Mentoring and Counseling Interventions
Post-Secondary Champions
The Education Lab partnered with Chicago Public Schools to help implement a program embedding post-secondary advisors in schools to provide personalized supports for students’ post-secondary career and education outcomes.
Challenge
Students attending Chicago alternative schools face significant barriers to educational attainment–only 38% graduate high school and only 30% of those graduates proceed to college within two years–creating the need for additional guidance on the diverse educational and career options available after high school.
Opportunity
The implementation of the Post-Secondary Champions program, which embedded advisors and mentors in schools to provide the intensive, tailored support many Chicago students need to reach their goals, provided an innovative approach to these challenges. Post-Secondary Champions worked directly with student cohorts, guiding them through the labyrinth of post-secondary options, from college and career exploration to the application and admissions process. Simultaneously, they worked towards systematizing and codifying their cohort’s learnings and best practices, contributing to the design of sustainable postsecondary supports for CPS.
Project overview
The Post-Secondary Champions project was a part of the Chicago Student Success Initiative (CSSI), a collaborative effort between the Education Lab and the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to identify and support students facing the most significant barriers to educational and career success.
The Education Lab partnered with CPS to implement the Post-Secondary Champions project. Post-Secondary Champions worked toward ensuring students matriculated in the post-secondary option best fitting their interests and long-term goals. They provided direct post-secondary support for schools, led college and career exploration activities, coordinated with various stakeholders to facilitate work-based learning activities, and conducted student workshops. In addition to advising students, Post-Secondary Champions were tasked with systematizing, codifying, and translating best practices.
The Post-Secondary Champions project complemented the Post-Secondary Pathways project, through which the Education Lab worked to identify promising interventions to support students on all the paths they may take after high school.
Years Active
2019 – 2022
Project Leads
Monica Bhatt
Senior Research Director
Dar’tavous Dorsey
Director of Partnerships and Community Engagement
Ilana Walden
Founder and CEO, Forest Zafran Consulting LLC
John Wolf
Associate Director
Seizing the Opportunity to Advance Education Equity
2021 Education Lab report on barriers to education faced by CPS students.
2023 Video- University of Chicago Education Lab: Looking Back and Forward
Watch our latest video on the Education Lab’s history and vision for the future.