- Washington Student Achievement Council - https://www.wsac.wa.gov/
- Becky Thompson, Director of Student Financial Assistance - beckyt@wsac.wa.gov - 360-753-7840
- Gray Sterling, Assistance Director on Policy and Planning - grays@wsac.wa.gov - 360-753-7633
- Rachelle Sharpe, Deputy Executive Director - rachelles@wsac.wa.gov - 360-753-7872
- We are Tacoma people, nice to have a short commute this morning
- The Washington Student Achievement Council is a fairly new State agency. We were created in 2012. Larry Seaquist helped shape our mission and how we support students (Yay Larry –ed.).
- A lot of our work is indirectly connected to your work – if education does indeed address many of the issues around homelessness (homelessness definitely impacts education - https://tacomahousing.net/sites/default/files/print_pdf/Education/Urban%20Institute%20THA%20Homelessness%20and%20Education%202014-12-22.pdf ,and most people agree that a lack of education impacts income and thus increase likelihood of homelessness.-ed) .
- We have a Council – every sector of education is on the council – kindergarten through grade 12 schools, community colleges, private and 4 year Universities, and businesses.
- We have a variety of programs the Governor gives to us – and we sit on the council.
- We set goals to assess the educational achievement level of students and set goals to meet standards
- We have 110 employees, manage the State’s GET program (https://www.get.wa.gov/ ), savings programs, scholarships, College Access, and more
- Our Attainment goals –
- 100% of working age adults have a High school diploma or equivalent. We are at 90.5%, and set our goal for 100%. In Pierce County, we are at 91% attainment .
- Post-secondary credential - Aiming for 75% - currently at 51% (including certificates and such). Pierce County – Associates Degree or higher in Pierce County – 37% (county level data is not as granular, so the 37% isn’t the same data point at the 51%).
- Average Hourly wages go up with level of education. Greater education, greater chance of family wage employment (at home I have a chart that shows level of education and average income on our fridge – hopefully my children are slowly absorbing that message every time they go to the fridge for a healthy, nutritious snack – or more realistically – hunting for the bowl of extra cookie dough I thought I had adequately hidden in the recesses of the upper shelf –ed.)
- About 75% of jobs in Washington State require something beyond high school. Our educational system is not producing enough credential workers to fill those jobs. Thus, we are hiring folks from the outside the State.
- Four challenges for post-secondary education:
- Close opportunity Gaps- in k-12 and for direct college enrollment and completion – for people of color and foster families
- Support Regional Leaders – Tacoma is doing a lot with the Tacoma College Access Network
- Reconnect Adults- many did not complete high school or credentials they started
- Provide affordable, high-quality pathways – address the financing gaps
- Programs
- College Bound Scholarship – only 3 states have this. An early commitment in Middle School where the State will cover costs of college, but student needs to commit to the classes. Have signed up 300,000 students. College Bound Students have a greater high school completion rate and a greater college enrollment rate. Need to do more to support students.
- Marybeth – if they are on a College Bound scholarship – can they be part time? Yes – all the way down to 3 credits. Can use the scholarships for 5 years after high school diploma. If they lose the scholarship, there are still other possible funding sources.
- 12th Year Campaign – need students to fill out Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Only 50% of seniors fill out the FAFSAs; research shows you are more likely to go to college if you take that first step. We are asking for budged to increase the number of folks filling out the FAFSA. (think it is so cool that the first word in FAFAS is free. –ed.).
- Tacoma Public schools has been one of the strongest school districts to get students signed up with FAFSA. Even so, 30% of students missed this opportunity. College Bound has a clock ticking – no scholarship if you don’t enroll within a year of competing high school. A lot of money is left on the table that would be provided by the State for college.
- For adults, we have no system to really engage with adults to talk to them about filling out the FAFSA or providing assistance in navigating the system or determining which program or career path to pursue, or what credentials to get. We are in the process of building a program to do that. We are building an interactive tool that will identify education programs and their barriers- like work, family, etc. 300,000 student have 1 year of college credit in Washington and have not completed their degree.
- Financial Aid is provided by the State Need grant – 68,000 student get access to funds just by filling out FAFSA- the funds help cover tuition and school costs. Our largest budget request is to fully fund this; the legislature is committed to that funding over the next 4 years – although we would like that sooner (Hopefully more education will lead to better punctuation – although the rather dodgy punctuation in this sentence is all my failure, I in no way blame the public education system for my incorrect and over use of the dash – I just can’t help myself. –ed.). We would like to better help families plan for this support – it is a bit of a lottery now, so not something you can count on for budget planning.
- Passport to College – created in 2007 – serves youth from the foster care system (one of our past foster kids is in her second year of college using this funding – I always figured she’d do well, but the support that programs like this provide make her path to success and self-sufficiency so much more probable. Foster kids need every support they can get, and this solid program provides it in spades -ed).
- We sign up every foster youth, regardless of grade level, with the Children’s Administration.
- Servers about 400 student per year.
- Not just scholarship – helps to offset costs. Youth from care without parents to help them navigate the system – provides some funding for colleges to support, and some outreach services. Also a program to help youth when they are struggling
- Program was expanded in last legislative session – to include apprenticeships as well as more traditional education.
- Also expanding to unaccompanied homeless youth that face similar challenges as foster youth. Will be serving these youth next year.
- Anyone who is considering a training or higher education program next year – do the FAFSA that opens in a couple weeks – and our systems will be well enough automated to identify the students eligible for this program.
- Larry – talk about homeless families and homeless kids – can you help connect a child to register for these program? Response - one of the beauties of the automation with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is we share data with schools when youth move into schools. Foster and youth are mobile – but we track the student’s program application status. Staff at a school where students move in can see through a portal who if the student is not signed up for college bound. Can also see who hasn’t filled out the FAFSA. The school can then get them enrolled.
- Question - the FAFSA is overwhelming – I can see why folks wouldn’t fil it out. Rachelle – it is better than it used to be – have some skip logic now.
- Question – our clients often don’t file. Rachelle- we have resources and toolkits we can send to high school s and organizations to help families go through the FAFSA application process (yes, I know FAFSA has the word application in it already, but it just sounds right when I use it this way –ed.)
- Marybeth – Metropolitan Development Council has a service that can help students with the FAFSA – MDC staff at any community college, at goodwill and at MDC can help families fill that information out. Becky – With the passport to college expansion, you all have support services as well as the scholarship. In the high school, those that are eligible can get assistance. We are working on how we roll that out for the 19-20 academic year. I’m interested in hearing about these other resources that can help students out. How do we promote these other resources, and how do we work together.
- Question – when I went to TCC – filling out the FAFAS was a barrier – I had trouble with information needed from my parents who I wasn’t in contact with. Rachelle – a new process allows (my notes are a little puzzling here, I think the process allows youth who have no contact with parents to not have to enter parent information –ed.).
- Al – at what grade level do the most student drop out of college. Do we have some way to reach students that drop out in the transition from middle school to high school, too? Rachelle – the college bound program tries to reach out to youth in that transition.
- Maureen – this is good, but the next real barrier is walking onto the campus. In a recent example, support staff at Clover park were amazing, but a client only got support because they noticed advertisement for MDC. Rachelle – we are looking at how our agencies can work together . We don’t tell SNAP recipients that they are eligible for scholarship. We can do data matches to do some targeted messaging to these folks so they know what they can access.
- Theresa – there is some ambiguity about the definition of homelessness. Who do you serve? Rachelle – definition includes unaccompanied youth whoe are couch surfing.
- Kelly – At Jason Lee – they say they have 100% sign up rate. As a parent, we didn’t know about all of this. To increase your rate, parents need more knowledge for the parents. Rachelle - that is a budget request. We have to use innovative tools to connect with parents and students before and after they sign up. We don’t just follow the 7th grade year. Instead, we look at everyone who may have become eligible during the year.
- Carrie – How is this program funded? Rachelle – State general fund. There is a lot of will to expand this funding. College Bound is treated like an entitlement – no other program has that level of commitment – but even if it isn’t guaranteed, it is very well supported.
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