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National College Access Marketing Campaigns
When the Pathways to College Network hosted the first-ever "Summit On Using Social Marketing to Promote College Access" in December 2003, no national college access marketing efforts were underway. By April 7, 2006, when the Pathways Network convened a second college access marketing summit, the story had changed. Hosted by Time Warner, Inc., this summit brought together representatives of five significant national college access marketing campaigns and one major regional initiative to discuss how they could collaborate with each other to reach greater numbers of students more effectively with important messages about preparing and paying for college.
Over the past three years, the college access community has made astounding progress in its embrace and use of sophisticated social marketing strategies. The campaigns who attended the April summit are excellent examples:
- College Goal Sunday is a group of state-specific programs with one national identity and purpose – to help as many underserved students as possible complete the FAFSA successfully. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, which manages College Goal Sunday on a national level, works with each state’s PR and Outreach Committee to build creative marketing campaigns that encourage students and families to attend these one-day events that are staffed entirely by volunteers. Lumina Foundation for Education is the national funder.
- Federal Student Aid is the federal agency charged with distributing more than $60 billion a year in financial aid to the nation’s students. With the new tagline, “Start Here. Go Further,” the agency recently retooled their communication materials with the student audience in mind. With the goal of helping students learn about and access financial aid opportunities, Federal Student Aid’s new campaign uses the message, “The most costly education is the one not begun.”
- The Sallie Mae Fund’s Paying for College Bus Tour takes the Fund’s “Paying for College” financial aid workshops on the road, via a colorful bus that drives from city to city distributing printed materials and bringing staff to workshops arranged with local partners at each stop. Aimed specifically at Latino students and parents, the campaign strategically solicits coverage in the local media, especially Spanish-language radio and TV stations, prior to the arrival of the bus in each city.
- The Ad Council is partnering with Lumina Foundation for Education and the American Council on Education to develop a campaign targeting 8th-10th grade students with the message that college needs to be a goal, not just a dream. Ad Council research shows that many students think that college “just happens.” To counteract this, the college access campaign will encourage students to take the necessary action steps critical to college preparation and readiness.
- Using the messages that “preparing for college is preparing for life” and “this is our generation - change starts with us,” MTV’s Think:Education campaign, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is focused on getting students to recognize the importance of graduating from high school ready for college, work, and citizenship, and empowering them to act as advocates for change in their communities.
- The GO Alliance is an initiative of the Southern Regional Education Board that helps member states improve their state college access marketing campaigns through the sharing of knowledge and creative materials.
For more great campaign examples, visit http://www.collegeaccessmarketing.org.
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Good Reads: New Reports
 Whatever it takes: How twelve communities are reconnecting out-of-school youth
This report from the American Youth Policy Forum documents what educators, policymakers, and community leaders are doing to reconnect high school dropouts to education and employment training. It also includes descriptions of major national program models serving out-of-school youth.
[Read the report]
 Closing the aspirations-attainment gap, implications for high school reform: A commentary from Chicago
Drawing on research from Chicago and results from MDRC’s recent evaluation of the Talent Development High School model, the author argues that urban school systems can reduce dropout rates by targeting efforts on successful transition to high school and, in particular, on reducing high rates of course failure in freshman year. Another critical step in closing the aspirations-attainment gap is getting high schools to view college preparation as a primary goal and an important measure of their performance.
[Read the report]
 By the numbers: State goals for increasing postsecondary attainment
This report from Jobs for the Future addresses an important state-level policy approach to assessing and increasing the value of public higher education: setting and publicizing clear, numerical goals for expanding student access and success. The data was collected in a survey of state higher education plans that was designed to answer the question: "Do states know where they are trying to go in terms of improving public higher education, and do they have a plan for how to get there?"
[Read the report]
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