Study of Enhanced College Advising in Upward Bound: Impacts on Steps Toward College

Posted by U.S. Department of Education on December 18, 2018

ED’s ‘Find the Fit’ Intervention Shows Early Promise in Helping Students Apply to College
By Bill DeBaun, Director of Data and Evaluation, National College Access Network

Find the Fit, a multi-component intervention designed by the U.S. Department of Education and intended to improve college outcomes for students in Upward Bound and other college access programs, had a positive impact on students’ college application behaviors. This finding and others appear in the first of three program evaluation reports recently released by the National Center for Education Statistics and titled “Study of Enhanced College Advising in Upward Bound: Impacts on Steps Toward College.”

The intervention consisted of three research-backed components: “(1) college planning materials organized in personalized student folders with some information tailored to their likely college opportunities; (2) text or email messages customized to where students were applying; and (3) training webinars for their Upward Bound advisors.” The study included 194 Upward Bound projects serving nearly 4,500 high school seniors who opted into the research. Researchers randomly separated the sample into a treatment group that received Find the Fit and another that received normal Upward Bound services.

The Find the Fit intervention includes student materials, college advisor resources, text messages, and parent materials. All of these documents are available here for free download.

Report: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20194002/

Find the Fit Documents: https://findthefit.abtassociates.com/index.html