Take Action
Too few communities are prioritizing aligned advising. There’s a role for each player. Here’s where to start.
State Government
State Government
Federal Government
Higher Education
K-12 Districts and Schools
Nonprofits & College Access Organizations
Philanthropy
State Government
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- Create a coherent, equity-driven plan across K-12 and higher education for aligned advising.
- Define a set of key milestones that all students should complete in preparing for the transition to postsecondary education and training, and delineate the roles and responsibilities among staff for supporting students in meeting them.
- Track Momentum Metrics data, and make it available to high school counselors, principals, and others providing direct student support.
- Facilitate the establishment of MOUs and articulation agreements among K-12 districts, two-year institutions, and four-year institutions.
- Invest in ongoing training and certification for high school counselors around college and career readiness.
- Leverage GEAR UP and other state and federal programs to target advising support to students of color, low-income students, and first-generation students.
- Invest in statewide FAFSA and summer melt campaigns.
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- Establish a financial bonus for districts and higher education institutions for students successfully transitioning to postsecondary education and training, specifically those that close equity gaps for students of color, low-income students, and first-generation students.
- Build and operationalize a longitudinal data system that allows for proactive advising in real-time and prevents duplicate data collection.
- Create a statewide postsecondary advising corps to build capacity in communities that predominantly serve students of color, low-income students, and first-generation students.
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- Incorporate Momentum Metrics into OCR collection, NCES Reporting, and College Scorecard.
- Expand national service grants, with a focus on postsecondary transitions, especially in communities serving predominantly students of color, low-income students, and first-generation students.
- Simplify the FAFSA, and eliminate the need for verification.
- Require higher education institutions to use standardized financial aid award letters, and create tools to help students and families compare across institutions and across states.
- Provide clarity and guidance to states and districts on how federal grant programs can be stitched together to strengthen advising.
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- Develop funding streams that provide financial incentives to expand advising supports and facilitate K-12 and higher education partnerships, with additional funds for communities serving predominantly students of color, low-income students, and first-generation students.
- Create a federal campaign focused on expanding the role of advising and building social capital, particularly for students of color, low-income students, and first-generation students.
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- Implement guided pathways with proactive, ongoing advising for first-year students.
- Dedicate institutional staff to coordinate partnerships across K-12 and higher education.
- Create a common application accepted by all statewide institutions, with no fees for low-income students.
- Create common financial aid award letters to enable students and families to compare across institutions.
- Eliminate or defer admissions deposits, particularly for low-income students.
- Provide direct support to high school students around FAFSA completion and financial aid, particularly for students of color, low-income students, and first-generation students.
- Reform school counselor preparation programs to center around college and career readiness, to expand the pipeline of diverse candidates, and to build capacity around serving students of color, low-income students, and first-generation students.
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- Assign institutional advisors to local high schools to directly support students, particularly students of color, low-income students, and first-generation students, and maintain engagement through matriculation.
- Develop shared data and advising protocols between institutions and local districts.
- Invest stimulus resources to expand advising capacity and restructure the first-year experience to ensure students get off to a strong, supported start.
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- Conduct a needs assessment and build a strategic plan to close equity gaps for students of color, low-income students, and first-generation students around postsecondary transitions.
- Create a College and Career Readiness Director position to coordinate support, build capacity of counseling staff, and lead the district’s strategy around postsecondary transitions.
- Design and implement college and career readiness curricula.
- Build champions at the school leadership level for college and career readiness priorities.
- Build capacity, provide tools, and train all school staff to engage in college and career advising.
- Create a differentiated approach to targeting student supports.
- Collect and actively monitor disaggregated data, with a close eye on equity gaps, on the Momentum Metrics to target supports.
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- Use federal stimulus dollars to dramatically expand internal and external advising capacity.
- Hold principals accountable for demonstrating progress on the Momentum Metrics, and provide tools and support to meet their goals.
- Restructure the school day to build in time for advisory or a required college and career readiness course.
- Develop and implement structures to track and support alumni after high school graduation.
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- Identify ways to differentiate and scale supports for students across various geographies, district sizes and types, and student characteristics.
- Begin to measure and expand student relationships and social capital.
- Work strategically with schools and districts to integrate and align support, jointly problem-solve, and collectively review data.
- Facilitate partnerships between districts and higher education institutions to ensure a “warm hand-off” for students.
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- Use a common set of measures and data infrastructure, in partnership with the local district, to organize support across multiple providers.
- Create measures that hold nonprofits and college access organizations accountable for outcomes to schools and districts.
- Create training and resources on high-impact advising practices, with the support of philanthropy, to build capacity for schools, districts, and institutions.
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- Support districts, college access organizations, and institutions with translating, scaling, and sharing best practices, starting with those that are effective in serving students of color, low-income students, and first generation students.
- Support college access organizations in determining when and how technology can be an effective force multiplier.
- Fund districts and nonprofits to pilot how to measure and develop social capital.
- Fund innovative new models of aligned advising, particularly those aimed at supporting students of color, low-income students, and first-generation students.
- Fund training on high-impact advising practices to build capacity across districts, institutions, and regions.
- Prioritize a common set of metrics and infrastructure for grantees to drive towards collective action.
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- Convene and build networks to translate knowledge into action and to create enabling conditions for collective action around advising.
- Invest in state-based and regional data infrastructure to efficiently share student and school level information across systems.
- Invest in the creation and maintenance of an open-source knowledge and learning platform for advisors to share resources, knowledge, and training across communities and states.
- Fund organizations led by leaders who are representative of the populations they serve (i.e., Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, first-generation college students).
