Helping Students Cross the Finish Line: Partnering Regionally and Across Systems to Increase Bachelor’s Degree Completion

Most efforts to advance student success focus inside a single system—improving the effectiveness of public high schools, or community colleges, or universities in isolation from one another. In our experiences across California, College Futures Foundation has found that working in partnership at
the regional level with institutions that share students in common “feeder patterns” can be a game changer in addressing barriers to student progress. In addition, visualizing the overall “system” from the perspective of students and strengthening the handoffs from one institution to the next can increase
the effectiveness of all institutional efforts. This shift in perspective and shift to working regionally to support student progress across schools and colleges encourages the development of shared goals and ownership for an entire community or region.