Progress Toward Success Boston's College Completion Goals for Graduates of the Boston Public Schools

Abt Global authored the second chapter of this report that offers a first-look at the results of a transitional college coaching program. In the chapter, authors provide descriptive analyses of the first cohort of Boston high school graduates to receive coaching from the Success Boston Coaching (SBC) initiative. Launched in 2008, SBC is a citywide, collaborative initiative that targets low-income, first-generation students of color and works to reduce their barriers to college success through coaching supports offered between high school and the first two years of college.
Authors discuss rates of college enrollment and completion for coached students versus non-coached students, finding that 52 percent of coached Black, male students graduated within six years while 33 percent of non-coached Black, male students similarly graduated. At the colleges most likely to enroll students participating in SBC, the college completion rate for coached students (49 percent) was ten percentage points higher than that of students who did not participate (39 percent graduated).