Understanding the Landscape of College Outreach Service Programs in Southern California

Principal Investigator: Estela Zarate

Funder: The Henry T. Nicholas, III Foundation

Study Purpose: To capture the different types of college access outreach programs in Southern California

Study Design: The initial phase of the study surveyed the landscape of college access programs by interviewing program administrators in Southern California, the majority situated in Anaheim and Santa Ana.

Initial Findings

• College advising outreach programs are expensive to implement; they typically do not engage parents, and they do not follow students to see how they fare in the future. 
• Outreach programs that are individualized seem to be very effective but also are costly and labor intensive.
• Outreach programs should invest in on-going evaluation; many outreach programs thrive because they invest in assessment and evaluation to fund their programs and evaluations and assessments are crucial to funding and development.