All Grants

This multi-year, Ascendium-led grant supports American Institutes for Research in managing Ascendium’s multi-year research initiative to support action-oriented research aimed at addressing critical gaps in the evidence available to inform scaled and sustained improvements in the postsecondary and workforce outcomes of low-income learners in rural geographies.

This grant supports the QA Commons in integrating employability skills and college transitions supports into the Missouri Department of Corrections' Career and Technical Education programs for incarcerated learners.

This grant supports Economic Mobility Systems in expanding the Rural Regional Talent Network (R-RTN) model to three additional rural communities in Texas. The grant will support the creation of new partnerships between K-12, community colleges, and employers focused on using data to align policy and practice across sectors in order to ensure rural learners are accessing and completing high-quality training that leads to in-demand jobs.

This grant supports Achieving the Dream in evaluating Project Success at its partner Tribal Colleges and Universities. The two-part assessment will provide critical lessons for Achieving the Dream, the participating institutions and the broader field on implementing student-facing practices.

This grant supports Workforce Matters in building the capacity of workforce organizations serving American Indian communities. Through subgrants and technical assistance, Workforce Matters will support workforce training organizations in accessing local labor market data and leveraging federal and private funding opportunities to improve postsecondary education and training opportunities.

This grant supports the Gardner Institute, through the Accelerating Just Transformation in the Foundational Postsecondary Experience (TFPE) project, in working with cohorts of colleges with growing populations of first-generation, low-income and minoritized student populations to redesign the first-year student experience. TFPE will enable institutions to redesign practices that impede success for learners from low-income backgrounds and identify and act on targeted reforms to promote equitable student success.

This grant supports the Tennessee Board of Regents in using insights from prior Ascendium-funded research to redesign the experience of adults with some college but no degree who reconnect with college. Designed as a randomized control trial, the project will evaluate how the redesign of the reconnecting semester for adults returning to community college impacts persistence, completion and time to degree.

This grant supports the Tennessee Higher Education Initiative in developing student facing resources, providing technical assistance to the Tennessee Department of Correction, and providing training and support to other prison education programs nationally.

This grant supports the Yes We Must Coalition in helping 10 member institutions adopt reforms to strengthen career advising and outcomes for learners. Participating institutions will redesign one to two bachelor's degree pathways to better connect learning with career opportunities in those fields of study.

This grant supports Resilience Education in expanding a consortium of leading business and law schools delivering credit-bearing business and financial skills courses in prisons. Resilience will develop new curriculum, build partnerships with additional professional schools and corrections facilities and create new employer partnerships to increase the number of learners gaining professional skills and finding employment after release.