KnowHow2GO: The Next Step
Helping to connect students to their college dream
The message is resonating loud and clear: The transformative power of higher education not only changes individual lives but also improves our communities to create a more productive, sustainable and economically viable America. Building on this college access and success momentum underscores the work of KnowHow2Go (KH2GO), a joint effort of the American Council on Education, Lumina Foundation for Education and the Advertising Council that targets low-income students in grades 8 to 10, their parents and adult influencers to encourage them to start the college preparation process early.
Launched in 2007, the KH2GO program involves a nationwide network of college access professionals who work together to connect students and their families to information about financial aid and educate them about the steps they need to take for their college dreams to materialize.
The idea of building an infrastructure of state and community-based networks to promote college access has been an integral component of KH2GO from its inception. Now, two years later, KH2GO has evolved from a five-state, two-region national advertising campaign designed to generate greater awareness about what students need to succeed in college into a college-access policy-advocacy movement with networks in 14 states—all of which embrace the fundamental goal of encouraging more underserved students to fulfill their dreams of a college credential.
The state networks include: California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Washington State, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Montana, Tennessee and Michigan. Los Angeles maintains a regional program. The next stage of KH2GO entails building additional networks and strengthening existing ones. An essential part of Phase Two will include shifting from a cooperating network structure to a collaborative one where network members have a more formal and active stake in how they address issues affecting students' postsecondary opportunities in a specific state or region.
The networks also will be ramping up their efforts to target KH2GO activities in ways that can help advance Lumina Foundation's "Big Goal," which focuses on increasing the percentage of Americans with high-quality college degrees and credentials to 60 percent by 2025.
"The KH2GO networks are really about establishing and sustaining an infrastructure for the access to success work that is occurring throughout the country," says Melanie Corrigan, director of national initiatives for the American Council on Education.
"Ultimately, the overarching goal is to gather a group of committed organizations that will be there for long term to help connect students with a college dream and to the steps they need to take to not only access college but to succeed," she says.
By design, the composition of each state or regional KH2GO network varies. The origins of the networks are often inherently different, as well. Some, like the Southern California College Access Network (SoCAL CAN), predate KH2GO. Another area that differs dramatically from network to network is the extent to which sustainable funding models—a critical activity of Phase Two KH2GO work—have been developed.
(See related sidebar: Advancing College Access Through Collaborative Networks)
For example, Michigan—a state that did not have a college access network developed until April 2009 with the launch of the Michigan College Access Network (MCAN)—recently has secured a $1 million grant from The Kresge Foundation to help advance its college access efforts. Monies from the grant will be issued in the form of challenge grants to 60 community foundations in Michigan, with the goal to raise money for college access and success efforts in local communities, explains Caroline Altman Smith, Kresge program officer.
Other funds from the Kresge grant will be used to plan for, create or expand statewide college access efforts. According to Smith, all of the organizations that qualify for the grants must join the MCAN Network and integrate KH2GO into their programming, launch it and support KH2GO efforts in their communities.
"Kresge is trying to spark the conversation about creating a college-going culture in the state of Michigan," says Smith. "To do this, we look to KH2GO not only as an important vehicle to keep us part of the national conversation but also as a rallying point that network participants can turn to for information on the steps kids need to take to be successful."
Sustainability of the networks will require genuine collaboration among network participants. Members need to be willing to embrace a "shared leadership mentality," according to ACE's Corrigan. Moreover, each network should have formal agreements that clearly unify members around a common purpose—in this case, increasing college access and success among low-income, first-generation students.
"A bottom-up leadership mentality is essential. Network members need to feel empowered to determine the nuts and bolts strategies that ultimately are used to advance the KH2GO message and the college advocacy efforts that target their state's access needs," Corrigan says.
"The keys to these networks are, of course, the lead partner organizations, which help with the overall organizational structure. However, the heart and soul of what will make a network exist for the long term are the organizations and the people providing the direct services to students either in their community or in their schools," Corrigan explains.
Potential network partners include representatives of higher education institutions, state education departments, local school districts, not-for-profit groups, college access sites, after-school programs, youth-service groups and faith-based organizations.
Prior to the 2007 launch of the KH2GO Tampa Bay Network, ENLACE Florida (ENgaging LAtino Communities for Education) had been entrenched in network building and policy-related college access activities through a multistate initiative funded by W. K. Kellogg Foundation to strengthen the educational pipeline and increase opportunities for Latinos to enter and complete college. Beginning in 2010, KH2GO Tampa Bay will expand its efforts statewide, with ENLACE serving as the lead organization of what will become known as the KH2GO Florida Network.
Paul Dosal, Director of ENLACE Florida, says Florida will spend the next five months re-evaluating the organizational structure of its network, assessing which communities and organizations are most likely to benefit from KH2GO. As part of this self-reflection process, Dosal plans to work with current and potential network partners to determine how the KH2GO Florida Network can best influence policy-making decisions and lobbying efforts to improve college access and success in that state.
"One of our key tasks is to transform what has been a great program that delivers messages and services to students and parents into organizing the people who benefit from those services as a network that can move forward with a policy agenda. This kind of thinking has the potential to benefit many, many more students," Dosal contends.
It also comes with several unique challenges. When leaders of multiple organizations agree to form a partnership, it is inevitable there will be differing perspectives on what should happen to influence systemic change.
"During the next five months of our planning process, there will no doubt be issues that divide us. It requires a lot of patience and often diplomatic efforts to get people to focus not on their differences but on what we share—our common vision."
Alison De Lucca, director of SoCal CAN, echoes those sentiments, adding: "In building our network in Southern California, we've learned there will always be conflict. If a good solid relationship is in place, however, and the right pieces—like a network's partner organizations—are there, conflict can be dealt with gracefully. In the end, you will have a better, stronger network."
Communication is key
The same communications strategies and use of online communities that were instrumental in getting Barack Obama elected as the 44th president of the United States play an important role in the KH2GO networks. In each of the 14 networks established to date, internal and external communications are designed to create cohesion within the individual networks, as well as increase visibility of members' activities and experiences to other networks. Just as important, the efforts work to turn ordinary people into college access and success activists. Among the communications and technology avenues that the networks employ: Monthly e-newsletters, state and regional Web sites, and a social networking platform called Ning.
Created in 2005, Ning provides customizable tools to help users create their own social networks. The KH2GO Ning, which was launched last year, enables KH2GO partners to exchange ideas, relate policy information, post KH2GO videos and offer insight about building and improving a network.
"The KH2GO Ning enables members from Ohio to California and elsewhere to share best practices, learn what other states are doing in respect to the college access activities of the networks and, most of all, exchange key information that can save members from reinventing the work other partners already have up and running," says Anh-Kay Pizano, M.Ed., project coordinator of the Tampa Bay KH2GO Network and one of the individuals responsible for getting the KH2GO Ning off the ground.
Additional communications guidance is provided to the KH2GO networks by the Academy for Educational Development (AED). One of the group's main responsibilities is a twice-a-year convening of the KH2GO Learning Community. According to Jeanna Keller, Lumina's KH2GO program manager, these meetings provide invaluable learning exchanges and professional development opportunity for network members.
"There are so many moving parts to KH2GO," Keller says. "The Learning Community serves as the platform for all of these parts to come together and share with each other."
Aspirations and policy
Formed in 2004, the Southern California College Access Network (SoCal CAN) is an alliance of 20 non-profit organizations working to promote a college-going culture in Southern California. Each year, SoCal CAN reaches more than 25,000 students with direct services and support.
According to De Lucca, SoCal CAN's involvement in the KH2GO campaign has amplified the overall success of the network's college access efforts, allowing the network to grow its membership significantly and expand the KH2GO ground campaign within the region. Moving forward, De Lucca says SoCal CAN will be looking for ways to move from a "strong coordinating network to one that is sustainable, outcomes-driven and focused on student service and advocacy."
"This is the beauty of networks; they are in a constant state of evolution and responsive to changing needs," says De Lucca.
As with all of the college access networks associated with KH2GO, policy plays a major role in the next stage of SoCal CAN's KH2GO-related work. Currently, SoCal CAN is conducting an analysis of existing policy/advocacy efforts in its region, as well as statewide to determine how network members can make a difference in this area.
"One of the driving forces behind the creation of SoCal CAN was a desire on behalf of our college-access organizations to lend their collective voices to policy issues affecting the educational aspirations of low-income, first-generation students," says De Lucca.
"The current fiscal and political environment poses real opportunities and challenges for our next phase of work with KH2GO," De Lucca adds. "It is truly a time for 'all hands on deck,' when innovation, leadership, resource sharing and collective planning and action are necessary to weather the storm."
Changing college-going culture in Appalachia
Three thousand miles away from the college access work being orchestrated by SoCal CAN, another KH2GO network—KH2GO Ohio—is working to break down the social and economic barriers that prevent Ohioans from realizing their postsecondary aspirations. KH2GO Ohio was formally created in the fall of 2006 when the College Access Network (OCAN), the Ohio Department of Education, and the Ohio Board of Regents signed on as the lead partners for the Ohio KH2GO campaign.
As the first statewide coordinating body for college-access programs in the nation, OCAN is uniquely positioned to serve as the "hub" organization for KH2GO Ohio. Through its 36 member organizations, OCAN has provided college-access services to more than 800,000 Ohioans since its inception in 1999. This includes more than 450,000 high school students. In the past academic year alone, OCAN reached out to nearly 200,000 students in 46 Ohio counties with services that include programs to motivate students to pursue college and earn a degree, counseling support on how to apply for financial aid, and information on scholarships, internships and college-retention services.
One of the benefactors of OCAN's college access work is West Union Junior and Senior High School. Located near Appalachian Ohio, the school is situated in an area plagued with high unemployment and poverty. Only 14 percent of individuals aged 25-34 in Appalachian Ohio possess a college degree compared to 28 percent nationally.
Beverley Holsted is all too familiar with the educational challenges students at West Union Junior High School face. As a Gear UP advisor for the school, Holsted manages a college-preparation program called High Expectations. The effort uses KH2GO materials to teach students the steps they need to prepare for college.
Providing a picture of what the future might look like with a college degree is making a difference for students, according to Holsted. She says boys and girls are more aware of financial aid and what they need to do now to get ready for future higher education opportunities.
"Prior to these programs, many of our students never viewed college as an option," says Holsted. "More than not knowing about financial aid or what kind of classes to take in order to get into college, they just didn't believe in themselves."
Lindsey Mueller, 14, agrees. She says her experiences from KH2GO and Holsted's High Expectations program have dramatically changed how she envisions her future, which now includes college.
"I realize how serious it is that I take the tougher classes if I want to go to college," says Mueller, who plans to attend Ohio University as a pre-med major.
Mueller's story is testament to what can happen when organizations work together, as a collaborative network with a shared goal, to promote a college-going culture. Additional affirmation on the value of using a network approach to influence academic achievement is evidenced by a 2007 study from the University of Cincinnati. According to the study, high schools that implemented OCAN's college-access programs witnessed a 3.8 percent average college-going rate increase.
The study also suggests OCAN programs may impact college-going rates by increasing the rates of graduation among senior classes. According to the study, high schools with an OCAN program had a 4.5 percent higher average rate of graduation—91.6 percent as opposed to 87.1 percent per school among high schools without a college-access program.
OCAN's 36 programs have been successful with private fundraising efforts, as well. In 2008, network members raised $19 million to provide services directly to students. At the same time, about $85 million in financial aid was secured for students through OCAN's network, according to Kimberly Gormley, director of marketing and communications for OCAN.
"Some of the dollars we're able to gather as a network are really helping to leverage one-to-one additional funds," Gormley says. "This success truly speaks to the power of what can happen when you have a network in place and the right lead organization on board to bring others together and help them share ideas that will make them successful."
"Moving forward, our goal as a network is to become the voice for college access in Ohio—the voice for our programs, the school districts and, ultimately, the voice for our students," Gormley says.
ACE's Corrigan adds to those sentiments with her thoughts on what lies ahead for the next phase of KH2GO:
"We currently have a message that is resonating, and it appears all of the stars are indeed aligned. There is incredible momentum building throughout the nation regarding the concept of college access and success and the transformative power of education to change lives. Now more than ever we feel we can make a difference."
Next time: The KH2GO Learning Community
