PROVIDENCE – Students who participated in The College Crusade of Rhode Island were half again as likely to graduate from high school than their urban peers across the state, and also were more likely to graduate than the average U.S. or Rhode Island student, based on the group’s Annual Report Card for the 2006-2007 school year. Crusaders also were more likely to head right to college, the organization found.
“The more time young people spend with adults who inspire them to pursue higher education, the more likely they are to succeed academically,” Mary Sylvia Harrison, the organization’s president and CEO, said in a statement this morning. “This is the principle at the center of our work.
“The students we serve encounter many obstacles on their way to getting an education,” she continued. “They come from low-income and predominantly minority families and attend low-performing urban public schools. They need to be supported and believed in every step of the way.”
For every 100 Crusaders who had entered ninth grade in the fall of 2003, 79 graduated from high school on time and 48 went right on to college, the group found in analyzing the Class of 2007. By comparison, Rhode Island’s urban districts saw 54 students in every 100 graduate on time and 31 go right to college; statewide, 71 percent graduated on time and 40 percent went right to college; and nationwide, 71 percent graduated on time and 38 percent went right to college.
“The increased graduation and college-going rates achieved by our Crusader class of 2007 are a result of our personalized approach to college readiness,” Harrison said. “There is a direct link between these outstanding results and the amount of time our students spent with their College Crusade Advisors and participating in our programs.”
The report found that, over the years, the Crusaders who did graduate on time and head to college had spent twice as much time in the organization’s programs as their counterparts who did not graduate on time. They also had spent more than five times as much time consulting their College Crusade advisers.
“This is a remarkable accomplishment,” said Peter McWalters, the R.I. commissioner of elementary and secondary education.
“The College Crusade was a pioneer in the college access movement nationally and has always supported students from an early age, helping them through the years to graduate from high school and to prepare for college,” he noted.
“The new Report Card offers compelling evidence that an individualized learning environment is crucial to student success and that The College Crusade Advisory model works. The Crusade experience can be a model for the state education system as we seek to ensure that all of our students succeed in high school and in college or the world of work.”
Added Harrison: “When you look at the results for The College Crusade class of 2007, which outperformed the state and the nation for graduation and college-going, you have to applaud the dedication and accomplishment of these students. They are living proof that personalization in education leads to success.”
The College Crusade of Rhode Island – a nonprofit organization founded in 1989 as the Rhode Island Children’s Crusade for Higher Education – is a comprehensive college-readiness and scholarship program that targets middle school and high school students in low-income school districts, serving more than 4,000 students per year. It was one of the first programs in the United States to combine early, sustained support for disadvantaged youths with the incentive of college scholarships. For more information, including the group’s full Annual Report Card, visit www.thecollegecrusade.org.
