Please Note:
Currently, the Foundation is realigning its
program investments. It will continue to focus its grantmaking on strategies
that support underserved learners while building knowledge about how to
dramatically improve outcomes for the majority of New England's learners. While
the funding focus transitions to new program work, the Foundation is building on
what has been learned through successes in order to define the future. The
emerging program areas include early learning, the use of time in learning, the
examination of the pathways involved between secondary and postsecondary
education, and adult learning with a focus on postsecondary opportunities. Also,
as the new grantmaking focus takes shape, some of the Foundation's programs that
are currently funded under the original strategic initiatives (Adult Literacy,
College Prep, Minority High Achievement, and Out-of-School Matters!) will
continue to be funded under a new alignment.
Further details about the new strategic
direction are expected to be announced in January, 2008
Background
The minority achievement gap is a complex problem that defies
simple explanations. However, the statistics themselves are
clear: on average, students in the “underrepresented minority”
groups—African-American, Latino and Native American—lag far
behind their white and Asian-American peers on almost every
measure of academic achievement. This achievement gap persists
across all age groups and all socioeconomic levels.
Launched in 2000, the Minority High Achievement initiative
recognizes the rapid growth of minority student populations
throughout the nation. Proportionately, New England has the
fastest growing minority population in the country. In many New
England cities and towns, students of color now represent a
majority or significant percentage of the total student
population.
Project Compass
The Nellie Mae Education Foundation will launch Project Compass,
a multi-year initiative that will award grants to three to six
public higher education institutions in New England to help more
underrepresented students graduate with four-year degrees. Project
Compass will support innovative, institutional programs and
strategies that strive to eliminate achievement gaps and
significantly increase academic success, retention, and graduation
rates for minority and low-income undergraduate students.
This new initiative will be administered by the New England
Resource Center for Higher Education at the University of
Massachusetts Boston and will create a learning community of
colleges and universities that will measurably improve academic
outcomes for underrepresented students, while at the same time
change institutional policies and practices to sustain and expand
those efforts.
Project Compass will be organized into two distinct phases. The
first phase will fund three to six institutions for a planning and
capacity building year. During the second phase, the
Foundation will award three to six year implementation grants to
those institutions which have demonstrated adequate institutional
commitment during the planning year.
The Foundation has issued a request for proposals to invite all
New England public four-year colleges and universities
to apply for the grants. Proposals must be postmarked no later than
June 11, 2007. For more information and to download the RFP, please
click here.
Focus
The focus of the Minority High Achievement initiative is to
support programs that strive to eliminate the minority
achievement gap and enable minority students to succeed at
levels that equal or exceed the performance of their peers.
The Minority High Achievement initiative also focuses on a
distinctive "pull up from the top" strategy that targets those
underrepresented minority students with strong academic
potential. Funded
programs fall into three categories:
-
Middle and High School Intervention Programs: This
cluster of 12 innovative academic support programs sets high
expectations for minority middle and high school students,
and provides mentoring, tutoring, advanced coursework and
other interventions to help students excel.
-
Consortium on High Achievement and Success (CHAS): The
Foundation supports a consortium of 36 highly selective, private
colleges convened by
Trinity
College
in
Hartford,
Connecticut
. CHAS was created
to address shared concerns about low retention and graduation
rates among minority students, and to improve minority student
satisfaction with the college experience.
The Consortium sponsors conferences, workshops
and other activities for faculty members, administrators and
students.
It also supports efforts to collect and share data on minority
student success and satisfaction.
-
PublicUniversityProgram:
The Foundation currently supports the Scholars of the 21st
Century
Program, which offers small-group instruction, individual
mentoring, and research training to freshman students of
color at the
University
of Massachusetts
at
Amherst
. The goal of
the program is to improve minority student achievement and
retention, and to increase the number of minority students
who are admitted to the University’s honors program.
In addition to supporting innovative programs, the Minority High
Achievement initiative supports research to increase
understanding of the minority achievement gap and to test
strategies for reducing the gap.
The Minority High Achievement initiative is also intended to
advance knowledge within the field and influence policy at the
state and regional level.
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