$5 M grant to assess effectiveness of postsecondary ed programs

The Philanthropy News Digest reports that...

The Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, has announced a three-year, $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a series of studies that will help identify the most productive investments in community colleges.

...the studies will examine seven strategies informed by promising but largely untested ideas about what works to increase community college completion rates for low-income young adults: assessing incoming students' needs (not just their level of academic skills); providing highly structured and focused programs; offering high-quality and engaging online courses; accelerating the pace of remedial instruction and thereby reducing the time needed to complete that instruction; contextualizing basic skills instruction in the teaching of academic or occupational content; providing underprepared students with "student success" courses and other non-academic supports; and aligning programs and services to support student progression and success.

And now, for the rest of the story...