Strategic Initiatives

Access to Success Initiative (A2S)

The changing demographics of the college-going population, and the realities of persistent access and attainment gaps, make on-going attention to reductions in attainment gaps a central element of any strategy to increase attainment. The Access to Success Initiative (A2S) is a voluntary effort among NASH systems committed to setting clear goals to close the historic gaps in college access and success between students of different racial and economic backgrounds. Launched in 2007, this voluntary effort, conducted in partnership with the Education Trust, brings together participating system leadership teams to learn from one another and outside experts on critical action steps, including setting goals, building public support and momentum for meeting the goals, identifying and mounting powerful action strategies, and publicly reporting progress on a common set of metrics.

The Access to Success Initiative (A2S) is a voluntary effort among NASH systems committed to setting clear goals to close the historic gaps in college access and success between students of different racial and economic backgrounds. Launched in 2007, this voluntary effort, conducted with the support of The Education Trust, brings together participating system leadership teams to learn from one another and outside experts on critical action steps, including setting goals, building public support and momentum for meeting the goals, identifying and mounting powerful action strategies, and publicly reporting progress on a common set of metrics.

The goal of the initiative is to cut in half by 2015 the gaps that separate low-income and minority students from their peers, both in terms of access to postsecondary education and in terms of successful completion. Twenty-four systems have agreed to participate in the initiative by publicly reporting baseline and progress data on common metrics and to share their collective resources and expertise through working groups. Collectively, A2S systems enroll more than three million students—almost 40 percent of undergraduates attending public four-year colleges and universities and 20 percent of those attending all public two-year and four-year colleges.

This initiative is about system change, not about more programs. Each of the systems bears the costs of implementing its own change strategies. However, outside resources are critical to allow the participating systems to gain access to experts in the field and to share with and learn from one another in ways that make success more likely. Two foundations Lumina Foundation for Education and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have provided grants to support the cross-system collaboration.

Resources

View the System Profiles

Public systems are tasked with finding the right balance between state needs and institutional interests. Accomplishing this in an environment of growing public need and greater financial privatization requires new leadership skills and structures, beginning at the Board level and extending to work with institutions. NASH advances this agenda by working with member institutions to identify emerging practices for system leadership, including attention to:

• the organization of system offices;
• building Board capacity for leadership, agenda setting and oversight;
• data systems and metrics for improved internal and external accountability;
• improving institutional attention to public and policy perceptions about colleges and universities;
• strategies for enhancing communication with multiple stakeholders; and
• professional development for leadership required with a specific focus on system-level skills.

Partner organizations in this effort include the Association of Governing Boards (building governing Board capacity), and the American Council on Education (professional development via the ACE fellows program.)

Resources

Rapid changes in public funding, coupled with growing demands for access and student success, are putting great pressure on public systems to find new models of finance.  NASH work on sustaining finances, done in partnership with the Delta Cost Project, seeks to identify new models for funding public institutions, including attention to cost management and ways to increase productivity, ways to align strategic priorities with resources, metrics for improving decision-making about costs and revenues, and models for using data in making decisions about costs and revenues.    

Resources

Learn about the Delta Cost Project

Jane Wellman's Testimony to the House Committee on Education and Workforce

States need public systems to help them find ways to improve the connection between higher education and state economic development and job creation.  Public investments in higher education will not be sustainable if states are not growing their economies, creating new jobs, and translating new research into the innovations that support continued economic development. System offices are uniquely well positioned to frame this agenda, through strategic connections between the institutions and the state's employers and investors.  No longer confined only to public research universities, state needs for economic development and job creation also touch on ways that institutions educate students for emerging state markets, connecting research to regional economic needs, and finding new educational models that meet new needs for talent.  Partner organizations in this effort include the Council of Graduate Schools and the Professional Science Masters' Administrators, the network of institutions involved in the advancement of the Professional Science Masters' programs.

Resources

Visit Professional Science Masters

Visit NPSMA