Awarded Grants

This grant supports the University of California at Irvine in assessing the effects of college-based career service engagement on learners’ academic and labor market success and to test a tool designed to increase learner participation in those services.

This grant supports New America in building a cohort of community colleges and districts across 10 regional sites in the National Science Foundation's Regional Innovation Engines Program, a national effort authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 to strengthen regional economies through innovative new industries. Colleges engaged in this cohort will identify and implement new STEM programs to create greater oppportunities for learners from low-income backgrounds in emerging sectors with strong demand and good wages.

This grant supports the Michigan Community College Association (MCCA) and the Ohio Association of Community Colleges (OACC) in providing technical assistance to community colleges addressing economic development opportunities in the Upper Midwest region. Using a regional collaborative approach, MCCA and OACC will work with national partners to create targeted student success strategies to address workforce needs in the region.

This grant supports the Vera Institute of Justice in carrying out a comprehensive set of research and direct technical assistance activities with all 50 state-level departments of correction and the Federal Bureau of Prisons to support the implementation of Pell grant access for incarcerated learners.

This grant supports NPower in expanding its technology sector workforce training programs. NPower will partner with institutions to support learners at-risk of dropping out, increase alumni engagement support for continued education and career persistence in technology, and launch a new full stack developer training program.

This grant supports the Communities Foundation of Texas in building a cross-sector coalition of stakeholders from education and the workforce to improve credit mobility statewide. The expanded Texas Transfer Alliance will work toward the goal of reducing the time and money required for learners to earn a credential of value.

This grant supports American Institutes for Research in launching an initiative focused on significantly growing the availability of high-quality best practice guidance for postsecondary education in prison programs. By leveraging the expertise of longstanding programs and supporting them in refining and sharing best practices, the initiative will establish quality standards and generate new resources for the broader field as it grows in response to the reinstatement of Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated learners.

This grant supports New York University’s Marron Institute in producing national reporting, communications, and a multimedia web project to raise the profile of rural workers and educational pathways in Appalachia. The project will highlight strategies to help more rural low-income workers in the region, and in other rural regions, to complete postsecondary education and workforce training programs aligned to local economies.

This grant supports the Thrive for Life Prison Project in enhancing its data infrastructure and capacity through the development of a customized software technology designed to effectively support learners impacted by incarceration as they navigate transitions from incarceration to reentry.

This grant supports the Jesuit Social Research Institute at Loyola University New Orleans in examining education pathways available to corrections officers. The project will explore the feasibility and impact of education programs for corrections officers as a strategy for strengthening access and quality of postsecondary education programming for both incarcerated learners and corrections employees.