ATLANTA — State officials from across the region met this week to look at using marketing campaigns and digital media to boost high school and college graduation rates — and to urge more adults in the region with some college credit to finish a degree.
The Southern Regional Education Board was the host for the sixth annual SREB Go Alliance conference, held October 28-30 at the Atlanta Airport Hilton Hotel. The conference focused on helping states raise overall educational levels across the region. One in four high school students does not graduate on time, and barely more than half of high school graduates enter college — and then only about half of them earn a degree.
The SREB Go Alliance brings state leaders together to develop and share marketing strategies to reach more students to encourage them to complete high school and go to college. The Go Alliance provides states with access to national experts and research and provides ways for states to create and share TV commercials, Web-based programs and more.
National college access campaign expert Jennifer Hahn of Douglas Gould and Company in New Rochelle, New York, gave the meeting’s keynote address on effective campaigning within a budget.
Organizations in several SREB states in the Go Alliance are taking action:
Sue Patrick of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education said that Project Graduate in her state is helping adult students across the state with substantial college credit but no degree to continue their studies. In a short time, the program has helped 460 students enroll in college courses, with 1,000 expected by summer 2009. Fifty graduates are expected to receive diplomas in December 2008.
Donna Spain-Bryant of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education noted her state’s efforts to increase college enrollments and stir more interest in the state’s Oklahoma’s Promise scholarships, which few minority students were pursuing. The state offers Web-based tools such as www.okcollegestart.org.
Adult learning outreach efforts also are expanding, said Bruce Chaloux, SREB’s director of Student Access Programs and Services. "If you’re not looking at your adult population, you need to be," he said. Millions — perhaps tens of millions — of adults in SREB states have substantial college credit but have not completed a degree, he said.
Chaloux said that a successful and growing adult learning campaign has taken off in Louisiana. In partnership with SREB and a consortium of schools in northern Louisiana, the Louisiana Board of Regents has developed the Center for Adult Learning in Louisiana (CALL) program. Through local advertising and direct mail, CALL invites thousands of northern Louisiana residents with substantial college credit but no degree to go back to school.
In its first year, CALL began at Bossier City Community College and Northwestern State University in Shreveport. Fifty students have completed degrees already. For about $500,000, the state saw a return of $1.3 million in new tuition money and should see substantial numbers of additional college graduates, Chaloux said. The state has funded an expansion of CALL for 2008-2009 at four additional institutions.
Karen Woodfaulk of the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education told conference attendees of the many ways SREB states will be using the substantial new federal College Access Challenge Grants and offered tips on putting the money to good use, including some though Go Alliance collaboration.
Also, Mac Lorimer of the Georgia Association of Broadcasters and Sue Patrick of Kentucky told the conference of how more states are partnering with state broadcasting and cable associations for educational campaigns, with considerable savings in "media buys."
Melanie Corrigan of the American Council on Education described the national KnowHow2Go campaign.
Keith Bourne, the founder and CEO of Michigan-based Adaptive Campus, presented possible ways states can use social networking programs such as myspace.com and facebook.com to promote graduation marketing programs and events designed to help more students finish high school and enroll in college.
For more information about any of these programs or for an update of such activity in your state, contact SREB Communications.
SREB, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, advises state education leaders on ways to improve education. SREB was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Each is represented by its governor and four gubernatorial appointees. For more information, go to www.sreb.org.
