By joining the Complete College Accelerator, Terra State Community College joins a network of schools and organizations dedicated to improving best practices to increase student completion rates around the country.
The Complete College Accelerator has a new member college in Terra State Community College. The accelerator program is an initiative taking place across the country with the goal of improving the success of students and closing the gaps in the access and completion. As part of the Ohio Association of Community College (or OAC) select group, Terra State Community College is one of more than ten state partners, and just over 80 institutions of higher education in America, to join Complete College America. Complete College America is a nonprofit organization operating under the mission to help more people attain postsecondary education.
Complete College America is using funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Intermediaries for Scale initiative (or IFS). Complete College America is working with 11 other state agencies such as the OACC over the course of the next four years to work on research based projects that are designed to improve the rate of college completion throughout the state.
In an article posted on Terra State Community College’s website, the school’s president Dr. Ronald Schumacher was quoted as saying, “The success and completion of our students is the highest priority at Terra State. We are honored and excited to be accepted into this program. We look forward to working with CCA, the Ohio Association of Community Colleges, and other postsecondary institutions across the U.S. to advance this vital work.”
Terra State will use the funding from the national grant program to work with Complete College America to develop and implement strategies for student outcomes, build data capacity, and oversee assessments of the performance of higher education institutions. Terra State, as part of the national Complete College Accelerator network, will be provided access to best practices and innovations from other institutions and systems in the Accelerator program. Terra State will then also share its best practices and successes with those other institutions in turn. Terra State Community College is constantly enrolling over 2,500 students every academic year. Around 80% of those students are attending part time, which is related to the completion rates of those students.
In America, nearly 90% of students from under-resourced family units do not graduate in four years, or often even six, according to this study. The NASPA’s Center for First-Generation Student Success found that 56% of first generation college students had also not attained a credential from a postsecondary institution after six years. In line with those studies, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics also determined that six year graduation rates for Latinx and Black students is lower than graduation rates for White students at 51.5%.
The president of the CCA, Yolanda Watson Spiva, Ph.D., weighed in as well, saying, “While persistence and retention are finally returning to pre-pandemic levels at both two-year and four-year institutions, there are troubling gaps in access, completion, and career outcomes that continue to persist for students from underserved communities. As institutions and economies continue to shift following the pandemic, taking action now is critical to long-term success. Through the Complete College Accelerator, these eleven states and more than eighty participating institutions will build their capacity to scale, implement, and sustain evidence-based practices that improve college completion rates for all students. We are proud to partner with Terra State Community College on this effort.”
The Complete College Accelerators is working based on the CCA’s long history of creating the capacity of higher education systems and campuses, as well as states, to develop and put into action data informed practices and policies to transform their structures to better serve students. The selection of state partners was determined after a competitive RFP process, which was conducted back in February. States that participate in the program were selected from members of the Complete College America Alliance, which also includes senior leadership from systems, institutional consortia, states, and pattern organizations, and then selected the participating institutions.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Intermediaries for Scale Initiative was originally started back in January of 2020, and is designed to help colleges and universities around the country to develop the capacity to implement data based strategies for improving the success of students at scale. CCA is one of six different organizations that were chosen to work over the next five years to increase student success through the transformation of institutional structures. The other members of the IFS Cohort are Growing Inland Achievement, Excelencia in Education, American Indian Higher Education Consortium, American Association of State College and Universities, and UNCF.
Terra State Community College is working through the Ohio Association of Community Colleges, which is part of the initial cohort of Complete College Accelerator states, along with the University of Wisconsin System, Washington Student Achievement Council, Vermont State University, South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, Ohio Department of Higher Education, New Mexico Higher Education Department, Missouri Commission of Higher Education and Workforce Development, Minnesota Private College Council, Main Community College System, Louisiana Board of Regents, and the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.
More information about Complete College America can be found on its website.
More information about Terra State Community College can be found at the school’s website.