Improving Educational Outcomes

Ladue News

College Summit

    In 2005, when the St. Louis division of College Summit was launched, the college enrollment rate in St. Louis Public Schools was 39 percent. By 2009, the rate had jumped to 60.9 percent. “Together with our partner schools, we have worked to build the college-going culture in St. Louis,” says executive director Stacy Clay.

    Targeting students from low-income backgrounds, College Summit provides a four-year curriculum to SLPS and Normandy School district high schools, which prepares those students to apply, be accepted and succeed in college. Teachers are certified and classes are held within the context of a school day, utilizing custom textbooks and a companion website.

    With 90 percent of SLPS seniors involved in a College Summit class last year, the program recognizes how influential one 17-year-old can be to another. After junior year, teachers and counselors nominate students to become peer leaders. Those students attend a four-day workshop on an area college campus and return as advocates for the senior year process. “They come out embracing the idea that they have a real future and college is for them, in whatever form that takes,” Clay says.

    While College Summit is a nationwide program, the St. Louis entity focuses on how higher education will provide both personal enrichment, as well as a boost to a region that needs a college-educated workforce to remain competitive in today’s economy, Clay says. “We want to work with as many students as possible, regardless of GPA and circumstance, because every kid needs to have a plan after graduating from high school.”