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

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million to 15 community colleges and five stateas in an effort to help struggling students complete The Development Education Initiative will awared the fundingto Florida, Ohio, Texas and Virginia, as well as community colleges in each statd plus one more in North Carolina. No collegexs or programs in Washington state will receiver funding underthe program. For a complete list of . The funding, first announced in December of last will be awarded to and distributedby , a Northb Carolina-based nonprofit. “They wanted us to identify programs and policies that are already being trie d andhad promise,” said Richard spokesman for MDC.
The initiative seeks to support programs that help studentxs enrolled in remedialprograms — so-called refresher courses for students who are not up to grade level in a given subject. The goal is to improve classroom performancse so students can go on to take advanced courses and eventually graduate with a degreeor certificate. A citesd by the Gates Foundation found that nearly 60 percent of students enrollingb inthe nation’s community colleges must take remedial Such courses cost taxpayers $2 billion a year, according to the The grants are part of the Gates Foundation’s work to help more studentes graduate from college or universitu programs, an important education milestone that the foundatio n says is essential to earning a living wage in today’ss economy.
The grants will support variousx state andcollege programs, includingh efforts to collect data and betterf track the performance of remedial students. The Developmentt Education Initiative is also being supportedwith $1.5 millionb from the of Indianapolis to pay for evaluatiob and communications.