New funding available to help schools get Arizona students to college

PHOENIX — Education Forward Arizona is continuing its College Knowing and Going program in an ongoing effort to get more students into post-secondary education.

The announcement of 30 schools now in the program follows a $3.4 million investment from the Helios Education Foundation.

The program falls in line with Education Forward’s Achieve60AZ college attainment goal, which aims to get 60% of working Arizonans a college degree or trade certification by 2030.

It specifically contributes toward that goal in a few ways.

“It is a program that is designed to work with schools, and with communities that care about those schools, to increase their college-going culture,” Education Forward Arizona CEO Rich Nickel said.

It does that by providing schools with a few resources:

• Promote collaboration between families and educators to ensure graduating high school students are ready to pursue college or trade careers.
• Fund programs that may not already be available at specific schools (i.e. FAFSA workshops for students and parents).
• Create student ambassador positions, filled by current students, that help other peers navigate the process of furthering their education.

It will also provide funds to help schools utilize the state’s Personalized Admissions Project, which is a separate program that automatically sends letters of acceptance to qualifying students before they apply to any of the state’s major universities.

Among the schools in the program are several rural campuses in Arizona’s Copper Corridor east of the Valley.

Richard Ramos is superintendent of the Miami Unified School District #40, which includes Miami Junior-Senior High School and is part of the College Knowing and Going program.

“Anytime we can get support with an additional funding source …We’re able to make those connections for kids and expose them to additional resources,” Ramos said.

For Miami specifically, the funding can help families with FAFSA applications and even help pay for field trips to the state’s major universities.

“It gives our kids an opportunity to see what is happening outside their community,” Ramos said.

Miami Junior High is also near other schools receiving funds from the program, including schools in Globe, Superior and Hayden.

Ramos says the region needs to take a teamwork approach due to their shared funding struggles.

“It’s one of the ways we can succeed. By supporting one another, visiting other campuses just to see what’s happening, so that way we can take those best practices and implement them on our own context,” Ramos said.