Beyond Free Tuition: Adding Student Success Strategies to College Promise Programs College Promise programs make it easier for students from low-income backgrounds to attend college by covering tuition. But many students face obstacles beyond financial need, causing them to drop out before realizing the full benefits of higher education. Social policy research organization MDRC hopes to improve outcomes for College Promise students through the College Promise Success Initiative (CPSI). The project is based on the early success of the Detroit Promise Program, which supplements free tuition with evidence-based student success supports such as coaching, financial incentives, data tracking and summer engagement strategies. Great Lakes recently committed $1 million to support CPSI, which will apply best practices identified through the Detroit Promise work at four College Promise programs across the country, and share what is learned with the field. Through this project, we hope to learn more about what it takes to keep College Promise students enrolled and on the path to graduation. Read more |