CCA TECHNOLOGY SEAL OF APPROVAL

The CCA Technology Seal of Approval award, established in 2016, recognizes software tools that most effectively promote college completion and student success through alignment with CCA’s Game Changer strategies.

Recipients met the standards established by CCA’s Technology Seal of Approval Advisory Board – a blue-ribbon panel of top technologists and higher education leaders. The board awarded the Seal of Approval based on a defined set of best practices as well as a robust evaluation of effective implementations and aspirational standards.

• View the 2017 Seal of Approval solicitation and functionality requirements.
• View the 2016 Seal of Approval solicitation and functionality requirements.

MSI INITIATIVE

Acknowledging the importance of Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) in addressing postsecondary-education graduation rate disparities among ethnic/racial groups, CCA has partnered with a select group of MSIs to accelerate student success through Game Changer implementation. This implementation follows CCA’s Momentum Year strategy, which is focused on efforts to reduce time and excess credits to degree.

The MSI Initiative, supported by the Kresge Foundation and Lumina Foundation, builds on the complementary work already underway at participating institutions to form an exemplary model with outcomes data used to scale effective strategies at peer and other institutions.

Promise with a Purpose

Promise with a Purpose is CCA, the College Promise Campaign, and Achieving the Dream’s joint effort to advocate for states, cities and institutions to incorporate an intentional framework for student success into the College Promise programs that are sweeping the nation.

Promise with a Purpose lays out a collection of evidence-based strategies for institutions, communities, and states to incorporate into their Promise initiatives. These strategies include providing intensive onboarding advising to help students choose a program of study within their first academic year, ensuring students enroll in critical gateway math and English courses in their first academic year and encouraging students to enroll in 15 credits per semester or 30 credits each year. The report also highlights institutions that have successfully implemented these interventions, securing increased retention, higher graduation rates, and shortened time to degree.

Purpose First

Far too often, today’s college students find themselves wandering through their academic experiences, choosing from amongst a dizzying array of majors, courses, and out-of-classroom learning experiences. However, more than a decade of research suggests that too many choices, especially in the absence of adequate information, can have negative effects.

At worst, this “paradox of choice” leads to a dead end for students, yielding some college credit but no degree or other credential of value. But even for those who do complete, data reveal that many have swirled, accumulated excess credits, extended their time to degree, and tacked on extra costs in the process.

That’s why, in 2016, Complete College America and Strada Education Network announced an initiative to design a new model of advising and student intake that would equip students with valuable information, empower their decision-making, and build early academic momentum as they work toward degrees and ultimately careers.

Through partnerships with admissions, enrollment service, academic advising, and career services professions, Purpose First aims to redesign the student onboarding experience by actively integrating information and support to better help students make informed decisions regarding their majors and careers.