SDP
Summer Melt
Handbook:
A Guide to Investigating and
Responding to Summer Melt
Acknowledgements
WE GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGE SARAH GLOVER, KORYNN SCHOOLEY, LINDSAY
DAUGHERTY, KAREN ARNOLD, AND ALEX CHEWNING FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS
TO THIS GUIDE, AND GIVE SPECIAL THANKS TO THE STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT AND
TO THE BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION FOR SUPPORTING ITS DEVELOPMENT.
THE RESEARCH ON WHICH THIS GUIDE IS BASED WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE
WITHOUT THE CONTRIBUTIONS AND COLLABORATION OF SEVERAL PEOPLE AND
ORGANIZATIONS. WE THANK SYLVIA LOPEZ, SHANE HALL, DOROTHEA WEIR, AND THE
SCHOOL COUNSELORS WHO STAFFED THE INTERVENTION IN THE DALLAS INDEPEND-
ENT SCHOOL DISTRICT; ALEXANDRA CHEWNING, ERIN COX, BOB GIANNINO-RACINE,
AND THE ADVISORS AND PEER MENTORS WHO STAFFED THE INTERVENTIONS IN THE
UASPIRE INTERVENTION SITES; LAURA KEANE AND THE ADVISORS AND PEER MEN-
TORS WHO STAFFED THE INTERVENTION IN THE MASTERY CHARTER SCHOOLS INTER-
VENTION SITES; KORYNN SCHOOLEY, CHRIS MATTHEWS, NIVEEN VOSLER, G. MARK
ELLIS, AND THE COUNSELORS WHO STAFFED THE INTERVENTION IN THE FULTON
COUNTY SCHOOLS; AND LINDSAY DAUGHERTY AND THE COUNSELORS WHO STAFFED
THE INTERVENTION IN THE FORT WORTH INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT. WE
THANK BRIDGET TERRY LONG, LAURA OWEN, AND ERIC BETTINGER FOR THEIR PART-
NERSHIP IMPLEMENTING A BROADER SET OF INTERVENTIONS OF WHICH THE TEXT
AND PEER MENTOR INTERVENTIONS WERE A PART. WE THANK CHRIS AVERY, LARRY
KATZ, TOM KANE, RICHARD MURNANE, AND MANY OTHER COLLEAGUES AT HARVARD
UNIVERSITY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA FOR THEIR INSIGHTS INTO THIS BODY
OF RESEARCH. SEVERAL ASPECTS OF THIS RESEARCH ALSO WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN
POSSIBLE WITHOUT EXCELLENT RESEARCH AND ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANCE FROM
CINDY FLOYD, ZACK MABEL, ADAM GANIK, ANNA HAGEN, JONATHON DAVIS, LUIS
MIRANDA, AND DANIEL GRAFSTEIN. WE ARE ALSO GRATEFUL TO MICHAEL LIN AND
THE REIFY HEALTH TEAM FOR DEVELOPING THE TEXT MESSAGING PLATFORM DIS-
CUSSED IN ONE OF THE INTERVENTIONS SUMMARIZED IN THIS GUIDE, AND TO THE
STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT, IN PARTICULAR SARAH GLOVER AND JON FULLERTON,
FOR SUPPORT THROUGHOUT THESE PROJECTS. FINALLY, WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR THE
GENEROUS FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF THE RESEARCH SUMMARIZED IN THIS GUIDE
FROM THE BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION, THE WILLIAM T. GRANT FOUNDA-
TION, THE SPENCER FOUNDATION, THE LINDBACK FOUNDATION, THE HECKSCHER
FOUNDATION FOR CHILDREN, AND NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STUDENT FINANCIAL
AID ADMINISTRATORS.
ALL OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS GUIDE AND ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS ARE OUR
OWN.
SDP
Summer Melt
Handbook:
A Guide to Investigating and
Responding to Summer Melt
Benjamin L. Castleman
Lindsay C. Page
Ashley L. Snowdon
4 STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT Summer Melt Handbook Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 5
Introduction
C, ,
has worked hard to become the rst member of his family to
apply to and get into college. Chris’ counselor and teachers have
supported him though the college application and decision process.
As Chris walks across the stage on graduation day, he and his
family are proud of his accomplishments but also uncertain
of what lies ahead.
A month into the summer, Chris begins receiving mail from the
university he plans to attend in the fall. First, he receives a letter
that gives him directions on how to sign onto the university’s
online portal and learn about required tasks for admitted students.
Without internet access at home, Chris puts aside the letter and
decides to sign in later when he can get to the library. But that
letter is just the beginning—soon he starts to receive a ood of
information: a bill for tuition and health insurance, a housing
application, nancial aid forms, an invitation to orientation, and
information about placement exams. ough Chris has a strong
support system around him, his parents, siblings, and friends do
not know how to help. His visits to the library become less
frequent as his part-time job requires more attention. Over time,
Chris becomes overwhelmed and uncertain about where to turn
for guidance. Instead of completing the paperwork, he begins to
ignore the mail. en suddenly it is September, and he nds
himself working full time at what was supposed to be a brief
summer gig. In spite of his work and aspirations, Chris does
not end up enrolling in college that fall.
Does Chris sound like a student in your district? Chris’ story is a
common occurrence across the country. Our work in several dis-
tricts and a review of national data indicate that a surprisingly high
percentage of college-intending students do not actually enroll in
the fall following graduation.
is handbook focuses on an often overlooked time period in
students’ transition to college: the summer after high school gradu-
ation. Recent research reveals that many college-intending students
—particularly those from low-income backgrounds—encounter
a range of obstacles during the post-high school summer that can
lead them to change or even abandon their college plans.
1
Introduction
Is Summer Melt
Occurring Among
My Students?
How Can My District
Address Summer Melt?
Summer Melt Interventions:
Five case studies from the field
Resources
5
43
25
55
11
6 INTRODUCTION Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 7
What is summer melt?
“Summer melt” is a term that has long been used by college
admissions ocers to refer to the tendency of some students who
paid a deposit at a particular college or university to instead attend
a dierent institution, usually presumed to be of comparable
quality. Here, we use “summer melt” to refer to a dierent, but
related phenomenon: when seemingly college-intending stu-
dents fail to enroll at all in the fall after high school graduation.
“College-intending” students are those who have completed key
college-going steps, such as applying and being accepted to college
and applying for nancial aid if their families qualify. In other
cases, they have concretely signaled their intention to enroll in
college on a high school senior exit survey. We consider a student
to have “melted” if, despite being college-intending, she or he fails
to attend college the following fall.
Why do students “melt”?
After students receive acceptance letters and make their spring-
time decisions to attend a particular college, a number of tasks still
must be completed for students to successfully matriculate. Many
of these tasks may be challenging for students who no longer have
access to high school counselors, who may not be familiar with
support resources available at their intended college, and whose
families may lack experience with the college-going process. Several
of these tasks relate to nancing higher education, such as making
sense of and paying one’s term bill and identifying and budgeting
for expenses like health insurance and course textbooks. Colleges
also expect students to access, digest, and respond to considerable
correspondence over the summer. Students are often required—but
do not always properly anticipate the need—to register for and
attend orientation, take placement tests, and complete housing
forms. More recently, access to this information is often provided
through institution-specic online portals (e.g., http://utdirect.
utexas.edu). ese online portals sometimes can be dicult to
navigate. In addition, they create an extra barrier for students who
have limited internet access, causing some to miss timely access to
essential information.
How prevalent is summer melt?
Based on data from three large school districts (Boston Public
Schools (MA), Fort Worth Independent School District (TX), and
Fulton County Schools (GA)) and a national longitudinal survey,
we estimate that rates of summer melt range from 10 to 40% of
college-intending students.
3
ese rates are higher among
students from low- and moderate-income families and among
those with lower academic achievement. Melt rates are also consid-
erably higher among students who intend to enroll at community
colleges compared to their peers intending to enroll at four-year
colleges and universities. As these student-level patterns suggest,
schools with greater proportions of students qualifying for free-
or reduced-price lunch tend to have higher rates of summer melt.
During this period, students are no longer members of their high
schools and have yet to become integrated into a college communi-
ty, leaving them isolated from professional guidance and support to
address summer-specic challenges. As a result, a surprisingly high
proportion of seemingly college-bound students fail to enroll in
college in the fall after high school graduation.
2
8 INTRODUCTION
Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 9
Why does this matter?
In the United States, having an education matters. For
students like Chris, the graduate we describe in the introduction,
the consequences of not attending college will be felt for much
longer than the next four years of his life. On average, bachelor’s
degree holders earn nearly twice as much as high school
graduates and more than double the
wages of workers without high school
degrees.
4
In addition, further education
has a host of other non-monetary bene-
ts.
5
Nevertheless, postsecondary degree
attainment in the United States has
stagnated over the past four decades.
6
With such important benets linked
to degree attainment, it is important to
nd out what can be done to address
the summer melt issue. is handbook focuses on discovering
if summer melt is a problem in your schools and oers possible
solutions to the critical question: How can you help more of
your college-intending high school graduates enroll in
college?
How can this guide help?
is guide will help you investigate and respond to summer melt
for your own students. To help frame the issue, we explore why
students who have already overcome so many obstacles on the
road to college still do not enroll. To this end, we:
oer guidance on how to measure the magnitude of
summer melt among your high school graduates,
provide resources and tools that can help you design a
summer intervention customized to the needs and realities
of your school communities, and
document the extent of the summer melt problem across several
large school districts and provide evidence of the positive
impact of additional outreach and support for students during
the post-high school summer.
Who should use this guide?
is guide is written for people who want to understand and
confront the summer melt problem. It is intended to provide
specic guidance for designing and implementing a summer
counseling initiative to mitigate summer melt in your district or
student community. It will be useful to people in a variety of roles,
including:
school district administrators,
school counseling sta and leaders,
high school leaders (i.e., headmasters, principals and vice-prin-
cipals), and
community-based organizations focused on providing resources
to high school students.
Please note that this guide, as written, takes a district-focused per-
spective. Nevertheless, we envision it as a useful tool for a variety
of audiences, including non-school district organizations working
to support students in the transition from high school to college.
Are you wondering if summer melt is happening among your
students? And, if so, what you can do to respond? is handbook
will guide you through the steps you can take to investigate and
mitigate summer melt. To get started, the next section leads you
through four dierent approaches to discover if summer melt is
occurring in your district.
“It’s freaky. I’m
the rst genera
-
tion in my family
to go to college
and I don’t know
what to do.”
Student, Boston
Public Schools
10 INTRODUCTION Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 11
Is Summer
Melt Occurring
Among My
Students?
12 IS SUMMER MELT OCCURRING AMONG MY STUDENTS? Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 13
How to get started
W
summer melt among your students collaboratively with
school counseling sta. Your counseling sta will likely be
the most knowledgeable about graduating seniors’ plans after
high school, including the ways in which students’ postsec-
ondary intentions are currently captured and stored. ey
will have the best understanding about the data that can
be used to explore summer melt and sensible processes for
gathering additional information that may be necessary to
study the issue. In addition, if you nd summer melt to be
prevalent among your college-intending graduates, coun-
seling sta will likely be integral to the design and imple-
mentation of your district’s response. To investigate whether
summer melt is a problem in your district, you should take
the following three steps:
How you go about gathering the needed information
depends on what data systems you already have in place and
the capacity within your district to collect and analyze
additional data. In the following pages, we oer several
dierent approaches to moving through Steps 1, 2, and 3.
Approach 1
Use senior exit surveys
We have found that the best practice for
documenting students’ college intentions is through
a senior exit survey. Many school districts administer
senior year exit surveys that ask about students’
postsecondary plans. Specic questions included in
the exit surveys vary across districts. In the sample
materials in this handbook, we provide examples of
exit surveys currently used in the Dallas Independent
School District (TX) (page 60) and the Fort Worth
Independent School District (TX) (pages 62–63).
If you intend to obtain a better understanding of
summer melt by developing a survey, or altering the
content of an existing survey, we oer several
recommendations on the following pages.
Step 1: Determine which of your graduating students
intend to go to college in the fall after high
school graduation.
Step 2: Determine how many of your students actually
enroll in college in the fall after high school
graduation.
Step 3: Determine the rate of summer melt among
your students using the information gathered
in Steps 1 and 2.
Step 1:
Determine which of your graduating
students intend to go to college in the fall
after high school graduation.
Conduct the survey in the last month of school, as
close to high school graduation as possible. Why does
this matter? This is the time by which students must
typically finalize their college choice and pay a deposit
in order to secure a spot for fall enrollment, so this is
when plans are most likely to be finalized.
Include information about the survey (or the survey
itself) in graduation materials provided to students
and parents. Why is this important? High schools will
often provide lists of to-do’s or requirements for grad-
uating students, including ordering a cap and gown,
completing a diploma form, and reserving graduation
tickets. Adding the completion of the exit survey to
this list will help you obtain a higher response rate.
Going a step further, make the exit survey a gradua-
tion requirement or offer an incentive to obtain high
completion rates. Why do this? Making the survey a
graduation requirement should boost response rates
and increase the representativeness of the results.
Ask students to report the specific institutions at
which they plan to enroll, not just where there have
been accepted. Why ask this? This will allow you to
investigate multiple dimensions of summer melt:
whether college-intending students enroll in any
institution the fall after high school graduation, and
whether they enroll at the institution they planned to
attend as of high school graduation.
If the timing of your survey makes it possible, explic-
itly ask whether students’ intended schools require
a spring financial deposit and if they have paid that
deposit (or obtained a deposit fee waiver depending on
family income eligibility). Why ask this? Not all institu-
tions require a deposit, but in the instances where one
is required, the decision to pay a deposit (or to obtain a
fee waiver) is a clear signal of a strong intent to enroll.
Exit Survey Best Practices
1
4
3
2
For students who report not paying a deposit, ask
whether they intend to enroll in college in the fall.
Why ask this? Depending on the timing of your survey
administration, students may still be undecided
regarding their intended college or university. On the
other hand, for students who intend to enroll in col-
lege in the fall, not paying a tuition deposit in a timely
manner may serve as an early indication of decreased
likelihood to actually enroll, especially if students do
not realize the need to pay a tuition deposit. You could
target these students for early summer outreach and
support.
If possible, administer the survey electronically so that
the results are captured immediately in a spread-
sheet. Why do this? This will save you the time and
money associated with data entry and will allow you
to synthesize and respond to the information reported
more quickly. Electronic administration also facilitates
real-time tracking of student survey response.
Ask students to provide updated contact information,
including their cell phone numbers and email
addresses. Why ask this? If you plan to provide
proactive outreach to students over the summer,
it will be beneficial to obtain the most up-to-date
contact information possible. Previous efforts to
reach out to students tell us that text and Facebook
messaging are among the most successful strategies
for communicating with students.
7
Of course, which
outreach strategies you use will also depend
on your organization’s policies on communicating
with students.
5
7
6
14 IS SUMMER MELT OCCURRING AMONG MY STUDENTS? Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 15
16 IS SUMMER MELT OCCURRING AMONG MY STUDENTS?
Approach 2
Use transcript request records
Approach 3
Survey school counselors
Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 17
Step 1:
Determine which of your graduating
students intend to go to college in the fall
after high school graduation.
Step 1:
Determine which of your graduating
students intend to go to college in the fall
after high school graduation.
If counselors do not keep these transcript request
records and it is not possible to administer a student
exit survey, consider administering an exit survey to
the school counselors about graduating seniors. Ask
counselors to indicate, to the best of their knowledge
for each student, whether the student:
Before implementing this strategy, talk with school
counselors about the quality of the information they
can provide and the best process for collecting it.
If your district doesn’t record this information at the
student-level, another option is to collect college-inten-
tion reports from counselors at the school level. Often,
counselors have to report the number of seniors from
his or her high school that plan to attend college in the
fall.
1. has been accepted to college,
2. is planning to enroll in college (and if so, where), and
3. has paid a deposit to attend a particular institution.
Some districts may neither administer an exit survey
nor have the capacity to do so in the near future.
Nevertheless, school counselors are typically respon-
sible for submitting nal transcripts to each student’s
intended college or university. When doing so,
counselors could—or likely already do—record their
students’ intended college plans, even if this informa-
tion does not make its way into a centralized data sys-
tem. erefore, collaborating with school counselors
to collect and centrally record students’ postsecondary
education plans would be an eective alternative
strategy to capturing the information
you need.
18 IS SUMMER MELT OCCURRING AMONG MY STUDENTS? Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 19
Step 2:
Determine how many of your students
actually enroll in college in the fall after
high school graduation.
Step 1:
Determine which of your graduating
students intend to go to college in the fall
after high school graduation.
A nal strategy is to collaborate with area colleges and
universities to estimate the extent of summer melt in
your district. In our experience, there is a relatively
small number of local higher education institutions at
which the vast majority of a district’s students intend
to enroll. While colleges and universities might not be
able to provide information about whether individual
students paid a deposit (or obtained a deposit waiver)
to attend in the fall, they might be able to provide ag-
gregate reports on the total number of students from
your district who paid a deposit to attend in a given
year. ese aggregate numbers of paid deposits (or
deposit waiver requests) can be used as an approxima-
tion of how many of your graduating students intend
to go to college in the fall. Note that this approach
does not capture the students who fail to pay a depos-
it in a timely way.
Approach 4
Collaborate with colleges directly
e rst two approaches to Step 2 involve capitalizing
on data available through the National Student Clear-
inghouse (NSC). e NSC is a national nonprot
that provides enrollment and degree verication data
for more than 3,500 colleges and universities in the
United States (representing more than 96% of students
enrolled in college nationwide). For the most robust
analysis of summer melt, we recommend using stu-
dent-level data as laid out in Approach 1. However, if
it is not possible for you to obtain individual postsec-
ondary records from the NSC, we provide several other
alternatives in Approaches 2 and 3.
Before pursuing any approach that utilizes data from
the NSC, however, it is important to conrm that the
colleges that historically enroll the largest numbers
of your students are part of the NSC. You can go to
http://www.studentclearinghouse.org for more infor-
mation.
20 IS SUMMER MELT OCCURRING AMONG MY STUDENTS? Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 21
Step 2:
Determine how many of your students
actually enroll in college in the fall after
high school graduation.
Step 2:
Determine how many of your students
actually enroll in college in the fall after
high school graduation.
Approach 1
Use individual postsecondary
enrollment records from the NSC
To make use of NSC postsecondary enrollment data,
your agency will rst need to establish a contract with
the NSC. You will then be able to provide the NSC
with student-level information about your recent
graduates to which they will match postsecondary
enrollment records. ese records will provide infor-
mation such as the institution each enrolled student is
attending as well as whether each student is enrolled
full- or part-time. By collecting these postsecondary en-
rollment records, you will be able to determine which
of your students actually enroll in college the fall after
high school graduation.
8
Approach 2
Use school-level postsecondary
enrollment records from the NSC
If you are not able to work with NSC student-level
data, nd out if your district receives NSC Student-
Tracker reports for individual high schools. ese
reports provide the number of students (by high
school) that enroll in college the fall after graduation.
By comparing these school-level enrollment
numbers to expected enrollment numbers at the
school level, you can estimate rates of summer melt
by high school. While student-level data will allow
for greater accuracy, this comparison will provide an
indication of which schools may benet from further
examination and/or intervention.
Step 2:
Determine how many of your students
actually enroll in college in the fall after
high school graduation.
Approach 3
Work with local institutions or
higher education agencies
Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 2322 IS SUMMER MELT OCCURRING AMONG MY STUDENTS?
If NSC data is not available, you can reach out to
local colleges and universities that historically enroll
large percentages of your students. You can also
check to see if your state has a higher education
agency that tracks the number of students who
enroll in state institutions from each district in the
state. While these sources do not allow you to cal-
culate melt for all of your students, you can still use
this data to nd out if part of your student popula-
tion is melting. By collecting these enrollment num-
bers, you can estimate the college-specic summer
melt that is occurring among your students.
After collecting data on the number of students who
intend to enroll in college versus those who actually
do enroll, you will be well equipped to identify the
degree to which summer melt is occurring in your
district.
To do this, you will need:
• the number of college-intending students
(gathered in Step 1), and
• the number of students enrolled in college
(gathered in Step 2).
ere are two dierent approaches for Step 3 depend-
ing on the level of data you obtained in Steps 1 and
2. Approach 1 requires student-level data and
Approach 2 uses school-level information.
Step 3:
Measure the summer melt rate using the
information gathered in Steps 1 and 2.
Approach 1
Use student-level information
Approach 2
Use school-level information
If you are using student-level data to investigate
summer melt in your agency, in addition to
calculating an overall rate, we recommend estimating
rates separately by high school and within salient
subgroups of students, such as those dened by so-
cioeconomic status (proxied by free or reduced-price
lunch), level of prior academic achievement, or
characteristics of intended postsecondary institution
(such as whether students intend on a two-year or
four-year school). ese analyses will help you to
understand whether certain groups of your students
are particularly susceptible to summer melt and will
inform the ways in which you target programs and
policies in response.
24 IS SUMMER MELT OCCURRING AMONG MY STUDENTS? Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 25
Step 3:
Measure the summer melt rate using the
information gathered in Steps 1 and 2.
If you have student-level information, you can
calculate an estimated rate of summer melt:
Step 3:
Measure the summer melt rate using the
information gathered in Steps 1 and 2.
College Intending vs. Actual College Enrollment by School, Fall 2011
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Abbotts
Bostford
Chambers
Davis
Ford
Jackson
Rutherford
Tubman
Wilson
Number of Students
Enrolled (as reported by NSC, December 2011)
Intend to Enroll (self-reported, May 2011)
If you only have access to school-level data, focus
your analyses on school-level estimates of summer
melt. You can create a graph, such as the one
below, to compare expected and actual college
enrollment for each of your high schools. While
student-level data will give you more accurate
estimates, such school-level analyses can still high-
light where interventions might be most needed and
most benecial. For example, looking at this graph,
you can see that approximately 90 students from
Wilson High School intend to enroll, but less than
half actually do.
22 ~ STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT Summer Melt Handbook Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 27
How Can
My District
Address
Summer Melt?
B preceding
pages demonstrate very simple approaches to
identifying summer melt in your organization.
A key question for any analyst hoping to identify
summer melt in your agency is: Are you able to match
students’ post-secondary data with exit survey data
collected by your district? You may want to collab-
orate with someone who has experience assembling
data les at the student level and conducting the
relevant descriptive analyses. Once you have the
individual student information, you can combine it
into a single dataset to examine the extent to which
your high school graduates are following through on
their specic college plans.
26 IS SUMMER MELT OCCURRING AMONG MY STUDENTS?
How can my
district address
summer melt?
You can take a variety of
approaches to increase the share of
your of college-intending seniors
who successfully enroll in college.
To determine the right approach
for your agency, consider:
the availability of resources;
the quality of information you have;
and
the strength of your connections
with area colleges, universities, and
college access organizations.
Here, we provide a visual overview
of various intervention approaches
you can implement based on these
considerations. ese approaches
can be implemented alone or in
combination, and you may be able
to identify alternate approaches
that capitalize on the resources and
strengths within your district. is
model can serve as a useful starting
point for assessing the approach
or combination of approaches
that suits your context and best
leverages your data availability and
network of relationships.
Detailed descriptions of these
intervention options can be found
on the following pages.
Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 29
28 HOW CAN MY DISTRICT ADDRESS SUMMER MELT?
Your district has either:
(1) resources to hire school
counselors during the summer
OR
(2) strong partnerships with area
colleges and/or college access
organizations.
Action: Hire counse-
lors to reach out to
students proactively
during the summer
months (see interven-
tion description on
page 33).
Action: Prior to high school
graduation, distribute a general
summary of key summer tasks
for college-going students to
complete
(see example on page 66).
You have the resources to
implement a digital mesaging
campaign based on student
postsecondary plan
information
Action: Use a digital
messaging campaign
to send students key
reminders of important
summer tasks customized
to their intended institu-
tions (see intervention
description on page 37).
Your district has accurate post-
secondary plan information for
most graduating seniors.
yes
to 1
no
no
Action: Collaborate
with colleges or
college access
organizations to sup-
port students over
the summer.
(see intervention
descriptions on
pages 34–36).
yes
to 2
Action: Create work-
sheets that summarize
key summer tasks
personalized for
students’ intended
institutions (see
examples on pages
64–65).
yes
no
yes
Intervention Descriptions
e intervention approaches discussed here fall into
three primary categories:
1. proactive personal outreach to college-intending
seniors,
2. digital outreach to college-intending seniors, or
3. a combination of personal and digital outreach.
In the following section, we describe the rst two
approaches. e third approach is another option if
you prefer to combine dierent aspects of personal
and digital outreach.
Most of the interventions described here are based
on initiatives we implemented in several school
districts throughout the United States. Section 4 of
this guide includes mini-case studies that describe
the interventions and successes of these approaches
in the eld.
!
A Reminder
e tasks that college-intending students must
complete during the summer aer graduation
are numerous. Even seemingly simple tasks can
become signicant barriers to timely college
enrollment. Common summer tasks include
attending orientation; completing nancial aid
and other paperwork; paying for tuition, room
and board, and student fees (including health
insurance); taking placement exams; and select-
ing classes. Providing students with modest levels
of assistance with these tasks has the potential to
signicantly improve timely college enrollment
among your graduates.
Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 31
30 HOW CAN MY DISTRICT ADDRESS SUMMER MELT?
Proactive Personal Outreach Conducted by
High School Counselors
A good match for you if: You have the resources to hire
counselors over the summer; the counselors are able
to allocate 2–3 hours per student over the course of the
summer; you have good student information so that
counselors can personalize their outreach; and you have
strong data collection processes in place to learn from
and act upon what counselors learn. (See pages 38–39 for
critical success factors.)
Description: Through phone calls, text messages, and
face-to-face meetings, counselors offer additional
college-related support and guidance during the summer
months. Counselors help students review their finan-
cial aid packages, understand and complete required
paperwork, and negotiate social/emotional barriers to
enrollment. In some school communities, one could
imagine other staff being well-positioned to do this work,
including teachers, librarians, custodians, receptionists,
or coaches.
Resources: The case studies on pages 52–53 and 56–57
detail two counselor-based interventions in Fulton County
Schools and Fort Worth ISD, respectively.
Cost: Approximately $50 to $200 per student, depending
on the site.
9
Intervention Approach 1
Proactive Personal Outreach
Several different groups of people might be able and
available to provide personal outreach to college-intending
seniors over the summer. These
include high school counselors;
admissions or other staff at
local colleges and universities;
and local college access organ-
izations. Further, after outreach
efforts are well established,
other groups—such as staff of
faith communities, after-school
programs and tutoring organ-
izations—may also be able to
become involved.
In the following pages, we briefly
describe the proactive personal
outreach in which these groups
could engage, noting resources
that might assist you.
“What I found was
that there were
particular students
who were lost in
the sauce, if you
will…and so, we
were able to assist
those students and
those students re
-
quired a great deal
of help”
PACE Counselor,
Fulton County Schools
How can my
district address
summer melt?
Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 3332 HOW CAN MY DISTRICT ADDRESS SUMMER MELT?
Proactive Personal Outreach Conducted by
Local Colleges/Universities
A good match for you if: You have strong partnerships
with area colleges and universities, and many of your
college-intending students intend to enroll in these
colleges and universities.
Description: Higher education staff (such as admissions
officers) call, text, and/or meet with college-intending
students. Students may be more inclined to engage with
college staff because the outreach is coming from the
institution where the student has indicated a desire to
enroll. Personalized summer contact is likely to make
students feel valued by the institution, which could
increase their commitment to matriculating. Addition-
ally, colleges have access to information about the tasks
students have and have not completed over the
summer months. As a result, colleges are better
positioned than high schools or community-based
organizations to target their outreach to students who
have missed key summer benchmarks. Depending on the
staffing structure at individual colleges and universities,
admissions officers or first-year transition team members
could lead outreach to students. Alternatively, higher
education institutions could rely on currently enrolled
students to provide outreach to students during the
summer. Colleges and universities could match
prospective students with enrolled students who are
alumni from the given high school. Currently enrolled
students could communicate with prospective students
throughout the summer, providing institution-specific
advice and encouragement. They could refer students
to college staff members when the prospective students
need professional guidance or help completing specific
tasks. The relationships that the prospective students
form with the currently enrolled students at their intend-
ed institution could continue into freshman year,
providing the prospective students with valuable on-
campus student mentoring and support.
Resources: The case study on pages 50–51 of this guide
provides a synopsis of a peer mentor intervention
conducted in multiple sites.
Cost: Approximately $80 per student, depending on the
site.
Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 3534 HOW CAN MY DISTRICT ADDRESS SUMMER MELT?
Proactive Personal Outreach Conducted by
Local College Access
Organizations
A good match for you if: You have active and well-organ-
ized college access organizations in your area, and you
have staff available to manage partnerships with these
organizations.
Description: You may be able to provide (or supplement)
proactive personal outreach to college-intending students
by partnering with college access organizations in your
area. The mission of these organizations is to increase
college access and enrollment, and they may have staff
capacity during the summer to conduct and/or support
personal outreach. For example, uAspire, a national
college access organization based in Boston, MA, led
outreach to college-intending high school seniors in
Boston. The program significantly increased rates of
on-time college matriculation for participating students.
10
Resources: The case study on pages 48–49 of this guide
provides a synopsis of uAspire’s summer outreach to
college-intending graduates from Boston Public Schools.
Cost: Approximately $150 to $250 per student.
Intervention Approach 2
Digital Outreach
A good match for you if: You can conduct a high school
exit survey to gather accurate contact and postsecondary
plan information for graduating seniors.
Description: Reach out to students with a digital mes-
saging campaign in which you send text messages to
students with reminders of key summer tasks they need
to complete. The text messages can be customized to
students’ intended institution, and timed for delivery just
before each key task needs to be completed. For instance,
if students are expected to attend a required orientation
on June 1, you could send them a text message on May 24
and May 31 reminding them about the time and location
of the orientation.
How can my
district address
summer melt?
continued on next page
36 HOW CAN MY DISTRICT ADDRESS SUMMER MELT? Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 37
Intervention Approach 2
Digital Outreach
In order to implement a digital messaging campaign,
first find out if your district’s student portal has text
capabilities. If not, you should consider contracting with
a message delivery service that allows for text message
customization and automation. Once this contract is
established and the initial messaging system is in place,
the cost of contacting an additional student or sending
an additional message to all students is minimal. Digital
messaging can be a good intervention for organizations
that do not have the resources to support individualized,
personal outreach. It also can be a strong complement to
personal outreach interventions.
Resources: The case study on pages 54–55 provides a
synopsis of a texting intervention that took place in Dallas
Independent School District.
Cost: $7 (or less) per student for digital messaging
campaign, inclusive of counselor follow-up with students
and families.
How can my
district address
summer melt?
continued from previous page
38 HOW CAN MY DISTRICT ADDRESS SUMMER MELT? Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 39
Before the intervention: critical success
factors
Before getting started on these interventions, there are key steps
you can take to increase the chance of success. While not intended
to be comprehensive, we recommend the following components
as those that will help to maximize your program’s potential for
success. First we list factors applicable to any intervention and on
the following page, we detail factors only applicable to
interventions involving personal outreach.
Some critical success factors for any intervention:
• Conduct a senior exit survey. As discussed in pages 13
–15,
conducting a senior exit survey to collect up-to-date summer
contact information from students (including cell phone num-
bers, email addresses, and Facebook user names), as well as where
students are intending to enroll in college, will greatly enhance
the success of any intervention. e more you know about
students, the more likely your outreach to them (personal or
digital) will be timely and relevant. is information is
important both to ensure successful communication with
students and to provide them with information about key
summer tasks specic to their intended institution (see pages
60
–63 for sample high school exit surveys).
• Assemble short summary documents, specic to area
colleges and universities, that list key summer tasks that
students must complete. Counselors have reported that such
summary documents are highly useful in helping students
identify summer tasks they need to complete in order to s
uccessfully matriculate (see pages 64–65 for sample brieng
documents). You can also make these documents available on
school and district websites and provide them in hardcopy to
students and families prior to graduation.
40 HOW CAN MY DISTRICT ADDRESS SUMMER MELT? Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 41
Before the intervention: create a data
collection plan
Implementing any of these interventions will lead to collecting
new and dierent information from students, families, and
anyone who is conducting the personal outreach to college-in-
tending students. To benet from this, at the beginning of the
project carefully consider collection processes that will render
your data both useful and reliable. ink through what data
you are collecting; who is collecting it and when; and how it
can be gathered, assembled, and managed to support analysis
that will help you understand what is working and how to
target future outreach. If data collection and management are
new to you, consider engaging experienced partners who can
provide some guidance. For assistance in identifying partners,
you should consider contacting researchers or analysts at local
higher education institutions, nonprots, or even your local
chamber of commerce.
Key questions to consider before embarking on any
intervention include:
1. Who will own and be accountable for the collection of
data?
2. Where will the data live?
3. How will we keep the data consistent and clean?
(e examples on pages 68–75 can help maintain consis-
tent recording practices and information ow.)
With answers to these questions and a well-articulated data
collection plan, you are ready to launch and assess the impact
of your intervention.
Some critical success factors for Proactive Personal Outreach
interventions:
• Provide adequate training for people conducting the
outreach. Take time to develop materials and provide training
to anyone who will be providing outreach to college-intending
students. Key things to address are: the goals of the intervention,
the responsibilities of those contacting students, information
about nancial aid, the data that needs to be gathered, and
the ways in which information is provided to the intervention
coordinators. One district with which we partnered conducted
a four-hour training for their school counselors. Upon
reection, the district felt as though additional training would
have been benecial, particularly focusing more time on the
FAFSA and general nancial aid issues and processes.
• Have counselors (or others who are performing personal
outreach) conduct a comprehensive assessment of students’
readiness for college enrollment at the start of summer.
Develop a checklist of key topics for counselors to discuss
with students (see pages 68–69 for a sample initial outreach
checklist). e person contacting the student can then schedule
follow-up meetings and conversations with students as needed,
based on the issues that arise during the assessment meeting (see
pages 70–71 for a sample follow-up assessment meeting check-
list). While this meeting ideally takes place in person, it can also
occur over the phone, on Facebook, or through text messages
(see page 72 for a sample student intake form that can help you
to organize information from these meetings).
• Decide what data counselors should record during the
intervention. ere is a trade-o in data gathering. Be careful
to nd a balance between the data that is needed in order to
manage, monitor, and rigorously evaluate your intervention
and the data collection requirements imposed on your project
sta. Extensive data collection requirements can take away from
time that counselors could otherwise spend helping students
(see pp. 74–75 for a sample interaction log that can be used as a
template).
1. Begin with your current seniors. Make sure that
your data system allows you to track individual
students through graduation and into the fall
semester of college. Identifying each student with
a unique ID number will facilitate this tracking.
2. Gather data on students’ postsecondary inten-
tions, either through counselor records or a senior
exit survey. If you develop an exit survey, be sure to
consider how you will connect the exit survey data to
high school graduation and college enrollment data.
To do this, one possibility is to pre-label the surveys
with the student ID number. Or, if the survey is on-
line, consider providing students with a unique log-in,
which can also allow for an easier connection.
3. Implement the intervention that best suits your
organization. Use the templates and samples
provided in this handbook to help you create
informative documents for your students. When you
design your intervention, keep in mind that one of the
best strategies for understanding the impact of an
intervention is to assign students to the initiative via
lottery. A lottery can be particularly useful when your
organization doesn’t necessarily have the capacity to
serve all students. In addition, it provides the most
equitable way to allocate the additional support,
especially when you do not have good information
on who might stand to benefit the most.
1
3
2
(
3 continued
)
By comparing outcomes for students who did
and did not experience the initiative (based on
the lottery assignment), you are able to assess
accurately the impact of your intervention on
outcomes of interest, such as timely college
enrollment.
11
4. When NSC data is available the following fall,
collect the data, obtain postsecondary enroll-
ment information for your recent high school
graduates, and find out which students actually
enrolled following the intervention.
5. Compare the postsecondary enrollment rate
among students targeted by your intervention to
that among an appropriate comparison group of
students not targeted by your intervention. If you
have assigned outreach by lottery, then this is a
straightforward comparison between those who
were and were not assigned to outreach. If you are
comparing groups of students across years, then
you will need to utilize more sophisticated analyses
to account for other differences between the groups
being compared.
If your organization has a research department,
bring them in at the beginning. They can assist in
planning the intervention in a way that also allows
for the evaluation of the intervention’s impact on
college going among your district’s graduates. If you
do not have a research department, consider invit-
ing researchers from a local institution of higher
education to support you in the program design and
evaluation effort.
4
5
After the intervention: determine impact
The final stage of the process is evaluating your intervention.
Detailed program evaluation instructions are outside the scope
of this guide, but below are some steps to consider as you think
through how to get started:
42 HOW CAN MY DISTRICT ADDRESS SUMMER MELT? Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 43
Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 4544 HOW CAN MY DISTRICT ADDRESS SUMMER MELT?
Summary of Intervention Options
Cate-
gory
Outreach
Approach
Cost per
student*
Pros Cons
Personal
High school
counselors
$50–200
• Intensive
• High impact
• Personalized
• More resource
intensive than
other intervention
options
Peer mentors $80
• Capitalizes
on students’
comfort with
their peers
• Requires
strong staff
management
Local college
access
organizations
$150–200
• Utilizes exist-
ing experts
• High impact
• More resource
intensive than
other intervention
options
Digital
Text
messaging
campaign
$2
• Broad reach
• Customizable
• Automates
outreach
• Dependent
on accurate
exit survey
and student
contact infor-
mation
• May need to
contract with
an outside
message de-
livery service
Text messaging
campaign with
follow-up coun-
selor support
$2–7
• Same as text
messaging,
with the addi-
tional pro that
personal help
is available to
students who
need it
*Cost varies by site; calculation is based on number of students assigned
Timeline for Implementing an Intervention
W
based on your district’s calendar and available resources, below is a general
outline to help you with your planning.
In the next section, we describe the implementation and impact of summer
counseling interventions in ve dierent sites. For more details about the
analyses behind these evaluations, you can visit www.gse.harvard.edu/sdp/
summermelt and read the full research papers associated with each site.
Spring: Survey students
on college plans
Conduct survey as close
to graduation as possi-
ble to obtain the most
comprehensive informa-
tion on students’ college
plans.
Spring: Recruit staff
(for counselor or peer
mentor led interventions)
- and/or -
recruit text messaging
vendor
(for digital interventions)
December
Start of
high school
spring
semester
Summer: Begin
outreach
Start one to two weeks
after graduation.
Summer/Fall: End
outreach
Extend outreach as late
as possible into August or
September. Exact timing
will vary regionally, but
support would ideally
be available to students
through college matric-
ulation. Many students
seek support at the last
minute.
December: Access NSC
data
NSC fall enrollment data
on the spring’s graduat-
ing class usually be-
comes available in early
December.
High school
graduation
Start of
college fall
semester
Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 4746 HOW CAN MY DISTRICT ADDRESS SUMMER MELT?
Summer
Melt
Interventions:
Five case studies from
the eld
uAspire (Boston, MA)
D , A (
ACCESS), a national, nonprot college access organization
based in Boston, implemented an intervention to reduce
summer attrition among college-intending graduates from
public high schools in the city. As an organization, uAspire
primarily focuses on ensuring that students have the
nancial information and resources necessary to nd an
aordable path to and through college.
12
uAspire targeted its summer outreach to
students who had applied for a supplemental
scholarship that the organization awards to
Boston-area high school graduates. Scholar-
ship applicants had been accepted to college,
received nancial aid, decided which college
to attend in the fall and, in most cases, had
met with a uAspire advisor during the school
year.
At the end of June (approximately two weeks after high
school graduation), uAspire began reaching out to students
and continued reaching out to them through the middle of
August. In the initial phase of the intervention, uAspire advi-
sors contacted students with the goal of setting up in-person
meetings to assess students’ readiness for college enrollment.
Advisors used a range of contact methods in this outreach:
email, phone, text message, and Facebook. Advisors report-
ed the greatest success using text and Facebook messaging.
Roughly half of students to whom advisors reached out had
at least one meeting over the course of the summer. Almost
all meetings took place at uAspire’s Center for College
Aordability, located in Boston’s city center.
Summer Melt
Interventions:
uAspire
Advisors reported spending the majority of their time with
students addressing nancial aid issues and helping students
access and complete required paperwork. ey helped a
number of students waive the cost of their intended college’s
health insurance plan in favor of staying on their parents’ in-
surance. Waiving the college’s insurance
typically saved students at least $1,000
on their tuition bill.
13
Advisors also
helped clarify a range of misconceptions
students faced about the cost of college.
For instance, a number of students
interpreted their tuition bills as the cost
of the entire year, rather than the cost
for one semester.
In addition to nancial issues,
advisors reported that many students
were unfamiliar with the web portals
through which colleges now disseminate
much of the paperwork students are
required to complete over the summer.
Advisors helped students access these
portals and answered questions about
required paperwork (for instance,
housing forms).
Cost: During the summer, advisors
spent an average of 2–3 hours per student, and the total
intervention cost approximately $200 per student served.
Results: Students who were oered additional summer
counseling support were 5 percentage points more likely to
enroll immediately in college compared to students who did
not receive outreach and were nearly 9 percentage points
more likely to be enrolled continuously through the fall of
sophomore year.
48 CASE STUDIES: UASPIRE Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 49
“Financial aid is
the biggest issue,
obviously, because
it comes from other
issues. They’ll all
connect, but at the
end of the day, you
can’t even begin
to address those
things unless you
address those emo
-
tional issues that
are going on that
are not so much
money or the bill
or the lling out
the form.”
uAspire Advisor,
Boston, MA
uAspire & The Mastery Charter Schools
D , A B, L,
and Springeld, MA and the Mastery Charter Schools in
Philadelphia, PA hired peer mentors to reach out to
college-intending high school graduates and help them
address barriers to successful fall matriculation. e peer
mentor intervention built largely on uAspire’s summer
2011 college counseling intervention (see p. 44–45 for a
description of this intervention). uAspire
and Mastery selected peer mentors based on
several primary criteria: students had to have
worked with uAspire during high school or
have graduated from a Mastery high school;
be enrolled in college and in good academic
standing; and have received nancial aid and
have an understanding of the nancial aid
process. e organizations also screened for
other qualities that indicated candidates’ potential as a peer
coach. Peer mentors were employed from mid-June, 2012
–mid-August, 2012, and worked approximately 20 hours
per week. Most peer mentors were juniors or seniors at four-
year colleges and universities, and there was a roughly equal
balance between male and female mentors. uAspire and
Mastery provided several days of
training for the peer mentors, as well as ongoing support
for peer mentors throughout the summer.
roughout the summer, peer mentors proactively reached
out to students to oer them help addressing potential
barriers to college enrollment. In their initial outreach to
students, peer mentors’ primary goals were (1) to make
contact with students and (2) to assess their readiness for fall
college matriculation. Following this initial assessment, peer
Summer Melt
Interventions:
uAspire &
Mastery Charter
Schools
mentors scheduled in-person meetings or follow-up phone
conversations to help students address issues that arose
during the initial conversations. Peer mentors assisted
students with tasks such as interpreting their nancial aid
award letters, exploring tuition payment plans, navigat-
ing online college portals, registering for orientation, and
organizing transportation for the beginning of the academic
year. Peer mentors did not, however, work on any tasks that
required students to provide nancial information about
themselves or their families, such as completing the FAFSA
or applying for supplementary loans. For these tasks, and
any other areas in which the peer mentor felt they needed
additional guidance to support the student, peer mentors
referred students to meet with a supervising counselor.
Cost: Each of the 20 participating peer mentors earned
approximately $2000 and collectively served 934 students
across the two sites. Counselors typically supervised one to
three peer mentors and devoted 15–25 hours per week to
managing peer mentors and following up with students and
families as needed. Inclusive of peer mentor and counselor
time, the peer mentor intervention cost approximately $80/
student to implement.
Results: Across locations, between 40 and 60 percent of all
students targeted for outreach interacted with a peer men-
tor or counselor at least once during the summer. e peer
mentor outreach increased timely college matriculation in
four-year institutions by 4.5 percentage points. Across the
uAspire sites, where peer mentors were matched to students
based on gender, peer mentor outreach increased enrollment
among male students by 7 percentage points.
50 CASE STUDIES: UASPIRE & MASTERY CHARTER SCHOOLS Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 51
Fulton County Schools
I and
improve college enrollment rates, Fulton County Schools
(FCS) implemented a counseling intervention for college-in-
tending graduates in six of the district’s high schools during
the summer of 2011. e program, known as Summer
PACE (Personalized Assistance for College Enrollment),
targeted students who reported that they intended to go to
college in fall of 2011 and had applied and
been accepted to at least one college.
14
FCS hired current high school counselors to
serve as PACE counselors; most were hired
to work in their own high schools so students
would be familiar with them. In early June
2011, the district provided PACE counselors
with training on some of the services and
supports they would be expected to provide to students,
such as helping students to understand HOPE scholarship
15
eligibility and to complete the Free Application for Federal
Student Aid (FAFSA). e counselors began outreach to
their assigned caseload of students shortly after the June
training and continued through the third week of July.
PACE counselors contacted students via phone, email, text,
Twitter, and Facebook to gain an understanding of stu-
dents’ needs with respect to college enrollment and to oer
assistance. About 43 percent of students identied for PACE
assistance responded to PACE counselors’ outreach.
e most popular type of help provided to students was
assistance with nancial aid. Almost 1 out of 3 students who
received support from a PACE counselor received services
Summer Melt
Interventions:
Fulton County
Schools
that fell into this category, seeking advice around completing
the FAFSA, assistance with locating loans or scholarships,
and understanding tuition and other expenses, to name a
few. PACE counselors also provided en-
couragement and reassurance, connected
students to college sta, and worked with
the students’ families to nalize plans.
Summer PACE was a relatively low-cost,
simple intervention that generated posi-
tive results. Aside from an initial training
focused on the nuances of nancial aid,
the program did not require intensive
preparation or outside expertise, and
employed existing sta who were
interested in acquiring additional
work hours over the summer.
Cost: e cost of the intervention was
about $115 per student targeted.
Results: e program increased on-time
college enrollment of low-income
students by 8 percentage points. In
addition to the strong impact results,
Summer PACE oered an important
opportunity for high school counselors
to provide focused supports to students. PACE counselors
provided overwhelmingly positive feedback about their
Summer PACE experience.
“Increasing our
students’ success
-
ful transition to
college through
the PACE pro
-
gram was a re-
markable, but
humbling experi
-
ence. I was elated
when I was told
about the statis
-
tical gains made
[in increasing
on-time college
enrollment]—it
showed that this
program unequiv
-
ocally makes a
dierence.”
PACE Counselor,
Fulton County Schools
52 CASE STUDIES: FULTON COUNTY SCHOOLS Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 53
Dallas ISD
D , D I S
District implemented a personalized and automated text
messaging campaign to inform college-intending students
and their parents about important tasks to complete in order
to successfully matriculate in college. e district targeted
students who had started or completed the free application
for federal student aid (FAFSA) prior to high school
graduation. e messages were customized
to the institution that each student planned
to attend as of high school graduation and
covered topics such as registering for
freshman orientation and placement tests.
e messages also oered students help
resolving any errors on their FAFSA and
interpreting and acting on nancial aid
award letters and tuition bills. Most of the
messages included web links that allowed students to
complete next steps directly from their phones. For instance,
a student planning to enroll at the Texas Woman’s University
(TWU) received a message reminding her to register for the
required summer orientation; the message included a web
link to the TWU orientation registration web site. Finally,
each message oered to connect recipients to a school coun-
selor for additional individualized assistance when needed.
Dallas ISD relied on two sources of information to implement
the text messaging campaign. First, the district administered
a high school exit survey to collect the information required
for message delivery: students’ and parents’ names, cell
phone numbers, and intended postsecondary institution.
Dallas ISD then identied the 10–15 colleges and
Summer Melt
Interventions:
Dallas
ISD
universities most frequently attended by district graduates,
and worked with a research team to assemble institution-
specic tasks, due dates, and web links. Reify Health, a
company aimed at improving health and education
outcomes through the application of mobile technologies,
automated the delivery of personalized messages to students
and their parents.
Cost: Inclusive of the cost of having counselors provide
follow up assistance when requested, the text intervention
cost approximately $7 per student.
Results: e text message campaign in Dallas had particu-
larly pronounced impacts on students who qualied for
free or reduced-price lunch (FRPL) and on students in the
middle of the distribution of academic achievement. FRPL
students in the treatment group were over 4 percentage
points more likely to enroll in college than their counterparts
in the control group, while the text intervention increased
overall enrollment by over 5 percentage points for students
in the 2nd and 3rd quartile of the distribution of senior year
GPA. For the overall sample of college-intending students in
Dallas, the text campaign increased enrollment at two-year
colleges by over 5 percentage points.
54 CASE STUDIES: DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 55
Fort Worth ISD
I , F W I
School District (FWISD) implemented a summer coun-
seling intervention to address summer melt among the
district’s 2011 graduates. e goal of the intervention was
to provide college-intending students with informational,
technical, and emotional support that would smooth the
transition from high school to college.
e district used senior exit survey data
to identify students who reported plans to
attend college and had been accepted to
at least one college. Case les were created
for each college-intending student. ese
les contained current contact information,
information on plans and preparation for
college, and student-anticipated needs for
assistance over the summer. Counselors, teachers, and sta
participated in the intervention and were responsible for
providing students with proactive outreach and counseling
from late June through early August. Implementation was
largely sta-driven, with principals choosing the sta and
sta members managing the methods and timeline for their
eorts. Advisors provided assistance in person, over the
phone, through email, and on Facebook pages. Schools that
collected contact information immediately before graduation
had the greatest success reaching students.
e most common area of assistance was nancial aid.
Advisors helped students to complete the FAFSA and state
nancial aid forms, worked with students to conrm
residency, searched for scholarship opportunities, and
counseled students to consider other colleges when plans
were not nancially viable. Other common areas of assis-
tance were processing transcripts, providing guidance on
Summer Melt
Interventions:
Fort Worth
ISD
placement testing, and addressing students’ anxiety about
college.
As part of the outreach, counselors utilized checklists
that provided students with key steps to college enrollment
and important dates and contacts for each of these tasks.
Many advisors reported that these checklists, along with the
student case les, were critical to allowing them to utilize the
full time allotted for assisting students. In general, advisors
were extremely excited about the opportunity to participate
in the program. Many noted that this type of work was the
reason they had chosen their profession, and the opportunity
to work with students on future plans was relatively rare. e
opportunity to make additional money over the summer was
also an attractive aspect of the program.
Cost: e program was funded at $48 per student and pro-
vided two hours of outreach and counseling per student.
Results: e enrollment rates of targeted students increased
by nearly 5 percentage points compared to a previous cohort
of students, while enrollment rates at two non-participating
schools decreased by 4 percentage points. ree participating
schools saw enrollment rates for college-intending students
increase by more than 15 percentage points. e impact of
the program was sizable and signicant for students who
intended to attend a four-year college and had already taken
important steps toward enrollment (e.g., completed the
FAFSA, took SATs/ACTs). e impact of the program was
small and not statistically signicant for students planning
to attend two-year colleges. is suggests that interventions
may need to dier in strength or design to eectively impact
enrollment outcomes among students who plan to attend a
four-year college versus those who plan to attend a two-year
college.
56 CASE STUDIES: FORT WORTH INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 57
58 CASE STUDIES Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 59
Resources
Conclusion
rough our experience and research to date, we
have learned that many students face summer-spe-
cic obstacles in successfully transitioning to college.
Encouragingly, we have also learned that interven-
tions, such as those discussed in this guide, have the
potential to make a real dierence. Our hope is that
this handbook will serve as a practical resource for
districts and other educational organizations who
want to investigate and address the issue of summer
melt. e research, interventions, and tools sum-
marized here are a starting point for you to consider
what initiatives and supports have the greatest
potential to impact your students’ college
enrollment in the fall after high school graduation.
We conclude with a section providing resources to
support your eorts to investigate and develop a
strategy for responding to summer melt. Resources
provided here include:
• sample high school exit surveys,
• examples of summer task lists, both personalized
for specic institutions and generic, and
• sample documents for proactive personal outreach,
such as an initial outreach checklist, assessment
meeting checklist, intake form, and counselor
interaction log.
For additional resources and information, please visit:
www.gse.harvard.edu/sdp/summermelt
60 RESOURCES
DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT – SENIOR EXIT SURVEY – CLASS OF 2012
THANK YOU FOR COMPLETING THE EXIT SURVEY!
Students who submit complete exit surveys will be entered into a raffle for a free iPad!
Dallas school counselors want to help make your postsecondary plans a reality!
This summer Dallas counselors will be reaching out to students and their families to offer help with the final
steps in the college-going process, and to help you work through any challenges that come up in making your
postsecondary plans happen. So that we can get in touch with you, please provide the following updated contact
information.
________________________ ____________________________ _________________________
LAST NAME (PRINT) FIRST NAME (PRINT) ID#
______________________________ ______________________________________
YOUR CELL PHONE # YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS (PRINT)
______________________________________________________
NAME OF PARENT/GUARDIAN YOU PREFER WE CONTACT (PRINT)
______________________________ ______________________________________
PARENT/GUARDIAN’S CELL PHONE # PARENT/GUARDIAN’S EMAIL ADDRESS (PRINT)
Please also let us know what you plan to do after high school graduation:
� Attend a four-year college/university in Texas:
� University of North Texas � Texas Woman’s University � Texas A&M, Commerce
� UT – Arlington � UT – Austin � UT – Dallas � Other:_______________________
� Attend a four-year college/university out of state:
Name of college__________________________ Location (city/state):_______________________
If you plan to attend a four-year college/university, did you pay a deposit to enroll at (or get a deposit fee waiver
from) your intended college/university)? __Yes __No __Don’t Know
� Attend a two-year college:
� DCCCD �Other:_____________________________
� Attend a Trade School:
Name__________________________ Location (city/state): _________________________
� Enlist into Military Service:
Military Branch__________________________
� Work full-time (list type of work/place of employment): _____________________________
� Unsure of plans
Approximately how many times during senior year did you meet individually with a school counselor to discuss
your postsecondary plans? __0 __1 – 3 __4 – 6 __more than 6 times
Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 61
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Fort Worth ISD
SENIOR EXIT SURVEY
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LOGO
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School:
Name:
• Use a No. 2 pencil or a blue or black ink pen only.
• Do not use pens with ink that soaks through the
paper.
• Make solid marks that fill the response completely.
• Make no stray marks on this form.
INCORRECT:
Marking Instructions
CORRECT:
Extra-Curricular Activities
In which of the following
activities did you participate IN
and OUTSIDE of school during
your senior year?
(Bubble all that apply)
Sports
Art/Music/Performance
Community Service
Environmental Projects
Other Organizations
Family Care
OUTSIDE of School
IN School
Music
Theater/Drama
Dance
Sports
UIL Academic Competition
Journalism
Speech/Debate
Fort Worth After School
Go Center
If yes, which of these services did
you use in the GO Center.
(Bubble all that apply)
Did you use the GO Center in your
high school?
NoYes
College search and information
College application
Scholarship search and information
FAFSA pin number and information
Registration for tests (SAT/ACT)
Career exploration
Received G-Force help
Attended presentations
Post Graduation Plans
What do you plan to do
following graduation?
Four-year public college
or university
Four-year private college
Two-year college
Career or Technical college
Military Service
Work
Undecided
Thinking back, at what time
in your life did you start
thinking about college as a
possibility after high
school?
11th Grade
10th/9th Grade
Middle School
Elementary School
Always Knew
If you plan to go to college, which of the following
might prevent you from attending this fall?
(Mark all that apply)
I did not get accepted to the college(s) I wanted.
I did not complete all of the application
requirements (SAT/ACT, application, transcript).
I might not have the money and/or financial aid.
I might choose to work full time.
I might have family responsibilities (e.g. child care).
My parents do not want me to go to college.
Nothing will prevent me from going. I will definitely
be in college this fall.
I do not plan to go to college.
Quality of Instruction
Please rate the quality
of your instruction in
the following areas:
English/Writing
Mathematics
Science
Social Studies
Computer/Technology
World Languages
Performing/Fine Arts
Health/Physical Education
English/Writing
Mathematics
Science
Social Studies
Computer/Technology
World Languages
Performing/Fine Arts
Health/Physical Education
Highest Level
Taken
Poo
r
Fai
r
Good
Very Good
AP
Dual Credit
Honors
Regula
r
Did you complete the FAFSA or TASFA?
I do not need financial aid to attend college.
My parents were not willing to submit private financial
information.
My parents did not think we would qualify for or were
eligible for financial aid.
I did not know about the financial aid process.
I do not plan to go to college.
FAFSA TASFA
If you did not submit a financial aid application, why not?
(Select one that applies the most)
Yes NoYes No
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Please indicate which of these events you and/or your
parent/guardian attended. (Bubble all that apply)
Attended an evening parent conference session
Attended a Financial Aid Workshop
Attended District-wide College Night in September
Received Senior Newsletters with scholarship information included
Met with school counselor to review graduation requirements
Met with school counselor for Senior Exit Interview either in
classroom, small group or individually
Completed a Career search or Career unit during high school
(9 -12 grade) (Kuder or College for Texans)
Attended a workshop or class for test preparation during high
school (9 -12 grade)
Completed the Accuplacer exam
Attended at least one Super Saturday
Guidance and Counseling Services Areas of More Assistance
Please indicate areas in which you
would have liked more assistance.
(Bubble all that apply)
Orientation as a New Student
Conflict Resolution Skills
Communication Skills
Study Skills
Time Management
Test Taking Skills
Job Seeking Skills
College Application Process
Financial Aid/Scholarship Process
Career Options
Course Selection & Scheduling
Other (write in)
What is the ONE thing that you especially want the administration of FWISD to know?
Employment
During your senior year,
approximately how many hours per
week have you been employed?
None
1 to 5 hours
6 to 10 hours
11 to 15 hours
16 or more hours
Parent Education
How far did your parents go in school?
Indicate the highest level of education
for your mother and father.
Less than HS Grad
High School Grad
Some College
College Degree
MA Degree or Higher
Less than HS Grad
High School Grad
Some College
College Degree
MA Degree or Higher
Mother's Education
Father's Education
Cannot afford
Childcare responsibilities
Don't like school
Low grades/scores
Not academically prepared
Need income for myself
Need income for others
Not needed for job
Military service
Other
If you are not planning to pursue
further education at this time,
what is the primary reason?
College Applications
Please mark
all that apply
Tarrant County College
University of TX Arlington
Texas Christian University
University of North Texas
University of Texas at Austin
Texas A & M University
Stephen F. Austin University
Prairie View A & M University
Tarleton State University
Weatherford College
Texas Tech University
Texas Women's University
Texas Southern University
Other (write in)
Other (write in)
Other (write in)
APPLIED
ACCEPTED
FINAL DECISION
Please answer the following questions on
preparation for your college/career:
How well prepared were you to
plan your high school course
selections?
How well prepared are you to
meet your college and career
goals?
How well prepared were you
for the college/technical/
vocational school application
process?
How well informed are/were
you about obtaining financial
aid for education after high
school (whether or not you
plan to go to college)?
NOT WELL
SOMEWHAT WELL
VERY WELL
62 RESOURCES Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 63
UMassBoston(www.umb.edu)
QuickTips:
LogontotheWISERportaltoaccessimportantfinancialaidandotherinfo:http://wiser.umb.edu(See
belowforlogininfo)
CompleteFAFSA(schoolcode:002222)andapplyforfinancialaidatUMBifyouhaven’talready
RegisterforBeaconBeginningsOrientationassoonaspossible(seeinfobelow)
Apply
Applicationdeadlinealreadypassed.
Financialaid
CompleteFAFSAandsubmittoUMB.
Submitdocumentationofresidencyforinstatetuition.
Formoreinfo:http://www.umb.edu/students/financial_aid/
Testing
Studentsarerequiredtocompletecollegeplacementtestsinreading,writing,andmathematics.
TestingwilltakeplaceatBeaconBeginningsOrientation(seebelowunder“Orientation.”).
Formoreinfo:http://www.umb.edu/orientation/
Computing
LogintotheWISERportalusingyouremailaddress,passwordandstudentIDat
http://wiser.umb.edu.
Youremailusernameismailedtoyou.Theinitialpasswordforyouremailaddressisasfollows:
firstletterofyourlastname(uppercase)+secondletterofyourlastname(lowercase)+your
dateofbirthaseightnumbers(MMDDYYYY).Moreinfo:
http://www.umb.edu/it/getting_services/email/logging_on_for_the_first_time/
IfyoumisplaceyourIDorhavetroubleloggingin,contacttheITServiceDeskat6172875220
Housing
UMBhasnooncampushousing,butoffersanumberofresourcestohelpyoufindhousingin
Boston.Moreinfo:http://www.umb.edu/life_on_campus/housing/
Termbill
Billpaymentdatesvarybycourseregistration.Mostcommonduedateforfall2012tuitionis
August15
th
.
Youmaypaycheck,cash,moneyorderorcashier’scheck.UMBoffersaninterestfreeinhouse
monthlytuitionpaymentplan.Moreinfo:http://www.umb.edu/bursar/payment_information/
YoumaybeabletowaiveUMB’shealthinsuranceinfavorofyourcurrentinsurance,
potentiallysavingyouhundredsofdollars.Formoreinfo:
http://www.umb.edu/healthservices/insurance/health_insurance_waivers/
CostofattendanceatUMB(tuition,fees,transportation,books):$15,027
Orientation
andregistration
AttendancerequiredatBeaconBeginnings.Registerassoonaspossible:
http://www.umb.edu/orientation/.Mustsignintoseeavailableorientationdates.
Placementtests,advisingmeetings,andcourseregistrationallhappenduringorientation.
64 RESOURCES Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 65
Community College of Denver (http://www.ccd.edu)
Quick Tips:
Log on to the CCD web portal to access important info related to financial aid and other topics:
https://myportal.cccs.edu/jsp/misc/schoolLoginNew.jsp?school=ccd (See below for log-in info)
Visit ‘Steps to Successful Enrollment at CCD’: http://www.ccd.edu/ccd.nsf/html/WEBB87QPNR-
steps+to+get+started+at+CCD
Complete the FAFSA and apply for financial aid through CCD if you haven’t already (see link below)
Complete required placement tests in reading, writing, and math, or see if you place out (see below)
Register for the New Students’ Orientation (see link below)
Apply
Apply online at https://grails.cccs.edu/onlineApplication/login/auth?school=CCD
Financial aid
Complete the FAFSA and send it to CCD
Apply to the Colorado College Opportunity Fund (http://cof.college-
assist.org/COFApp/COFApp/Default.aspx)
Apply for CCD scholarships for 2012-13 school year:
https://www.ccd.edu/ccd.nsf/showform?openview&fid=WEBB88PJG6
To appeal your financial aid award letter: http://www.ccd.edu/ccd.nsf/html/WEBB87MVLS-
Satisfactory+Academic+Progress+(SAP)
Testing
Check whether, based on your SAT/ACT score, you need to take CCD assessment tests:
http://www.ccd.edu/ccd.nsf/html/WEBB87MQZ6-Transcript+Evaluation+Exemptions
Placement tests are done on a walk-in basis in Room 223 at the Auraria campus. For a full
schedule: http://www.ccd.edu/ccd.nsf/html/WEBB87MQZ6-Testing+Center+Schedule
Computing
If you have not already applied to CCD: create a new account:
https://erpdnssb.cccs.edu/PRODCCD/twbkwbis.P_GenMenu?name=homepage
You can use the same login you created when applying to access the CCD web portal:
https://myportal.cccs.edu/jsp/misc/schoolLoginNew.jsp?school=ccd#
If you need to access your user name or password, follow this link:
Housing
CCD offers three housing options for students. For more information:
http://www.ccd.edu/ccd.nsf/html/WEBB87QPNR-explore+housing
Earlier applicants are given priority in receiving housing.
Term bill
Tuition and fees can be paid under the Student Finance Tab of the CCD Connect portal:
https://myportal.cccs.edu/jsp/misc/schoolLoginNew.jsp?school=ccd#
Tuition and fees must be paid on or before the payment deadline stated on your registration. For
info about tuition payment processes and deadlines:
http://www.ccd.edu/ccd.nsf/html/WEBB87QPNR-Tuition+and+Payment+Information
Cost of attendance at CCD (includes tuition, books/supplies, room/board): $10,842 per year
Orientation
Sign up for the New Student Orientation. For information on how to register:
https://www.ccd.edu/ccd.nsf/showform?openview&fid=WEBB88PES9
All Orientation sessions held at the Auraria campus. The last session takes place on August 15.
Nine steps to making your college plans a reality!
There are important steps that need to be completed over the summer for you to be able to enroll in the fall.
The tasks listed below are common to most colleges, but you should check your acceptance materials or
contact your college to see if there are other tasks specific to your college. To find out how to complete any of
the tasks below at your college, call your admissions office or try a Google search for each task. For instance, if
you are attending the University of New Mexico and want to appeal your financial aid, Google “University of New
Mexico financial aid appeal.”
1. CONTACT A SCHOOL COUNSELOR IF YOU NEED HELP OVER THE SUMMER! Counselors
will be working this summer to help you with any challenges that arise. On your city’s web page within the
SCOPE 2012 site, you can find the email address for the counselor(s) helping graduates from your high
school.
2. Log on to your college’s personalized web site: Most colleges now provide a website, named
something like my.collegename.edu, where you can check your financial aid status and other important
deadlines.
• Your username and password were probably sent with your acceptance packet or in a separate letter/
email. If you can’t find your username and password, contact your school’s admissions office.
3. Check the status of your financial aid:
• Complete the FAFSA and apply for aid if you haven’t already.
• Check your most recent award letter and your personalized web site to see whether there are additional
steps you need to take to apply for aid.
• If you are considering an appeal, contact your financial aid office to ask how to appeal.
4. Register for your college’s orientation: Many colleges now hold required summer orientations for all
first-year students.
• RegisterASAP,sincemanycollegesholdtheirorientationsearlyinsummer.
• Checkwhatdocumentsyouarerequiredtobringwithyoutoorientation.
5. Check whether you need to complete placement testing before the start of the semester or
before orientation:
Colleges often require placement tests in math, reading, and writing. Some colleges
do these tests at Orientation; others require you to do the tests online or on campus beforehand.
6. Complete any housing forms, if your college offers housing: Most colleges require you to pay a housing
deposit and complete a housing form in order to be eligible for on-campus housing. Some colleges have
limited housing, so do this ASAP.
7. Check when term bills are issued and when they are due: Talk with your counselor about how to
pay whatever balance is left after your financial aid award. You can also talk with your counselor and your
parents about the possibility of setting up a tuition payment plan.
8. Check your college’s policy around health insurance: Colleges have different rules for which
students are required to have health insurance, and whether students are automatically enrolled in the
college’s student health insurance plan.
• Check your college’s requirements ASAP, since the college health insurance can be costly.
• If you already have qualifying insurance, you may be able to apply for a health insurance waiver.
9. Submit other required paperwork and documentation:
• Your college will expect to receive proof of your high school completion. Submit your final high school
transcript and an official indication of your graduation to your college’s admissions office.
• Especially if you’re expecting to live on campus, your school’s health services will require evidence of
your immunizations. Submit immunization records to health services.
66 RESOURCES Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 67
Sample InitialOutreachChecklist
Ifstudentsaysnotoameeting:
Ifyouareonthephonewiththestudent:
• AskifthestudenthastimetodotheAssessmentmeetingnow.Ifnot,askifit
wouldbeeasiertoscheduleatimetotalkonthephonethantomeetinperson ____
Ifyouaremessagingwiththestudent/thestudentdoesnothavetimetotalknow:
• Askifitwouldbeeasiertoscheduleatimetotalkonthephonethanmeetinperson____
• Askifstudentfeelsontrackforcollegeplansinthefall
____
• Askifthestudenthas:completedtheFAFSA;appliedforfinancialaid;logged
ontothewebportalatherintendedcollege____
• Askifthestudenthasanyquestionsshe’dliketodiscusswhilemessaging ____
• Providecontactinformationsostudentisabletofollowup____
• Indicatethatyouwillcheckinlaterinthesummertoseehowthingsaregoing ____
• Confirmstudent’scontactinformation____
Attheendoftheoutreach:
• Remindstudentsofspecificdeadlinescomingupatherintendedinstitution ____
Aftercall:
o Logthestudentcontact.Note:youDONOTneedtologthecontactifyouleft
avoicemailorsentamessagethatwasnotreturned____
Sample InitialOutreachChecklist
KeyobjectivesfortheInitialOutreach:
• Makeinitialcontactwithstudentandscheduleaninpersonmeeting
Priortooutreach:
• Checkcaseloadspreadsheetandhighschoolexitsurveyforstudent’sreported
collegeplansandbackgroundinformation ____
• Ifintendedcollegeisa“popularinstitution,”reviewbriefingdocumentpriortocall ____
Duringoutreachtostudent:
• Describethereasonfortheoutreach:
____
o Studentssometimesgraduatehighschoolwithoutdecidingontheirnextsteps.
Theyoftenneedhelpoverthesummertodevelopapostsecondaryplan.
o Otherstudentswhohaveclearpostsecondaryplanssometimesencounter
unexpectedobstacles.Wewanttohelpaddresstheseissues
o Wewanttoremindstudentsofimportantsummertasksattheirintended
institution(orgivegenericremindersifintendedinstitutionnotprovided)
• Letthestudentknowthereareafewquestionsyou’reaskingofallstudentstogeta ____
senseofwheretheyareinthecollegeplanningprocess.Therearenorightorwrong
answers;theirresponseswillhelpyoubestsupportthemoverthesummer
NOTE:Thesequestionsmaynotberelevantforastudentnotintendingtogotocollege
SIXQUESTIONSTOASKALLCOLLEGEINTENDINGSTUDENTSDURINGTHEINITIALOUTREACH
1. HaveyoucompletedtheFAFSA?
Reasonforasking:CompletingtheFAFSAisthefirststeptogetfinancialaid
2. Haveyouloggedontoyourcollege’swebportal?
Reasonforasking:Mostoftheinfocollegesexpectyoutoreadandcompletewillbesent
throughtheportal,notthroughthemail
3.Haveyoureceivedyourfinancialaidaward?
Reasonforasking:Someoftheaidlistedmaybeloansyouwillhavetopayback
4. Haveyoucompletedrequiredplacementtests,orbeenexempted?
Reasonforasking:Mostcollegesrequirestudentstocompleteplacementtestsbeforethey
canattendorientationorstartinthefall
5. Haveyouregisteredfororattendedorientation?
Reasonforasking:Mostcollegerequirestudentstoattendanorientation,whereyouwilllearn
moreaboutthecollegeandoftenmeetwithyouradvisor
6. Haveyoureceivedyourtuitionbill?
Reasonforasking:Studentsoftenhavequestionsaboutthechargesontheirtuitionbills,and
theremaybeexpensesthatyoucanwaiveandnothavetopay
• Invitestudenttoscheduleaninpersonmeetingtodiscussanyoftheseissues,orother
Challengesthatmayhavearisensofarduringthesummer____
Ifstudentsaysyestoameeting:
• Planwhereandwhentomeet
____
• Tellstudenttobringthefollowingdocumentstothemeeting:
____
o Logininformationfortheircollege’swebportal
o StudentAidReport,financialaidawardletter,andtuitionbill
o Anyotherdocumentstheyhavereceivedfromtheirintendedcollege
• Confirmstudent’scontactinformation
____
• Schedulearemindertexttogotothestudentthedaybeforethemeeting____
68 RESOURCES Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 69
Sample Assessment Meeting Checklist
KeyobjectivesfortheAssessmentmeetings:
• Assesshowthestudentisfeelingabouthercollegeplans.
• Takenoteofanypotentialbarrierstothestudent’scollegeenrollment.
• Reviewthelateststatusofthestudents’financialaid,highlightingpossibleappealsoradditionalloansthestudentwill
needtoconsider.
• Discussadditionalcoststhestudentmayface,ormaybeabletowaive(e.g.thecollege’shealthinsurance).
• Reviewkeysummertasksdeadlinesforthestudent’sintendedinstitution.
Todobeforethemeeting:
• Reviewinformationfromthecaseloadspreadsheetandhighschoolexitsurveyaboutstudent’s
postsecondaryplansandschoolyearperformance____
• Reviewimportantsummertasksatstudent’sintendedinstitution.____
o Pullupbriefingdocumentifstudentisattendinga“popular”institution,orgenericguidelines
forstudentsattendingotherinstitutions
• CheckwhetherstudenthascompletedtheFAFSA____
Assesshowthestudentisfeelingabouthercollegeplans:
• Beginmeetingwithopenendedquestiontoassesshowstudentfeelsabouthercollegeplans ____
• Takenoteofanyissuesthestudentraises____
• Askadditionalprobingquestionstogetatotherissuesthestudentmayface____
***COMPLETETHEINTAKEFORMWITHTHESTUDENT***____
Guidelinesforthefinancialaidawardletterdiscussionwithstudent
o Helpfulresources:collegebriefingdocuments;FinancialAidAwardLettercalculator;Guidelines
tothefinancialaidappeal
• Logontostudent’smy.college.edupage,ifstudentbroughtlogininfo.Ifthestudentdidnotbringlogin
info,useguidelinesonbriefingdocumenttohelpstudentgetthelogininfoduringthemeeting ____
• HelpstudentcompleteFAFSA,orfixerrors,ifstudenthasnotalreadydoneso____
• Reviewstudent’slatestfinancialaidawardlettercomparedtothecostofattendance ____
o CostofAttendanceinformationisprovidedinthebriefingdocumentsforthepopularcolleges.
Ifthestudentisattendingadifferentinstitution,trygooglingthecollege’snameand
“costofattendance.”
o EnterthecostofattendanceandawardletterinformationintotheAwardLetterCalculator
o Discusswithstudentswhattheywillreceiveingrantaid,whattheyareexpectedtoborrow,and
whattheywillhavetocomeupwithoutofpocketorfromsupplementalloans
o Visithttp://www.direct.ed.gov/RepayCalc/dlentry1.htmltohelpstudentstoidentifywhatthey
canexpecttopayinmonthlypaymentsaftertheyleavecollegefortheloanstheyassume.Note
forstudentsthatthesearemonthlypaymentamountsforoneyearofcollege.
• Discusswithstudentwhethertoappealherfinancialaidawardletter.Seeguidelinesinthe“Guidelines ____
tothefinancialaidappeal”document
• Remindstudentsthatcollegemaydeductadditionalscholarshipmoneytheyreceivefromtheirexisting ____
grantaid.Theyshouldcalltheirfinancialaidofficetoasktheircollege’spolicyonthis.
• Ifthestudentappearstofaceagapbetweenherfinancialaid(includingfederal/stateloans)and ____
thetotalcostofattendance:
o Askwhetherthestudentandherfamilyhaveaplantoaddressthisgap
o Referstudenttowww.studentloans.govwherehecanexploreloanoptions,includingaDirect
PLUSloanherparentsmaybeabletotakeout.
o Studentswillneedtheirsocialsecurity#andFAFSApintoaccessthiswebsite.
o StudentswhoseparentsaredeniedforaPLUSloanmayqualifyforanadditional$4,000in
unsubsidizedStaffordloans.
o Note:Studentsmayaskabouttakingoutaprivateloanthemselves,ratherthanhavingtheirparentstake
outaloan.Thisusuallyrequiresfindingacosignor,andoftentheloanhasaveryhighinterestrate,
sothisisanavenuewe’dadvisestudentsnottotake.
Sample Assessment Meeting Checklist
Guidelinesforthetuitionbilldiscussionwithstudents
o Helpfulresources:collegebriefingdocuments
• Helpthestudentsinterpretthecharges(e.g.tuition,activityfee)andcredits(e.g.financialaidgrant) ____
• Confirmthatallofthefinancialaidthestudentisexpectingfromherawardletterisincludedonthebill
• Reviewhealthinsurancecosts,ifany,andwhetherthestudent’scollegewillaccepthercurrent ____
insurance.Ifappropriate,reviewstepsstudentneedstotaketowaiveschoolinsurance.
o Healthinsurancewaiverinformationisprovidedinthebriefingdocumentsforthepopular
colleges.Ifthestudentisattendingadifferentinstitutionandhealthinsuranceisrequired,try
googlingthecollege’snameand“healthinsurancewaiver”
• AskwhetherthestudenthassignedMasterPromissoryNotes(MPN)foranyfederalloanss/heistaking____
out.Ifnot,directthestudenttowww.studentloans.govwheres/hecancompletetheMPN(s)online
o Studentswillneedtheirsocialsecurity#andFAFSApintoaccessthiswebsite.
• Helpstudentsinterpretanoverall“credit”totheiraccount.Forinstance,iftheyhavea$1,000crediton ____
theiraccount,buthavealoanfor$4,000,theywouldbebetterofftakinga$3,000loan.
• Ifthestudentfacesagapbetweenfinancialaid(includingfederal/stateloans)andthetotalcost
ofattendance:____
o Askwhetherthestudentandherfamilyhaveaplantoaddressthisgap
o Referstudenttowww.studentloans.govwhereshecanexploreloanoptions,includingaDirect
PLUSloanherparentsmaybeabletotakeout.
o Studentwillneedhersocialsecurity#andFAFSApintoaccessthiswebsite.
o Discusstuitionpaymentplanoptionswithstudent(tuitionpaymentsaremadeonamonthly ____
basisratherthanupfront).
o Tuitionpaymentoptions,includingpaymentplans,areprovidedinthebriefing
documentsforthepopularcolleges.Ifthestudentisattendingadifferentinstitution,
trygooglingthecollege’snameand“tuitionpaymentplan”
o Note:Studentsmayaskabouttakingoutaprivateloanthemselves,ratherthanhavingtheirparentstake
outaloan.Thisusuallyrequiresfindingacosignor,andoftentheloanhasaveryhighinterestrate,
sothisisanavenuewe’dadvisestudentsnottotake.
Nextsteps:
• Copyintakeformforstudent,andreviewnextstepsfrommeeting____
• Scheduleafollowupmeetingwiththestudent,ifneeded____
• Remindstudenthowto/whenshecanreachyou____
Todoaftermeeting:
• LogthestudentmeetingontheStudentInteractionform____
• Ifyouwereabletoscheduleafollowupmeetingwiththestudent:Setupatextreminderforthestudent
forthedaybeforethescheduledmeeting____
• Ifyouwerenotabletoscheduleafollowupmeetingwiththestudent:Scheduleatimeforcallingthe
studentinaweekortwotocheckinonhowtheyaredoing____
70 RESOURCES Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 71
SAMPLE INTAKE FORM
StudentName:_____________________Dateofinitialoutreach:_________Peermentor:_______________________
Phoneattemptstoreachstudent(usecheckmarksforeachattempt):
Emailattemptstoreachstudent(usecheckmarksforeachattempt):
Text/socialmediaattemptstoreachstudent(usecheckmarksforeachattempt):
Date(s)ofactualmeeting(s)withstudent:________________________________________________________________
Notesfrominitialoutreachconversation
YesorNo Notes FollowUpActionNeeded
HasstudentcompletedtheFAFSA?
Hasstudentloggedontothecollege
webportal?
Hasstudentreceivedafinancialaid
awardletter?
Hasstudentcompletedorbeen
exemptedfromplacementtests?
Hasstudentregisteredfororientation?
Hasstudentreceivedhertuitionbill?
NotesfromAssessmentMeeting
***Beginbyloggingontothestudent’swebportal,oriftheydonothavelogininfo,helpthemgettheiruser
name/password.Seebriefingdocumentsforguidelinesonhowtoretrieveusernamesandpasswords***
Thenexttworowsindicateimportantfinancialaidrelatedtopicstodiscusswithstudentsduringthemeeting
Helpstudentcomplete/fixFAFSA
N/A
Helpstudentinterpretawardletter
N/A
Identifytuitionbillreleaseandduedates
N/A
Helpstudentinterprettuitionbill,
includinghealthinsurancechargesand
accountcredits,ifany
N/A
Discusstuitionpaymentplanoptionsif
thestudentisfacingafinancialgap
N/A
Thefollowingareimportanttasksstudentsneedtocompleteinordertoenrollinthefall.Ifstudentshavenotcompleted
thesetasks,refertothebriefingdocumentsforcollegespecificinformationonhowtocompleteeachtask.
Haveyoutakenanyplacementexams
requiredbyyourintendedcollege?
YN
Haveyousignedupfororattendednew
studentorientation?
YN
Haveyouscheduledanacademic
advisingmeeting/registeredforcourses?
YN
Willyoubelivingoncampus? YN
Ifyes,haveyousubmittedallrequired
housingforms?
YN
72 RESOURCES Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 73
Sample Counselor Interaction Log
Student ID # * ____________________________________________
Student Name * __________________________________________
Counselor name * _________________________________________
Date of outreach or meeting (mm/dd/yyyy) *____________________
*Required
1. What was the result of your outreach?
o Successfully contacted the student
o Left a voicemail or a message with a family member/friend
o No answer; phone number not in service
o Texted the student but did not year back
o Emailed the student but did not hear back
The questions below pertain to actual meetings with students:
2. Who initiated contact? (choose one)
o Counselor
o Graduate
o Graduate's family/guardian
o School staff
o Other: _____________________________________
3. Who participated in the interaction?
o Student
o Parent/guardian
o Other family member
o School staff member
o Mentor/other community member
4. How was the graduate successfully contacted? *
o Phone
o Email
o Text
o Facebook
o Via staff/family member
o Other: _____________________________________
5. What was the result of the contact?
o Graduate did not need any help
o Provided assistance; scheduled a follow-up meeting
o Provided assistance; no follow-up meeting
o Referral to another support service
o Referral to the student's intended college
o Other: _____________________________________
6. What assistance did you provide?
o Reviewed financial aid packages/options
o Helped student complete the FAFSA
o Searched for additional funding (scholarships, loans, etc)
o Helped student access their college's web portal
o Completed required paperwork from the college
o Helped the student research and apply to additional colleges
o Connected the student to a staff member at his/her intended college
o Arranged for the student and/or a family member to visit the college
o Connected the student to a social worker or mental health professionsal
o Provided encouragement or reassurance
o Helped student complete the TAFSA
o Other: _____________________________________
7. What financial aid paperwork did you help the student complete?
o FAFSA
o TAFSA
o Neither - student was not eligible or chose not to complete the FAFSA/TAFSA
8. Where did the contact take place?
o At school
o Student's home
o Coffee shop or other public location
o Over email
o Over text
o Facebook chat/messaging
o Other: _____________________________________
9. How much time did you spend interacting with the student?
o Less than 15 minutes
o 15 - 30 minutes
o 30 - 45 minutes
o 45 minutes - one hour
o More than an hour
10. Please provide a 1-2 sentence summary of each successful interaction with a student: *
74 RESOURCES Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 75
5
Oreopoulos, P., & Salvanes, K. (2011). Priceless: e nonpecu-
niary benets of schooling. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 25(1),
159–184.
6
Haveman, R. & Smeeding, T. (2006). e role of higher education
in social mobility. e Future of Children, 16(2). Princeton, NJ: e
Brookings Institution.
7
Castleman, B.L., Arnold, K., & Wartman, K.L. (2012). Stemming
the tide of summer melt: An experimental study of the eects of
post-high school summer intervention on low-income students’ col-
lege enrollment. e Journal of Research on Educational Eectiveness,
5(1): 1–18.
8
e National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) is a nonprot orga-
nization that houses student degree and enrollment information for
colleges and universities in the US. More than 3500 colleges and
universities participate in the NSC. e NSC matches high school
and postsecondary enrollment records based on student name and
birthdate information. For more information visit:
www.studentclearinghouse.org.
9
Castleman, B. L., Page, L. C. & Schooley, K. (2012). e forgotten
summer: Does the oer of college counseling the summer after high
school mitigate attrition among college-intending low-income high
school graduates? Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the
Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
Daugherty, L. (2012). Summer link: A counseling intervention to
address the transition from high school to college in a large urban
district. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association
for Education Finance and Policy.
Schooley, K., & Page, L.C. (2012). Summer PACE (Personalized As-
sistance for College Enrollment): Evaluation Report. Fulton County
Schools, Fulton County, GA.
Endnotes
1
Arnold, K., Fleming, S., DeAnda, M., Castleman, B.L., & Wart-
man, K.L. (2009). e summer ood: e invisible gap among
low-income students. ought and Action, Fall 2009: 23–34.
Castleman, B.L., Arnold, K., & Wartman, K.L. (2012). Stemming
the tide of summer melt: An experimental study of the eects of
post-high school summer intervention on low-income students’ col-
lege enrollment. e Journal of Research on Educational Eectiveness,
5(1): 1–18.
2
Castleman, B.L., & Page, L.C. (forthcoming). A trickle or a tor-
rent? Understanding the extent of summer “melt” among college-in-
tending high school graduates. Social Science Quarterly.
Matthews, C., Schooley, K., & Vosler, N. (2011). Proposal for a
summer transition program to increase FCS college-going rates,
February 14, 2011, Fulton County Schools, Fulton County, GA.
Roderick, M., Nagaoka, J., Coca, V., Moeller, E., Roddie, K.,
Gilliam, J., & Patton, D. (2008). From high school to the future:
Potholes on the road to college. Chicago, IL: Consortium on Chica-
go School Research.
3
Castleman, B.L., & Page, L.C. (forthcoming). A trickle or a tor-
rent? Understanding the extent of summer “melt” among college-in-
tending high school graduates. Social Science Quarterly.
Matthews, C., Schooley, K., & Vosler, N. (2011). Proposal for a
summer transition program to increase FCS college-going rates,
February 14, 2011, Fulton County Schools, Fulton County, GA.
Daugherty, L. (2012). Summer link: A counseling intervention to
address the transition from high school to college in a large urban
district. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association
for Education Finance and Policy.
4
Source: U.S. Census Bureau. Current Population Survey (CPS).
Educational attainment–People 25 Years Old and Over, by Total
Money Earnings in 2007, Work Experience in 2007, Age, Race,
Hispanic Origin, and Sex. 2008.
76 RESOURCES Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 77
78 RESOURCES
10
Castleman, B. L., Page, L. C. & Schooley, K. (2012). e forgot-
ten summer: Does the oer of college counseling the summer after
high school mitigate attrition among college-intending low-income
high school graduates? Paper presented at the Annual Conference of
the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
11
Using a lottery to identify students for the intervention can
create the opportunity to conduct a randomized controlled trial for
evaluating the intervention. is is the “gold standard” of program
evaluation and is the most robust way to determine program impact.
12
For more information, go to http://www.uaspireusa.org/.
13
Castleman, B. L., Page, L. C. & Schooley, K. (2012). e forgot-
ten summer: Does the oer of college counseling the summer after
high school mitigate attrition among college-intending low-income
high school graduates? Paper presented at the Annual Conference of
the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
14
In order to meet an 80 student target at each school, at two of the
six schools the third criterion (accepted to at least one postsecondary
institution) was expanded to include students reporting they were
still waiting to hear about their acceptance.
15
e HOPE scholarship is a Georgia lottery-funded program that
provides scholarships to academically qualied graduates of Georgia
high schools attending in-state postsecondary institutions.
ABOUT THE STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT
Since 2008, SDP has partnered with 56 school districts, charter school networks, state
agencies, and nonprofit organizations to bring high-quality research methods and
data analysis to bear on strategic management and policy decisions. Our mission is to
transform the use of data in education to improve student achievement.
Part of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, SDP was
formed on two fundamental premises:
1. Policy and management decisions can directly influence schools’ and teachers’
ability to improve student achievement.
2. Valid and reliable data analysis significantly improves the quality of decision
making.
SDP’s theory of action is that if we are able to bring together the right people,
assemble the right data, and perform the right analysis, we can help leaders make
better decisions—ultimately improving student achievement significantly.
To make this happen, SDP pursues three strategies:
1. Building a network of top-notch data strategists who serve as fellows for two years
with our partners (e.g., school district, charter management organization, nonprofit,
or state education agency).
2. Conducting rigorous diagnostic analyses of teacher effectiveness and college-going
success using agency data.
3. Disseminating our tools, methods, and lessons learned to the education sector
broadly.
The project is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, LINKS TO RESEARCH PAPERS, ACCESS TO THE RE-
SOURCES IN THIS HANDBOOK, AND MORE, VISIT:
www.gse.harvard.edu/sdp/summermelt
Summer Melt Handbook STRATEGIC DATA PROJECT 79
©2013 by the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University. All rights reserved.
