RISE Network Summer Academy Learning Brief (2024-25) by Connecticut RISE Network

2024-25 SUMMER ACADEMY LEARNING BRIEF

By: Melanie Gonzalez, Sojin Park, and Julia King

Summer Academy is a summer program for rising seniors, designed primarily for students with 4-year college plans, that allows them to get a jumpstart on the college application process by completing critical college access milestones during the summer prior to their senior year.

Programs are staffed by school staff, average 20 hours during June, July, or August, and can range in cost to the school of $500 - $6,500 based on program length, activities offered, resource and staffing needs, and the number of students served. The primary goal is for at least 90 percent of Summer Academy participants to complete the five core college access milestones.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The RISE Network is a non-profit organization that supports schools in ensuring all high school students graduate with a plan and the skills and confidence to achieve postsecondary success. RISE helps schools work together to use data and improvement methods to continuously learn and improve. Guided by the R-I-S-E Continuous Improvement Model, RISE leads school partners through the process of constructing, piloting, and measuring change ideas to improve outcomes for students. The Summer Academy concept began as a change idea first piloted at Orville H. Platt High School and Francis T. Maloney High School in Meriden, CT, in August of 2017 as a way to improve college application rates. The success of these programs inspired the spread of this strategy to an additional seven RISE Network schools.

This brief aims to support school leaders and postsecondary counselors in learning about and understanding the impact of Summer Academy for students with a 4-year college postsecondary plan. December is a critical deadline for applications to many 4-year colleges and universities, and RISE works to ensure all college-bound students submit at least one application and apply for financial aid. To assess the impact of Summer Academy, RISE analyzed data from junior and senior postsecondary surveys, end-of-December college applications, and FAFSA data from the RISE Data Hub, which revealed that Summer Academy participants had:

• Higher levels of confidence in the college application process compared to non-participants.

• Higher end-of-December application completion rates compared to nonparticipants, with greater gains experienced by first-generation, Black, and Latine students.

• Higher FAFSA submission rates at the end of December compared to non-participants.

The findings of this brief provide evidence to support the implementation of programs that promote college access, such as Summer Academy. Students participating in Summer Academy were more likely to be prepared for postsecondary access, as measured by milestone completion and student-reported confidence levels, relative to their peers who did not engage in the program.

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The Importance of 4-Year College

RISE supports all students in identifying wellmatched postsecondary plans, including attending a 4-year college, and RISE partners with schools and counseling teams to build systems and structures that support students in identifying their post-high school aspirations. Attending 4-year college and earning a bachelor’s degree is associated with an array of positive economic, social, and health benefits. College provides opportunities to develop skills, explore different career options, and build a network of mentors and peers that can create opportunities for internships and career advancement. Studies have shown that those with postsecondary education are more likely to participate in the workforce, say their job is a good fit for their talents and interests, and earn more over the course of their career. Additionally, individuals with higher levels of educational attainment are more likely to have better health outcomes, participate in civic life, engage in social behaviors with friends, family, and neighbors, and demonstrate greater self-confidence, persistence, and life direction

“[Summer Academy] leaves you more prepared for your fall semester of senior year. It also clears up misconceptions a student may have about the process of applying to college.”

- SUMMER ACADEMY PARTICIPANT

Key Terms

POSTSECONDARY PLAN

A postsecondary plan is the pathway a student plans to pursue after graduating from high school. Pathways include: 4-year or 2-year college, trade/technical programs, certification programs, military, and workforce.

FIRST-GENERATION STUDENT

A first-generation student is a student whose parents have not completed college in the U.S.. First-generation status in RISE high schools is shared by students through postsecondary student surveys.

CORE COLLEGE ACCESS MILESTONES

Core college access milestones are tasks students must complete to have access to a 4-year college. RISE defines the core access milestones as:

1. Completing the Common Application,

2. Building a college list,

3. Creating an FSA ID for the FAFSA application,

4. Completing a draft of a college essay, and

5. Completing a resume/ sending letters of recommendation. These milestones are a focus for Summer Academy programs.

CHANGE IDEA

A change idea is a hypothesis or new innovation that an improvement team develops and pilots to further its common aim (e.g., postsecondary access). Change ideas come about as improvement teams engage in systems analyses to diagnose opportunity areas.

The Challenges of Applying to a 4-Year College

Understanding and navigating the application process is challenging for many students. Students have to manage deadlines and applications for multiple schools and complete critical milestones along the way, including writing college essays, gathering recommendation letters, and more. In a recent poll, over 50 percent of students said that applying to college was their most stressful academic experience, with higher rates for Black students (60 percent), Latine students (61 percent), and Asian students (63 percent). The application process can be particularly challenging for first-generation students, who may experience additional barriers in completing these tasks.

Furthermore, students may have difficulty understanding their options for financing college (e.g., grants, scholarships, loans) and navigating the daunting financial aid process. In April of 2024, the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) noted that there were over one million corrections that needed to be made to Free Application for Federal Student Aid

(FAFSA) submissions. Additionally, the national FAFSA completion rate for the high school class of 2024 was approximately 46 percent, down 7.2 percentage points compared to the class of 2023.1

School counselors play a critical role in postsecondary planning and success, especially for students who are unable to receive guidance in navigating these complex processes from their caregivers or other adults in their lives.

However, the student-to-counselor ratio in Connecticut during the 202223 school year was 332:1, exceeding the 250:1 ratio recommended by the American School Counselor Association and making it challenging for counselors to provide students with the intensive support they may need to complete their postsecondary plan milestones over the course of the school year.

1. The rollout of The Better FAFSA during the 2024-25 academic year presented numerous delays and technical/design challenges, which contributed to national declines in FAFSA completion..

2024-25 SUMMER ACADEMY DATA INSIGHTS

In summer 2024, nine schools2 implemented Summer Academy across the RISE Network. Enrollment in Summer Academy was open to the 3,373 rising Grade 12 students and reached 18 percent (n=608) of seniors enrolled. Of those 608 participants, 85 percent (n=518) represented the target population for this program (i.e., students with a 4-year plan). This brief studies differences in outcomes of Summer Academy participants with a 4-year plan (n=518) compared to students with a 4-year plan who did not attend Summer Academy (n=1063). This section explores the differences between Summer Academy participants and non-participants in junior to senior year confidence levels, the December college application and FAFSA submission rates among 4-year college plan students, and the breakdown of results across subgroups.

608

Rising seniors participated in Summer Academy

Summer Academy Participant Plans

(n=518) 4-Year College

(n=64) 2-Year College 4% (n=26) Military, Trade/Tech School, Workforce, Transition Plan, and Unsure

“The Summer Academy has become an important milestone experience for our seniors who are headed to college. Students who attend report that they come into the year feeling like they are ‘ahead of the game’ when it comes to the application process. They build positive relationships with our teacher-counselors, and those relationships continue into the school year as they continue their applications. Summer Academy is a game changer for many students who may want to go to college but have no idea how complicated the process can be.”

- SCHOOL PRINCIPAL

2. 9 partner high schools included: East Hartford, Hartford Public, Francis T. Maloney, Brien McMahon, Manchester, Middletown, Naugatuck, Orville H. Platt, and Westhill.

Key Finding 1: Summer Academy participants had higher application completion rates compared to nonparticipants, with the greatest gains among marginalized subgroups.

December is a critical deadline for applications to many 4-year colleges and universities, and RISE works to ensure all college-bound students submit at least one application by December. Summer Academy encourages early applications to improve admission outcomes and access to better financial aid.

Among students with a 4-year college plan, there was a 20 percentage point difference in application submission rates between Summer Academy participants (90 percent) and non-participants (70 percent) at the end of December 2024 (See Figure 1).

Across subgroups of students with a 4-year college plan, all Summer Academy participants had higher college application submission rates compared to their non-participant counterparts. Some subgroups had differences between participants and non-participants that were substantially greater than the overall difference of 20 percentage points between participants and non-participants: special education (+30 pts.), multilingual learners (+28 pts.), Latine (+26 pts.), and first-generation students (+25 pts.). All Summer Academy participants had application rates higher than the overall Grade 12 rate of 77 percent (See Figure 2).

“… as a first-time college student in my family I was scared and kept overthinking this whole process because I really did not know what to do. Now I am very ahead of my class and prepared for more to come.”

- SUMMER ACADEMY PARTICIPANT

1: Application Submission Rates for Summer 2024 Summer Academy Participants and Non-Participants, as of End-of-December 2024

Figure

Figure 2: Subgroup Differences of Application Submission Rates for Summer 2024 Summer Academy Participants and Non-Participants, as of End-of-December 2024

Key Finding 2: Summer Academy students had higher December FAFSA submission rates, though differences between students by first-generation status and race persist.

Among students with a 4-year college plan, there was a 21 percentage point difference in FAFSA submission rates between Summer Academy participants (47 percent) and non-participants (26 percent) at the end of December 2024 (See Figure 3).

“I would recommend Summer Academy to other students because I would say that it personally really helped me with the college application process, and it gave me a good plan so that I know what to focus on moving forward. I also learned a lot more about topics that I didn’t previously know about such as financial aid, application deadlines, and events going on during the school year that I should attend.”

- SUMMER ACADEMY PARTICIPANT

Across subgroups of students with a 4-year college plan, most Summer Academy participants had higher FAFSA application submission rates compared to their non-participant counterparts. Additionally, most subgroup differences between participants and nonparticipants did not vary substantially from the overall difference of 21 percentage points between participants and non-participants. Lastly, most Summer Academy participants had application rates at or above the overall Grade 12 rate of 33 percent. The one exception to these findings was in the case of students in special education. This subgroup had Summer Academy non-participants complete FAFSA submissions at higher rates of 17 percent compared to participants at 6 percent, with a difference between groups at 11 percentage points3 (See Figure 4).

Figure 3: FAFSA Submission Rates for Summer 2024 Summer Academy Participants and Non-Participants as of End-of-December 2024

Figure 4: End-of-December FAFSA submission rates by subgroup, organized from greatest to lowest difference between Summer Academy participants and non-participants.

“I would recommend it because you learn more about the college process that you may not be able to learn about during the school year. Also this helped me understand more about the scholarships and FAFSA information.”

- SUMMER ACADEMY PARTICIPANT

3. Summer Academy had the lowest reach with special education students with a 4-year college plan, with only 17% (n=17) of students participating, which may influence the results we found. However, the reasons for these findings is something the RISE team is exploring to further unpack and understand.

SA NonParticipants SA Participants Overall G12

SA Non-Participants SA Participants

Key Finding 3: Students who attended Summer Academy had greater gains in levels of confidence in completing the college application steps compared to nonparticipants.

Of the 1,581 students with a 4-year college plan, 86 percent (n=1358) completed both a mid-year junior survey and a start-of-year senior survey4. During the middle of their junior year, 70 percent of both students who were Summer Academy participants and non-participants indicated that they felt confident or very confident in completing the steps necessary for their postsecondary plan. At the start of the senior year, after Summer Academy programs, Summer Academy participants had a nine percentage point increase in confidence levels compared to students who did not participate, who only had a two percentage point increase in confidence. (See Figure 5)

- SUMMER ACADEMY PARTICIPANT

Interested in learning more about the Summer Academy strategy and RISE’s approach to supporting strong transitions into postsecondary plans?

Join us for a two-day Postsecondary Symposium focusing on how to expand postsecondary access and opportunity for all students.

CHECK OUT THESE BLOG POSTS:

Summer in February: Summer Academy Students Making Gains with Early Applications

RISE Summer Academies Give Students a Head Start as They Prepare for Senior Year

Reach out to Sherry McLaughlin, Director of Postsecondary Success, at smclaughlin@ctrise.org

4. Junior surveys and start-of-year senior surveys are administered to students at RISE partnered schools as a way to capture postsecondary plan data to support counselors in the delivery of services and supports. Select data points are uploaded into the RISE Data Hub to help with these efforts.

Figure 5: Junior to senior confidence levels by Summer Academy participation

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

Start or continue Summer Academy programming to support students in their postsecondary plans

Attending Summer Academy is associated with higher levels of college application completion, FAFSA completion, and confidence in completing the steps towards a 4-year college plan. Given these successes among students with a 4-year college plan, RISE is considering how to expand the impact of this program to support early milestone completion for students pursuing other postsecondary paths. We recommend that schools investigate starting a Summer Academy program to support students in completing their milestones and applications earlier. This support will, in turn, improve their chances at successful college admissions and receiving financial aid, while supporting a longer timeframe to decide on the best fit by May 1 (the commitment deadline for most colleges). For high schools that do not have a Summer Academy program, we have learned from our partner schools that good first steps to create one include:

• Identify staff and financial resources that could be allocated, including a coordinator to lead in the support of the program.

• Determine student support needs, such as the application milestones that have historically posed the biggest challenge for seniors to complete, to help develop program curriculum and activities.

• Schedule dates and times between the end of school and the start of school to run the program that supports the needs of students and staff. Consider one large cohort or two or more smaller cohorts of students.

• Market the program to students and their caregivers, including focused recruitment to any specific subgroups within your school that have lower historical application rates.

Leverage multiple stakeholders to build a strong Summer Academy program

For schools starting a Summer Academy program, we recommend engaging multiple stakeholders in the process. Engaging multiple stakeholders in this work helps to build shared knowledge and understanding of the importance of milestone completion, which helps to build a strong postsecondary culture that motivates students to succeed. To do this, schools can consider:

• Engage educators by leveraging their content expertise to support activities. For example, invite English teachers to coach students on essay writing, and World Language educators to support multilingual learners.

• Include families by inviting them to parts of Summer Academy, such as Family Financial Day Workshops or Summer Academy Completion Celebrations.

• Create community partnerships with local nonprofits, businesses, and colleges to include them in programming. For example, invite college admissions officers to present tips for navigating admissions, or invite finance professionals to present tips for financing college.

Start or continue efforts to engage in targeted recruitment of special education, multilingual learners, first-generation, and Latine students

Special education, multilingual learners, first-generation, and Latine students who participated in Summer Academy in summer 2024 had greater gains in college application rates compared to overall participants. We recommend that schools starting a Summer Academy program engage in targeted recruitment for MLL, first-generation, Latine, and special education students, as our findings suggest that these subgroups receive the most benefit from this intervention. To improve recruitment efforts, schools can consider :

• Sending personalized messages to students, inviting them to join Summer Academy, and highlighting its benefits.

• Having seniors who participated in Summer Academy share their experiences with juniors.

• Creating opportunities for caregivers to sign their students up for Summer Academy at existing events (parent-teacher conferences, scholar nights, etc.).

Improve FAFSA and financial aid supports throughout the school year

While Summer Academy participants are submitting FAFSAs at higher rates than non-participants, FAFSA submission rates were still relatively low in December, with only 33 percent of students with a 4-year plan completing this critical access milestone. The FAFSA does not open until October for high school seniors; therefore, students cannot complete steps beyond the FSA ID during Summer Academy. Schools should continue thinking about and implementing complementary/additional services and programming during senior year to support students in successfully completing the milestones critical for financing 4-year college.

ABOUT THE RISE NETWORK

The RISE Network’s mission is to ensure all RISE high school students graduate with a plan and the skills and confidence to achieve college and career success.

Founded in 2015, RISE partners with public high schools to lead statewide networks where school communities work together to use data to learn and improve. Through its core and most comprehensive network, RISE partners with nine high schools and eight public school districts, serving over 13,000 students; the majority of RISE students identify as Black, Latine, and/or low-income. RISE high schools work together to ensure all students experience success as they transition to, through, and beyond high school by using data to pinpoint needs, form hypotheses, and pursue ideas to advance student achievement.

RISE high schools have achieved double-digit gains improving Grade 9 on-track achievement, four-year-high school graduation rates, and student identification of postsecondary plans, while also decreasing subgroup gaps across all indicators. In 2021, the RISE Network was honored to receive the Carnegie Foundation’s annual Spotlight on Quality in Continuous Improvement recognition. Increasingly, RISE is pursuing opportunities to scale its impact through consulting partnerships with public school districts, state agencies, and non-profit organizations.