Examining Implementation and Impacts for 10th Graders

By Lisa Merrill, Rachel Cole, Jasmine Soltani, David Kang (December 2017)

The iMentor College Ready Program combines school-based mentoring with technology and aspects of whole school reform, in an effort to improve students’ college readiness. The program matches youth with college-educated mentors, provides a weekly iMentor class focused college knowledge and key non-cognitive skills, and creates regular opportunities for students to interact with their mentor online and at monthly in-person events. iMentor aims to serve students throughout their four years of high school—from 9th through 12th grade. 

The Research Alliance is conducting an in-depth evaluation of the iMentor College Ready Program in eight New York City high schools. With support from the Social Innovation Fund, the Research Alliance is examining iMentor’s implementation in these schools, as well as its impact on a range of outcomes related to students’ preparation for college.

This report focuses on the implementation and impacts of iMentor’s College Ready Program for 10th grade students. The report examines the College Ready Program’s impact on a variety of outcomes (e.g., experiences and attitudes related to college preparation, attendance, GPA, on-track status) at the end of the students’ scheduled 10th grade year, and updates our analysis of the program’s implementation across schools. The report also begins to explore whether students’ engagement with key components of the College Ready Program had any association with positive outcomes. In particular, it looks at whether students who reported feeling very close to their mentor had stronger outcomes than those who did not, and whether students who met iMentor’s goals for participating in various program activities has stronger outcomes than those who did not participate as fully.