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EDUCATION PHILANTHROPY DIVISION OF ASCENDIUM EDUCATION GROUP

All Grants

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Exploring Geographic Isolation as a Barrier to Equitable Transfer Outcomes

Exploration
The RP Group Inc|$164,900|11/2022 - 6/2024
This grant supports the RP Group in assessing the role of proximity to four-year institutions in the transfer outcomes of low-income and Latinx students in California in order to identify ways to strengthen transfer policy and practice, particularly in states with large rural areas not well served by broad access four-year institutions.

Organizational Capacity Building Project

Exploration
Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network|$240,000|7/2023 - 6/2024
This grant supports the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network in building the executive, organizational and strategic capacity needed to excel as an impactful network of leaders who completed college during incarceration.

Optimizing Delivery Systems for Higher Education in Prison Evaluation

Validation
Second Chance Educational Alliance Inc|$330,000|1/2020 - 6/2024
This grant supports the Second Chance Educational Alliance in evaluating the initiative and synthesizing lessons learned across participating sites.

Maintain Momentum: Supporting Postsecondary Education Membership Organizations and Networks

Scaling
Achieving the Dream Inc|$2,091,920|7/2020 - 6/2024
This grant supports Achieving the Dream and its members in continuing to advance student success reforms despite COVID‐19‐related impacts.

Learning Partner for Future Sectoral Training Evidence-Building Initiative

Validation
MDRC|$334,500|2/2024 - 6/2024
This grant supports MDRC in partnering with Ascendium to design a grantmaking initiative that will build next-generation evidence on sectoral training programs. The initiative will identify the conditions and mechanisms needed to deliver and scale effective programs.

Training Low-Income Workers for Remote Opportunities

Exploration
The Foundation for Maine's Community Colleges|$535,000|7/2021 - 6/2024
This grant supports The Foundation for Maine's Community Colleges in building and implementing a state-wide training program designed to prepare rural Maine residents for success in remote working roles. Over three years, the program will train 700+ learners and establish the Maine Advisory Council on Remote Working.

Assessing Quality and Equitable Access and Outcomes of Distance Postsecondary Courses for the Incarcerated

Validation
American Institutes for Research in the Behavioral Sciences|$700,000|7/2021 - 6/2024
This grant supports the American Institutes for Research in conducting a study to identify and examine high quality and equitable distance education practices among a select group of postsecondary education in prison providers offering courses that lead to a credential or degree. By producing evidence on the strengths and weaknesses of different distance education options, this study hopes to determine a connection between characteristics of program quality and student success outcomes.

Understanding Educational Space Needs in Prisons

Exploration
Ithaka Harbors Inc|$550,000|12/2021 - 6/2024
This grant supports Ithaka S+R in exploring intersections of high-quality postsecondary education in prison and physical space constraints that impact educational programming in prisons. The goal of the project is to conduct research and develop policy recommendations and design solutions that will allow prisons to maximize access to high-quality postsecondary education programming.

Optimizing Delivery Systems for Higher Education in Prison

Exploration
Iowa Department of Education|$1,100,000|7/2021 - 6/2024
This grant supports the Iowa Department of Education, in partnership with the Iowa Department of Corrections, Iowa Central Community College, Des Moines Area Community College and the University of Iowa, in expanding postsecondary education options across Iowa that are workforce-relevant and support varied academic and career pathways.

Massachusetts Prison Education Consortium Expansion

Scaling
The Educational Justice Institute at MIT|$810,700|7/2021 - 6/2024
This grant supports The Educational Justice Institute at MIT in designing a scalable, sustainable and replicable model of postsecondary education delivery throughout the Massachusetts prison system. This model will unite the disparate courses offered throughout the correctional system into a coordinated network of transferable credits, guide students through facility transfers and create comprehensive programs leading to credentials.