Emerging Practices with Promise
Submitted By: Joyce Johnson, Southwest Riverside Adult Education Consortium
Counseling transition team leads to more students enrolling in college
- Type of Practice: Seamless Transitions
- Targeted Population: English Language Learners
- Program Area(s): Adult Basic & Secondary Education, English as a Second Language & Citizenship
- Consortia Involved:
Southwest Riverside County Adult Education Regional Consortium: Beaumont Unified School District, Hemet Unified School District, Lake Elsinore Unified School District, Mt San Jacinto Community College District, Murrieta Valley Unified School District, Perris Unified School District, San Jacinto Unified School District, Temecula Valley Unified School District
The Challenge
The Southwest Riverside Adult Education Consortium had trouble getting its adult learners to transition to postsecondary education. Typically, the region’s adult programs did not partner with the local community college or work transition programs. Adult learners would earn their GED, HiSET or diploma at one of the adult schools and then disappear.
The Solution
To address the challenge, the consortium added counseling support – associate counselors hired by Mt. San Jacinto College – at each of the adult education programs throughout the consortium, to ensure that all students had access to a counselor who could help guide them in the transition to postsecondary education. Students were able to schedule time with the counselor, who was well-versed in postsecondary options.
The consortium’s Counseling Transition Team was in place as a pilot program between January 2017 and May 2017. All adult schools, through the consortium, were able to set up a pilot plan to implement the educational counseling services. The counselors visited each program bi-monthly and also hosted FAFSFA events and scheduled tours of Mt. San Jacinto College.
Outcomes
The counseling support has resulted in an increase in the number of students who have access to postsecondary planning, FAFSA information and college-placement tests – and, ultimately, it helped increase the number of students transitioning into career and degree programs.
The Data
The results are promising: more than 20 students who worked directly with the counseling team completed the enrollment process and became students at the community college. The consortium has put in place a more aggressive plan for the 2017-2018 school year to increase counseling support and increase the number of student outcomes.
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