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

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.

Workshop on Understanding Success and Failure of Students in Developmental Mathematics

Exploration

National Academy of Sciences|$344,247|8/2018 - 1/2020

This grant supports the National Academy of Sciences in convening a workshop of national experts to better understand the populations and needs of students who are not well-served by existing developmental education reforms. The March 2019 workshop seeks to define the challenges, resulting in a report setting forth a research agenda to help identify strategies for improvement.

UIA Fellows 2.0

Scaling

University Innovation Alliance|$1,021,250|2/2018 - 1/2020

This grant supports the University Innovation Alliance (UIA) in funding a fellowship at each of the 11 UIA member campuses for 2018 (with matching funding from the campuses for 2019) and a newly created program director position for both years. The UIA Fellowship Program is designed to accelerate scaling of UIA initiatives and provide sustained capacity and project management support.

Evaluation of Open Educational Resources Degree Initiative

Validation

Achieving the Dream Inc|$800,000|4/2016 - 12/2019

This grant supports Achieving the Dream (ATD) in engaging the research firm SRI to conduct an evaluation of ATD’s Open Educational Resources (OER) Degree Initiative. Working with the 20-30 colleges selected to create OER degrees, SRI will evaluate outcomes in three areas: academic impact on students; economic impact on institutions; and models, guidelines and best practices for successful OER Degree implementation.

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Latest News

November 17, 2022

Partnerships Help Offer Rural Learners In-Demand Career Credentials, Promising Caring Campus Results and More

Local and Online Postsecondary Education Providers Partner to Offer In-Demand Career Credentials in Rural Areas
Caring Campus Makes Student Success Everyone’s Business, With Promising Results

November 10, 2022

Biotechnology Industry Gets a Boost from Community College Degrees

Although bachelor's degrees are traditionally earned at four-year institutions, 25 states have authorized community colleges to offer affordable bachelor's degrees. This expands opportunities for learners from low-income backgrounds to achieve their career goals. In California, MiraCosta College has launched the nation’s first biomanufacturing bachelor’s degree. It’s partnerships with the industry ensure graduates are prepared to meet the workforce needs of Fortune 500 companies in biotechnology.

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Resources

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.

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How Tools Support Coaches and Student Success Center Coaching Programs

Jobs for the Future, Community College Research Initiatives and Achieving the Dream created a set of tools and resources to assist both coaches and leadership in its Student Success Center Network in directly supporting the process of complex institutional change. This brief shares which tools resonated the most with state-based Student Success Center leadership and coaches, how they were used, their benefits and the importance of training to augment their impact on student success.

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