$8.5 Million in Strong Start to Finish Grants Awarded to Four State Systems Recipients to Focus on "Last Mile" Work to Implement Proven Pathways Reforms at Scale Four state higher education systems have each received three-year grants of $2.1 million from Strong Start to Finish (SSTF), an initiative launched last year with $13 million in pooled funds from Great Lakes, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Kresge Foundation. City University of New York (CUNY), Ohio Department of Higher Education, State University of New York (SUNY) and University System of Georgia were selected from nine finalists after SSTF received 47 letters of interest in fall 2017. The grants will help the four systems increase the number of historically underserved students who enter a program of study and pass gateway math and English classes in their first year of college, a key predictor of postsecondary success. SSTF also awarded $25,000 grants to each of five other finalists to support their participation in a learning network over the next three years. These grants will make a critical connection between developmental education reforms and guided pathways so that many more historically underserved students will succeed, said Amy Kerwin, Vice President Community Investments, Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation & Affiliates and Chair of the Strong Start to Finish Funder Advisory Board. Its a new way for funders to work together to achieve a new level of results, she added. |