College education is fundamental to students’ upward mobility, states’ economic growth, and the country’s economic competitiveness. Policymakers are placing greater emphasis on motivating high school students to attend college and on ensuring that students have the skills needed to succeed in college.

To better enable middle and high schools to increase college participation and success rates among their students, the University of Minnesota’s College Readiness Consortium developed Ramp-Up to Readiness™ (Ramp-Up), a schoolwide advisory program to increase students’ likelihood of college enrollment and completion by enhancing five dimensions of college readiness (academic, admissions, career, financial, and personal–social) among middle school and high school students.

This report describes a study of the impacts of the Ramp-Up program after one year of implementation and provides information on how Ramp-Up differs from college-related supports in other schools and the degree to which Ramp-Up has been implemented with fidelity.The study also addressed questions about whether the types of college-readiness supports offered by Ramp-Up schools differed from those offered by comparison schools, whether staff in Ramp-Up schools engaged in more college-oriented activity, and whether Ramp-Up schools in 2014/15 were able to implement the program adequately by consortium standards.