official with the local school district, said the uptick in FAFSA completions at Highlands High School is a direct result of her community\u2019s participation in a pilot project organized by StriveTogether. The focus: supporting partners in San Antonio and five other communities across the country to apply data-driven, continuous improvement techniques to the work of getting more students to complete the FAFSA.<\/p>\n
\u201cParticipating in that network really had an impact,\u201d Rosales said. \u201cWe learned how to use data more effectively and how to apply some really useful tools for continuous improvement. And to have focused time to work with our community partners and learn from peers across the country was invaluable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Completing the FAFSA, which is used to determine a college-going student\u2019s eligibility for federal grants, loans and work-study funds, increasingly is recognized as a critical step to postsecondary enrollment. A 2013 research project by H&R Block showed that the likelihood of high school seniors from low- and middle-income families attending college increased by 30 percent if they completed the application.<\/p>\n
But getting more students to complete the FAFSA can be difficult for a variety of reasons. Many students and their families simply don\u2019t understand what kinds of financial aid are available for college, while others incorrectly think they aren\u2019t eligible for aid. Add in the \u201chassle factor\u201d (even though recent changes to the FAFSA were designed to make it easier to complete), and it\u2019s not hard to see why just 45 percent of U.S. high school seniors complete the form<\/a>.<\/p>\n StriveTogether convened the Postsecondary Enrollment (PSE) Impact and Improvement Network to see if communities could boost FAFSA completions by applying a model for data-driven, collaborative work derived from the health care field. Called the \u201cBreakthrough Series\u201d model, it was developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement to support groups to work in teams to cure diseases. Under the model, people come together over a defined period to use data to make better decisions. During regular collaborative sessions, they learn how to apply continuous improvement tools and share successes, challenges and ideas. In between, they engage in \u201creal work\u201d aimed at making improvements with the help of expert coaching support.<\/p>\n The PSE Impact and Improvement Network started its work in December 2015. Over the seven months that followed, teams from the six communities participated in nine learning sessions and monthly coaching calls with lots of \u201creal work\u201d in between. The group even visited the White House during a learning session in Washington, D.C., to share suggestions for improving the FAFSA with senior federal officials.<\/p>\n The San Antonio area\u2019s local cradle-to-career partnership, the P16Plus Council of Greater Bexar County<\/a>, began working with five school districts in the county to increase college attainment among Latino students in 2011. The districts targeted by the Diplom\u00e1s Project serve 78 percent of Latino students in the county\u2019s public schools. When the opportunity to apply for the PSE Impact and Improvement Network came along, P16Plus and its partners were experimenting with a range of approaches to boost FAFSA completions across the five districts, which include 30 high schools.<\/p>\n The local partners had tallied some important successes in their FAFSA work, but \u201cit was always a struggle to get people to make this a priority,\u201d said Rosales, senior executive director for academic support with the San Antonio Independent School District.<\/p>\n Rosales was one of four members of the San Antonio team that participated in the network. Other team members included: P16Plus Data Director Ginger Walker; Belinda Cisneros, director of advanced academics with a rural public school district in the southwestern part of Bexar County; and Margaret Quintanilla, director of student access and support services with Alamo Colleges, the network of five community colleges in San Antonio.<\/p>\n As the network convened, the participating communities were urged to identify test campuses where they could apply continuous improvement tools and strategies to the work of increasing FAFSA completions among high school seniors. Highlands High School was selected as the test campus for the San Antonio Independent School District because it had relatively low completion rates compared to other high schools in the district.<\/p>\n \u201cWe chose Highlands based on data showing that less than half of seniors were filling out the FAFSA. That was unacceptable,\u201d Rosales said.<\/p>\n With the StriveTogether network offering a model for collaborative continuous improvement, Rosales helped convene a team at Highlands that would use the same data-driven approach to increasing the school\u2019s FAFSA completion rates. As the Highlands team got to work, they developed a process and timelines for launching various activities, reviewing weekly and monthly FAFSA data, and revising plans accordingly. This process followed the \u201cplan-do-study-act\u201d cycle that participants learned about in the initial sessions of the PSE Impact and Improvement Network.<\/p>\n \u201cThat [plan-do-study-act] process really brings discipline and accountability to the work. It helps you make sure you are using data to see how you\u2019re doing and where you need to improve,\u201d Rosales said.<\/p>\n The value of this process was evident early on in the Highlands team\u2019s work, after its members disseminated to teachers a list of seniors who had not completed the FAFSA. Teachers were encouraged to refer the students on the list to a school counselor so they could complete their forms. However, when the school team reviewed the data a month later, they saw that Highlands was still behind on FAFSA completions compared to the year before. This spurred a more deliberate focus on teacher engagement. In the weeks that followed, the team had meetings with faculty to make a more direct pitch for the work. With baskets of school supplies and other rewards, the team also publicly recognized teachers who were referring a significant number of students for FAFSA support. Within weeks of these changes in strategy, Highlands moved ahead of the previous year\u2019s FAFSA completion rate.<\/p>\n The Highlands team also organized other activities including a special pep rally aimed at getting the whole campus talking about the FAFSA.<\/p>\n Thanks to frequent data monitoring, the Highlands team could see almost in real time how these activities were contributing (or not) to changes in the FAFSA completion rate. Borrowing from a tactic she learned in the PSE Impact and Improvement Network, Rosales worked with P16Plus to develop \u201crun charts\u201d showing the impact of various interventions on FAFSA signups.<\/p>\n After the final numbers came in and Highlands registered a 10-percentage-point gain in FAFSA completions for the year, Rosales started working with P16Plus to share the school\u2019s successful strategies with others across the county.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an example of one of the bright spot practices that we\u2019re working to scale by sharing the data and lessons learned with the other four district partners committed to increasing FAFSA completion rates,\u201d P16Plus\u2019s Ginger Walker said.<\/p>\n Together with a regional education service agency that is a partner on the Diplom\u00e1s Project, P16Plus also has organized a series of workshops based on the Highlands experience for high school counselors across the region. The workshops are designed to help schools use data and continuous improvement tools to increase their FAFSA completion rates. P16Plus also has developed a\u00a0dashboard<\/a>\u00a0that allows all 40 school districts in the region to see their FAFSA completion rates by campus.<\/p>\nIn sync in San Antonio<\/h3>\n
A school team gets to work<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\nImprovement in real time<\/h3>\n
A Portland partnership\u2019s success<\/h3>\n