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.

Download The PDF

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

Adult Learner 360 Academy: Hispanic Serving Institutions

Scaling

Council for Adult and Experiential Learning|$1,288,950|5/2018 - 4/2021

This grant supports the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning in developing a process for Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) to implement new policies and practices to drive better enrollment, persistence and completion among adult students. A cohort of 10 HSIs will develop and implement data-driven, adult-learner focused improvement plans and produce and disseminate case studies describing measurable changes.

Encouraging Additional Summer Enrollment

Validation

MDRC|$3,295,000|7/2016 - 12/2020

This grant supports MDRC in evaluating the impact of the Encouraging Additional Summer Enrollment (EASE) project at four two-year colleges in Ohio. EASE is an effort to improve community college persistence and completion by increasing the number of students who enroll in summer term through two types of intervention: targeted messaging and financial incentives.

WTCS Student Success Center

Scaling

Jobs for the Future Inc|$1,350,000|3/2017 - 9/2020

This grant supports Jobs for the Future in creating a Wisconsin Student Success Center to bolster the Wisconsin Technical College System's scaling of student success initiatives across its campuses.

Piloting an Income Share Agreement that Serves Low-Income Students

Exploration

MDRC|$500,000|9/2019 - 9/2020

This grant supports MDRC in assessing the operational feasibility of an Income Share Agreement (ISA) structured to lead to stronger outcomes for students from low-income backgrounds. Education Finance Institute will raise private capital to fund ISAs for up to 200 students attending five to seven pilot colleges.

Early Leading Indicators of Student Success

Exploration

Research Foundation of the City University of New York|$477,584|4/2017 - 8/2020

This grant supports the Research Foundation of the City University of New York Graduate Center in developing a set of standardized early leading indicators that predict long-term student and labor market outcomes.

Arizona State University Local: California

Exploration

AZ Board of Regents on behalf of Arizona State University|$1,500,000|5/2019 - 7/2020

This grant supports Arizona State University in testing the feasibility of a model to provide underserved 18-24 year-old Californians with a clear and affordable path to a bachelor’s degree by combining the scalability of an online learning environment with local supports.

Development and Validation of a Compelling Income Share Agreement Program

Exploration

Partnership for Education Advancement|$50,000|1/2019 - 6/2020

This grant supports Education Finance Institute in designing and developing an income share agreement program that can best serve the broad needs of postsecondary students, including those attending four year institutions that focus on low income, first generation and disadvantaged populations and inter-generational mobility.

Informing Wisconsin Grant Policy

Exploration

The RAND Corporation|$149,780|5/2018 - 3/2020

This grant supports RAND Corporation in conducting a study to estimate the effects of financial aid on various student subgroups in Wisconsin. The study will produce evidence on outcomes, overall effectiveness and allocative efficiency, with a focus on allocation of funds.

View All Ascendium Grants

1
2
3
4
5
6 (current)

Latest News

March 23, 2023

Keith Witham Named New Vice President - Education Philanthropy, Q&A with AHEP’s Ved Price and More

A Message from Our New Vice President - Education Philanthropy, Keith Witham
Q&A: AHEP’s Ved Price on the State of Postsecondary Education in Prison Programs
Grant Partners Selected for Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success

February 16, 2023

Over $69 Million in New Grants, the Learning and Impact Team Welcomes Jessa Valentine and More

$69 Million+ in New Grants Highlighted by Investments in Job Pathways, Partnerships and More
Jessa Valentine Joins Learning and Impact Team
CORI Research on Digital Skilling is Put into Practice

View All News for this Focus Area

Resources

CAPR Multiple Measures Assessment Toolkit

Giving students multiple ways to demonstrate their skills helps ensure all students who are ready for college-level math and English courses have the opportunity to take them, which can make access to these courses more equitable. This toolkit from the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness — led by the Community College Research Center and MDRC — is designed to help colleges reform assessment and placement using multiple measures.

Visit Site

Facilitating Institutional Transformation

JFF’s Student Success Center Network is dedicated to advancing socioeconomic mobility by equitably increasing the number of students earning postsecondary degrees that lead to good jobs. This report summarizes findings from the first five years of the Student Success Center Network's Coaching Program, including case studies and lessons learned.

Visit Site

View All Resources for this Focus Area