2015 DSSG Data Fest: Team College Persistence

Summary

The video highlights the challenges low-income students face in completing college, despite many enrolling after high school. Schools working with disadvantaged students understand these barriers and have hired counselors to support them through the process. However, with limited resources, schools need help identifying which students require the most support. The speaker discusses how data-driven models can predict college persistence using high school records and other data, helping counselors provide targeted support. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that every student has the tools and guidance necessary to graduate from college.

Takeaways

• 🎓 College graduates tend to have better health, more wealth, and higher life satisfaction.
• 📉 Students from low-income families are less likely to graduate from high school and attend college.
• ⚖️ The gap between the richest and poorest children becomes more significant when it comes to completing a college degree.
• 1️⃣ Less than 1 in 5 children from low-income families obtain a college degree.
• 🏫 Charter schools that serve disadvantaged backgrounds are successfully enrolling students in college but struggle with helping them graduate.
• 📞 Schools are hiring college counselors to guide students through challenges like financial aid and course registration.
• 🚨 Small issues like missing deadlines can lead to college dropouts, with long-term negative consequences.
• 🔍 Schools have limited resources and need to prioritize students who need the most support, which is where data comes in.
• 📊 Data-driven models using high school grades and college characteristics can identify students more likely to drop out.
• 💡 By incorporating more personalized information, such as student integration into the college community, schools can better predict which students need support to persist.

Q & A

What advantages are commonly associated with having a college degree?

People with college degrees tend to be in better health, have more wealth, and report higher life satisfaction across various areas.

How does the likelihood of obtaining a college degree differ between low-income and high-income families?

Children from low-income families have less than a one-in-five chance of obtaining a college degree, compared to their higher-income peers, indicating a significant gap in college completion rates.

What are some challenges that students from disadvantaged backgrounds face in completing college?

Students from disadvantaged backgrounds may struggle with tasks like filling out financial aid forms or registering for necessary courses, which can lead to them dropping out of college.

How are some charter networks addressing the issue of college persistence for their students?

These charter networks hire college counselors to provide ongoing support to students, helping them navigate challenges like financial aid and course registration, and offering guidance throughout their college journey.

Why is it important for schools to know which students need support the most?

With limited resources, schools need to focus their efforts on students who are most at risk of dropping out in order to have the biggest impact on college completion rates.

What steps are being taken to predict college persistence for students?

The schools, in partnership with data-driven teams, are using high school records and alumni contact data to build models that predict college persistence and identify which students are most likely to drop out.

What simple factors are effective in predicting a student's likelihood of dropping out of college?

Simple factors such as high school grades and the characteristics of the college a student attends can accurately predict which students are at higher risk of dropping out.

What other factors, besides high school GPA, influence college persistence according to college counselors?

College counselors consider factors like how well students are performing in their classes and how integrated they feel within their college community as significant influences on persistence.

What is the next step for improving data-driven predictions on college persistence?

The next step involves collecting qualitative data from counselors' conversations with students about their college experiences, which could be used to build more refined, individualized predictions.

What is the ultimate goal of the project described in the script?

The ultimate goal is to provide every student with the necessary tools and support to successfully graduate from college.