The Edge: Teaching Colleges to Take Down Barriers They’ve Created

A new organization builds on proven strategies to eliminate socioeconomic attainment gaps among students. ADVERTISEMENT [The Edge Logo]( Did someone forward you this newsletter? [Sign up free]( to receive your own copy. I’m Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at The Chronicle covering innovation in and around higher ed. This week I highlight the work of a new institute for student success — and invite your post-election thoughts. ADVERTISEMENT SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHRONICLE Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for unlimited access to essential news, analysis, and advice. Colleges learn to remove the barriers to student success that they’ve created. Low-income and first-generation students complete college at lower rates than their wealthier peers — and colleges are “[part of the problem]( That’s the premise that underlies the new National Institute for Student Success at Georgia State University, an organization that helps colleges correct the practices that perpetuate these inequities. Founded in January, the nonprofit institute has already worked with 28 colleges and universities, and raised $55 million from philanthropies to underwrite its work. The support includes a just-announced $25-million gift from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. The institute will use some of that money to make grants of up to $1.5 million to select clients to help them cover the costs of developing new systems, acquiring technology, or hiring additional staff members to put the organization’s recommendations into effect. The institute itself also plans to double its staffing, to the equivalent of 25 full-time employees, in the next three months. For an organization yet to celebrate its first birthday, that’s some pretty impressive mojo. Then again, it didn’t exactly start from scratch. Georgia State has become nationally known for eliminating socioeconomic-attainment gaps in its student body. In the six years leading up to the institute’s creation, officials from more than 500 colleges trekked to Georgia State in Atlanta to study the strategies the university had put into place under [Timothy Renick]( senior vice president for student success. He’s the institute’s founding executive director. The institute now recommends many of those same strategies — predictive analytics, proactive advising, AI-powered chatbots [to handle routine questions and improve academic performance,]( and [targeted completion grants]( — to its clients. But first, Renick told me, it conducts a five-month assessment of the college’s needs and capabilities — a process that is now capped by a mandatory 90-minute presentation of the findings to the institution’s president and cabinet. Meetings like that, said Renick, raise the profile of the work and are crucial to “getting people to do something differently tomorrow.” The institute has a wait list for its services and Renick told me that it gives priority to colleges that enroll large numbers of low-income and minority students and that have graduation rates that are below national averages. So far it’s done work with eight historically black colleges and universities, all public four-year institutions in Kansas, six community colleges in the Detroit area, and four public four-year colleges in Texas. Seven of them will be proceeding with at least a year more of institute support to put the suggestions into practice. The institute charges $25,000 for the initial consultation and $75,000 a year for the continuing services. The fees are designed to ensure institutions have some of their own skin in the game, but Renick says they barely cover 20 percent of the overall costs. Only colleges that have gone through the institute’s analysis, enroll a high proportion of low-income and minority students, and have gaps in attainment for those populations will be invited to apply for Acceleration Grants. I’m a big fan of Renick’s and Georgia State’s work in this arena, and the creation of the institute seems like a natural next step. I especially appreciate that it sees itself not so much as a consultancy that helps colleges employ strategies but as an organization with a philanthropic mission — and independence. Institute leaders can talk to college leaders as colleagues and, as Renick said, “we don’t have anything to sell.” Still, given the institute’s commitment to the Georgia State playbook, I still wonder how truly customized its recommendations will be. Renick’s answer? Sure, some evidence-based recommendations may show up again and again, he said, but the institute also considers context. For example, he notes, the four Texas public-college clients all fall under the auspices of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board while the six community colleges near Detroit are all independently governed. So recommendations designed to promote transfer pathways will be different for each case. The advice, he said, is designed to reflect “wildly different challenges” that its clients are facing. What’s your post-election mood? I’m writing this before the votes have been counted. As the state and national outcomes become known, I’m not only wondering how our democracy is holding up (!) but also what the results will mean for the future of higher education — and for the sector’s capacity to improve itself. In the days to come, you all will have a better feel for the new political landscape than I have right now. So as that picture becomes clearer, I’d love to hear from you on how things look. With new governors and legislatures, and a new Congress, what’s likely to become easier to accomplish, and what do you expect to get tougher? Likewise, are there some movements and trends — good or bad — that endure, no matter the outcome at the polls? Please, [send me your thoughts](mailto:goldie@chronicle.com). Got a tip you’d like to share or a question you’d like me to answer? Let me know, at goldie@chronicle.com. If you have been forwarded this newsletter and would like to see past issues, [find them here](. To receive your own copy, free, register [here](. If you want to follow me on Twitter, [@GoldieStandard]( is my handle. Goldie’s Weekly Picks POLITICS [College Is a Dividing Line in Politics. Here’s What You Need to Know.]( By Sarah Brown, Carolyn Kuimelis, and Grace Mayer [STORY IMAGE]( In the past three elections, the gap has widened between voters with college degrees and voters without them. SPONSOR CONTENT | University of South Florida [How one team launched a lead-generating certificate program in less than three months]( IUPUI AT A CROSSROADS [Why Is a Large Public University Splitting?]( By Lee Gardner [STORY IMAGE]( Indiana and Purdue Universities’ joint campus in Indianapolis was bifurcated from the beginning. CAMPUS LABOR [College Dining Workers Seize the Moment]( By Grace Mayer [STORY IMAGE]( They want higher pay, better staffing, and respect. 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