Postsecondary Access and Success

By 2018, 62 percent of jobs in the United States will require a college education, yet college completion rates lag dramatically, with only 38 percent of young adults aged 25-34 holding a postsecondary degree. The graduation rates for students of color, low-income youth, and first generation college goers are even lower, further widening the disparity gap.

In response, stakeholders across the educational system, including K-12 school districts, higher education institutions, community organizations, governments, philanthropy, and businesses, are testing strategies to increase student college entry and completion rates. Initially focused on issues of academic preparation, knowledge about how to get to college, and on providing student supports and financial guidance, postsecondary stakeholders are now tackling institutional policy and system practices that have impeded higher education completion. Rigorous data analysis is helping to identify curricular misalignment, faulty financial aid formulas and processes, and the lack of accountability for student success.

For the past decade, OMG professionals have been national thought leaders in planning and evaluating multi-faceted postsecondary success strategies that reform fundamental policy and practice. Our OMG team is currently working on numerous national, leading-edge initiatives that aim to systemically improve postsecondary success opportunities for all youth and young adults.

Evaluation of Making the Future
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In partnership with DVP-Praxis and Brandon Roberts Associates, OMG is conducting a comprehensive evaluation of Wisconsin’s four-year Making the Future program. Making the Future is funded through a federal grant provided by the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) initiative. Through Making the Future, a consortium of 15 Wisconsin technical colleges will develop, expand, and improve career pathways in advanced manufacturing. Making the Future will help TAACCCT-eligible students acquire skills and credentials to obtain high-wage, high-skill employment available through regional employers. The evaluation will focus on program implementation as well as student progress and outcomes.
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Learning and Data Systems Development Partnership with Philadelphia Academies, Inc.
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As an evaluation partner, OMG is providing evaluation capacity building to Philadelphia Academies, Inc. (PAI), for a new Whole School Career Academy Reform (WSCAR) model in four Philadelphia schools. Through the model program, PAI has created specialized learning environments and career-focused programming to better prepare high school students for postsecondary and employment opportunities.  In this role, OMG is helping PAI develop tools, capture and analyze “real-time” information about program implementation and whether student outcomes (e.g., attendance, behavior, graduation, college enrollment, career transition, and 21st century skills development) are significantly improved by the WSCAR program model.  
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Evaluation of the Catalyst Fund Initiative
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OMG is evaluating the impact of the Catalyst Fund Initiative, a project of Achieving the Dream, Inc., and supported by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The initiative funds four community colleges in the Achieving the Dream Network – Brazosport College (Lake Jackson, TX), Bunker Hill Community College (Charlestown, MA), Durham Technical Community College (Durham, NC), and Patrick Henry Community College (Martinsville, VA) – which have documented significant increases in student achievement for a set of pilot interventions. Undertaken in partnership with DVP-Praxis, the evaluation uses an in-depth case study methodology to document how colleges have expanded their innovative practices, and includes a rigorous quantitative outcome analysis to assess student level impact. 
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Evaluation of Benefits Access for College Completion
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OMG, in conjunction with DVP-Praxis, is evaluating Benefits Access for College Completion (BACC), a $4.8-million, three-year initiative to support community college students’ financial stability by increasing their access to public benefits, thereby improving college retention and completion rates. A consortium of funders, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Ford Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Lumina Foundation for Education, and the Open Society Institute, is supporting two intermediary organizations – the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) – and seven community colleges that are implementing innovative benefits access programs. OMG is working with this partnership to test and refine the benefits access model, as well as to identify how the participating community colleges can successfully integrate the model into their ongoing functions. In addition, OMG is researching the relationship between benefits access models and student academic performance and completion.
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Evaluation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Community Partnerships for Postsecondary Success Portfolio
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OMG is conducting an evaluation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Community Partnerships for Postsecondary Success portfolio. The portfolio is a multi-year, multi-million dollar initiative to increase postsecondary completion rates in seven communities across the country. The developmental evaluation is focused on understanding what it takes for a community to take up a postsecondary completion agenda, and assessing the degree to which these communities are strengthening their local postsecondary completion systems in support of student success. 
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Evaluation of the Citi Postsecondary Success Program
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OMG is conducting an evaluation of the Citi Postsecondary Success Program (CPSP), a five-year initiative that aims to improve college access and success among low-income and first-generation college students in Philadelphia, Miami, and San Francisco.  In the evaluation, OMG is assessing the development and effectiveness of community partnerships in each city and measuring student enrollment and academic outcomes.  Lessons learned from this evaluation will inform how the Citi Postsecondary Success Program can increase college enrollment and completion for students from high-need communities across the U.S.
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Evaluation of the Career Advancement Academy Initiative
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OMG is conducting an evaluation of a six-year demonstration project in California to assess the Career Advancement Academies’ (CAA) impact on student outcomes. Funded by the California Governor’s Career and Technical Education Initiative, the CAA program establishes pipelines to college and high-wage careers for low-income young adults.   The Career Advancement Academies are managed by the Career Ladders Project for the California Community Colleges. Findings from the evaluation will shape policy recommendations for continued state support and possible expansion of the CAA demonstration.  
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Evaluation of the Strive Partnership Value Added
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OMG conducted an evaluation of the Strive Partnership’s collective impact in the Greater Cincinnati region (Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky). Founded in 2006, the Strive Partnership has brought together more than 300 organizations, across different sectors, to improve educational outcomes for children. While the Strive Partnership regularly measures and publicly reports its progress, the organization was interested in assessing its own value, and in identifying ways it could play an even stronger role in the region. OMG’s evaluation included an online partner survey, 25 in-depth interviews with select stakeholders, and a series of focus groups with partners. OMG also provided the Strive Partnership with an evaluation plan and tools for repeating the evaluation in the future.
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Theory of Change Development for Campus Compact
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OMG recently developed a Theory of Change to help Campus Compact more clearly articulate its strategy for educating students for civic and social responsibility.  Campus Compact is a national coalition of university presidents committed to developing students’ citizenship skills.  The coalition represents approximately 6,000 students from more than 1,200 public, private colleges, and universities. As part of the process, OMG conducted a document review, work sessions, and interviews with over 50 stakeholders and partners. The resulting Theory of Change lays the groundwork for Campus Compact to evaluate its impact on student civic and community engagement and to assess how it can strengthen its efforts.
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Management Evaluation of the Completion by Design Initiative
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OMG, with DVP-Praxis, recently evaluated the management of the Gates Foundation’s Completion by Design Initiative (CbD).  CbD is a large-scale effort of 21 community colleges to redesign institutional structures, policies, and practices to increase student academic achievement and completion.  Through the evaluation, OMG provided tangible feedback to Gates Foundation leadership on how to improve management of the initiative – addressing issues such as clarity of roles and responsibilities, communication among the leadership team, communication with key project audiences, and coordination and quality of technical assistance.
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Theory of Change Development for SkillUp Washington’s Community College Completion Initiatives
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SkillUp Washington, a collaboration of state, city, foundation, and education leaders in Washington State, engaged the OMG Center to work with its key partners (The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, and the Workforce Board) to develop a theory of change for its two major college completion initiatives: Skill Link, an effort to build partnerships across colleges, workforce boards, and CBOs to support high-need students; and College for Working Adults, which seeks to develop certificate programs that meet the needs of working adults. These theories of change provided the partners with a framework to guide the work and created a common language for decision making. The OMG Center also conducted workshops with Skill Link and College for Working Adults grantees, to help them develop their own theories of change within the initiative framework, and to identify specific outcomes they hope to achieve through their work.
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Evaluation of the Student African American Brotherhood
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With funding from the Lumina Foundation, OMG conducted a three-year evaluation of the Student African American Brotherhood’s (SAAB) impact on college access and success for chapter students.  SAAB works to increase the number of African American and Latino men graduating from college by helping them excel in their schools and communities.  The organization operates student-run college and high school chapters throughout the country.  As part of the evaluation, OMG helped SAAB build data collection systems for ongoing program effectiveness.
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