HOW COLLEGE PROMISES ANNOUNCES 426 PROGRAMS & NEW STUDENT ECOSYSTEM REPORT! (1334 hits)
For Immediate Release From College Promise!
College Promise Announces 425 Programs & New Student Ecosystem Report
College Promise https://www.collegepromise.org/, a nonprofit committed to making college, including postsecondary career training, as universal, free, and accessible as high school, announces 425 College Promise programs across all 50 states, measuring significant growth since the initiative's inception in 2015, when 53 programs were initially identified.
Accompanying this new milestone is the release of a Student Ecosystem report summarizing five years of partnership and research on College Promise student ecosystem populations. The 10 Populations of College Promise Students https://assets.website-files.com/61ba001bb... and the Ecosystems to Support Them details the needs of targeted supports to learners based on their identified demographic. Student populations highlighted include:
Traditional-Aged Students Adult Students (Prime Age Workers) Undocumented Students Student Veterans Justice-Impacted Students First Generation Students Students in or Aged Out of Foster Care Students with Disabilities Student-Parents Students Needing Academic Support
Today, many students work, have extensive familial responsibilities, and/or struggle to braid funding from local, state, and federal sources to pay their way through school. This cumulative report details a deeper understanding of 10 key populations of students, as well as uncovering ways to:
Identify students’ tuition and non-tuition expenses (for example, transportation, books, supplies, childcare housing);
Provide stable, sustainable state and local revenue models supported by the government with public and private sector partners; and
Leverage what works (for example, evidence-based high-impact strategies).
Since 2018, College Promise and ETS have partnered to better understand college student ecosystems, creating design teams composed of cross-disciplinary subject matter experts. Each team included student representation to ensure student voices guided the work.
Our new insights report incorporates all of the existing ten populations reports; the themes that emerged as design teams ideated about students’ trajectories into, through, and beyond higher education; and actionable steps that college leaders, College Promise leaders, K-12 leaders, practitioners, researchers, and communities can take to create ecosystems of support for a diverse student population. We aim to address educational inefficiencies, shorten the time it takes students to earn a credential, and expand students’ employment opportunities.
"College Promise programs are a proven means of helping students access, persist in, and graduate from higher education. But because we know students aren’t a monolith, we created a way to set up these design teams to help us understand – and better address – the needs of those specific populations,” said Martha Kanter, CEO of College Promise.
About College Promise
College Promise is a national, nonpartisan initiative to build broad public support for accessible, affordable, quality College Promise programs across the United States. Through partnerships with community colleges and universities, as well as leaders in education, business, nonprofit, government, and philanthropy, College Promise empowers stakeholders to enact proven solutions enabling hard-working students to complete a college degree or certificate with a student-centric framework that aligns no-cost tuition strategies with meaningful student support services. www.collegepromise.org
About ETS
At ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions, and government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher certification, English language learning, and elementary, secondary and postsecondary education, and by conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded as a nonprofit in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL® and TOEIC® tests, the GRE® tests and The Praxis Series® assessments — in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide. www.ets.org
A special thanks to our funders, Ascendium Education Group, Carnegie Corporation of New York, ECMC Foundation, and The Kresge Foundation for supporting this work.
College Promise’s Response to the Supreme Courts Rulings Impacting Students:
In the wake of the recent Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action and student loan forgiveness, we find ourselves at a critical juncture in our pursuit of a truly inclusive and equitable society. We at College Promise are unwavering in our commitment to the ideals of equal opportunity and educational access for all Americans.
College Promise stands shoulder to shoulder with students, Promise Programs, and the U.S. Department of Education. Promise programs serve as a beacon of hope, striving to create a just society that recognizes the boundless potential of every individual in the USA, irrespective of their background or circumstances. Diverse voices belong in the classroom all the way to the boardroom.
Our shared conviction lies in the belief that the key to realizing our nation's college access and attainment goals while simultaneously eradicating the deep-seated inequities and achievement gaps that persist is by catalyzing a nationwide movement. The College Promise movement champions the idea of making college as universal, accessible, and affordable as high school has been for over a century in the United States.
College Promise will relentlessly address student barriers through the following approaches:
Connecting learners to Promise programs: We have developed the interactive MyPromise tool, which serves as a gateway to programs that extend beyond scholarships for tuition, fees, and other costs. These programs provide comprehensive wraparound supports, ensuring that learners have the necessary resources and guidance to thrive academically and personally.
Enhancing Promise program quality and quantity: We are steadfast in our pursuit of expanding the availability of high-quality Promise programs. This involves broadening eligibility requirements and bolstering supports and services for all student populations. By creating pathways for Black, Latinx and/or Hispanic, Indigenous, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities, first-generation students, adults, and displaced workers to access accelerated training programs and paid learning opportunities, we foster economic mobility and reduce unemployment, ultimately creating a more inclusive society.
Promoting evidence-based approaches and research: At College Promise, we actively seek out and champion high-quality evidence, design, and academic information that can inform policy decisions for more equitable outcomes. We prioritize deep research on historically underrepresented student populations, recognizing the urgent need to address systemic inequities and promote inclusive practices across all educational institutions.
Advance local, county, statewide, and national Promise expansion: College Promise expansion has taken place across the USA in a bipartisan manner. We continue to provide technical assistance and support with the goal of achieving a federal/state partnership that lifts all learners.
