New Grants Support a Spectrum of Student Success Initiatives

Ascendium’s Board of Directors has approved nearly $9 million in funding for new initiatives. This round of grants supports work on projects that include developing institutional governance leadership, increasing equitable student transfer outcomes, building pathways to success for returning adult students, supporting capacity-building and training for state education and workforce agencies around student transitions and identifying strategies to support institutional resiliency and student success for learners in Puerto Rico. These grants will support:

• Professional development for governing boards on prioritizing equitable student success through practice, policy and budget oversight by the John N. Gardner Institute, in partnership with the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.
• Work by the American Association of Community Colleges to increase equitable student transfer outcomes by providing direct coaching, technical assistance and ongoing support to pairs of two- and four-year institutions with a commitment to develop new transfer pathways for degrees leading to high-demand careers.
• Research by the Tennessee Board of Regents - The College System of Tennessee on pathways to success for adult students with some college credit but no degree to identify various supports necessary to increase success for adults who return to college.
• Development and delivery of training classes for two states by Coleridge Initiative to build capacity for state education and workforce agencies in the use of data to improve education and workforce transitions.
• Work by Excelencia in Education to identify strategies that can support institutional resiliency and promote student success for rural, Latinx learners in the midst of natural disasters and crises.

IHEP Releases Groundbreaking KPI Framework Report

The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) has released “Supporting Success: The Higher Education in Prison Key Performance Indicator Framework” with $1.9 million in support from Ascendium. This much-anticipated framework sets the stage for a meaningful discussion on data collection practices within postsecondary education systems as it pertains to incarcerated learners, as well as setting a baseline for programs to evaluate their effectiveness and quality. Better data about postsecondary education in prison enables responsible stewardship of public and private dollars toward high-quality programs that lead to successful student outcomes. The framework details key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure student success across four major categories: student success outcomes, academic quality, civic engagement and soft skill development. What does that return on investment really look like? What barriers are in place and how do we remove them? Having a set of KPIs will help the field address those questions. Read more about Ascendium’s interest in funding this project.

Strong Start To Finish Shows Early Promising Results: Case Studies

The Strong Start to Finish (SSTF) initiative to scale developmental education reforms is showing promising results, according to early progress reports on the six participating higher education systems. An initiative of The Education Commission of the States, SSTF reports in its Learning from the Reform series that these systems are doubling the percentage of students who complete gateway college courses in half the time. The systems implemented such reforms as revising placement policies, creating course pathways for students and streamlining or eliminating developmental education classes. Detailed case studies are available for the participating systems: Arkansas, California, The City University of New York (CUNY), Georgia, Ohio and The State University of New York (SUNY).

Ascendium contributed $7.15 million to this multi-year initiative, which launched in 2017. Funding partners Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Kresge Foundation also contributed, for a total of over $13 million. Read more on Ascendium’s interest in funding this project.