Seven Cities Launch Collaborative Efforts to Improve College Graduation Rates

San Francisco, New York, Dayton (OH), Mesa (AZ), Riverside (CA), Phoenix, and
Jacksonville will forge partnerships between city, educational, and community
leaders to evaluate and expand programs and policies that work

SEATTLE, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
today announced $4 million in grants to the National League of Cities'
Institute for Youth, Education and Families, and seven cities to boost college
graduation rates by better coordinating the services that colleges, schools
and communities provide to students.

The grants will help cities and colleges in New York, Florida, Arizona, Ohio,
and California dramatically increase the number of young people who earn a
degree beyond high school. These grants recognize that successfully reaching
that goal will require education, business, and civic leaders working together
to coordinate and streamline the guidance and services young people need to
get into, and through, college.

Enrollment at the nation's 1,200 community colleges is at an all-time high,
yet two-thirds of those attending will not graduate within three years. Often
it's not a question of effort. Rather, these students face multiple
challenges: Many are not academically ready for college-level work; they
juggle school and family responsibilities; and many must work full time while
attending classes. Because the help that students need to overcome these
obstacles comes from a range of agencies, it is critical to better understand
how to coordinate assistance.

Last February, President Obama set a goal to again make America first in the
world in the percentage of adults with a postsecondary credential. These
cities are leading a national effort committed to exploring new ways to
increase the number of young people who earn a postsecondary degree.

A coordinated effort to boost college graduation rates is increasingly
critical to the long-term prosperity of our cities and our nation. A 2009
study by CEO for Cities found that if each of the nation's 51 largest
metropolitan areas improved the percentage of their populations with four-year
degrees, the national GDP would increase by $166 billion a year.

"Cities have not traditionally been focused on postsecondary success, but that
is changing," said Donald Borut, executive director of the National League of
Cities. "Recognizing that an educated workforce forms the underpinning of a
vibrant local economy, municipal leaders have turned new attention toward
boosting college completion rates. The partnerships in these seven cities will
help maximize limited resources to establish the foundations for long-term
growth and vitality."

Community colleges offer the training and degrees that give workers job
security and stability, even in shaky economies. Despite near record-high
unemployment rates, the jobless rate of workers with associate degrees was
about half that of those who only graduated from high school. The Bureau of
Labor Statistics predicts over the next decade that jobs for community college
graduates will grow nearly twice as fast as the national average.

But those jobs will only be available to those who graduate. A citywide focus
that shifts attention from merely accessing college to actually earning a
degree will require effort from students, improvement from colleges and the
support of mayors, employers, citizen groups, school districts, and others.

"The barriers preventing students from graduating are varied and complex, so
we need governments, schools, and social service groups to coordinate and
target their efforts," said Hilary Pennington, the director of Education,
Postsecondary Success and Special Initiatives at the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation. "We need to make sure that those students who enroll in college
successfully earn the credentials they seek."

The grants announced today will support nine-month collaborative planning
efforts in each of the seven cities. The foundation is considering investing
additional money in 2010 to support the implementation and expansion of the
most promising ideas that result from this planning.

In New York City, for example, the nation's largest public school district
will join with the country's largest public urban university and a wide array
of community groups to increase the number of students who graduate from high
school fully prepared for college-level work and the number of students who
successfully complete a college degree. In San Francisco, the grant will help
build upon cooperative efforts already underway by the city, county, schools,
and colleges to address issues affecting low-income youth, such as their high
remediation rates at local colleges. The grant will allow these agencies to
create a new, permanent system of integrated programs and policies that will
make college more affordable and attainable for city youth.

The National League of Cities' Institute for Youth, Education and Families
will receive $2.4 million as the intermediary for this work. The seven
community colleges and city agencies that will receive the grants announced
today are:

-- Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio: $250,000 to strengthen
partnerships, services, education, training, and data systems to help
low-income youth (ages 16-26) earn postsecondary credentials. Led by
Sinclair Community College in collaboration with the City of Dayton,
Montgomery County, and Dayton Public Schools, the planning process
will
build upon the existing, strong cross-sectional collaboration and past
successes with disaffected youth. Dayton's project is unique among the
other participating cities in its involvement of the Montgomery County
Administrator. A large contingent of local school districts,
community-based organizations, industry representatives, local
foundations, and four-year universities will support the project.
Contact: Natasha Baker, natasha.baker@sinclair.edu 937-512-2221
-- Florida State College at Jacksonville: $250,000 to build upon the
local
efforts of Jacksonville Journey, Learning to Finish, and Jacksonville
Commitment, who are coordinating efforts to lower neighborhood crime,
decrease the city's high school dropout rate, and boost the number of
college graduates. Contact: Dr Edythe Abdullah, EABDULLA@fscj.edu
-- Mesa Community College (MCC) in Mesa, Arizona: $250,000 to work to
facilitate the strategic planning process with the citywide P-20
center,
the Mayor's Office, Mesa Public Schools and Mesa Community College and
make data-informed decisions to ensure improved access and
postsecondary
graduation rates. Contact: Sonia Filan, smfilan@mesacc.edu
-- The City of Phoenix, Arizona: $245,764 to expand partnerships among
the
City of Phoenix, Maricopa Community College, and Phoenix Union High
School District to examine the relationship between the Arizona
Instrument to Measure Standards, course taking, and college readiness,
and to improve the college completion rates of disconnected youth.
Contact: Deborah Dillon, deborah.dillon@phoenix.gov
-- The City of New York: $250,000 to develop a citywide systemic approach
to college readiness and success by building on a unique K-16
data-sharing agreement and many innovative partnerships between the
mayor's office, the New York City Department of Education, City
University of New York, and numerous community organizations.
Contacts:
Dawn Walker, Mayor's Office, 212-788-2958; Michael Arena, CUNY,
212-794-5685
-- Riverside City College in California: $140,000 to explore how the
city,
the community college, and local school districts can work together to
increase access to higher education, particularly among lower income
and
underrepresented populations, and raise the college-going rate in the
region to 61 percent, which translates to 100,000 more students
enrolled in postsecondary courses by 2025. Contact: Jim Parsons,
951-222-8857

-- Interagency Council, City and County of San Francisco: $250,000 to
support its Post-secondary Partnership, an effort to unify the efforts
of the school district, City College of San Francisco, and the city
and
county governments aimed at doubling postsecondary completion rates.
Contact: Kimberly Wicoff, Kimberly.Wicoff@sf.gov, 415-701-5618

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In
developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health and giving them
the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United
States, it seeks to ensure that all people -- especially those with the fewest
resources -- have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school
and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff
Raikes and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and
Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

The National League of Cities
The National League of Cities is the nation's oldest and largest organization
devoted to strengthening and promoting cities as centers of opportunity,
leadership and governance. NLC is a resource and advocate for 19,000 cities,
towns and villages, representing more than 218 million Americans. For more
information, visit www.nlc.org.

SOURCE Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, +1-206-709-3400, media@gatesfoundation.org;
or National League of Cities, +1-202-626-3015, straub@nlc.org