Gates Foundation announces grants to community colleges

06/21/2009 20:19

The Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced grants to 15 community colleges and five states. The gifts total $16.5 million (with each college receiving $743,000 over three years), and are focused on strengthening remedial education programs to improve retention and graduation rates.

The foundation is working with MDC Inc., a Chapel Hill, N.C., nonprofit, and Lumina Foundation for Education of Indianapolis, Ind., which pledged $1.5 million toward the effort.

The foundation is seeking to empower institutions to tailor their instruction to struggling students, thereby increasing students’ chances of completing coursework and degree requirements. The program is called the Developmental Education Initiative.

The Gates Foundation announced its movement into higher education last year and made an initial grant to MDC to work on remedial education. The most promising of those ideas will be expanded with this round of grants.

More than 133,000 students take remedial classes in the 15 community colleges selected for the grants. The number of students moving from remedial to college-level classes improved 16 to 20 percent through the programs piloted by MDC and the Gates Foundation.

The following is a summary of the grants announced today [Source: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation]:

Connecticut Total Funds: $1,786,000
State of Connecticut $300,000 over three years	Phase in common statewide placement standards and align remedial work with credit-bearing courses to accelerate progress toward degree completion.
Housatonic Community College $743,000 over three years	Align remedial math with college-credit courses; provide supplemental math instruction; and expand its “modular math” program and its learning community program that assigns a group of students a cluster of courses together.
Norwalk Community College $743,000 over three years	Align remedial math and English with college-credit courses; expand learning communities, including linkages to a freshman seminar course; assist developmental students in establishing e-portfolios; provide support through the NCC Student Success center.
Florida Total Funds: $1,043,000
State of Florida $300,000 over three years	Collaborate with K-12 to reduce the need for remedial education.
Valencia Community College $743,000 over three years	Create a centralized remedial program to be used across four campuses; align high school, remedial, and college-level standards; expand a student success course, supplemental instruction, and remedial learning communities; and embed reading skills into its remedial math courses.
North Carolina Total Funds: $743,000
Guilford Technical Community College $743,000 over three years	Provide intensive advising and case management for remedial students; create a new Learning Assistance Center; and expand its student success course, learning communities, peer-led instruction program, and accelerated remedial courses.
Ohio Total Funds: $4,015,000
State of Ohio $300,000 over three years	Develop a new performance-based funding system that would reward community colleges for helping students progress through remedial education and subsequent college-level courses.
Cuyahoga Community College $743,000 over three years	Implement Teaching and Learning Integrated Team model, which incorporates mentoring, online and in-person tutoring, supplemental instruction, and collaborative student learning. Provide faculty and staff training to integrate these services into course design.
Jefferson Community College $743,000 over three years	Integrate Adult Basic Education into the remedial education department and redesign remedial math and English courses following the National Center for Academic Transformation model. Expand professional development offerings.
North Central State College $743,000 over three years	Expand several pilot programs, including a self-paced learning lab, a program for adult GED students, an accelerated math boot camp, intensive advising, and the creation of a dedicated remedial education tutoring center. Continue high school outreach through placement test workshops for faculty.
Sinclair Community College $743,000 over three years	Conduct a policy and practice review that will guide programs for remedial students. Expand its Student Success Plan initiative, which offers high school students individual learning plans, coaching, and case management as well as online math modules with diagnostics.
Zane State College $743,000 over three years	Expand its remedial math advising program to all remedial courses, incorporate technology into remedial education courses with a mobile lab, and train faculty on how to further improve the classroom experience.
Texas Total Funds: $3,272,000
State of Texas $300,000 over three years	Institute performance incentives to reward the state’s colleges for helping more students advance through remedial education courses.
Coastal Bend College $743,000 over three years	Focus on improving remedial math programs by providing mandatory case management for students and by aligning remedial and credit-bearing math courses more efficiently.
El Paso Community College $743,000 over three years	Expand to four campuses its College Readiness Initiative, which aligns remedial and college entry and exit standards; provide case management for all remedial education students for 30 credit hours; and expand its “modular math” program.
Houston Community College $743,000 over three years	Align remedial math outcomes with college-level courses; expand “modular math” and learning communities that assign students to a cluster of courses as a group; and provide supplemental instruction in all remedial math courses.
South Texas College $743,000 over three years	Offer its Beacon Mentoring Program to all remedial students and create a task force to ensure courses align with students’ career goals and that the curriculum is integrated across all three remedial subjects.
Virginia Total Funds: $1,786,000
State of Virginia $300,000 over three years	Commission research to identify obstacles to completion, factors that correlate with student success, and high and low performing institutions to inform statewide goals for community colleges.
Danville Community College $743,000 over three years	Align remedial and college-level entry and exit standards. Form a Remedial Education Advisory Committee, represented by college faculty and staff and key stakeholders outside the college.
Patrick Henry Community College $743,000 over three years	Expand accelerated courses and skill-focused instruction, simultaneous enrollment in remedial and college-level courses, and a math lab requirement. The college will refine a diagnostic tool that identifies risk factors in remedial students and guides placement in appropriate interventions.

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