Gates Foundation awards $69 million in grants
By CCTIMES, Published January 5, 2009

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has rolled out its first round of grants in a much-publicized effort to double the number of low-income students who earn a postsecondary degree or credential by age 26—an increase of about 250,000 graduates each year. 

The grants total $69 million to more than 20 organizations that include policy organizations, training and research organization and social and education institutions (See story, right). Foundation officials said the awards reflect the foundation’s commitment to use data to shape its investments by building on existing successful programs and policies, tapping innovation in areas where there has been limited success and, over the longer term, bringing the most promising practices to scale. Several of the projects will focus on community college students.

The foundation will first work to build commitment among key policymakers, educators and business and community leaders to increase postsecondary completions rates, according to program officials. Grant-funded work will begin to establish an evidence base for change through awareness-raising research and reports, like “Measuring Up” (see Page 10), and the development of policy recommendations to drive greater access and completion.

Additionally, given the nation’s economic challenges, foundation officials said it is critical that young people learn the skills necessary to prepare them for new jobs. Investments in research and best practices will begin to give educators, students and policymakers a better understanding of which postsecondary degrees produce the biggest returns in the labor market.

The foundation will also invest in efforts that ensure the postsecondary education system can support increased completion rates in two- and four-year colleges. A critical barrier to postsecondary success is the poor preparation of many incoming students and the ability of colleges to adequately address the problem, according to the foundation.

Nearly half of all college students require some remedial instruction, a number that rises to nearly 60 percent in community colleges. This often delays student progress and limits completion rates.

Foundation investments will be aimed at accelerating success in remedial courses in community colleges, including a grant to MDC, a research and policy nonprofit, to build on successful pilot programs within the Achieving the Dream network of two-year colleges. MDC will also support data systems in up to five states that will publicly track and assess remediation education performance in two- and four-year colleges. 

“The Achieving the Dream network of colleges has made significant progress in developing innovative programs designed to improve remedial education, some of which show real promise,” said Jamie Merisotis, president of Lumina Foundation for Education. “We will now be able to scale up the most promising of these programs in order to impact more students and begin significantly increasing completion rates.”

Finally, the Gates Foundation will invest in initiatives to offer young people the financial, social and academic support to succeed in college. For example, MDRC will work over four years to grow and evaluate its Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration at two- and four-year colleges.

Initially piloted in Louisiana, the performance-based program will grow to four areas around the country and give students cash and other benefits to enroll in college full-time and maintain a minimum grade point average.

First-round recipients

The following organizations received grants under the Gates Foundation’s new initiative to improve college success.

• $8.9 million will go toward grants to build commitment among key policymakers and business and community leaders:

American Youth Work Center/Youth Today (S750,000 over three years) will support journalistic coverage of efforts to expand postsecondary credentialing for America’s youths, focusing on the role of the youth service field. Youth Today is a nationally distributed newspaper published by the center with a 10,000 circulation.

Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) ($400,000 for one year) will establish the Center on Postsecondary and Economic Success and provide technical help to the Gates Foundation’s Postsecondary Success state policy grantees. The grant will expands CLASP’s existing work, supported by the Joyce and Ford Foundations, to help low-income adults earn marketable postsecondary credentials by reforming federal and state postsecondary education policies and aligning them with related workforce, adult education and welfare policies.

Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action ($600,000 over two years) will focus on the financial barriers young people face in completing college, from financial aid to housing costs, by producing new research and developing a strong multi-state advocacy network.

Institute for Women’s Policy Research ($187,475 over one year) will conduct a policy review, promising practices analysis and child care needs assessment that will address methods for encouraging participation and success in postsecondary education among single parents who are primarily women and of color.

Jobs for America’s Graduates ($50,000 over one year) will support a symposium of public and private decision makers to craft a plan to scale up proven solutions for closing the gap in education and workforce outcomes among at-risk minority youths.

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education ($5.4 million over three years) will support publication and marketing the center’s “2008 Measuring Up” report, which profiles state performance in higher education affordability, completion rates and other areas.

The Future of Children ($892,667 over four years) will support the production, dissemination and outreach for four journals dealing with disadvantaged youths.

Public Agenda ($469,954 over one year) will conduct a national opinion research project to examine the aspirations, obstacles and decision points for young people regarding education beyond high school.

Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education ($212,150 over one year) will convene a meeting of state leaders to assist them with creating longitudinal data systems that link education with workforce data for public policy analysis and development. Leaders from K-12, postsecondary education and workforce agencies in the commission’s 15 member states will foster collaborations.

• $33.2 million of the total grant amount will go improving postsecondary education so students learn the skills they need more quickly:

The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce ($2.9 million over four years) will expand merit-based opportunity by aligning education and workforce demands.

Harvard Graduate School of Education ($1.9 million over four years) will support a four-year quantitative research project focused on college enrollment and completion. Additionally, it will investigate the role of community colleges in facilitating increased access and success for students.

Jobs for the Future ($3.3 million over three years) will build on the advances of the Breaking Through initiative and accelerate the scaling up of postsecondary on-ramps and supports.

Learning Point Associates ($879,868 over three years) will conduct research comparing for-profits and public two-year colleges on short-term and long-term labor market outcomes, as well as specific program structuring and job placement practices.  

MDC ($16.5 million over four years) will identify the most promising work in remedial education being done by 15 community colleges and five states participating in the Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count initiative. A team of seven organizations will support the colleges and states as they help students move on to college-level work by collecting and analyzing student data, developing innovative programs and creating a partner network.

University of California, Los Angeles ($7.6 million over five years) will support the university’s All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity to conduct a research project focused on low-income young adults’ opportunities and obstacles on the path to postsecondary education.

Workforce Strategy Center ($208,900 over one year) will research effective employer engagement models throughout the U.S., with an emphasis on efforts targeted at low-income young adults.

• $26.8 million of the total grant amount will help strengthening student supports so more young people complete postsecondary programs:

The Forum for Youth Investment ($1.2 million over three years) will identify and cultivate opportunities to affirm the importance of postsecondary credentials for low-income and disconnected youth within its network of partners.

MDRC ($13 million over four years) will expand its Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration, which provides scholarships to low-income students that are tied to attendance and academic performance to build evidence about their effects on student outcomes. More than 4,500 students will receive scholarships at two- and four-year institutions in four states.

The Corps Network ($750,000 over one year) will support development of a business plan to take Youth Service and Conservation Corps to scale, as part of a strategy to better channel disconnected young people into and through postsecondary education and meaningful work credentials.

National Youth Employment Coalition ($5.6 million over four years) will partner with the Nellie Mae Education Foundation to build the capacity of a small network of organizations to support low-income youths and young adults to attain a postsecondary credential.

Ounce of Prevention Fund ($305,719 over one year) will study existing supports and barriers to postsecondary education among young, low–income parents in Chicago, Denver and Miami.

YouthBuild USA ($6 million over three years) will provide technical assistance, training, funding and support to seven local YouthBuild programs to engage 1,500 youths who have previously dropped out of school to earn their GEDs or high school diplomas and attain postsecondary credentials. Each of these YouthBuild programs will partner with community colleges, four-year colleges and technical schools.