THEI Technical Assistance
Exploration
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.
Addressing Inequity in College Retention of Low-Income Students: Collaboratively Creating Pathways to Careers in Four-Year Degree Programs
Exploration
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.
Pathways to Success for Adults with Some College but No Degree
Validation
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.
Expanding Business Education and Employment Opportunity in Postsecondary Education in Prison Programs
Exploration
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.
The Transfer Intensive 2.0
Scaling
This grant supports the Aspen Institute in expanding the Transfer Intensive, which provides structured support to two- and four-year institutions that are partnering to ensure students can more easily transfer between their institutions without loss of credit. The expansion will include two new cohorts of participating colleges and enable tracking of student outcomes at institutions that participated in prior cohorts.
Serving Rural America though Land-Grant Colleges & Universities: Unlocking the Workforce Development Potential of Extension Services
Exploration
This grant supports the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems in strengthening the capacity of Land Grant University Cooperative Extension offices to advance postsecondary access and success for learners in rural communities.
Sustaining and Scaling Equitable Educational Practices
Scaling
This grant supports the Tennessee Board of Regents, the governing body for the College System of Tennessee, in scaling high impact practices and applying learning mindset research to create more supportive classrooms throughout the system.
Supporting Plans to Reconnect Black Rural Residents with Postsecondary Education and Training
Exploration
This grant supports The Institute for College Access and Success in addressing the barriers to postsecondary attainment for adults with some college credits but no credential, and elevating evidence-based strategies to help those learners complete degrees. The project will focus specifically on understanding the unique barriers to completion for Black residents in rural southern communities with disproportionately low rates of postsecondary attainment.
Supporting Provosts for Student Success Transformation in State Systems
Scaling
This grant supports Sova, in partnership with the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, in accelerating institutional student success reforms in four states by aligning those reforms with state-level policy and creating a network of state teams to provide cross-state learning and support.
Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success
Validation
This grant supports North Carolina State University in investigating the effectiveness of its statewide Rural College Leaders Program in contributing to student success reforms.