Remove Structural Barriers to Success

How We See the Problem

Today’s learners often aren’t well served by the educational systems that were built years ago for more traditional students. Now students are often older, more diverse, working one or more jobs, raising families, and struggling to make ends meet.

Colleges and universities are complex, and often don’t have a student-centric approach to course offerings or availability, advising and other institutional policies. The problem shows in the equity gaps in completion rates: just 11% of low-income students graduate with a bachelor’s degree. Almost 6 times as many students — 58% overall — from higher-income households graduate.

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Our Three Investment Priorities

Create conditions for institutional and system readiness for learner-centered success reforms.

Support action-oriented coalitions and networks that help build postsecondary education leaders’ awareness of promising reform strategies.
Strengthen data, strategic finance and governance structures in postsecondary institutions and systems to lead to greater equity and student success.

Support the development and evaluation of promising approaches and interventions to increase completion rates and decrease time to degree.

Identify and test innovative strategies that enable institutions to remove barriers and be responsive to the needs of learners from low-income backgrounds.
Identify and remove specific barriers created by system policies and practices that disproportionately impact learners from low-income backgrounds.

Scale the widespread adoption of evidence-based institutional and system policies and practices that drive equitable student outcomes.

Support large-scale implementation of evidence-based reform strategies that set first-year college students on a path to success.
Build evidence to guide the implementation of reforms that support specific populations of learners from low-income backgrounds within different geographic and policy contexts.
Help state postsecondary education governing/coordinating boards, system offices and state-level associations create accountability for and remove barriers to implementing proven reforms.
Create incentives around the holistic implementation of proven large-scale reforms instead of isolated interventions.

Grants to Remove Structural Barriers to Success

Reducing Student Loss from Enrollment to Census: Improving Student Connectedness

Exploration

Institute for Evidence-Based Change|$847,521|5/2023 - 4/2025

This grant supports the Institute for Evidence-Based Change in partnering with Alamo Colleges District to address early student attrition. The partners will engage faculty and staff to examine institutional data and student experiences to identify campus-level practices that may help retain students at risk of leaving prior to colleges' official enrollment count.

Modern Math Pathways for All Students

Scaling

University of Texas at Austin|$1,100,000|5/2022 - 4/2025

This grant supports the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin in building capacity for large-scale mathematics reform in states that have not yet undertaken significant transformation.

Redesigning Pathways for Adult College and Career Success

Exploration

Achieving the Dream Inc|$600,000|3/2023 - 2/2025

This grant supports Achieving the Dream in partnering with Jobs for the Future to help nine community colleges across three states identify and implement practices and policies that drive adult learner success. Complementary capacity building for state system offices will help ensure alignment of policy to effective practice and support cross-state learning.

Paving the Way to Equitable, Adequate and Effective Community College Funding

Validation

Teachers College, Columbia University|$742,100|12/2021 - 12/2024

This grant supports the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, Columbia University in executing a project designed to understand the costs of implementing evidence-based practices to support postsecondary success for learners from low-income backgrounds and students of color at two-year institutions. CCRC will use insights from the study to provide guidance to institutional leaders and state and system policymakers for advancing adequate and equitable funding strategies.

Examining Student Loss at Community Colleges

Exploration

The RAND Corporation|$560,400|2/2023 - 12/2024

This grant supports The RAND Corporation in partnering with Dallas College to address early student attrition. The partners will examine institutional data, student experiences and campus-level practices to share insights with the field about students who leave prior to colleges' official enrollment count and how community colleges can help retain them.

Academic Planning for Equitable Student Success

Exploration

American Association of State Colleges and Universities|$740,000|7/2023 - 12/2024

This grant supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in helping a cohort of 10-12 colleges analyze and optimize their course schedules for equitable student success.

Strengthen and Scale Multiple Measures Assessment Implementation

Scaling

MDRC|$2,300,000|12/2020 - 12/2024

This grant supports MDRC, in partnership with the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, in expanding the adoption of multiple measures assessment systems for student placement in math and English.

Minnesota Math Pathways

Scaling

Minnesota State Colleges & Universities|$2,371,200|7/2021 - 12/2024

This grant supports Minnesota State Colleges & Universities in replacing pre-requisite remediation with co-requisite options and ensuring all students enter a mathematics pathway relevant to their program of study. These reforms are designed to facilitate transfer and reduce disparities in low-income and minoritized student completion outcomes.

Academic Planning Tool Pilot

Exploration

Partnership for Education Advancement|$1,417,900|12/2021 - 12/2024

This grant supports Partnership for Education Advancement in bolstering college capacity to plan for, successfully implement and evaluate the use of academic planning technology to help students map a clear path to courses needed for degree completion. In addition to decreasing excess credit accumulation and speeding time to degree for students, the project will help institutions calculate the return on their investment in this type of technology.

Fast Track to Success? A Mixed Methods Study of Accelerated Course Formats

Validation

Tennessee Board of Regents-The College System of Tennessee |$734,300|12/2022 - 11/2024

This grant supports the Tennessee Board of Regents in partnering with Stanford University researchers to better understand the impact of accelerated courses on students from low-income and other non-traditional backgrounds.

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Latest News

September 27, 2023

Keith Witham Reflects on His First Six Months as Vice President of Education Philanthropy

Halfway through his first year as Vice President of Education Philanthropy, Keith Witham provides an overview of the past six months of Ascendium’s grantmaking. He also looks ahead, reaffirming Ascendium’s commitment to transforming the lives of learners from low-income backgrounds through postsecondary education and workforce training.

September 11, 2023

How a Coalition of Nonprofit, Private Colleges Is Tackling Economic Inequity

Although the vast majority of learners pursue postsecondary education in hopes of landing a good job, career advising is frequently limited and opportunities such as internships are often out of reach for learners from low-income backgrounds – many of whom work while attending college and can't afford to take on unpaid work. The Yes We Must Coalition hopes to solve this by helping member institutions employ strategies for career preparedness that have proved successful at community colleges.

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Resources

Implementing Caring Campus: Strategies College Presidents Use to Improve Culture and Support Reform

Developed by the Institute for Evidence-Based Change, Caring Campus is a reform effort based on research that shows students who feel connected to their college are more likely to persist from semester to semester and complete their academic goals. This report highlights the role of college presidents in supporting campus culture and offers guidance for leaders at other institutions as they consider how best to institute Caring Campus and other culture-focused reforms.

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The 2023 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence

The Aspen Prize recognizes the transformative power of community colleges by honoring institutions with outstanding student outcomes. The winners and finalists for 2023 offer lessons on what’s possible when a college commits to delivering on its promises, both to students and the broader community.

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