Alexandria, VA and Boston, MA (PRWEB) January 16, 2014
uAspire, a national nonprofit committed to ensuring that all young people have the financial information and resources they need to find an affordable path to—and through—a post-secondary education, today announced an expanded partnership with technology developer Signal Vine. Formalizing their existing collaboration, the organizations will work together to increase college enrollment and student success through text message interventions.
Signal Vine’s text messaging platform enables organizations and their staff to easily communicate with thousands of students in a way that maximizes student responsiveness and engagement. Over the last year and a half, uAspire has utilized this platform to implement text-based outreach services to students during their transition from high school to college and throughout their first year of college.
Expanding their relationship with Signal Vine enables uAspire to extend this successful intervention strategy across the organization’s nationwide network of direct service sites.
"Partnering with Signal Vine has expanded and transformed the way we provide high-quality support to our students,” said Erin Cox, President of uAspire. “Their texting platform allows us to meet students where they are at—on their phones—with ongoing, personalized communication that can easily be scaled to impact thousands of students regardless of where they live. We're thrilled with the results we've already seen from our collaboration with Signal Vine, and we look forward to expanding the effective use of text-based interventions at uAspire and beyond through this exciting national partnership."
Across the summers of 2012 and 2013, uAspire employed the Signal Vine platform to communicate via text message with 2,200 recent high school graduates, providing customized information about financial aid deadlines, loan options, contact information for relevant offices at their higher ed institution, and availability of in-person uAspire services. According to a randomized control trial evaluation conducted by Dr. Benjamin Castleman (University of Virginia) and Dr. Lindsay Page (University of Pittsburgh), students who received these texts were statistically significantly more likely to matriculate in college than those who did not receive this intervention.
Additionally, in a follow-up survey, students overwhelmingly reported that the texts prompted them to complete a task they hadn’t yet done, informed them about things they hadn’t realized they needed to do, and helped them get everything done for college. These results hold promise for the efficacy of texting interventions to drive student action and improve outcomes.
“This partnership provides the critical elements necessary for the rapid growth of text messaging adoption among college access organizations in the US,” said Signal Vine CEO Brian Kathman. “We share uAspire’s belief that extending the capacity of counseling resources by deploying an effective text messaging platform could significantly increase the overall college enrollment and completion of college-eligible students.”
About uAspire
uAspire’s mission is to ensure that all young people have the financial information and resources necessary to find an affordable path to – and through – a post-secondary education. To accomplish this mission, uAspire partners with schools and community organizations to provide free financial aid advice and advocacy to young people and families to help them overcome the financial barriers to higher education. uAspire provides college affordability guidance and information to students in grades 7-16 in six communities nationwide (Boston, Lawrence, Springfield, and Fall River, Massachusetts; Miami, FL; and the Bay Area of California) as well as providing training, tools, and ongoing support to frontline practitioners at school districts, charter management organizations, and community-based organizations across the country. uAspire is committed to reaching the day when all young people have the opportunity to reach their full potential by graduating from college, regardless of their families’ financial resources or college experience. http://www.uaspire.org
About Signal Vine, LLC
Signal Vine, LLC is a technology company based in Alexandria, VA with the mission to extend the reach and impact of organizations with text messaging The company has developed an enterprise text messaging platform for education organizations to enable real-time, two-way text communications which are enhanced by a data-driven, intelligent messaging engine designed to motivate action at the right time. Signal Vine believes counselors, advisors, and mentors are the critical drivers of positive outcomes for students, so they designed the platform to expand staff reach, allow for more personalized and real-time digital communication with students than email offers, and enable them to more quickly identify those who need their help the most. The design of Signal Vine's technology is guided by the findings of researchers, the use cases of education organizations, and the behavioral needs of students. http://www.signalvine.com