How We Track Results

College Advising Corps examines how our advisers enhance a school’s college going-culture and whether our advisers are effective in helping more students apply and matriculate to colleges that will best serve them.

College Advising Corps is dedicated to rigorously analyzing the impact our advisers have in the schools they serve.

Our ability to measure the impact of our advisers is critical to serving students well and increasing the number of underrepresented students that apply to and enroll in college. As part of our evaluation strategy, our advisers collect data daily on a number of outputs and outcomes. We also measure our impact with the help of a comprehensive annual evaluation conducted by Evaluation and Assessment Solutions for Education (EASE), led by Eric Bettinger, Ph.D., of Stanford University. Key outcomes include the percentages of students at participating high schools that apply and gain acceptance to college.

Key Performance Indicators

Each day, our advisers track activities that are key performance indicators for increasing college enrollment rates. These include:

  • Campus Visits
  • College Representative Visits and College Fairs
  • SAT/ACT Registration
  • College Workshops
  • College Application Submissions
  • FAFSA Completion
  • Scholarship Dollars Awarded
  • Parent Engagement

External Evaluation

Annual comprehensive evaluation of College Advising Corps began in 2009. Each year, the evaluation addresses the following questions:

  • Does the presence of a College Advising Corps adviser lead to more students enrolling in college upon graduation and persisting in college thereafter?
  • Does the presence of a College Advising Corps adviser lead to more students entering the pathway to college as measured by course choice, grades, college applications, and other markers, which lead to college attendance?
  • What role does the College Advising Corps adviser play in fostering a strong college-going culture in their high school?

To answer these questions, the evaluators use a mixed-methods approach and conduct both quantitative and qualitative empirical analyses. The data they use include an annual student survey, an adviser survey, administrative data from partner schools, an alumni adviser survey, site visits, interviews, focus groups, and college enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse.

An ongoing randomized controlled trial conducted in Texas also gives us the opportunity to examine causal effects.

To learn more about our evaluation and impact, please contact Michael Cobb, Manager of Impact & Evaluation, at mcobb@advisingcorps.org.