San Francisco has long been thought of as a city where people make their hopes and dreams come true. But factors like poverty and drastic cuts to school budgets often impede students’ ability to realize dreams of a college degree. The San Francisco Education Fund (SFEF) is working with school leaders and teachers to fulfill those dreams through its partnership with the FHI 360 Postsecondary Success Collaborative, formerly the Citi Postsecondary Success Program.
SFEF’s Postsecondary Success Collaborative makes a critical difference by working in schools and across the community to foster collective impact and help caring adults — staff of schools and community-based organizations, and district and higher education partners — better understand how to support students as they transition between high school and higher education. One of the partner high schools that worked with the Postsecondary Success Collaborative to review data found that while 83 percent of seniors had been accepted to a college, only 60 percent enrolled by fall semester. With support from collaborative, the school staff reviewed additional data to identify barriers to enrollment such as inadequate financial aid and lack of family support and worked with partners in community-based organizations to prevent these obstacles for future students.
The program also helped organize FRISCO Day, an annual event to help all San Francisco Unified School District graduating seniors enroll in college, learn about financial literacy, develop support systems and build relationships with other students to help them complete the transition to college.
Promising results: From 2009– 2011, college enrollment rates for three participating non-charter public high schools exceeded district rates, increasing 36 percent for black students and 14 percent for Latino students.
* Analyses conducted by the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning. Denominators were of grade 12 students only.
Learn more about San Francisco:
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Additional information: Postsecondary Success Collaborative
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