Notes

Higher education has a zip code problem. Access to and success in college are often thwarted by socioeconomic inequalities linked to where students grow up and attend school. Quantifying these obstacles was the rationale for the College Board’s ill-fated SAT “adversity score,” since renamed Landscape. And these obstacles have been shown to block tens of thousands of low-income and minority students from realizing the benefits of a college education. They are one of higher education’s greatest challenges.

However, students’ zip codes need not map their final educational destinations. Several regional, statewide and national programs are proving that the right combination of ongoing mentoring, guidance and academic support can help low-income students navigate the college admissions process and thrive in highly competitive colleges.

One such example is SEEDS (Scholars, Educators, Excellence, Dedication, Success), a privately funded, nonprofit New Jersey program founded in 1992. SEEDS began with two prep programs for elementary and middle-school students. Young Scholars is a 14-month program beginning with a summer session following fourth or fifth grade. The Scholars Program also requires 14 months, beginning in the summer after seventh grade.

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The newest SEEDS intervention, started in 2015, is the College Scholars program, a 17-month education experience, designed to advance strongly motivated, low-income students from New Jersey’s urban public high schools to highly competitive colleges.

College Scholars are selected following a nomination process. They then complete a sequence of four “quadrants.” Quadrant one begins spring semester of students’ junior year in high school. It takes place on the campus of Drew University where students meet every Saturday into the summer, developing their test preparation skills and learning about the college application process. By that June, they are expected to have taken the ACT twice.

The second quadrant occurs the next summer on the campus of Hobart and Williams Smith Colleges where students live as they take three weeks of classes focused on honing their writing skills and receiving more coaching to prepare them for college life.

Quadrant three takes place in the fall of the senior year and focuses on students finishing their applications, making campus visits and working through any early admission options they may receive. Quadrant four spans the second semester of the senior year and involves more campus visits to schools where the scholars have been accepted. In addition, the students continue to practice their writing skills, and they serve as peer mentors to the incoming group of scholars.

To date, three cohorts totaling about 100 students have graduated. Only two have not entered college. The scholars’ retention rate, according to SEEDS CEO John Castano, is in the “high 90’s,” and almost all of them are on track to graduate in four or five years. They have been successful in many of the nation’s leading institutions, including Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colgate, Cornell, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Johns Hopkins, University of Michigan, Northeastern, Smith, Villanova and Washington University.

What makes SEEDS successful?

Castano attributed much of the success of SEEDS to the fact that the program began after its leaders visited a large number of colleges that had been particularly effective with low-income students to learn what were the key elements to their success. One constant emerged: developing students’ writing skills. As a result, SEEDS consulted with the National Writing Project about how best to develop good writers, and, based on that input, it emphasizes writing throughout the program.

Second, in addition to a demanding course of study, SEEDS works to make sure graduates can afford to attend college. Although it does not offer financial aid directly to students, SEEDS strives to ensure that graduates receive generous financial aid packages from the colleges they attend. All in, SEEDS spends about $17,000 per scholar. But after helping broker financial aid from all sources, that investment turns into hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants and scholarships for most graduates.

Finally, SEEDS is not a one-and-done operation. It follows its graduates with guidance and alumni programs after they complete the program. The guidance team provides annual face-to-face follow-up to graduates throughout their initial years in college, and the alumni department will provide support services to alumni after college and beyond, fulfilling the SEEDS motto that “you are an alumni for life.”

Castano summed up the program this way: “The zip code that a student is born into should not define where they’re going to go in life, which is why SEEDS’ programs provide educational access for high-achieving students whose average annual family income is under $34,000. It works. We’ve become experts at working with kids who are motivated and talented but who just haven’t had the right opportunities for success.”

Other regional programs have been effective in preparing high-achieving, low-income youth for success at highly regarded colleges. Examples include the Wyman Center in St. Louis and Sponsors for Educational Opportunity serving students in San Francisco and New York. Nationally, QuestBridge, the National College Access Network, and College Possible are well-established preparation programs. Although these programs use different strategies to select students, they all share several elements - multi-year sequencing of activities, challenging academics, sustained mentoring, on-going peer support and long-term follow-up - that appear essential to success.

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Michael T. Nietzel
Michael T. Nietzel
I am president emeritus of Missouri State University. After earning my B.A. from Wheaton College (Illinois), I was awarded a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Unive... Read More
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