Support Rural Postsecondary Education and Workforce Training | Ascendium Education Group, Inc. Skip to main content

EDUCATION PHILANTHROPY DIVISION OF ASCENDIUM EDUCATION GROUP

Support Rural Postsecondary Education and Workforce Training

Our philanthropy elevates rural postsecondary education and workforce training, long absent from education reform efforts.

See Grants in This Focus Area
focus area page Rural

How We See the Problem

Disparities in postsecondary success between rural students and their urban and suburban peers exist at every point in the pipeline, from enrollment to completion. These disparities contribute to a shortage of skilled, qualified workers, which affects the economic health of both families and entire communities.

Download The PDF
Rural09202x
expanded content

A Guide for Research on Rural Postsecondary Education

One of our investment priorities is to support research to better understand rural learners and postsecondary providers. As part of our work in this area, we partnered with Sova to convene a diverse group of researchers and organizations to develop a national rural postsecondary research agenda. This research agenda lays the groundwork for applied research collaborations that will generate knowledge to help practitioners and policymakers remove systemic barriers faced by rural learners, particularly those from low-income backgrounds.

More Info

Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success

Ascendium is committed to advancing evidence-based research that supports equitable improvements in postsecondary education and workforce outcomes for rural learners. Through this grant opportunity, we will invest in research that generates actionable knowledge, yields evidence-based insights and supports practitioners and policymakers in scaling effective approaches to removing systemic barriers uniquely faced by rural learners.

Learn More

Our Three Investment Priorities

Better understand rural learners and the postsecondary education and workforce pathways that best serve them in achieving socioeconomic mobility within rural communities.

  • Support research that equips postsecondary education and workforce training leaders with critical information to help rural learners achieve upward socioeconomic mobility.
  • Support the adaptation of promising student success reform strategies that leverage the strengths of rural communities and address their unique challenges.

Support the adoption and scaling of strategies that promote persistence, completion and workforce success for rural learners.

  • Support and evaluate innovative workforce training models and strategies that connect rural learners to high-quality jobs, including remote employment opportunities.

Support strategic partnerships between and among postsecondary providers, employers and workforce training stakeholders.

  • Identify community-based organizations and intermediaries present in rural areas and explore their role in creating and strengthening pathways to high-quality jobs through postsecondary education or workforce training.

Grants to Support Rural Postsecondary Education and Workforce Training

To learn about our approach to grantmaking (Exploration, Validation, Scaling), visit our How We Fund page.

Bringing Value-Based Bachelor's Degrees to Rural Community College Students

Scaling
New America Foundation|$1,100,000|5/2022 - 5/2025
This grant supports New America Foundation in building capacity at community colleges to create high-quality, affordable and workforce-driven baccalaureate programs. Community college baccalaureate programs provide new or expanded access to in-demand sectors, particularly for underserved populations such as adult learners and learners from low-income backgrounds in rural areas.

Advancing the Economic Mobility of Rural Learners

Exploration
Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives Foundation|$1,342,200|9/2022 - 2/2025
This grant supports the Association of Chambers of Commerce Executives Foundation in working with up to 12 rural chambers of commerce to learn how to bring local community partners together to provide rural learners and workers from low-income backgrounds with the training needed to access well-paying, high-demand jobs.

Changing Systems to Support Partnerships Between Rural Community Colleges and Industry Stakeholders

Exploration
National Skills Coalition|$600,000|12/2022 - 11/2024
This grant supports the National Skills Coalition in helping states implement policy and systems changes to create and/or strengthen partnerships between rural-based community colleges and industry. This effort will document how existing partnerships have impacted the postsecondary and workforce success of rural learners and provide targeted technical assistance and coaching to state agencies and workforce coalitions.

NCII Impact Fund - Rural Guided Pathways

Scaling
New Venture Fund|$3,392,450|10/2021 - 9/2024
This grant supports the NCII Impact Fund, a project of the New Venture Fund, in developing and delivering a regionalized approach to guided pathways focused on rural institutions. This three year support model would be a first-of-its-kind approach to guided pathways implementation that includes community colleges, as well as workforce, employer, K12 and university partners as core members of the implementation team.

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.

AA-to-BA Transfer Apprenticeship Pathway for Rural Talent

Exploration
Reach Institute for School Leadership|$600,000|11/2022 - 5/2024
This grant supports Reach University in building career pathways between rural community colleges and school districts in four states, providing rural learners from low-income backgrounds with job-embedded training that leads to a bachelor’s degree and employment in high-quality, high-demand jobs in the education sector.

Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success

Validation
Digital Promise Global|$277,500|3/2023 - 2/2024
This grant supports Digital Promise Global in exploring the impact of a state‐funded training and wage‐based incentive program (Child Care WAGE$ Tennessee) designed to create living‐wage career paths for early childhood educators in rural communities.

Evaluating the HBCU Adult Learner Initiative

Validation
UNCF|$74,000|12/2021 - 12/2023
This grant supports UNCF in evaluating the Adult Learner Initiative, an initiative designed to help five Historically Black Colleges and Universities in North Carolina identify and eliminate barriers that prevent Black rural adult learners from low-income backgrounds from earning a degree or credential.

Evaluating Digital Pathways Transformation Cohort of Rural Community Colleges

Validation
Achieving the Dream Inc|$240,000|12/2020 - 12/2023
This grant supports Achieving the Dream in building a cohort of six rural community colleges going through large-scale institutional change to prepare and increase the number of low-income learners that graduate and enter the digital economy. This grant will support the evaluation of this cohort and will build a body of evidence outlining key success factors for supporting rural community colleges and learners.

Building Rural Community Learning Systems

Scaling
Columbus Learning Center Management Corporation|$750,000|9/2021 - 8/2023
This grant supports CivicLab, a project of Columbus Learning Center Management Corporation, in launching a cohort of six to eight rural community partnerships, building the capacity of rural community learning systems to improve learner-level outcomes along a talent development pathway.
View All Ascendium Grants

Latest News

March 23, 2023

Keith Witham Named New Vice President - Education Philanthropy, Q&A with AHEP’s Ved Price and More

  • A Message from Our New Vice President - Education Philanthropy, Keith Witham
  • Q&A: AHEP’s Ved Price on the State of Postsecondary Education in Prison Programs
  • Grant Partners Selected for Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success
Read More
March 23, 2023

Ascendium Announces Grant Partners for Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success

Ascendium is pleased to announce the grant partners selected to receive funding through our Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success initiative.

Read More
View All News for this Focus Area

Resources

Rural Community College Excellence: A Guide to Delivering Strong Opportunity for Students and Communities

Rural community colleges not only provide a space for educational attainment, they also serve as hubs that generate opportunities for upward mobility and drive local talent development. However, excellent rural community colleges often receive less attention than their urban peers. This guide uplifts the strategies and practices of excellent student-centered rural community colleges identified through the Aspen Prize process.

Visit Site

Institutional Resilience in Puerto Rico and Rural Areas (Part III)

The third in a four-part podcast series, this episode highlights work by Excelencia in Education that explores resiliency efforts at five Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) in Puerto Rico. These rural-located institutions are committed to student success for Latino learners, even amidst challenges such as declining enrollment, demographic shifts and fiscal constraints. Lessons learned from these HSIs are applicable to institutions on the mainland facing similar issues.

Visit Site
View All Resources for this Focus Area

Kirstin
Yeado

Senior Program Officer,
Support Rural Postsecondary and Workforce Training

Valerie
Crespín-Trujillo

Program Officer,
Streamline Key Learner Transitions

Subscribe and Stay Connected

Get Ascendium news right to your inbox, from grant announcements and project spotlights to where you can find our program staff in the field.

Newsletter Sign Up