MOCAN – Missouri College & Career Attainment Network

Increasing equity in college and career for Missouri students

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Advancing Racial Healing Through MOCAN’s TRHT Campus Center

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This summer, a second MOCAN Team will participate in the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center Institute. The Institute convenes equity-minded colleges and universities. It is held each summer by the American Association of Colleges & Universities.

The Institute is designed to help Center teams identify evidence-based strategies that support their vision of what their communities will look, feel, and be like when the false belief in a hierarchy of human value no longer exists. 

In fall 2022, MOCAN became the first statewide organization to be designated a TRHT Campus Center. A team of colleagues from MOCAN’s Postsecondary Equity Network attended the 2022 Institute and submitted an action plan to develop a center with our partner institutions in Missouri. 

This year MOCAN is represented by PEN Co-Chairs, Dr. D’Andre Braddix, Executive Director, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at St. Louis Community College, and Dr. Lover Chancler, Director of the Center of Multiculturalism and Inclusivity and Associate Professor at the University of Central Missouri; Cherelle Washington, MOCAN’s Director of College Access and Career Readiness; Wendell Stapleton, Student Success Coach at Maryville University; and Trent Ball, MOCAN’s Senior Director for Postsecondary Equity and Attainment.

At this year’s Institute, the MOCAN team will be refining and expanding the plan developed last year to address the challenges and changes occurring in higher education and our educational communities.

Recapping Year 1 of the Purpose First Initiative

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Earlier this month, representatives from institutions in the MOCAN Purpose First Initiative, and other campuses interested in the Purpose First (PF) work, participated the Purpose First Summer Institute. At the institute, teams met to discuss lessons learned during the first year of the collaborative project of MOCAN and Complete College America (CCA).

Purpose First is designed to increase retention and career readiness of BILPOC students and students from low-income communities attending Postsecondary Equity Network (PEN) institutions. By year 3, institutions will be able to demonstrate the impact of early integration of career advising on student retention and completion, leading to greater social mobility and economic stability.

This year, the PF teams worked on student experiential learning, academic maps, career and academic advising integration, and early onboarding strategies. CCA provided training opportunities and individualized coaching for each institution. Partner institutions also received three-year, $30,000 grants to support implementation of their strategies.

The summer institute provided an opportunity to review plans to date and discuss creating a holistic approach to career learning. The institute was led by Nikolas Huot, the Assistant Vice President for Institutional Transformation and Cassie Walizer, Strategy Director at CCA.  The keynote for the Institute was given by Dr. Lakeisha Mathews of the University of Baltimore and current President of the National Career Development Association (NCDA), who shared how career learning can — and should — be integrated into a student’s college experience, from onboarding through graduation.

Use This High School Graduation To-Do List to Keep Supporting Students

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Caroline Doglio, National College Attainment Network

As the school year comes to a close, seniors will be out of the door and moving onto their next step. Each year, an estimated 10-40% of high school seniors with every intention of enrolling in college do not actually matriculate. While NCAN has plenty of resources that can help perform early intervention to prevent summer melt, we also know that every effort counts.

With that in mind, there are a few final ways that districts, schools, and college access organizations can best support their students during this life transition.

Senior Exit Survey

The first step to support seniors is by performing a senior exit survey. This is a simple and effective way to collect the most up-to-date contact information and a student’s next steps in order to tailor support throughout the summer.

Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research created a Summer Melt Handbook that includes a guide for what questions to include in a senior exit survey. They suggest administering the survey as close to graduation as possible in order to get the most accurate information.

While it is important to make sure that the senior exit survey fits the needs of your students, there is likely no need to create an entirely new senior exit survey. Consider adapting exit surveys from previous years or using an existing template.

For exit survey inspiration, visit the NCAN guide to immediate next steps for graduating seniors or see the examples below.

It’s best to administer the survey electronically to make the most of the results immediately. Once you identify high-attendance institutions to which your students intend to matriculate, you could potentially make a transition cheat sheet.

Transition Cheat Sheets

Transition cheat sheets are a quick and easy way to ensure students have accurate information about the next steps at highly attended colleges. The simple one-pager should be full of information on upcoming tasks, deadlines, contact information, and anything else that could help a student throughout the transition.

NCAN member Puget Sound College and Career Network has created these same cheat sheets for their students, and they serve as a great example. 

All of their checklists are neatly divided into sections on what to do before coming to campus: 

  • Apply
  • Finish the financial aid process
  • Complete testing or send transcripts
  • Register for orientation
  • Register for classes
  • Find transportation
  • Pay tuition
  • Find supports and community

Once all this information is compiled, decide how you want to stay in contact with the students. Many organizations find that text messaging is the most effective way to reach young people.

Reaching Students Over the Summer

Consider using texting to encourage your graduating seniors to take action over the summer. This is an opportunity to inform students of necessary pre-enrollment tasks that they might not be aware of.

As your organization is finalizing your plans to support your seniors, don’t forget to take advantage of the resources that are already available to you. Be sure to check out NCAN’s Summer Melt Toolkit and our K-12 Advising Calendar. 

Award Letters Are Arriving, Do Your Students Understand Them?

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Bill DeBaun, Senior Director of Data and Strategic Initiatives

With College Decision Day rapidly approaching, students might need help navigating financial aid offers. These offers, often referred to as award letters, should spark conversations about college affordability between students, families, and the professionals who help them along their postsecondary pathways.

While financial aid offers foretell an exciting new next educational step, the offers have a reputation for being overwhelming and confusing. New America and uAspire analyzed over 500 financial aid award letters and found that many of the letters used convoluted jargon, omitted the complete cost of attendance, and left students confused about next steps.

With the right information, understanding and comparing financial aid offers from colleges and universities is a job that students and their families can realistically tackle.

Award letters all contain the same basic components, they typically include information about types of aid offered and an estimated cost of attendance. With that information, students can find the price they will actually pay, or the “net price.”

Broadly, there are four types of aid: scholarships, federal and state grants, work-study, and loans.

  • Scholarships do not have to be repaid. Students should pay attention to whether or not scholarships have yearly requirements, such as maintaining a certain GPA. It is also crucial to know if each scholarship is a one-time award or if it is recurring.
  • Federal and state grants also do not have to be repaid. These include grants like the Pell Grant, the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), and state-specific grants. Eligibility is typically determined by the information students submit on their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Students who receive these grants will have to fill out the FAFSA every academic year to maintain their eligibility.

  • Federal work-study is money that the student earns. These funds might be included in the financial aid offer as just another grant, but work-study dollars are actually earned through part-time employment on- or off-campus. The student will have to apply for work-study positions, and work-study aid is not guaranteed from year to year. Read this awesome post from the Department of Education to learn more the 8 things you should know about federal work-study.
  • Loans have to be repaid with interest. They are either subsidized or unsubsidized. For direct subsidized loans, the U.S. Department of Education pays the interest on these loans while the student is in school and for the six months after they leave school. For direct unsubsidized loans, interest begins accumulating while in school, and the student is responsible for this interest.

When talking to students about loans, stress to them to only take out as much as they need⁠— it’s not necessarily best to take all that is offered. For example, if the student only needs $5,000 for food and housing, but $7,500 is offered, they should only take $5,000. Students may be tempted to have the extra money in college, but they should know that they will eventually have to pay back those loans with interest, which will be far more expensive in the long run.

The award letter should show the itemized offers for the fall, the spring, and their total for the academic year. Encourage students sure to ask themselves these questions when reviewing offers:

  • Will I automatically receive this aid each year?
  • What are the eligibility requirements to continue receiving recurring awards?
  • When do I have to accept or decline these award offers?
  • If loans are offered, do I want to accept them?

Once students have added up how much money a college is offering, they should compare that against the included cost of attendance estimate.

Total Cost of Attendance = Direct Costs + Indirect Costs

  • Direct costs: These are charged to the student by the university and often include tuition, room and board, and fees. This is an estimate of what the student will owe the university.
  • Indirect costs: These are the student’s estimated expenses such as books and supplies, travel, and other personal expenses. Actual year-to-year costs will vary. For instance, the student may choose a less expensive housing option or might have higher travel expenses.

Once students know the financial aid offers and the costs of attendance, it’s time to find the net price if it was not included already. In New America and uAspire’s study on award letters, only 40% included a net price – the remaining out-of-pocket costs.

To calculate the net price, subtract the student’s financial aid total from cost of attendance. This is the amount that the student will actually be responsible for. A few ways to close these gaps include paying with savings or taking out additional loans.

Luckily, there are wonderful resources out there to help students and families crunch the numbers and weigh all of their options. Check out these three free tools:

If, at the end of their calculations, a student finds that their financial aid is still lacking, they might consider writing a financial aid appeal letter to ask the school to potentially grant more scholarships or loan and grant options. SwiftStudent is a great resource which helps students through this process.

When deciding where to enroll, the bottom dollar is not the only thing to consider. Encourage students to research potential schools’ graduation and retention rates, along with how their net price stacks up against other students’. The Department of Education’s College Scorecard is a wonderful resource to make those comparisons.

If students and families feel that they’ve hit a wall, encourage them to reach out to a college’s office of financial aid to get answers.

Running the numbers, doing the research, and comparing schools is not the most exciting work, but it is well worth the excitement that accompanies the final product: making a decision about the future that students and their families can feel good about.

April is Scholarship Deadline Month!

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April is deadline month on My Scholarship Central. 108 scholarships are currently open and accepting applications. 75% of those scholarships are due in April, with many deadlines on April 15 and 17. There are some scholarships that are open in May and June, but very few are open through the summer. We know it is a busy time of year with prom, finals, AP exams, and graduation. However, we want students to have enough money to go to their best fit school. Don’t wait until after graduation – now is the time to apply for scholarships! Visit myscholarshipcentral.org/apply to start your application.

This year will be My Scholarship Central’s biggest year – in terms of student users, awards made, and total dollars awarded through the site. There are already more than 10,800 students applying for scholarships this year. Students who complete multiple, high quality scholarship applications ahead of the deadline see the best success on My Scholarship Central. You don’t have to be the valedictorian or class president – you just need to take the time to carefully and throughfully apply to scholarships you qualify for.

We are always looking for more scholarship organizations to partner with! If you know a scholarship from a non-profit organization for students from Missouri or the surrounding metros, we would love to talk. Email Kaitlyn Venta at [email protected].

Scholarship Providers in Kansas City

Addressing Summer Melt Starts in the Spring

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Caroline Doglio, Program Associate

Even though it might feel like summer is far away, for some students summer melt might already be starting. An estimated 10-40% of high school students with the intention to enroll in college never actually do so. This phenomenon disproportionately impacts students of color, first-generation students, and students from low-income backgrounds.

But why aren’t these students actually matriculating? The reality is that showing up to campus is not only a question of whether or not the student wants to go, but also if they have the resources to do so. Unfortunately, students often stumble when faced with complicated forms and processes.

Understanding financial aid is often the biggest barrier for students. It’s estimated that 7.2% of students selected for FAFSA verification do not receive subsidized federal as a result, and we know that verification disproportionately impacts Black and Latino students. These burdens add up, making it more difficult for students to enroll.

The first step to tackling summer melt is understanding how many students it’s impacting and their demographics. A senior exit survey is a great first step to collecting the necessary data. Harvard’s Strategic Data Project Summer Melt Handbook offers resources on increasing completion and what exactly to include in the survey with examples. The guide encourages that questions be specific, like what students’ enrollment plans are and if they have paid their enrollment deposit.

With the senior exit survey providing an estimate of how many students intended to enroll at graduation, data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC)’s StudentTracker for High Schools service can provide a count of how many students actually enrolled.

Though potentially more insightful, identifying groups of students melting at a higher rate than other groups in order to perform targeted outreach. [BD1] Were there specific institutions with higher summer melt rates than others? Is it a race question? An income question? All of the above? Understanding who summer melt is impacting the most is the first step to performing targeted outreach for the years to come.

But how do we help students right now? And how do we make sure they matriculate after they leave the building? Some practitioners are turning to texting. Text Steps was a project piloted by Ascendum Education Group in 2015 and expanded to 13 school districts in Wisconsin between 2018 and 2020. Some key lessons outlined in the brief include:

  • Successful summer melt interventions require the buy-in of both district and school leadership and frontline staff members
  • Student level-data is key for understanding an intervention’s success – but working with data like this involves a learning curve, so prior planning is required
  • Summer melt will start before summer and interventions should take place year-round

The school districts involved measured their impact through NSC data, comparing the postsecondary outcomes between the class of 2018 (control group) and the class of 2019 (who received the text messages). The average fall enrollment across the 13 districts increased by 3 percentage points.

These impacts were felt most by students of color and economically disadvantaged students. In 2018 in participating districts, students of color had a 40% fall in enrollment rate but 65% of students of color participating in Text Steps enrolled in fall 2019. Economically disadvantaged students participating in Text Steps had a 64% enrollment rate compared to a 37% rate for the class of 2018.

You can learn more about summer melt with NCAN’s toolkit and K-12 calendar.  Have questions about summer melt? We’d love to hear from you! Contact Caroline Doglio ([email protected]) to hear more about approaches to freezing summer melt.