Wright State, along with 12 universities in Ohio, has volunteered to participate in “Ohio Strong Start to Finish,” a $2.1 million grant that was awarded to the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) in partnership with the Inter-University Council and the Ohio Association of Community Colleges.
Grant money will be directed toward providing students with pathways to completion of their degrees and filling attainment gaps for students who are economically disadvantaged and underrepresented.
The overarching goals of Strong Start to Finish are “to put all students on a path to a successful future and to ensure that our businesses have the skilled workers they need to succeed. This grant will go a long way in pursuit of those goals while supporting students as they begin their postsecondary journey,” said ODHE Chancellor John Carey in an ODHE press release.
Wright State has been a leader in reducing equity gaps. In order to achieve that goal, it has implemented a model in which students who are behind in their academics take a developmental course as a co-requisite along with a college-level course. When the courses support one another in this way, students have been proven to succeed at higher rates, according to Tim Littell, executive director of student success at Wright State.
The co-requisite in English was piloted in Fall 2014 and scaled up in Fall 2016. The same thing was piloted in Math in Fall 2017; the pilot will continue through this year, with the intention of scaling up the program within the next academic year.
“When students fall behind in Math and English, it has all sorts of other implications for their other coursework,” said Littell. Focusing efforts toward Math and English co-requisites will “increase success rates in those courses within the first year of enrollment [and] benefit retention and graduation rates,” he said.
Funding for the grant is provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, and Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation.
On May 2 there will be a convening of universities and community colleges that have been doing similar work in Columbus, OH. Following that convention, Wright State will have more information regarding the next steps it should take to support initiatives that align with the objectives of Strong Start to Finish, according to Littell.
The specific amount of funding that each school may receive has yet to be determined and will likely be decided at the May 2 conference. Many institutions across Ohio will be competing for grant support.
Wright State is “a strong competitor for funding because of our history of working on these goals already; this will help us complete the work that we’ve already started,” said Littell.
