Pathways to Success for Adults with Some College but No Degree
Validation
Tennessee Board of Regents-The College System of Tennessee |$1,900,200|6/2022 - 5/2026
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.
Advancing Community College Students’ Post-Graduation Success
Exploration
The Aspen Institute Inc|$2,000,000|6/2022 - 11/2025
This grant supports The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program in supporting a cohort of 10 community colleges to implement policy and practice reforms that will increase the postgraduation success of their students, namely students of color and learners from low-income backgrounds.
Examining Faculty Decision-Making in Course Equivalency and Transfer
Validation
MDRC|$1,122,000|12/2021 - 12/2024
This grant supports MDRC in assessing faculty behavior and motivations related to course equivalency decisions, a key bottleneck in the transfer process. In partnership with the National Association of System Heads and UC Berkeley, MDRC will conduct research and analysis of faculty's role in transfer articulation processes and explore system-level policy and practice considerations which may support more effective faculty engagement.
STEM Transfer Partnerships
Exploration
University of Washington|$1,173,375|9/2021 - 8/2024
This grant supports the University of Washington in implementing a statewide consortium of institutional partnerships to increase successful transfer for low-income learners in STEM programs. Relying on the evidence-based framework for transfer partnerships developed by the institution's Community College Research Initiatives, this project endeavors to institutionalize collaborative partnerships at the departmental level, leading to long-term structural improvements in transfer policy and practice.
Community College Growth Engine Fund Expansion
Exploration
Education Design Lab|$995,900|10/2021 - 3/2024
This grant supports Education Design Lab (The Lab) in deploying the Community College Growth Engine Fund with two community college systems. The Lab will support the design and pilot of employer-validated micro-pathways to connect low-income learners to economic mobility.
Community Colleges as Apprenticeship Intermediaries: Learning What Works
Exploration
New America Foundation|$430,000|12/2021 - 1/2024
This grant supports New America Foundation in exploring the role of apprenticeship intermediaries. New America will conduct research to identify effective community college apprenticeship intermediaries and offer policy and practice
recommendations for community colleges to scale this strategy.
Michigan Community College Workforce and Transfer Alignment
Scaling
Michigan Community College Association|$800,000|12/2020 - 12/2023
This grant supports the Michigan Community College Association in improving equitable access to and through community college workforce programs for low-income learners statewide by improving program alignment with industry certifications, building new baccalaureate transfer pathways with universities and strengthening advising practices related to both transfer and career outcomes.
Expansion of the Good Jobs Project
Validation
Georgetown University|$450,000|11/2021 - 10/2023
This grant supports the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce in mapping economic opportunity by identifying where good jobs exist in urban and rural regions and establishing the most reliable educational and training pathways to those jobs. This analysis will expand on existing research by contextualizing opportunities to locale and enabling education and workforce providers to align programs with existing and projected labor demand.
HBCU Degree Completion Pilot
Exploration
Thurgood Marshall College Fund Inc|$290,950|9/2020 - 8/2023
This grant supports the Thurgood Marshall College Fund in piloting an online college degree completion program for near-completer students at member HBCU Delaware State University in partnership with Southern New Hampshire University.
Establishing a Data Use Challenge to Inform Education & Workforce Transitions
Scaling
Coleridge Initiative Inc|$900,000|10/2021 - 7/2023
This grant supports Coleridge Initiative in developing and launching a data use challenge and call for proposals to solicit data-driven ideas that inform education and workforce transitions. Ascendium will select individual data challenge projects to support from a set of proposals submitted by Coleridge Initiative during the grant period. The selected projects will link education and workforce data, provide states the relevant data analysis capacity to answer critical questions about student progression and inform evidence-based policies and practices that support learners from low-income backgrounds.
