College Advising Corps - Boston University: Family Academy Evaluation Report

The focus of this impact study is the College Advising Corps @ Boston University (CAC). CAC is a national program that recruits and trains recent college graduates from partner higher education institutions across the country. These recent college graduates serve as full-time advisers.  They provide support that high-need students need as they navigate the complex processes required to attend and matriculate in college and to secure financial aid. Advisers serve as full-time staff, working to foster a college-going culture within the schools they serve and directly provide peer advising to students one-on-one in the hopes of improving access and persistence to higher education.   

The primary focus of this evaluation is to assess whether enacting a texting campaign in Boston high schools called, “Family Academy,” enhances college advising effects. Family Academy was designed by CAC to give students’ families more information about the college-going process via texting. If CAC advisers add this family-focused texting campaign to their traditional efforts, does it increase the number of high school students who complete the multiple steps that are needed to go to college, such as 1:1 meetings with an adviser, applying to (one, or three or more) college(s), submitting a FAFSA, and ultimately whether students enroll in college? To assess the effects of a texting campaign, CAC implemented a randomized control trial within BPS over a two-year period.

Research Questions

1. What percentage of parents/guardians who receive texts from Family Academy engage with the adviser, and what factors explain family engagement?
2. Are students whose parents/guardians receive texts from Family Academy more likely to complete college going behaviors and enroll in college after HS graduation than a similar group of students whose parents do not receive texts from Family Academy?
   1. Are students whose parents/guardians respond and interact with the adviser more likely to complete college going behaviors and enroll in college after HS graduation compared to students whose parents do not respond and interact the adviser?
3. Are “at-risk” juniors whose parents/guardians receive texts from Family Academy more likely to complete college going behaviors and enroll in college after HS graduation than a similar group of students whose parents do not receive texts from Family Academy?
   1. Are “at-risk” juniors whose parents/guardians respond and interact with the adviser more likely to complete college going behaviors as seniors, and to enroll in college after high school graduation compared to ones whose parents do not respond and interact with the adviser?

Findings

The results of Family Academy are encouraging, showing modest improvements in students’ college-going behaviors, enrollment, and parent engagement with the college application process. Students whose parents were texted had college enrollment rates eight percentage points higher overall and nine percentage points higher for four-year enrollment. Although treatment schools had better FAFSA and college application submission rates before Family Academy, these rates increased during the texting program, alongside a significant increase in family engagement, particularly when students transitioned from junior to senior year.

However, there were no statistically significant differences in key outcomes when comparing treated juniors to control juniors within the treatment schools. Future iterations of Family Academy might benefit from a within-school randomization design for seniors to determine if the texting initiative specifically drives higher college-going behaviors and attendance. Interviews with parents and students could provide additional insights into the effectiveness of the texting program.