A Quick Summary…
Each year, almost a thousand Colorado students are eligible to graduate high school early.
National data suggests that about a third of those students come from low-income families, and a third are likely to be students of color. Unfortunately, many of these students who are ready for their next step can become disengaged and are at risk of dropping out if they remain in high school.
Supporting these students to access postsecondary and workforce programs earlier is a critical strategy for helping ensure they stay on a path that leads to greater economic mobility. In 2021, Colorado Succeeds helped champion the Successful High School Transitions Bill (SB21-106) which moved Colorado closer to blurring the lines between high school, postsecondary education, and career by introducing Path4Ward: Early High School Graduate Innovation Program.
Path4Ward offers early high school graduates financial support to pursue college courses, workforce training, or certificate programs. The program allows students to use these funds for tuition, textbooks, technology, and transportation costs, ensuring they have the resources to continue their education and training.
By breaking down traditional barriers between high school, higher education, and workforce training, Path4Ward aims to keep these students engaged and empower them with the tools they need to succeed.
To maximize the impact of the program, Colorado Succeeds leveraged a philanthropic investment to bring on additional technical assistance providers to support student navigation and program evaluation. These resources allowed participating districts to increase awareness, provide personalized guidance to early graduates, and ensure immediate support for transition needs. They also supported research and evaluation to understand the learnings from the pilot. Finally, Colorado Succeeds engaged a national advisory council to help inform the program and share learnings.
The Problem:
Getting Stuck in a Siloed System
Colorado is a national leader in efforts to better prepare students for postsecondary success. But despite the state’s concentrated efforts, Colorado has one of the lowest postsecondary-going rates in the nation.
Students who are both ready to graduate from high school early and academically prepared for college are at risk of becoming disengaged in their education and dropping out before pursuing a postsecondary pathway that leads to economic mobility. Too often this group of learners, which includes many students from low-income backgrounds and students of color, are at risk of dropping out of the education pipeline.
Fewer than 50% of Colorado students who graduated from high school in 2021 went on to enroll in college
These students often lack the comprehensive resources and guidance needed to navigate their way to postsecondary pathways sooner and districts often prefer to keep these students enrolled, even if they may thrive by entering postsecondary or workforce training sooner. Additionally, there are financial benefits to schools for keeping students enrolled, even if they may thrive by entering postsecondary or workforce training sooner.
The consequences of losing some of our best and brightest students to a system that is not sufficiently blurring the lines across education and training is significant. It means that Colorado has a persistent skills gap and our high school students are missing out on the benefits of a thriving economy.
90%
of the state’s jobs that pay a wage sufficient to support a family of three require some type of education or training beyond high school
<30%
of high school graduates earn a certificate, associate’s, or bachelor’s degree within six years of graduation
What We Did About It:
Finding & Financing a Pathway
Colorado Succeeds saw an opportunity to try to address this problem while leveraging our principles of putting learners first, equity, choice and innovation, and agility to partner with state legislators.
Eligible students can use Path4Ward funds for postsecondary education or workforce training in what would have been a student’s fourth year or final semester of high school. Unlike traditional state scholarships that are used primarily for tuition, students can also use the funds to cover costs associated with programs, such as textbooks, technology, and transportation. Additionally, when students enroll in postsecondary education early, it can have financial implications for districts that lose much-needed per-pupil funding. Path4ward addresses this by providing some funds back to districts, making them a partner in helping support students finishing early.
- Must graduate one year or one semester early from high school
- Must enroll in a qualified program within 18 months of high school graduation
- Must have been eligible for Free or Reduced Lunch at any point during grades 8-12 or be PELL eligible
- Eligible students receive 75% of per-pupil funding to be used for postsecondary education or workforce training.
- Up to $4,100 if they graduate in 3 years
- Up to $2,400 if they graduate in 3.5 years
- Funds are first sent directly to the student’s chosen educational or training program for tuition, with any remaining funds provided to the student for additional expenses.
- Colorado Department of Higher Education: Legislatively required to oversee the implementation of the pilot program, including selecting participating schools, disbursing scholarships to students, and managing participants.
- Colorado Succeeds: Engaged philanthropic partners to support implementation; facilitates strategic collaboration among partners to ensure pilot success and inform future policy efforts.
- RESCHOOL Colorado: Developed evaluation and measurement structures to help understand the student experience and facilitate implementation improvements; and supports dissemination of additional flexible funding—or, “learning dollars.”
- Zero Dropouts: Provided one-on-one navigation support to participating students and implementation support for participating learning providers.
Learnings
Path4Ward—the policy and program—is a recognition that some students seek to finish high school early, whether they are ready for college-level coursework or desire more experience in a career pathway, and aims to prevent them from getting disengaged and slipping through the cracks during a critical time in their lives.
By playing a role in the implementation of policy, Colorado Succeeds gathers real-time insights from learners, families, and educators, making our policy solutions all the more nuanced and impactful.
As Colorado works to ensure all high school graduates have access to a pathway that leads to economic mobility, some of the critical learnings from Path4Ward include:
Empowering students with flexible and timely resources is essential for learner-driven programs.
The current system in Colorado requires students to wait for their learning provider to process and reimburse funds. In the future, it is important to ensure every student, especially students from low-income backgrounds, has the funds they need when starting a program to cover costs and kick-start their journey.
It is essential to revitalize high school counseling to help learners explore and navigate postsecondary options and ensure wrap-around supports are available in college.
The current high school counseling model needs more capacity so that it can help students find pathways outside of traditional higher education. Path4Ward and other postsecondary success programs, like the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative, have shown the importance of wraparound services to support students fully.
Learners and families need information, including cost, time, fees, and requirements, to decide on postsecondary paths.
This data is currently housed in several places and is often not accessible. Facilitating better alignment and information sharing between institutions, including departments of education and higher education, learning providers, colleges, workforce agencies, and students and their families, would support reaching this goal.
Students have different passions, aspirations, and ways of learning.
Path4Ward reminds us that learner-centered systems enable students to learn at their own pace, explore their interests, and build a vision for their future. Moving away from seat time requirements and closer to relevant, rigorous, and engaging learning experiences will help expose students to high-quality pathways.
Outcomes & Impact:
Path4Ward By The Numbers (2021-2024)
443+
eligible early graduates referred by partner school districts for navigation services
2000+
contacts with students and families
123+
scholars pursuing approved postsecondary or workforce training programs using Path4Ward funds
32+
postsecondary institutions and workforce programs represented across the state
The Path4Ward pilot program has funding to continue through the 2025-2026 school year. We look forward to seeing how findings from the program can inform future efforts to pursue policies that ensure students have the autonomy, financial resources, and navigation support necessary to achieve their goals after high school.
*NOTE: The Colorado Department of Higher Education reports final program data on Nov 1 following the completed school year. This data will be updated at that time to account for data gaps between May and November 2024.
Path4Ward Students
Jaquelin
ADAMS 12, PATH4WARD STUDENT
Jaquelin’s pathway to graduation began in elementary school. She always felt behind academically as she entered elementary school, understanding more Spanish than English. Her family took her out of her large elementary school to enroll in a smaller charter school. Upon entry, she was made to repeat third grade due to test scores. She continued in a charter school until her freshman year of high school when she transferred to a district-run school. She always felt compelled to graduate early as she was older than her peers and ready to move on. She graduated a semester early and is now finishing up her second semester at Metropolitan State University in their International Business Program.
Kenya
ADAMS 12, PATH4WARD STUDENT
A three-year graduate of Vantage Point High School, Kenya completed her Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program through PIMA Medical Institute in March 2023. She was hired immediately at the Center in Northridge, working with patients in need of complex nursing care. Kenya struggled in school but decided to graduate early in order to get an early start in her career. She pursued a CNA program to ensure that all patients are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. She utilized her Path4Ward funds to pay for the entirety of her tuition and certification exam.
Thank You To Our Implementation Partners
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