Access to Success

The Access to Success Initiative is a project of the National Association of System Heads (NASH) and The Education Trust. A2S works with 20 public higher education systems that have pledged to cut the college-going and graduation gaps for low-income and minority students in half by 2015. Together, these institutions serve more than 3 million students.

Each participating A2S system sets its own improvement targets and agrees to a common set of metrics to evaluate progress. The baseline report for the initiative and individual reports for each system appear below. Much of the information in the individual baseline reports, including the graduation rates of low-income and nontraditional students, has not previously been available to the public.

A2S systems and campuses focus their efforts in two main areas: leading indicators and system delivery. Leading indicators are data on a set of proven factors that provide early signals of how well a student is progressing toward degree completion. Systems and campuses use these academic patterns of success to monitor their students’ progress against A2S goals.

In August 2010, the Education Trust launched The U.S. Education Delivery Institute, a partner organization that guides A2S systems through an implementation approach called “delivery” to mobilize their college completion efforts.

For details about A2S, please contact Mary Beth Knight.