A three-year, $457,794 grant from the Kauffman Foundation will enable the Missouri College Advising Corps (MCAC) to expand its efforts in Kansas City, Mo.
Established in 2007 with a $1 million grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and matching funding from the University of Missouri, MCAC places recent MU graduates in high schools to increase the number of Missouri students going to college. While the program and its staff are managed by MU, advisers do not exclusively recruit students to Mizzou.
The Missouri program began with nine advisers embedded in seven high schools and three community colleges. In its second year, it grew to 13 advisers in 11 high schools and three community colleges. After two years, the program saw an average 6.3 percent increase in college-going rates at the seven inaugural high schools, and an average 4.6 percent increase at the new schools. Results from year three will be received later this month.
Now in its fourth year, MCAC has 24 college advisers serving 25 partner high schools, including 10 in Kansas City, Mo. The Kauffman grant will be used to expand the program to another Kansas City-area high school and to hire a coordinator to support the advisers and build relationships in region.
For more about the program, contact Elizabeth Tankersley-Bankhead, executive director.