The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Educase have awarded $5.4 million in grants to fund 13 new secondary and postsecondary education models. The grants, part of the Next Generation Learning Challenge (NGLC), are designed to allow schools to develop or expand personalized, competency-based, blended programs.
The colleges and universities selected for the NGLC grants are developing new models for online and blended programs designed to significantly improve students’ access to postsecondary education and boost college completion. While all the applicants were eligible for up to $1 million in grant money, only three of the six schools selected received the maximum amount.
The colleges selected were:
- Kentucky Community and Technical College System, Versailles County, KY; $1,000,000: To convert its existing, competency-based Learn-on-Demand model to support an associate’s degree in Arts/Science-General Studies, enabling college completion rates to increase while reducing time to completion and increasing affordability.
- Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia,Atlanta, GA; $1,000,000: For a partnership with Columbus State University to develop an accelerated, online Bachelor of Arts degree with a service-learning component.
- Altius Education, San Francisco, CA; $300,000: To provide affordable, scalable access to quality college education by creating “America’s Transfer College” at Ivy Bridge College. The expansion will streamline the transfer process and put all of Ivy Bridge College’s courses on the Helix personalized learning platform.
- Ameritas College Educational Services,Irvine, CA; $250,000: A joint venture of Brandman University and the University Ventures Fund. Ameritas will offer Bachelor of Arts degree programs delivered simultaneously with English language instruction for working Hispanic adults.
- University of Washington, Seattle, WA; $884,000: For an online undergraduate degree-completion program utilizing Massive Open Online Courses provided by Coursera to deliver some classes.
- Rio Salado College,Phoenix, AZ; $970,000: To create “All Roads Lead to Student Success,” an expansion targeted to students in early college programs, educational service partnerships, and those seeking to obtain credit for prior learning.
The seven secondary education recipients of the NGLC grants are creating whole-school performance enhancing solutions to improve college readiness and will receive $150,000 pre-launch planning grants and are eligible for up to $300,000 in one-to-one matching funds.
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