With the addition of new educational materials
on its website and increased visibility at various Coalition
for Access, Affordability, and Success is moving closer to launching the
first two of three components of a technology platform designed to
support long-term college planning and a new approach to the application
process. college conferences across the country, the
While no specific date has been set, the “Locker,” or
portfolio development tool, and the associated “Collaboration Space” will be
introduced as promised in April, with the application set to debut in July.
“Negativity is dying down,” said Colin Melinda Johnson,
interim director of the Coalition in an interview on Coalition plans for the
coming months. “We’ve been getting some positive press and the volume of
misgivings is fading.”
In her new role, Ms. Johnson has been traveling to meet with
various organizations to present the new set of online tools she hopes will
improve the way students apply to college.
And from her office at the University
of Chicago, she has been working with CollegeNet, the Portland, Oregon-based
software developer, to put together instructional materials targeted to
applicants, college counselors and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) that
work with low-income, underrepresented students.
She is also coordinating a Coalition Counselor Community composed
of 65 counselors representing 33 public high schools, 21 private high schools
and 11 CBOs. In addition, Ms. Johnson is overseeing a series of beta tests currently
being conducted by one school district, a CBO, and a Charter School.
And while elements of the application have yet to be totally
finalized, the structure is in place and the organization feels confident the new
platform reflects state-of-the-art application technology and will be met with
an enthusiastic response by users.
Here is an update:
Staffing. In addition to appointing Ms. Johnson as
interim director, the University of Chicago Office of Admissions is currently
interviewing for an Assistant Director of Coalition Outreach to “work primarily
on the Coalition’s behalf for at least one year,” after which the position is
expected to transition to the Coalition. Both positions report to Chicago’s
Vice president and Dean of Admissions, James Nondorf, who currently serves as
the chairman of the Coalition.
Membership. Membership
currently stands at 91 colleges and universities. Many are also members of the Common Application, but many are also
current customers of CollegeNet. Those CollegeNet institutions meeting current
Coalition membership requirements are mostly migrating to the new platform. A
number of additional colleges are currently in the pipeline, but it’s unlikely
the total will get as high as 100 active institutions, as some may want the
association but will delay offering the application for a year. In the
meantime, a committee chaired by Zina Evans, vice president for enrollment
management at the University of Florida and
William Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard College, is looking into loosening
membership restrictions for next year.
Exclusives. For
the moment, three universities have announced that they will be Coalition
exclusive—University of Florida, University of Maryland College Park, and University of Washington. While a large
percent are Common App members and intend to keep their association, others are
hedging their bets by maintaining existing applications. Over the next several
years, however, it is believed that many current CollegeNet customers will drop
the redundant application and effectively be Coalition exclusive. Note that it
is not the Coalition’s intent to encourage exclusivity. The new platform was
created partly out of a perceived need for competition in the industry, which
they feel benefits everyone.
Launch. The
Locker and associated Collaboration Space will go live in April. Students can
open accounts at MyCoalition.org,
where they will be asked to create a “profile” and have the opportunity to
create a college list. For the class of 2017, the application portal will open in
July, at which time students may begin the process of completing and submitting
to those institutions ready to begin accepting applications.
Beta Testing. For now, only the Locker and Collaboration
Space are being beta tested. The application will begin testing later in the
spring. Aside from technology input, the Coalition Counselor Community is providing
feedback on educational materials, handouts, and press releases.
Training. The Coalition is in the process
of putting together a series of webinars, a schedule for which should be posted
on the website next week. In addition, representatives are meeting with various
organizations, attending conferences and otherwise offering information and
training as opportunities present themselves.
The Locker.
Possibly the most controversial of the Coalition’s college planning tools, the
Locker goes live next month and is a place for students to store documents
related to the processes of planning and applying for college. It is entirely
controlled by the student. While mentors may be offered opportunities to
comment on items stored in the Locker, they will not be able to edit or
otherwise “curate” these materials through the Collaboration Space. Examples of
items a student may wish to include in the Locker would be a resume, a graded
assignment, a research paper, a scientific abstract, a video or a
recording. These materials may be later
transferred to specific applications as requested by individual colleges. For
example, next year the University of Chicago plans to allow for the submission
of a graded paper in its application process.
This paper may be one originally loaded into the Locker. Finally, the
Locker will serve as a repository for confidential materials uploaded by
teachers and counselors including recommendations, official transcripts, and
school reports. These items will be placed in “sealed envelopes” and will not
be visible to the student, but they will be available for submission to
colleges as part of the Coalition application process.
Mentors. A
student may invite mentors to provide guidance and support and otherwise
collaborate with them throughout the college planning and application
processes. Mentors include, but are not limited to, teachers, counselors, CBO
staff, clergy, coaches and independent
educational consultants (IECs). They may be invited to comment on, but not
alter or edit, items stored in the Locker and shared in the Collaboration Space.
The Locker and its contents are not visible to universities and colleges,
although a student may (under certain specific circumstances) use the Coalition
Space to share an item from the Locker with an admissions officer acting as a
mentor. The purpose of the Locker is to
facilitate college planning as well as to store and organize materials
potentially relevant to the application process. Students using the Locker tool
are not required to use the Coalition application. At the same time, students
using the Coalition application are not required to make use of the Locker and/or
invite mentor comments in the Collaboration Space.
Naviance.
The Coalition is looking toward integration with Naviance in Year Two. For this year, a technical group representing
Naviance and Hobsons is partnering with Coalition staff to put together a
series of instructional documents walking counselors step-by-step through the
process of coordinating the Naviance system with the Coalition
application. This guidance should be
available on the Coalition website next week.
In the meantime, it is hoped that with cooperation from Naviance and
input from school counselors beta testing the tools, any additional work
involved for this year will be minimal and the systems will function together
smoothly. Counselors will be able to
determine their level of engagement with the Coalition platform, which may
range from document submission through the Collaboration Space to opening an
account with a dashboard keeping track of all students using the Coalition
application and their status in the application process—not too dissimilar to
the dashboard provided by other shared application products.
As planned, the Coalition application will allow for a
significant amount of customization of individual applications. There will be
shared elements, and many of the individual applications will look similar, but
they will differ in terms of what is required. This is not too much of a
departure from how CollegeNet currently works with institutions using their
application. Note that the decision whether or not to require a shared personal
statement is still under consideration, but the Coalition is leaning away from
this requirement in favor of allowing individual colleges to fully script their
own writing requirements.
For more information and greater detail on the current
status of various elements of the application, visit the Coalition website.
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