Purpose: College attendance rates among high school students differ by family income. One explanation offered for this difference is that students from low-income families lack information needed to successfully apply and enroll in college. The SOURCE mentoring program was created to provide college-eligible, low-income high school juniors with counseling, information, and oversight to aid their completion of the college application process. SOURCE mentors provide students with the practical knowledge needed to complete the college application process and to take advantage of existing resources, such as financial aid and scholarships for which they qualify. The purpose of this project is to test whether the SOURCE mentoring program improves college enrollment rates for low-income students. The project is an extension of the researchers' earlier implementation of this intervention.

Project Activities: Under a previous project, the researchers recruited 2,500 low-income, college-eligible high school students to apply to participate in the SOURCE mentoring program. Then they randomly assigned 1000 students to the program. Treatment group students worked with an advisor to help them negotiate the specific steps required to apply for college. Program implementation, completed in June 2007, appears to exhibit high fidelity to program design. Students' levels of participation in the program and their outcomes six months after the expected date of high school graduation have been collected. Under this project, student outcomes one year after the expected date of high school graduation are to be collected through the use of administrative data and a survey of participants. Comparisons of both the six month outcomes and one year outcomes for the treatment and control groups will be done to determine the impact of the program.

Products: The expected outcomes of this research include published reports presenting the evidence on the impacts of the SOURCE mentoring program on college and course enrollment, financial aid receipt, and first year college retention for college-eligible low-income high school students.

Structured Abstract

Setting: Participating high schools are located in a major metropolitan school district in southern California.

Population: The sample was drawn from approximately 14,000 low income district juniors who had a 2.5 grade point average and were on track to meet the course requirements to enter the California State University system. Of these students, 2500 volunteered to take part in the study.

Intervention: The SOURCE program is a mentoring program for low-income, college-eligible high school students. SOURCE provides students with an advisor/mentor to help them negotiate the college application process. Over a thirteen month period, mentors worked with students to help them to receive all of the state, federal, and institutional financial aid for which they were qualified, and provided students with guidance in (a) preparing for and completing the SAT/ACT; (b) completing required coursework with an adequate GPA; (c) drafting and revising college essays; (d) choosing appropriate colleges to apply to; (e) completing and submitting on-line college applications; (f) applying for scholarships and financial aid, including completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form and assisting parents with tax preparation; and (g) choosing among colleges at which the student has been accepted.

Research Design and Methods: A randomized controlled trial was used in which students were randomly assigned to the SOURCE group or control group within high school and gender blocks in a 2:3 ratio. As a result, 1051 juniors were assigned to the SOURCE program and the remainder did not receive the program. Program implementation lasted 13 months and was completed in June 2007.

Control Condition: The 1448 juniors randomly assigned to the control condition did not participate in the SOURCE mentoring program but received the standard college guidance counseling available in their high school.

Key Measures: Key outcome measures of student interest and success in attending college from the earlier project and this project include: taking the SAT, SAT Scores, submitting a college application, submitting a Free Application for Federal Student Aid, enrolling in college directly after high school, receiving financial aid, completing college credits, and college grades.

Data Analytic Strategy: The impact analysis starts with comparisons of mean outcomes for SOURCE members and controls. To improve the statistical precision of these comparisons and to limit the potential impact of random differences in background characteristics across the research groups, researchers will use regression techniques to estimate program effects. The impacts of the SOURCE program will be estimated using logit/probit models that include background characteristics as well as school fixed effects as covariates. Subgroup analyses will include differences in impacts by gender.