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Raise the Bar: College Excellence and Equity

"Some of the most important innovations in higher education today are being driven by institutions that get little glory but that are narrowing gaps in access to college opportunity and accelerating their graduates' economic mobility ... I can think of no work more worthy of prestige than putting higher education within the reach of more Americans, and helping our students attain degrees that change their lives — just as mine did for me." 
- U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona

Overview

Building a higher education system that is inclusive, delivers real value to students, and promotes equity and upward mobility is essential to the Biden-Harris administration's efforts to grow America's middle class and strengthen our nation's global competitiveness.

In today's economy, most well-paying jobs require some education beyond high school—whether that is an industry credential, certificate, or two-year or four-year college degree. Secretary Cardona has called on K-12 education leaders to reimagine pathways to college and careers beginning in high school, as part of his "Raise the Bar: Lead the World" agenda. At the higher education level, the "Raise the Bar: Attaining College Excellence and Equity" initiative reflects the U.S. Department of Education's commitment to ensuring that students of all backgrounds, ages, disability statuses, and income levels can succeed in any postsecondary pathway they choose.

The problem is that our current higher education system leaves too many students behind, especially from historically underserved communities of color and lower-income communities.

Pervasive funding inequities, rising college costs, lagging state investments in higher education, and (until recently) the shrinking value of federal Pell Grants have shifted costs to students and left many open-access institutions underfunded. All these challenges contribute to a college completion crisis in which just 3 in 5 first-time students earn a credential within six years nationally. For underrepresented students of color, fewer than 1 in 2 graduate in that timeframe.

For more than a decade, leading colleges and universities have shown that they can support students to complete at much higher rates, even when students face academic, financial, and other challenges. Under Secretary Cardona's leadership, the Department of Education is taking on these challenges by intentionally collaborating with stakeholders at the national and state levels, institutions of higher education, and others to help the field implement data-driven improvements with evidence-based practices.

Through policies, investments, and convenings, this initiative is calling on America's colleges and universities to raise the bar by increasing completion rates, closing completion gaps, and living up to higher education’s promise of upward mobility for all students.

Key Focus Areas


 

The Department will continue to support institutions to implement data-driven strategies to improve student outcomes, recognize institutions promoting success for all students, and make strategic investments to scale what works for students. Working closely with the field, the Department will champion and support leaders across the country to raise the bar for college excellence and equity.

Support Data-Driven Improvement

Host a series of summits highlighting how institutions are raising the bar for student success, create resources to share promising practices, and develop data dashboards to help institutions set and achieve improvement goals.

Building on the inaugural Raise the Bar: Attaining College Excellence and Equity Summit held in August 2022, the Department is continuing our efforts with a series of convenings that expand upon the issues that emerged from the discussion with higher education leaders who are making real change for their campuses and students.

The summits will focus on key strategies that address critical loss points along students’ postsecondary journeys, including data-driven improvement, holistic advising and wraparound services, credit mobility and transfer support, and career-connected learning pathways. These strategies require sustained commitment by leadership at the institutional and state levels to implement evidence-based practices and policies as part of an intentional, data-driven improvement effort that can increase completion rates, close completion gaps, and confer completions of value for all students.

Following each summit, the Department developed a set of resources to further disseminate the promising practices and policies for improving student outcomes highlighted at each convening.

The Department also will continue to publish data to strengthen transparency and promote value in higher education, including through enhancements to the College Scorecard that not only help students navigate their postsecondary choices, but also empower institutional leaders to set goals and measure their progress on lowering costs for students, increasing student and faculty diversity, improving transfer and completion rates, and graduating students with credentials that support economic success.

Recognize Institutional Success

Recognize institutions promoting success for all students, including underserved populations, and conduct campus visits to see exemplar institutions and programs in action.

For far too long, our nation's most accessible colleges have struggled with inadequate resources to support student success, while many well-resourced institutions chase rankings that reward privilege and selectivity over equity and upward mobility. Reimagining higher education means recognizing institutions that set a new standard of excellence by supporting all students to complete affordable credentials of value that prepare them well to participate in the workforce, their communities, and our democracy. To that end, the Department has developed a new, national recognition program based on input from the field. 

For the inaugural year of this program, the Department identified 200 institutions as initially eligible to apply for the recognition – 100 predominantly bachelor’s-granting institutions and 100 predominantly associate or certificate-granting institutions. This list was developed using publicly-available data to measure performance on key indicators related to equitable access, success, and post-college outcomes for students of color and low-income students at public and non-profit institutions across the country. For more information about how the list was constructed, the methodology is available.

For institutions meeting initial eligibility requirements, applications for the recognition program are available. The application gathers quantitative data and qualitative information about how institutions use data and evidence-based practices as part of an intentional, campus-wide strategy to ensure all students are earning credentials of value, including underrepresented students. The Department will select a panel of peer reviewers to score applications and conduct thorough vetting of finalist institutions to ensure they are not subject to any disqualifying concerns before conferring the recognition. The deadline for application submission is 5pm Eastern on November 1, 2024 and applications must be submitted to PSRecognitionProgram@ed.gov.

Invest in Success at Scale

Fund evidence-based strategies through grantmaking and technical assistance activities.

The Department will continue leveraging grant programs and other resources to make investments that build the evidence base for what works and scale proven strategies that increase college completion. These efforts will include funding through the Postsecondary Student Success Program (PSSP) and additional investments through the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), Title III and Title V, the Strengthening Institutions Program, and vital student-centered programs like Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), and TRIO.

The Department also has renewed Project Success, which supports collaborative efforts by major guarantee agencies to help Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and other Minority-Serving Institutions to improve student retention, completion, and post-graduation earnings so students can successfully repay their investments in higher education.

Office of Communications and Outreach (OCO)
Page Last Reviewed:
October 8, 2024

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