All Grants

This grant supports Education Design Lab in executing a three-year design challenge to develop and pilot new solutions to the question: “How might we improve the ability of rural community colleges to be a critical engine (or catalyst) of growth in their local communities?” Education Design Lab will partner with five rural community colleges to collaboratively structure, design, and evaluate new programs.

This grant supports the RAND Corporation in assessing the near- and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on postsecondary education in prison. Promising practices and responses to the pandemic that are being employed by corrections, college and universities, and postsecondary practitioners will be identified and disseminated to the field and key stakeholders.

This grant supports 11 communities in the Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s Rural Works initiative, a national network of workforce intermediaries committed to modernizing and redeveloping pathways from postsecondary education and training to employment.

This grant supports the University of Maryland Global Campus in developing a new doctoral program in community college leadership. The program curriculum will be comprehensive and innovative, designed in collaboration with influential community college stakeholders and thought leaders.

This grant supports Operation Restoration in the planning and implementation of a bachelor’s degree program that will leverage technology to support incarcerated students in multiple facilities across the Louisiana state prison system. The organization will also pilot an innovative advising model that trains students with long-term sentences as academic advisors.

The grant supports the Aspen Institute in researching and awarding the 2021 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence and the development of a new suite of curricular resources to advance student success at rural community colleges.

This grant supports the Tools of the Trade Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships to construction and industrial trade apprentices attending a Wisconsin Technical College System college. Each spring, 230 apprentices with financial need receive funds to help cover the cost of equipment, work clothes and other related expenses.

This grant supports the Jim Elliott Tools of the Trade Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships to students in apprenticeship programs at Milwaukee Area Technical College. Each spring, 20 apprentices with financial need receive funds (initially $1,000, increased to $1,500 in 2018) to help cover the cost of equipment, work clothes and other related expenses.

This grant supports the University of Hawaii System (UH) in developing articulated career pathways that lead from high-demand, entry-level healthcare occupations to advancement in skills, education, career and earnings. UH will develop clear career pathways and institutionalize the necessary policies and data infrastructure that provide opportunities for learners to transition from non-credit job training to credit-based degrees by leveraging apprenticeships and stackable industry-valued credentials.

This grant supports MDRC in providing technical assistance to five institutions within a state community college system and five other minority-serving community colleges to assess and develop communications plans that will improve persistence and degree completion rates for students from low-income backgrounds.