Awarded Grants

This grant supports CodePath in establishing a body of rigorous evidence about the impacts of its programming at more than 70 colleges and universities, including technical internship placement, completion of degrees in computer science and labor market outcomes for learners from low-income backgrounds.

This grant supports Research Triangle Institute in assessing the evaluation readiness of the Reentry Campus Program (RCP) through a one-year evaluability assessment. This work will assess RCP's operations and data collection to provide them with actionable steps to prepare for a rigorous study of how its approach contributes to positive postsecondary outcomes for currently/previously incarcerated learners.

This grant supports the Community College Research Center in deepening the evidence base across a range of student success reform areas and conducting syntheses of current research in practitioner-oriented briefs and through an update to the pivotal book, “Redesigning America’s Community Colleges,” which launched the national guided pathways movement.

This grant supports the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) in building pathways to tech employment for learners from low-income backgrounds in rural communities. This investment will help six communities in CORI’s Rural Innovation Network to identify tech employment needs among local employers and design and implement tech training programs designed to meet the needs of rural learners and local employers.

This grant supports Year Up in supporting the implementation and expansion of their centralized program model - training students virtually across multiple geographies with standardized instructional staff, streamlined curriculum, and key in-person touchpoints. Year Up will measure the efficacy of key learner outcomes within the centralized program model compared to its legacy in-person model as they continue expansion. Ascendium's funding will support centralized staff, students in these centralized programs, and Year Up's research and evaluation efforts of this model.

This grant supports Achieving the Dream (ATD) in helping its member colleges collect and use learner- and community-level data to drive college-wide reform. ATD will pilot the use of its new Community Vibrancy metrics framework with 15 colleges, learning how the metrics can be applied to drive change and produce tools and a training curriculum to support broader adoption across ATD’s 300+ member institutions.

This grant supports Vera Institute of Justice in providing technical assistance, training and advising to new and existing Second Chance Pell college sites and their state corrections system partners. The goal of these activities is to ensure the implementation of high-quality postsecondary education in prison and to help the field prepare for the full restoration of Pell Grants for incarcerated learners on July 1, 2023.

This grant supports The Chronicle of Higher Education in developing content for its Different Voices of Student Success online resource center. This resource will showcase the voices of underserved students and identify barriers that exist among students, faculty members and leaders. It will also share best practices for improving student completion rates, upward mobility and the reskilling of workers.

This grant supports Dr. Ben Castleman’s University of Virginia research center in engaging in research-practice partnerships that will evaluate Merit America in Texas and Piedmont Virginia Community College’s gateway course reforms.

This grant supports the Gardner Institute, through the Accelerating Just Transformation in the Foundational Postsecondary Experience (TFPE) project, in working with cohorts of colleges with growing populations of first-generation, low-income and other underrepresented student populations to redesign the first-year student experience. TFPE will enable institutions to redesign practices that impede success for learners from low-income backgrounds and identify and act on targeted reforms to promote equitable student success.