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Public Benefits and Community Colleges: Lessons from the Benefits Access for College Completion Evaluation Report-in-Brief

November 19, 2014

The Benefits Access for College Completion demonstration (BACC) represented a collaborative multi-year investment from several philanthropic organizations to demonstrate how student supports from public human services programs could help address the college completion agenda. The idea fueling BACC was that existing financial aid programs are insufficient, and that high levels of unmet need lead to excessive work, poor grades, and dropping out of college. The underlying assumption for BACC was that, if students received additional financial and nonacademic supports through public benefits programs in addition to financial aid, their personal lives would become more stable, and they would make more progress toward their postsecondary educational goals.BACC supported seven community colleges in six states over 2.5 years to develop and implement benefits access services on their campuses, with the goals of increasing the numbers of eligible students who received public benefits, and, thus, subsequently improving academic progress toward a postsecondary credential. Our evaluation focused on five of these colleges – representing different college sizes and percentages of students that might be eligible for benefits, as well as operating in the context of five different state public benefits systems.

Public Benefits and Community Colleges: Lessons from the Benefits Access for College Completion Evaluation

November 19, 2014

This Final Evaluation Report provides the lessons learned from the Benefits Access for College Completion demonstration (BACC) demonstration project at five of the seven community colleges over the past three years. From the onset of BACC, the evaluation was focused on documenting and learning how the participating colleges approached this work, and how and why they made adjustments during the demonstration. This evaluation approach was intended to provide useful formative feedback to the colleges during the demonstration, but it also was intended to help answer the overarching evaluation question posed by the funders: What are the most promising models for community colleges to increase benefits access for their students, and how can these models be integrated into community college operations?During the course of our evaluation, we observed three key findings that emerged from the BACC demonstration. Colleges converged on the need for a centralized hub to deliver benefits access services, and also began moving toward an opt-out model of pre-screening and screening for benefits access by connecting this initial step in the application process to existing student support services like financial aid and advising. Cutting across these two findings is the critical importance of leadership and commitment to benefits access – up and down the administrative hierarchy and across departments and divisions, but especially for student services. In the following sections, we first present an overview of the BACC demonstration and the various approaches colleges explored at the onset. In Section 2, we provide a detailed discussion of the three main findings from our evaluation, including how the model for delivering benefits access services changed during the demonstration, highlighting specific examples from the five colleges. In Section 3, we discuss the impact analysis at one college where quantitative student data were matched with state administrative data on the receipt of public benefits. We conclude the report by summarizing our core findings, and pointing to additional research that is needed to better understand how benefits access services can be implemented and sustained on a college campus, and the impact of these benefits on student academic outcomes. 

Building Community Partnerships in Support of a Postsecondary Completion Agenda

January 22, 2014

This report highlights key lessons from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Community Partnerships portfolio evaluation. It assesses the communities' progress over the course of the investment, and describes their work in the areas of building public commitment, using data, building and sustaining partnerships, and aligning policies and practices. The OMG Center served as the national evaluator of this initiative and the report also discusses the steps these communities can take to sustain their programs.

Amplifying Learning in Systems Change Investments: An Experience in Developmental Evaluation

January 1, 2014

In 2013, Equal Measure (then known as the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning) with our client the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, published a series of briefs investigating the key principles of systems change through collective impact strategies, gleaned from a national evaluation of the Foundation's Community Partnerships Portfolio. This brief addresses two questions:When is developmental evaluation a good approach?How can communities, evaluators, and funders engage effectively in a developmental evaluation?

Building and Sustaining Partnerships to Advance a Postsecondary Systems Change Agenda

December 12, 2013

In 2013, Equal Measure (then known as the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning) with our client the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, published a series of briefs investigating the key principles of systems change through collective impact strategies, gleaned from a national evaluation of the Foundation's Community Partnerships Portfolio. This brief addresses two questions:Why is building and sustaining a partnership important for place-based investments?How can communities successfully build and sustain partnerships that advance a postsecondary systems change agenda?

Aligning Policies and Practices to Advance a Postsecondary Systems Change Agenda

December 4, 2013

In 2013, Equal Measure (then known as the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning) with our client the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, published a series of briefs investigating the key principles of systems change through collective impact strategies, gleaned from a national evaluation of the Foundation's Community Partnerships Portfolio. This brief addresses two questions:Why is aligning policies and practices important for place-based investments?How can communities successfully align policies and practices to increase postsecondary success?

Using Data to Advance a Postsecondary Systems Change Agenda

November 11, 2013

In 2013, Equal Measure (then known as the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning) with our client the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, published a series of briefs investigating the key principles of systems change through collective impact strategies, gleaned from a national evaluation of the Foundation's Community Partnerships Portfolio. This brief addresses two questions:Why use data to advance a postsecondary systems change agenda?How can communities use data to advance a postsecondary  systems change agenda?

Building Commitment to a Postsecondary Systems Change Agenda

November 5, 2013

In 2013, Equal Measure (then known as the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning) with our client the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, published a series of briefs investigating the key principles of systems change through collective impact strategies, gleaned from a national evaluation of the Foundation's Community Partnerships Portfolio. This brief addresses two questions:Why is building commitment important for place-based investments?How can communities successfully build commitment to a postsecondary change agenda?

Conducting a Scan of Your College Access and Success System

November 16, 2010

Explains how to design and implement an assessment of local systems' ability to improve college attainment, including needs, assets, and challenges; and how to leverage findings for stakeholder engagement, benchmarking, and strategy development.

College Access and Success in Philadelphia: Part II: College Enrollment Activity

October 29, 2010

Presents a scan of Philadelphia public high school graduates' characteristics and their college enrollment, retention, and completion rates. Outlines implications and recommendations for local institutions and supports for college access and success.

College Access and Success in Philadelphia: Part I: Moving Towards Systemic Efforts

October 29, 2010

Presents a scan of the city's college access and success system -- schools, higher education institutions, community-based organizations, families, advocates, funders, and businesses -- and opportunities to advance collaboration and alignment.

Miami-Dade College Access & Success Landscape Scan: Understanding the College Access and Success System in Miami

October 29, 2010

Presents a scan of Miami-Dade's college access and success system -- schools, higher education institutions, community-based organizations, families, advocates, funders, and businesses -- and opportunities to advance collaboration and alignment.