While community colleges nationwide struggle to figure out how best to increase completion rates for their students, one state has achieved high completion rates with its unique postsecondary education system. This case study describes the Tennessee Technology Centers and how these 27 institutions are organized, how they operate, and how they are able to achieve postsecondary success for their students. The report examines four highly integrated components of the Centers’ framework and how these components appear to be critical to producing high rates of completion and placement in relatively high-wage jobs. Through the description of this alternative approach to occupational education and the lessons learned by Tennessee Technology Centers, a working model for student success is offered.

Because federal financial aid is underwritten by tax dollars, the U.S. Department of Education has verification procedures in place that result in many applications being flagged for review, requiring students to resubmit part or all of their applications, often with supporting documentation. This process, if not completed properly by students, may result in their not receiving aid for which they qualify. Using financial aid data from 13 California community colleges and interviews with students and financial aid administrators, this report examines the verification process as conducted by community colleges, with attention to the communication between schools and students.

Developmental education and ESL students are less likely to earn a certificate or degree or transfer to a four-year institution. This report identifies three distinct types of basic skills students—recent high school graduates, returning adults earning a certificate or degree, and older adults with significant basic skills needs. For each group of basic skills students, researchers examine student success outcomes as well as course-taking patterns and demographic factors that affect student success. The research points to specific student support services that can enhance the success of basic skills students.

Often unaware of financial aid resources and employment services available on campus, many community college students struggle to get the support they need and end up leaving, never attaining their degree or certificate. This documentation study examines how integrated service delivery, specifically the Center for Working Families (CWF) bundled approach, is being implemented at ten community colleges to achieve improved postsecondary outcomes for low-income students. The authors discuss the diverse ways that these community colleges have deployed the CWF approach, while presenting key findings on implementation and lessons related to data tracking, bundling of services, and sustainability. Using case studies and brief descriptions, the report describes each of the ten community colleges’ CWF program or implementation process. 

Without a postsecondary degree, otherwise employable adults are not able to be part of the workforce that would contribute to sustaining a thriving economy. This brief examines New Jersey’s existing policies, programs, and initiatives toward providing better and flexible options and support services to those postsecondary students who are just short of their degree or certificate. The authors discuss current initiatives aimed at reengaging adult students and suggest policy recommendations to strengthen state efforts to increase degree completion rates in the Garden State, with a focus on systems alignment and goal setting, student recruitment and retention, tuition funding, student supports, and flexible delivery options.

According to American employers, our nation’s college graduates are not prepared for the workforce, despite having “served their time” in school. This report describes the history of the “credit hour” and how it has become standard practice for colleges to award degrees based on seat time rather than on learning attained. The author discusses the negative consequences this practice has had on completion rates and student debt. In response, the author recommends how the federal government can use three existing tools that would redefine “credit hours,” award financial aid based on learning and not time, and support innovation and experimentation in this area.

Students believe that a college degree or certificate will improve their employment opportunities and income-earning potential. In this report, longitudinal data shows that more students are borrowing funds to attend college, but are dropping out before completion. The author discusses who the borrowers are, the unemployment rates between borrowers and non-borrowers, and the education sector that is seeing the highest increases in borrowing and dropping out.

States are considering the use of financial incentives to encourage students to complete a postsecondary credential. In this February 2012 interview with Dr. Richard Freeland, Commissioner of Higher Education for Massachusetts, Freeland discusses how state policy in the Commonwealth is aiming to increase postsecondary completion for low-income students and to close the racial achievement gap in postsecondary attainment. In his interview, Freeland describes the Vision Project, a pilot project in which Massachusetts public institutions of higher education develop a concrete proposal, based on promising practices and recommendations, for experimenting with the use of financial aid to improve college access and success for students in need.

One population of postsecondary students who leave school before completion is adult learners. This report describes a six-state project aimed at raising educational attainment levels by focusing on identifying and eliminating barriers that keep adults with prior college credit from completing their postsecondary degrees. The report discusses how these states used data to identify ready adults and formed workgroups to examine and tackle state and institutional policy and practice barriers in five areas:  data, academic affairs, student services, financing and financial aid, and communications and outreach. The authors present a state-by-state profile describing the role that state governance structure and institutional context played in addressing barriers, as well as recommendations and promising strategies each state employed. Overall findings and recommendations conclude the report.

Students receiving financial aid for their postsecondary education can budget their expenses with the anticipation of tuition, books, and living expenses; however, for a low-income student facing an unforeseen financial crisis, the unplanned expenses and lack of funds may lead to dropping out of school. This report evaluates two Lumina Foundation for Education emergency financial aid programs — the Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund — created to assist students at community colleges or tribal colleges and universities who are at risk of dropping out because of unexpected financial crises. The two programs are evaluated for how they are designed and implemented at the participating colleges and universities, focusing on the most frequent reasons students request financial help, eligibility parameters schools use for awarding grants, characteristics of aid recipients, impact on student retention, and fundraising capacities. Based on the data of the 37 Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund colleges, the authors capture challenges that the participating institutions faced and present lessons learned and recommendations for colleges interested in instituting similar emergency financial aid programs.

Postsecondary institutions are faced with the tremendous challenge of how to improve student persistence. Open access institutions, which serve greater proportions of high-risk students, see even lower rates of retention and graduation than do selective institutions. Based on a study of four for-profit schools in Texas that had high graduation rates and low student loan default rates, this report describes what those institutions did to achieve such positive outcomes, particularly for these high-risk students. This study finds that among these institutions, a combination of key institutional practices aimed at retaining and graduating students along with establishment of a culture that emphasizes completion and job placement contributed to these schools’ abilities to support postsecondary student success.

Far too many community college students, especially developmental education students, are at risk of failing, and thus at greater risk of not earning a living wage or advancing through job opportunities. This policy brief examines the challenges of developmental education and the efforts that states can pursue to increase the success of students enrolled in remedial courses, leading to improved rates of transition to credit-bearing courses. The authors recommend that state policymakers consider policy changes affecting data systems, assessment and placement, concurrent developmental and college-level course taking, financial aid eligibility, support services, and funding for new models of delivery. These recommendations are discussed along with brief examples of what a few states have done to increase student transition out of developmental education.

As the costs of college increase and the amount of financial aid awarded students decreases, low-income students are impacted in ways that are critical to their college enrollment and success. This report examines how barriers to financial aid access are as a result of systemic issues at the federal, state, and institutional levels, but how especially for low-income adult students, these trends lessen the opportunities for postsecondary success. Based on conversations with practitioners, policymakers, and other experts on financial aid, the authors offer key recommendations to funders on improving financial aid access toward the goal of increasing college access and completion for low-income young adults: Support the leveraging of existing aid channels, innovate aid access and delivery, and expand the amount of aid in the system.

In this era of community college reform, college leaders are focused on increasing student success, but their efforts to create change are not always supported by current policy conditions. Based on the collaboration of California community college chief executive officers and members of their boards of trustees, this report captures their evidence-based recommendations and proposes a new policy agenda that creates conditions conducive to reform. The agenda comprises a breadth of specific recommendations for changes in local policies and practices as well as changes in state policy — given the political and economic climate — that are needed for community colleges to improve student success.

The 21st century economy calls for a new generation of workers who have postsecondary degrees, yet the U.S. is falling behind other nations in producing a population with this requirement. This report discusses the need for a community college redesign to meet the demands of a changing workforce and to ensure that individuals have greater opportunities for postsecondary success. The report suggests a framework for reimagining community colleges and describes essential crosscutting elements in transforming institutions. It also offers seven recommendations centered on students’ educational experiences, institutional roles, and incentives for student and institutional success, as well as a set of implementation strategies accompanying each recommendation.

Unlike traditional merit scholarships that reward students for past academic successes, performance-based scholarships provide financial aid on the contingency of the student maintaining satisfactory grades after receiving the award. Using existing data from three community colleges in Ohio, this paper looks at the effectiveness of using this type of financial aid as an incentive for low-income students without a strong academic history.

As funding for financial aid diminishes, states need to leverage their resources to best support student success. Prepared for Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s Vision Project, this report examines existing financial aid policies currently in place in various states to improve college access and success. The author categorizes financial aid policies into three distinct models — entitlement programs, programs targeted to low-income students, and programs that reward certain behaviors — and describes them for Massachusetts’ consideration in its desire and effort to improve college success and degree completion through student financial aid reform.

This publication compiles research from various authors on eight subtopics regarding financial aid, including loans, tax issues, and persistence rates. Authors used existing data to evaluate the effectiveness of policies, defining effectiveness as it relates to an increase in enrollment rates without compromising the quality of the institution. Bringing these works together is meant to encourage the design of more effective student aid policies and reform of the federal student aid system.