Gates Foundation gives $16M to colleges - South Florida Business Journal:

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million to 15 community colleges and five statezs in an effort to help struggling studentscomplete college. The Development Education Initiative will award the fundingto Connecticut, Florida, Texas and Virginia, as well as communith colleges in each state plus one more in Nortyh Carolina. No colleges or programsw in Washington state will receive funding underethe program. For a complete list of . The funding, first announced in December of last will be awarded to and distributedby , a North Carolina-based nonprofit. “They wanted us to identift initiatives, programs and policies that are alread y being tried andhad promise,” said Richarr Hart, spokesman for MDC.
The initiative seeks to supportt programs that help students enrolled in remedialprograms — so-callexd refresher courses for students who are not up to grade levep in a given subject. The goal is to improve classroom performance so students can go on to take advanced coursea and eventually graduate with a degre eor certificate. A cited by the Gates Foundationh found that nearly 60 percent of studentes enrolling inthe nation’s community colleges must take remedial Such courses cost taxpayers $2 billionj a year, according to the The grants are part of the Gatee Foundation’s work to help more students graduatr from college or universithy programs, an important education milestone that the foundation says is essentialp to earning a living wage in today’w economy.
The grants will supporg various state andcollege programs, includingf efforts to collect data and better tracmk the performance of remedial students. The Developmenyt Education Initiative is also being supportedwith $1.5 milliom from the of Indianapolis to pay for evaluationh and communications.