College Goal Sunday 2006: Dedicated volunteers bring FAFSA help to those who need it
by Marcia Weston, Director of College Goal Sunday Operations, National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators

Photos courtesy of Alaska College Goal Sunday.

     Meeting on a weekend to apply for financial aid may not usually sound exciting, but College Goal Sunday 2006 was a thrilling result to a year’s worth of planning and campaigning by volunteers. College Goal Sunday events bring together financial aid professionals and other volunteers to help college-bound students and their families complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form.
     What made this year special? This year states began to incorporate college access marketing ideas into their outreach efforts, making a shift from focusing on posters and flyers to utilizing a range of grassroots and media strategies. The goal was to increase the number of people benefitting from College Goal Sunday’s FAFSA help, especially among the target population of low-income families and first-generation students.
     Preliminary reports indicate success. A site coordinator in Minnesota reports that at her site, 98% of evaluation respondents identified themselves as African-American or Somali and 71% reported a family income of less than $20,000. 84% responded that neither parent holds a college degree of any kind. And how did they hear about College Goal Sunday? Person-to-person, word-of-mouth -- true grassroots marketing. Volunteers in Kentucky met one family who drove from West Virginia (which currently does not offer College Goal Sunday) after hearing a radio ad for College Goal Sunday in Kentucky. They turned the car around and made it to Kentucky in plenty of time to complete the FAFSA. Though they hadn’t been thinking about college, they were captured by the compelling message of “assistance in finding money for college.”
     The Department of Education tracked electronic FAFSAs filed on Sunday, February 12 (the date of most events) and reported the next day that: "It looks like College Goal Sunday was a bigger success than ever. We received just over 100,000 web apps yesterday, up from 78,000 on College Goal Sunday 2005." If some sites on the east coast had not been postponed on February 12 due to weather conditions, the increases would likely have been even higher.
     There is no better way to reward the efforts and commitment of volunteers than for them to experience the tremendous difference they are making in the lives of students and families throughout their state. Using college access marketing to advance their efforts, College Goal Sunday is reaching even more families with the vital message that financial assistance is available for higher education and we are here to help you find it.

For more information on College Goal Sunday, visit www.collegegoalsundayusa.org.
To learn more about College Access Marketing, visit www.collegeaccessmarketing.org.

Note: If you plan to attend the Congressional Forum on Tuesday, Feb. 28, you must submit your name and affliation by Feb. 24. If you have not already contacted Karen Cheng or Valerie Williams, please contact Valerie at vwilliams@nacac.com. For more information, check out the January 2006 Pathways newsletter.

Good Reads: New Reports

The Toolbox Revisited: Paths to Degree Completion from High School through College
Designed as a replication study to the landmark "Answers in the Tool Box," this report by Clifford Adelman of the U.S. Department of Education tracks a nationally-representative cohort of students from high school into postsecondary education, and asks what aspects of their formal schooling contribute to completing a bachelor's degree by their mid-20s. Although much has changed from the high school Class of 1982 (subjects of the original study) to the Class of 1992 featured in this study, a rigorous high school curriculum still proves to be the leading factor providing momentum towards eventual bachelor's degree completion.
[Read the report | Order a hard copy]

The Power to Change: High Schools that Help All Students Achieve
From the Education Trust, this report examines the strategies and achievements of three high-performing secondary schools that serve large numbers of low-income or minority students -- Elmont Memorial Junior-Senior High School in Elmont, NY, University Park Campus School in Worcester, MA, and Granger High School in Granger, WA. What these schools have in common are: 1) a commitment to using all types of data; 2) a focus on instruction; 3) forging strong connections between the students and adults at the school; and 4) organizing themselves around high expectations for all students.
[Read the report]

Ensuring Rigor in the High School Curriculum: What States Are Doing
This policy brief from the Education Commission of the States looks at strategies states are using to address three challenges to improving the rigor and relevance of high school curriculum: developing versatile, dynamic and efficient assessment systems that both reflect and reinforce higher standards of teaching and learning; ensuring that teachers have the resources, training and support they need to transform their classrooms into richer, more challenging learning environments; and making greater efforts to identify and provide assistance to academically struggling students before they fall too far behind.
[Read the report]

The Pathways to College Network
http://www.pathwaystocollege.net