Summer Melt Solution

The Surefire Path From High School to College

Scott Birkestrand & Kristy Eagle
San Diego State University
WHAT IS SUMMER MELT?

RESULTS (cont.)

CONCLUSIONS

The summer between high school graduation and the first day of college has
often been viewed as a time for celebrating the accomplishment of receiving a
diploma and the excitement of starting a new chapter of life at college.
According to data, the summer after high school is also a time when 20%-30%
of urban college bound students decide not to attend college. The barriers that
restrict these students from matriculating into college vary. The primary
barriers to matriculation are financial and/or procedural challenges that arise
during the summer before college begins. The term summer melt refers to
students who apply to college, are accepted and pay a deposit to attend
college, but do not show up to college in the fall.

Marketing
Awareness of the program
Methods of communication
Audience and collaboration
Family Involvement
Family awareness and involvement
Obstacles and barriers to access
Family and community influence
Policy
Kansas City - expressed concern about "two-way texting" and how it would
be a "violation" of district policy to use communication methods that
allowed for two-way conversations to occur
Memphis - focused on how policies might affect the "high school
counselors contract" and mentioned needing to ensure proper
compensation for the additional work school counselors would be doing
over the summer
Factors Influencing Students Who Make Late Stage Decisions to Attend
College
Family
Financial
Other students were concerned about what their friends were doing and
concerned about balancing work and school

Quantitative and qualitative findings showed how the Bridgit platform has
affected students college outcomes and how counselors engaged with and
supported students during the school year and the summer after their high
school graduation. Implementation of summer melt programming led to a
statistically significant improvement in college enrollment. This improvement
was driven entirely by an increase in two-year college enrollment as opposed
to four-year college enrollment.

DESIGN OF EXPERIMENT
To gage the impact that Bridgit had on countering summer melt rates, a
randomized controlled trial was conducted. Partnering with staff from College
Bound - St. Louis, high schools were matched and paired up in participating
districts. Within these matched pairs one school was randomly selected as the
treatment group to receive the Bridgit platform and the other school would
serve as the control group. To participate the schools had to meet specific
requirements in order to participate in the study to ensure valid comparisons
between the variable group and the control group. Twelve schools were
identified as meeting the requirements for the Bridgit pilot, from those 12
schools six were treatment and six were controlled.

WHAT IS BRIDGIT?
Bridgit was designed by College Bound - St. Louis to be a school-facing
approach to reduce summer melt rates versus other interventions which are
typically student-facing. This approach provides school-wide interventions
to support students after high school. The Bridgit platform was created to
track student progress toward successful matriculation. The platform houses
a variety of tools for high school counselors to use in order to assist and
support students with pre-matriculation tasks required by most colleges.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this research is to provide quantitative and qualitative
evidence of how the implementation of the Bridget platform, developed by
College Bound - St. Louis, could be used to identify students progress
towards successful college enrollment and support counselors in triaging
students that need to complete tasks in order to matriculate into college
through the summer months. By supporting students through the summer
months before the students begin their college career, students would continue
receiving the counseling support they have adapted to throughout high school.
By continuing these supports through the summer we wanted to see if the
percentage of students matriculating to college increased while the number of
students dropping out of college before they attended, decreased significantly.

IMPLEMENTATION
The implementation of the Bridgit pilot occurred during the spring and
summer of 2014. Students were enrolled in the pilot program during the
school year by taking the Bridgit intake survey during the spring of their
senior year.
The staff that implemented the Bridgit pilot received approximately two days
of training. Methods of implementation varied from district to district
including location of services, counselor familiarity with students and types
of additional resources offered to students.

RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN 2015

www.PosterPresentations.com

Key Qualitative Findings:

Qualitative Approach:
To capture the qualitative data, a series of semi-structured interviews were
conducted with 30 staff members that were involved in the implementation
and carry out of the Bridgit pilot. The interviews were structured to gain an
understanding of the experiences and perceptions the staff had, along with
how the implementation and training impacted counselor use of the Bridgit
platform and the overall pilot. All interviewees worked on the Bridgit pilot
during the 2013-2014 school year and the summer following the school year.
Interviews lasted approximately 60 minutes and were done individually.

Quantitative Approach:
The quantitative approach looked at comparing individual student
demographic and achievement information and their outcomes between the
treatment and control groups. Follow-up data was retrieved from the National
Student Clearinghouse, matching the student information with the students
college enrollment information. Data was also recorded through the Bridgit
platform which provided information about the form of communication
counselors used to contact students. Bridgit usage was then tracked along
with college enrollment outcomes in both the control and treatment group.

RESULTS
As a result of the qualitative analysis, six major areas or themes arose from
the research. Below is a brief outline of each theme and the applicable sub
themes.
Bridgit Platform
Interaction with the tool
Context in which the tool was used
Challenges and advantages of the tool
Bridgit Implementation
Memphis - the program was implemented by school counselors at the end
of the school year and used continuously throughout the summer
Kansas City the platform was administered through a college success
center on a community college campus and students were notified of the
center through different forms of marketing such as flyers and cards that
were dropped off at local high schools

1. Counselors reported that the Bridgit platform was helpful in facilitating

their support of students during the summer months.
2. Counselors noted that, while the Bridgit tool was helpful for students who
had completed the intake process and provided status information on their
progression on summer tasks, one challenge was getting students to
complete the intake process.
3. Consistent with prior summer melt work, counselors identified several
factors that influenced students decisions about whether to follow through
on their college intentions. These barriers included financial
considerations around college attendance; family considerations, both
influence from parents and feelings of obligation on the part of students;
and students uncertainty about how college would enable them to pursue
longer-term life goals.

Key Quantitative Findings:

1. Students in schools that used the Bridgit platform were approximately 3.5
percentage points more likely to enroll in college than students in the
matched schools that did not use the Bridgit platform (56 percent vs. 53
percent).
2. This effect primarily operated through increasing the share of students that
enrolled in two-year institutions; students in schools that used the Bridgit
platform were approximately 7.2 percentage points more likely to enroll in
two-year institutions than students in the matched schools that did not use
the Bridgit platform (23 percent vs. 16 percent).
3. The positive impacts from Bridgit appear to stem from substantial
interaction that the platform promoted between students and counselors,
with over 60 percent of students communicating with a school counselor
through the Bridgit platform during the summer months.

DISCUSSION
Overall, the Brigit platform was viewed as user friendly and valuable.
Adequate training was provided for those interfacing with the platform.
Counselors found the sorting and completion rates helpful but suggested
adding a feature that would allow them to adjust the prioritization scheme
based on their own knowledge of the students. The resource library was an
underutilized resource, so it might be helpful to spend a little more time on
this during training sessions. The school counselors found the texting feature
to be an important and helpful form of communication with their students
when utilized. They especially found it effective when used in conjunction
with other forms of communication (calling, etc.). Based on these suggestions
it would be beneficial to conduct more research on what aspects of the
platform created the greatest increase in college matriculation rates.
To maximize the potential of the Bridgit platform it may be beneficial to
implement the intervention year-round. In addition, it is recommended that the
parents/guardians of students and the schools administrators be integrated
into the intervention. It was also suggested that marketing efforts for the
Bridgit platform begin earlier in the school year, including incorporation of
Bridgit into classroom presentations. It would also be interesting to observe
the impact of the Bridgit platform on future matriculation of the students, if
the platform was implemented into their post-secondary education. It was also
suggested that Bridgit centers become more mobile and better established in
the surrounding communities in order to provide greater outreach for urban
students.
Counselor Feedback At-A-Glance:
Advertising needs to start earlier in the school year
Use targeted advertising to fit diverse audiences
Year long use, not just in summer
Obtain feedback from students and their perceptions of using the tool
Incorporate into classroom guidance lessons
Administrative buy-in is key to the tools success
Initial survey improvements to fit diverse student needs
Create a mobile app for on the go use
Increase parent involvement

Picture on the left: Bridgit research team and St. Louis Bridgit implementer in front of
the Malcom T. Wilson Enrollment Center in Kansas City, MO.
Picture on the right: Bridgit research team leaving their SDSU mark on the snow
covered cars of Kansas City, MO.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS/REFERENCES
Thank you to Dr. Laura Owen and the entire Summer Melt Team and College Bound
St. Louis for allowing us to present the results of their summer melt research and our
experiences as research assistants on this project!

In each panel of Figure A1, the uppermost line indicates overall enrollment, the
middle line indicates enrollment in a four-year institution, and the bottom line
indicates enrollment in a two-year institution. In all participating schools,
college-going graduates are more likely to attend four-year rather than two-year
institutions.

For further information, please reference the following report:

Benjamin L. Castleman, Laura Owen & Lindsay C. Page. (2014). Report to College Bound
St. Louis on the Implementation and Impact of the 2014 Summer Melt Intervention
Utilizing Bridgit.