Colleges get completion grants

BY Joanne Jacobs
Community College Spotlight


June 3, 2011

The Gates Foundation‘s Completion by Design grants will help community colleges in Texas, Florida, Ohio and North Carolina develop programs to raise graduation rates.

Lone Star College will lead the Texas effort, reports the Houston Chronicle.  Only 12 percent of Texas community college students complete a credential in three years and 30 percent within six years, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

More than half of college students in Texas — and 71 percent of Hispanics — attend community college.

“We really see higher education as … a way to end the cycle of poverty,” said Suzanne Walsh, senior program officer for post-secondary success with the Gates Foundation.

She said research shows low-income students who haven’t earned a degree or certificate by age 26 are unlikely to ever escape poverty.

Lone Star will work with El Paso Community College, Dallas County Community College, Alamo Community College and South Texas College. Together the colleges serve a third of all community college students in Texas.

In Ohio, Stark State College will take the lead, working with Sinclair and Lorain County colleges.

Guildford Technical Community College will lead North Carolina’s completion campaign, working with Central Piedmont Community College, Davidson County Community College, Martin Community College and Wake Technical Community College.

Miami Dade College, which graduates more Hispanic students than any other community college, also won a completion grant.