tag: First generation students

Established and emerging Kessler Scholars Programs at 16 colleges and universities are embedded in and supported by the Kessler Scholars Collaborative, a nationwide network that guides program development and implementation, facilitates practice sharing across institutions, and provides students with opportunities to connect with other first-generation scholars across the country. Ithaka S+R’s multi-year mixed-methods evaluation aims to assess the long-term relationship between program participation and students’ college experiences and psychosocial and academic outcomes, in order to support program improvement and maximize…

Ithaka S+R has served as the external evaluation partner for the Kessler Scholars Collaborative since 2022 when the network expanded to 16 institutions. The evaluation is a five-year, mixed-methods, formative assessment, which aims to support implementation and maximize impact across the entire network and at each of the 16 participating institutions. This Ithaka S+R evaluation builds on an evaluation of the program's initial years gathered by the Center for Education Design, Evaluation, and Research (CEDER) at the University of Michigan.

A growing number of American community colleges are redesigning their curricula, advising services, faculty development programs, and relationships with four year institutions in order to help more students succeed. In most cases, reforms take place within existing operating structures, as gradual processes of cultural and institutional change. A response to dismal persistence and completion rates at community colleges, Guttman was designed, from its inception, to incorporate research-based practices for helping first-generation and low-income students at community colleges succeed. At Stella…