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Ascendium Education Philanthropy is a division of Ascendium Education Group.

Awarded Grants

The grants we award advance our core strategies to Expand Opportunity, Support Learner Success, and Connect and Align Systems. They also promote field support and development efforts across strategies.

Strategies

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Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success

Support
University of Idaho|$499,600|3/2023 - 2/2026
This grant supports the University of Idaho in examining which institutional programs and practices—including first-year programs, career advising and other strategies—may best support retention, completion and successful transition to the workforce for rural learners from low-income backgrounds.

Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success

Support
University of Washington|$449,535|3/2023 - 2/2026
This grant supports the University of Washington in exploring whether rural learners from low‐income backgrounds benefit from postsecondary mentorship programs and identifying best practices for implementing mentorship programs in rural contexts.

Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success

Support
Western Illinois University|$311,100|3/2023 - 2/2026
This grant supports Western Illinois University in investigating whether its Paraprofessional Teacher Education Option program reduces barriers for non‐traditional, rural learners from low-income backgrounds to earn a bachelor’s degree in education and teacher licensure.

Redesigning Pathways for Adult College and Career Success

Support
Achieving the Dream Inc|$600,000|3/2023 - 2/2025
This grant supports Achieving the Dream in partnering with Jobs for the Future to help nine community colleges across three states identify and implement practices and policies that drive adult learner success. Complementary capacity building for state system offices will help ensure alignment of policy to effective practice and support cross-state learning.

Exploring Field-Driven Placement Innovation to Promote Student Success

Support
Phase Two Advisory|$661,900|3/2023 - 11/2024
This grant supports Phase Two Advisory in exploring how innovative community colleges’ implementation of placement reforms may contribute to comprehensive changes in student instruction, advising and supports in the first year. This exploratory research will identify and document strategies to ensure placement reforms reach all students and are institutionalized into college structures and norms.

Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success

Support
Digital Promise Global|$277,500|3/2023 - 8/2024
This grant supports Digital Promise Global in exploring the impact of a state‐funded training and wage‐based incentive program (Child Care WAGE$ Tennessee) designed to create living‐wage career paths for early childhood educators in rural communities.

Examining Student Loss at Community Colleges

Support
RAND Corporation|$560,400|2/2023 - 7/2025
This grant supports The RAND Corporation in partnering with Dallas College to address early student attrition. The partners will examine institutional data, student experiences and campus-level practices to share insights with the field about students who leave prior to colleges' official enrollment count and how community colleges can help retain them.

Building a National Apprenticeship Intermediary Infrastructure

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Apprenticeships for America|$500,000|2/2023 - 1/2025
This grant supports Apprenticeships for America in creating the first national network of apprenticeship intermediaries in the United States and developing research to support the role of intermediaries with the goal of expanding apprenticeship opportunities nationwide.

Support for Project QUEST and Per Scholas Evaluations

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Economic Mobility Corporation|$375,000|1/2023 - 12/2028
This grant supports Economic Mobility Corporation in partnering with two well-established nonprofit sectoral training providers – Per Scholas and Project QUEST – to evaluate program impacts on low-income learners’ education and labor market outcomes and to identify key program factors associated with positive outcomes.

Blue Meridian Partners Impact Investment

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Blue Meridian Partners Inc|$15,000,000|1/2023 - 12/2027
This grant supports a pooled funding initiative seeking to change the odds of young people living in poverty by directing long-term, substantial resources to organizations with proven impact.