Building "Bridges" to Student Success

This League for Innovation in Community Colleges session wowed me with the results from a special program called "Bridges." The Ford Foundation and Lumina Foundation set aside money for approximately 5 states to do research and support at risk students' success in the community college. Washington State, Colorado and Ohio representatives spoke about the program in their states.
Kristin Corash, VP of Stategic Planning at the Colorado Community College System utilized the funds for a systemwide strategic plan. Kristin described the remedial challenge in our state: among adults 67% fall into remedial education; across the nation 80% place into developmental education. The funding supported work on Career Pathways as a framework for progress. Kristin reported the development of 67 plans of study that follow career pathways. These are careers that have been shown to be of importance for the economy of the state. See www.communitycollegecentral.org.
I asked Kristin about the poor funding that Colorado provides to adults in need of basic education. She indicated that the state funded $200,000 to that end this year. The audience was stunned by such a low number. She felt it was at least a token sign that the State needs to do something along these lines. We at CMC recognize how little support is given to higher education and remain continually grateful for our "independent community college" status.
But let me cut to the chase here for it is in Washington State where the results are to be had. The State of Washington has agreed to provide 1.75 FTE per student in ABE or IBES with .25 of that fte going toward support services. The students' developmental work is tied to improving their wages. They follow David Prince's theory of the tipping point (Washington State U): one year of college plus a certificate results in $7,500 to $8,500 more in salary for ESL and ABE students respectively. Washington State has close to an 80% completion rate for students who enter developmental education or ABE. They are seeing student go farther faster. They have cracked that nut which we so often bemoan of the dev-ed student who never goes past the first couple of developmental education classes. They have focused the resources on that front door and emphasized the urgency of this work for the future of our workforce. It was down right encouraging!