From the CHE, Monday June 22, 2009

Gates Foundation Chooses 15 Community Colleges for Grants Under New Program

By CHARLES HUCKABEE

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has chosen 15 community colleges and five states as grant recipients under a new program intended to improve remedial education at the college level and raise graduation rates, the Associated Press reported on Sunday.

The grants, to be announced today, total nearly $16.5-million and are being awarded to college programs in Connecticut, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia, the news agency reported. Of those states, all but North Carolina are also getting money for state programs in support of remedial education.

The foundation announced last fall its plan to double college-completion rates of students from low-income families by 2025 and awarded the first round of grants toward that goal in December.

Two other nonprofit organizations working with the Gates Foundation toward that goal are the Lumina Foundation for Education, based in Indianapolis, and MDC, which received the largest of the initial grants. The organization, which is based in Chapel Hill, N.C., manages Achieving the Dream, a national effort at more than 80 community colleges to find strategies that help students complete remedial education, move on to college-level courses, and receive a degree or certificate.

The 15 community colleges selected for the latest grants have more than 133,000 students taking remedial classes, the AP reported.