2023 Postsecondary Success Highlights

Colleagues –

One of the best things about my job is having a front row seat to witness some awesome, impactful, and innovative work. As we approach the end of the year, please indulge me in celebrating major 2023 accomplishments from some of our partners. (These are in no particular order and represent a small sampling of the tremendous contributions this year to the postsecondary value and transformation movements.)

1. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB)
   The THECB secured their role as critical partner, resource, and advocate for higher education in Texas during their 88th legislative session earlier this year. They secured a $5 billion investment in higher ed for the next two years and celebrated the signing of House Bill 8 into law (including the allocation of $683 million in the state budget), codifying a new funding model for community colleges across the state. THECB’s commitment to student success incentivizes institutions to deliver greater value for their students.
2. Frontier Set Institutions
   The foundation launched the Frontier Set in 2015 as a way to celebrate and learn from a diverse set of high-performing, high-potential colleges and universities with a track record of improving student outcomes. We’re thrilled to see some institutional partners that have been at the forefront of the student success movement, building on their work to realign their structures, culture, and business model to create student experiences that result in equitable increases in outcomes and value, receive national attention for their efforts thanks to the Department of Education’s Postsecondary Student Success Grant (PSSG) program and Research and Development Infrastructure (RDI) program. Georgia State University was recently awarded a PSSG, and the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley was awarded a Research and Development Infrastructure grant. They joined former Frontier Set institutions
3. Lumen Learning
   Gateway courses were designed to help steer students toward their chosen field of study, but millions of students struggle to make it through, discouraging students and prematurely closing the door on their pursuit of postsecondary education. This spring, Lumen Learning started testing an early version of their innovative Statistics course. Also part of our work to fund “best in class” courseware, Arizona State University and Carnegie Mellon University have teamed up to develop a General Chemistry offering that started its own testing this Fall. Our goal with these courses is to support faculty in eliminating performance gaps by students from different backgrounds, specifically Black, Latino, Indigenous students, and students from low-income backgrounds and keep them on a path to a degree. We can’t wait to see these courses continue to evolve as they begin to scale in the coming years.
4. Paritii
   Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here and while the technologies hold incredible potential, partners like Paritii, warn we must acknowledge and address the likely biases these systems can perpetuate. They’ve created a host of toolkits and other resources freely accessible to organizations and individuals interested in putting equity first in their adoption of AI.
5. Complete College America (CCA)
   CCA knows generative AI can be an effective tool for college attainment, and a new landscape requires guidance, so schools avoid making a wrong turn wherever possible. To date, their team has developed two resources exploring AI applications to increase college completion and equity. This work augments CCA’s commitment to eliminating barriers to student success and higher education attainment. We applaud them for the selection of 11 state agencies to join their College Completion Accelerator over the next four years, supported by our Intermediaries for Scale (IFS) initiative, to continue moving the needle on completion gaps.

Thank you all for your continued partnership. Wishing you and your families a safe and happy holiday season!

Regards,

Patrick Methvin