College Bound From the Beginning; how to better support students that are eligible

A proposal by: Toby Doyle

Seattle University

Vision Data:
College Bound is a program that helps support students in extending their learning
options after high school. It has been my vision since entering the school system, that the more
the students know about this incredible program, the more success it can have providing for these
students. That is why my vision is clear; to better inform students about the opportunities and
options that College Bound allows for them to have after graduating high school. I plan to do
this by providing effective information and interventions that are germane to them being
successful in school and preparing for a future that they can have control of and be proud and
excited about. I think in order to get students excited about their futures, you have to allow them
to explore what it is they are passionate about and what it is they are interested in. Through
career guidance classes and group work, I feel that students can begin to understand what paths
provide congruency in their world, and what it takes to pursue it. It helps them to establish goals
and set forth a plan that ultimately keeps them moving forward in life and inspired to grow, learn
and evolve.
College Bound is important because it allows opportunities beyond high school that
students may otherwise not have. This is a program that begins during the students freshman
year of high school. I feel it is essential for them to understand everything about it, and start
forming good study habits and patterns of behavior prior to the start date. This can be further
assisted during their 8th grade year of study. Hopefully this comes with helping students to create
positive and beneficial habits that will ensure them that when it starts in 9th grade, they are ready
and can be successful in fulfilling their academic and social requirements that they are
committed to. I think some of the success of this program comes from providing a better

understanding to the families of the students as well. It is monumental to the success of the
program that not only the student and teachers are on board and aware of this program, but also
the family. This helps to ensure a better support system for success of the student. With this
support the student ultimately better able to commit to their obligations and commitments that
will benefit their future greatly and open up their world to an array of options.
Benchmarks:
The first year of my intervention towards creating a better support system is developing a
plan that ensures that at least 90% of the students eligible for College Bound are signed up and
understand what it is and what it entails. The second year of this plan focuses on getting the
eligible students signed up for College Bound, and then delivering a more specific and detailed
informational session for both students and parents of College Bound participants by bringing in
outside resources that can help define what College Bound can provide for their students.
The third year would involve similar interventions from the first two years, but
implementing more group work and time towards College Bound students to help them explore
career paths, and help provide high school readiness skills. It is important that the students who
are struggling are met with intervention and learning strategies that can help prepare them for
their 9th grade year and the years to follow. It is vitally important to the success of fulfilling their
commitment that students are ready and are tracked throughout the process so they are not only
eligible, but eligible when they graduate High school as well. The fourth and fifth years of this
plan will have all the elements in place for the first three years, but then will continue to start
tracking the students successes by communicating with the High School counselors and going
off of the data that they are acquiring. It is important to start using the data of the 12 grade

students that entered into this program as freshman, to understand what the success rate is for the
College Bound student to stay eligible through graduation so that they are able to reap the
benefits of this program beyond high school. This also allows schools to understand the success
rate and implement new interventions if needed to establish the best path for success for this
population of students.
Where and how to intervene:
Interventions will take place through the microlevel, mesolevel, and macrolevels of the
system. At the microlevel, students will be contacted and appropriately informed about what
College Bound is, and how it is implemented to help them in their future endeavors. This is an
essential part of giving birth to the success of this program. The students have to fully
understand what it is that is expected out of them, and continue or begin to form patterns of
behavior and study skills that will translate to high school and give them the tools necessary to
be a successful College Bound participant.
The second part of this is having support and understanding by the school, so they are
able to continue to support these students and allow the necessary buy in from the leaders to
further their progress. This is done by allowing these students more group time to explore
careers and prepare them to be high school ready. There will also be more focus on implementing
plans and goals so that College Bound students have a blueprint for their success, and can feel
organized and prepared for being the student they need to be in order to be College Bound
successful. Students success will be tracked and data will be obtained through the schools that
Centennial Middle school feed into to make sure that the implementation of interventions is
effective and successful for 75% of the students committed to it.

The third part of this is ensuring the community and the parents of these students that

they have a complete understanding of the rewards of this program, and are just as invested in
their childs future as the school is. It is important to bridge the gap between student, school, and
community to ensure that everyone is on board and working towards a common goal. This is
done through orientations and facilitating speakers to come to the school to educate the parents
about the impact that College Bound can have on their child.
Interventions:
Interventions will be based on specifics of the program, group curriculum and guidance
for the targeted population, along with orientations and information given by chosen speakers to
spread the information to the parents at the beginning and end of the school year. Interventions
start with the student and the parents buy in first, and it is essential that both have a clear
understanding of the process and the commitment. Interventions then move to the classroom,
and are helped along by the staff working with students. By understanding the importance of the
College Bound program and helping struggling students work more efficiently and effectively,
they will be helping to ensure that College Bound students are forming the right study habits and
skills.
Data will be taken throughout the year to highlight students that may need more help and
guidance. These students will form the groups that will be run by the counseling staff that will
help lead and inspire students who are struggling in school to start developing better habits. This
will be accomplished in an array of lesson plans. An instrumental plan will be letting students
explore their futures and career paths, and having them develop goals and study skills that will
give them inspiration and empower them to take control of their future.

So just to reiterate, individual levels of intervention will take place with giving the
student and parent a clear idea of what College Bound is and what it means to the childs future.
This is the counselings staff obligation to present and implement. Then comes buy in from the
school, in working towards helping these students when necessary and the counseling staff
keeping track of data throughout the year on this population. Then group work and guidance
given by the counseling staff becomes necessary in response to data and students who are
struggling in school and need more help and guidance to get them on the right track. All these
steps are crucial to preparing College Bound students for their future, and helping to bridge the
gap between the success of low income students and the rest of the student population.