Contact: Dr. Dhanfu Elston 
media@completecollege.org

Ascendium Education Group funding will support three CCA Alliance members to close institutional equity gaps through policy and practice

INDIANAPOLIS – Complete College America (CCA) announced today a $1.75 million grant from Ascendium Education Group to elevate opportunity and advance equity-centered strategies that will permanently close equity gaps in postsecondary education, specifically by race and income. 

Through this grant, CCA will implement a three-phase, 36-month project to enable a cohort of three Alliance states or regional sites to build capacity around equity-centered completion strategies, along with complementary state and/or institutional policies that enable long-term sustainability. CCA will create an opportunity for networking within the states and across the project. This will occur through both virtual and in-person convenings.

“This remarkable gift from Ascendium Education Group will accelerate CCA’s work of scaling highly effective structural reforms and promoting policies that improve student success across the country, particularly for racialized minorities, families from low-income backgrounds, first-generation students, working learners, and those experiencing challenges specific to urban or rural environments,” said Dr. Yolanda Watson Spiva, CCA’s president. “This project will allow those states and systems who are ready and willing to transform their postsecondary institutions, to directly focus their efforts on equitable completion outcomes.” 

COVID-19 exacerbated disparities experienced by these communities and increased the need to provide strategic interventions to improve college completion. Through an intentional focus on equity policy and practice, the partnership with Ascendium Education Group will lead to improved college completion rates and social mobility for traditionally “under-served” student populations.  

CCA will adapt its effective model for scaled transformation to facilitate state and institutional change, with research support from partner organizations. Institutional teams from three Alliance states, composed of administrators, faculty, and student services staff, will be assisted through planning phases to develop, and begin implementing appropriate data driven student success execution plans.  

“Ascendium is looking forward to partnering with Complete College America in this vitally important work,” said Sue Cui, program officer for Ascendium’s Remove Structural Barriers to Success focus area. “This effort has the potential to impact thousands of learners from low-income backgrounds as they pursue their education and career goals.”

CCA advances its mission of dramatically improving college completion rates and closing equity gaps in partnership with its 48-member -and growing- Alliance of states, higher education systems, and institutional consortia across the United States. CCA is working to expand its nationwide network by establishing new partnerships with states and systems whose leaders are committed to equitable outcomes. 

CCA Alliance members can learn more about the opportunity here. Alliance members who have submitted the annual strengths assessment and institutional assessment data will be prioritized for participation. Any Alliance members with questions regarding these assessments, should contact their state assigned strategy directors for more information.