College Readiness, Access, and Success Initiative
Overview
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The College Readiness, Access, and Success Initiative (CRI) is a dynamic platform for business and higher education to work together to promote college readiness, access and degree completion, as well as successful entry into the workforce. Because these challenges are interrelated and require systemic solutions, the CRI takes a comprehensive, systemic approach to addressing them in the elementary-through-graduate school education pipeline.
The CRI harnesses the influence and resources of BHEFand its membership, a unique cross-section of prominent corporate and higher education executives, to:
- Address critical issues in the elementary-through-graduate school education pipeline, especially for underserved populations;
- Identify practical solutions and strategies that support systemic change;
- Increase the alignment of higher education with high-demand jobs;
- Ensure that graduates possess the necessary competencies to meet workforce needs; and
- Create a platform for local/state member-led partnerships to develop strategic approaches, implement them, and disseminate lessons learned.
Hallmarks of the CRI include:
The CRI achieves these goals through engagement, knowledge-building, dissemination, and advocacy and action, which infuse five inter-related strategies:
Engagement of business and higher education leaders to raise public awareness and create a network of leaders equipped to advance the CRI’s goals through advocacy and action.
Local member-led work to improve college readiness and success in selected communities, supported by strategic advice, resources, and information to guide middle school through graduate school education improvement. Great strides have been made particularly in Louisville and Des Moines. Louisville has become the model of success for the nation with the signing of the “The Greater Louisville Education Commitment”—an endeavor that represents the culmination of BHEF’s efforts to help shape a comprehensive strategy to increase the region’s college degree attainment rates.
Adaptable models for education improvement developed in BHEF’s local member-led work and through research generating strategic blueprints, case studies and resources on education reform efforts, including a case study on the successful cross-sector improvement effort in Long Beach, CA.
A Web-based resource center, StrategicEdSolutions.org,® that provides strategies, programs, and resources to help leaders make more informed decisions about their investments in college readiness, access, and success. The site includes an integrated framework, strategies, and illustrative programs to equip users to understand and use the most important levers that influence P-16 education. Click here to download more information.
You can download a one-page pdf on the initiative here.
Leadership
The CRI is led by BHEF member David Jones Jr., chairman and managing director of Chrysalis Ventures, board member of Humana Inc., and a BHEF member working group of senior executives.
Support for the CRI has come from BHEF members’ dues and funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA Funds, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, among others. For more information about why your organization should invest in improving college readiness, access, and success, and why the CRI’s strategies most effectively address those needs, contact Jeanne Contardo.
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