Paritii | Addressing Underserved student barriers

Case Study

Addressing Underserved student barriers

Paritii served as the equity learning partner to five institutions and the EdTech vendors that support them as part of a consortium aimed at addressing barriers that impede effective and equitable advising solutions at lower-resourced institutions.

Problem

Post-secondary institutions, especially lower-resourced ones, struggle to empower advisors with the comprehensive student data required to effectively support student success. Institutions often fail to address the unique needs of underrepresented students, and this phenomenon manifests in the decline in undergraduate enrollment, concentrated among Native American, Black, and Hispanic students. The decline is often attributed to the cumbersome and disconnected prospect-to-enrolled process. This happens because the EdTech market is dominated by “point solutions” that specialize in student interaction tracking for specific populations and offices but lack the integration and interoperability capabilities, as well as the financial incentives to provide more holistic solutions for lower-resourced postsecondary institutions.

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Solution

The five EdTech vendor/institution pairs focused on exploring, identifying, and testing innovative solutions to common challenges that hinder lower-resourced Post-Secondary institutions in providing underrepresented students with the effective and equitable advising support needed for their successful navigation of the journey from enrollment to graduation and beyond. Paritii played the role of an equity learning partner to all demonstration project leaders as they determined how to evolve their projects in a manner that tangibly centered the strengths, needs, and experiences of underrepresented students. In this role, we

Formulated recommendations for equity alignment centered around a set of five foundational equity orientations
Developed an eight-domain equity framework for system transformation at post-secondary institutions
Delivered a customized equity alignment roadmap and critical path tailored to each individual project’s context, resources, objectives, and goals
Provided equity guidance and partnership through listening and exploration sessions, equity orientation materials, and individualized consultations
Identified five key themes that emerged throughout the engagement and could be observed as learnings across all projects
Facilitated a final Convening Session for sharing progress and learnings from the Demonstration Projects

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Impact

The work of the Demonstration Projects helped advance the advising and student technology ecosystem by identifying and testing viable paths for improving advising technology and process efficacy, documenting these learnings, and sharing learnings with key field stakeholders. Project stakeholders gained an equity-first perspective and tangible actions to embed in project activities and outcomes. The EdTech providers gained insight into possible enhancements and technology solutions with better value and higher impact on equitable outcomes. The projects also introduced and tested a new model for collaborative problem-solving through vendor/institution partnerships and across demonstration projects.

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