Pearl-Cohn High School in Nashville wants 100 percent of its seniors to apply for Tennessee Promise this fall before the Nov. 2 deadline. But it’s also aware that the goal is just step one in a long process of getting students onto campus next fall.
As of last Wednesday, only 28 out of about 200 high school seniors at Pearl-Cohn had not signed up for Tennessee Promise. Principal Sonia Stewart has been keeping good track of the stragglers.
“We absolutely have a list,” she says. “If they’re in the building, somebody’s assigned to finding them. If they’re not at school, we’re making phone calls.”
Last year, all but seven Pearl-Cohn students signed up, so getting to 100 percent completion isn’t a drastic change. The bigger challenge is keeping up with graduates over the summer, Stewart says. Countywide, about half of high school graduates don’t attend college right away, and Stewart found the summer is when many of her students decided not to go.
So this year, the school is planning more communication by social media and text message.
“We’re going to do countdowns. We’re going to do ‘Are you ready?’ We’re going to do, ‘Reminder, have you checked to see when pre-registration is?’ — just the general language around going [to college],” Stewart says. “We really just want to be a presence in their lives, helping them stay connected to us. We want to be hard to ignore.”
Eligible high school seniors can apply at TNpromise.gov.
Last year, about a third of Tennessee counties had every single high school senior sign up for the program, according to the governor’s office. Statewide, the total application count was more than 56,000 — much higher than state projections — while 15,830 Tennessee Promise students ended up attending community college this fall.