News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 31, 2006

2005 grants announced, totaling $81.5 million

Indianapolis – Lumina Foundation for Education approved 203 grants in 2005, totaling $81.5 million to organizations across the country to expand college access and student success.

"The Foundation continues to address the multiple barriers that impede access to and success in postsecondary education, particularly among traditionally underserved groups," said Martha D. Lamkin, president and chief executive officer of the Indianapolis-based Foundation. "The Foundation supports research, programs, policy work and professional leadership aimed at expanding access to education beyond high school."

Listed below are the 113 grants totaling $55.25 million approved in the third and fourth quarters and grouped by the Foundation’s major priorities (first and second quarter grants previously announced).

Access

Academy for Educational Development (Washington, DC) – $205,085 to develop capacity to collect and analyze information about the postsecondary needs of underserved populations.

Advertising Council, Inc. (New York, NY) – $2,000,000 to produce and disseminate a national public awareness campaign to promote greater college access for low-income students.

American Council on Education (Washington, DC) – $100,200 to plan grassroots outreach efforts to complement a national public awareness campaign to promote greater college access.

Arkansas State University (State University, AR) – $15,000 to increase access to postsecondary education for students in the Arkansas Delta region.

Center for Leadership Development (Indianapolis, IN) – $575,000 to expand the pre-college access services at the Center for Leadership Development.

Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (Ann Arbor, MI) – $154,200 to assess the potential of employer-sponsored education programs for increasing Hispanic male immigrants’ access and success in college.

DaySpring Center, Inc. (Indianapolis, IN) – $20,000 to increase educational access for homeless adults in Indianapolis.

Drury University (Springfield, MO) – $100,000 to support access programs for 725 underserved middle and high school students in Springfield, MO.

Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA) – $800,000 to increase access and success among reservation-based Native American students in Washington State.

Higher Education Information Center (Boston, MA) – $500,000 to support the Pathways to College Network in developing and executing a media campaign to improve college access and success.

Indiana University (Bloomington, IN) – $86,000 to support the Indiana Pathways to College Network.

Institute for Higher Education Policy (Washington, DC) – $47,600 to examine college and university ranking systems and their possible impact on postsecondary access.

Institute for Higher Education Policy (Washington, DC) – $182,000 to better understand access to postsecondary education by recent immigrants, through analysis of college admissions, financial access and college success.

Internationals Network for Public Schools, Inc. (Long Island City, NY) – $100,000 to support access among 800 English as Second Language high school students in New York City, NY.

Learn More Resource Center (Bloomington, IN) – $465,700 to support the expansion of translation services and college access at the Learn More Resource Center.

Mercy College (Dobbs Ferry, NY) – $228,000 to conduct a consumer research study on the impact of pricing and institutional financial aid strategies on access to higher education.

Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI) – $80,000 to examine the role public historically black colleges and universities play in access and attainment for African-American students.

National Center for Disability Services (Albertson, NY) – $221,822 to facilitate recruitment and retention of college students with learning disabilities within the community college setting.

National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (Boulder, CO) – $10,000 to promote better access to state student unit record (SUR) databases by the academic research community.

State Higher Education Executive Officers (Boulder, CO) – $500,000 to strengthen the capacity of state higher education boards to improve postsecondary access and success through improved data collection and analysis, development of state-level policy indicators and development of state-specific public agendas for postsecondary
Education.

University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA) – $250,500 to examine national and state level data regarding African-American males’ postsecondary access and success.

University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC) – $50,000 to support a national forum, The Politics of Inclusion: Higher Education at a Crossroads, which will highlight recent efforts by universities to increase participation by economically-disadvantaged students.

YouthBuild U.S.A. (Somerville, MA) – $430,000 to create a comprehensive approach at seven local YouthBuild program sites to empower low-income, disconnected students to enter and succeed in college.

McCabe Fund

This initiative supports organizations that enable students – particularly first-generation college students, low-income students and students of color – to gain access to postsecondary education. The McCabe Fund provides modest, competitive grants for programs that work directly with students to improve access to postsecondary education. Grant proposals for this initiative are accepted by invitation only and span two years. The grants listed below were awarded as part of the McCabe Fund.

College Access Center (Chattanooga, TN) – $100,000 to provide year-round access services to 120 high school seniors in Chattanooga, TN.

Gads Hill Center (Chicago, IL) – $95,500 to support access programs for 95 high school students from Latino immigrant families in Chicago, IL.

Lewiston High School (Lewiston, ME) – $100,000 to provide pre-college access services to 800 underserved high school students in Lewiston, ME.

Link Limited (Chicago, IL) – $100,000 to provide access services to African-American high school students in Chicago, IL.

National College Access Network (Cleveland, OH) – $83,500 to convene the first 54 McCabe grantees for professional development and capacity building.

National Council for Community and Education Partners (Washington, DC) – $72,000 to create communication tools for McCabe Fund grantees and other access programs to use in recruiting and retaining business and other partners and funders.

National League of Cuban-Americans Community-based Centers (Fort Wayne, IN) – $100,000 to provide direct access services to 30 eighth- and ninth-grade underserved students in Fort Wayne, IN.

New Heights Youth, Inc. (Bronx, NY) – $100,000 to engage 140 underserved middle and high school youth in college preparation through sports and leadership.

Philadelphia Education Fund (Philadelphia, PA) – $100,000 to support additional transition and access service to 150 seniors in Philadelphia, PA.

Rainier Scholars (Seattle, WA) – $80,000 to support direct access services for 97 underserved middle and high school students in Seattle, WA.

San Jose Conservation Corps & Charter School (San Jose, CA) – $75,000 to provide direct access services for 250 Latino high school students in San Jose, CA.

Teachers College of Columbia University (New York, NY) – $30,000 to supplement the 2005 McCabe evaluation plan with additional grantee site visits and interviews.

College Goal Sunday

College Goal Sunday provides free information and assistance to families applying for college financial aid in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Financial aid professionals in these states help families complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The following grants are part of the College Goal Sunday program.

Central Wyoming College (Riverton, WY) - $37,800 to continue support of the 2006-2008 College Goal Sunday in Wyoming.

The Foundation for Florida’s Community Colleges (Tallahassee, FL) – $216,700 to support College Goal Sunday 2006-2008 in Florida.

Minnesota Higher Education Services Office (St. Paul, MN) – $212,300 to support College Goal Sunday 2006-2008 in Minnesota.

New Jersey Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (Lincroft, NJ) – $112,500 to support College Goal Sunday 2006-2008 in New Jersey.

Tennessee Higher Education Commission (Nashville, TN) – $170,700 to support College Goal Sunday 2006-2008 in Tennessee.

Texas A&M University (College Station, TX) – $190,400 to support College Goal Sunday 2006-2008 in Texas.

Wisconsin Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (Ripon, WI) – $180,800 to support College Goal Sunday 2006-2008 in Wisconsin.

Breaking the Cycle

Breaking the Cycle is an initiative to help former foster youth prepare for and transition to college. The following organization is testing a project that may help close the gap in postsecondary achievement for former foster youth.

Ball State University (Muncie, IN) – $104,000 to increase postsecondary enrollment and graduation rates of former foster youth by improving selected support services at Ivy Tech State College and Ball State University.

Coalition of Community Foundations for Youth (Basehor, KS) – $489,500 to help five counties in Indiana build, coordinate and strengthen community supports to increase the postsecondary access and success of at-risk youth.

The Finance Project (Washington, DC) – $250,300 to provide technical assistance to foster youth demonstration projects in Tampa, Indianapolis and Oakland.

Success

Alverno College (Milwaukee, WI) – $495,000 to improve student success, retention and degree completion at two-year institutions through ability-based learning models.

American Student Achievement Institute (Bloomington, IN) – $60,000 to prepare students for postsecondary education by increasing academic rigor and standards in high school.

The Associated Colleges of Illinois (Chicago, IL) – $138,000 to support the development of an initiative designed to improve the academic performance of underserved students at four-year private colleges in Illinois.

The Collaborative for Teaching and Learning (Louisville, KY) – $237,000 to support the development of community college students’ literacy skills so that they are successful in learning rigorous college-level content and persisting in their postsecondary education.

East Carolina University (Greenville, NC) – $85,000 to explore how inter-organizational collaborations help prepare underrepresented students for postsecondary education.

The Education Trust (Washington, DC) – $982,300 to focus higher education on improving student success.

Fairleigh Dickinson University (Hackensack, NJ) – $21,100 to develop and pilot a bilingual college skills course for Hispanic adults to increase their postsecondary success.

Social Science Research Council (New York, NY) – $196,000 to encourage and conduct research on student participation and success in college using the reference database developed under the Transitions to College project.

University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) – $140,000 to fund research to address major theoretical and practical knowledge gaps regarding low rates of participation and achievement in higher education among African-American males.

University of Texas at El Paso (El Paso, TX) – $200,000 to identify internal factors that contribute to student persistence and graduation at the University of Texas at El Paso.

What Kids Can Do (Barrington, RI) – $103,500 to build collegiate readiness and awareness and to promote collegiate success among low-income, minority and first-generation students through student-to-student print and electronic publications.

Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count

Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count is a long-term national initiative that helps community colleges remove barriers to success for all students. Funded by Lumina Foundation, the initiative is managed by MDC, Inc., and includes several other partner organizations: the American Association of Community Colleges; the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas-Austin; the Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University; Jobs for the Future; KnowledgeWorks Foundation, MDRC; Nellie Mae Education Foundation; and Public Agenda. The grants below were awarded as part of the Achieving the Dream initiative.

American Association of Community Colleges (Washington, DC) – $25,000 to develop a national cadre of organizations and foundation that support better student outcomes in community colleges.

American Association of Community Colleges (Washington, DC) – $4,200,000 to achieve student success in community colleges through participation as a partner in the implementation of the Achieving the Dream initiative.

American Association of Community Colleges (Washington, DC) – $212,000 to support the participation of selected community college in Ohio and Connecticut in the Achieving the Dream initiative.

Community College Leadership Program (Austin, TX) – $3,730,200 to achieve student success in community colleges through participation as a partner in the implementation of the Achieving the Dream initiative.

Jobs for the Future, Inc. (Boston, MA) – $5,483,200 to achieve student success in community college through participation as a partner in the implementation of the Achieving the Dream initiative.

MDC (Chapel Hill, NC) – $5,981,400 to achieve student success in community colleges through management of partner organizations and institutions’ implementations of the Achieving the Dream initiative.

MDC (Chapel Hill, NC) – $689,300 to create a smooth transition from Phase one of Achieving the Dream to Phase Two, the implementation phase.

MDRC (New York, NY) – $5,633,837 to conduct a four-year evaluation of the implementation of Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count.

Teacher’s College of Columbia University (New York, NY) – $3,714,900 to achieve student success in community college through participation as a partner in the implementation of the Achieving the Dream initiative.

Adult Learners

Anitoch University Seattle (Seattle, WA) – $330,000 to create an intergenerational model of higher education in which adult Native Americans pursue associate’s degrees alongside their teenage children at Early College High Schools.

Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (Chicago, IL) – $37,650 to coordinate and convene a meeting of grantees whose funding covers research, policy analysis or direct service that benefits adult learners.

University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) – $407,526 to develop IT-based systems to support at-risk young adult learners enter and succeed in postsecondary education.

University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA) – $9,885 to conduct meta analysis of research on adult learners in postsecondary education.

University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA) – $798,500 to continue to inform policy and practice related to adult learners.

World Education, Inc. (Boston, MA) – $240,000 to provide support for the National College Transition network to help GED recipients and other low-income adults enter and succeed in college.

Special Grants

American Association of Community Colleges (Washington, DC) - $2,000,000 to provide monetary assistance to currently enrolled community and technical college students affected by hurricanes in Louisiana and Mississippi.

American Association of State Colleges and Universities (Washington, DC) – $40,000 to support a conference of university presidents, state education officers and legislative leadership to address the role of college and universities in improving the preparation, retention and professional development of teachers.

American Council on Education (Washington, DC) – $10,000 to support the national diversity conference, Educating All of One Nation.

American Council on Education (Washington, DC) – $25,000 to support the ACE Fellows Program in honor of Dr. Robert C. Dickeson.

CALPIRG Education Trust (Los Angeles, CA) – $140,000 to expand a campaign to several states to reduce the cost of college textbooks.

Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education (Ann Arbor, MI) – $38,900 to develop a refined approach to reporting on state financial policy indicators.

The Center for Effective Philanthropy (Cambridge, MA) –$50,000 to support the organization’s work to increase foundation effectiveness.

Central Indiana Community Foundation (Indianapolis, IN) –$150,600 to promote philanthropy among Indianapolis-area students by matching donations to hurricane relief funds.

Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Foundation (Indianapolis, IN) – $750,000 to create a strategic direction for higher education in Indiana.

Cottey College (Nevada, MO) – $78,500 to support a community-wide and college-wide initiative to meet the needs of a group of diverse students.

Council for Aid to Education (New York, NY) – $700,000 to continue development of the College Learning Assessment (CLA).

Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media (New York, NY) – $287,000 to assist journalists in producing fair, accurate and insightful coverage of postsecondary education access and success.

Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (Indianapolis, IN) – $20,000 to support networking opportunities for Presidents Fund recipients and representatives from colleges across Indiana to share and discuss challenges and best practices in student retention.

Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (Indianapolis, IN) – $21,000 to demonstrate the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping for Lumina Foundation.

Indianapolis Black Alumni Council, Inc. (Indianapolis, IN) – $10,000 to support the Black College Fair held during Circle City Classic in Indianapolis.

Ivy Tech State College (Indianapolis, IN) – $1,997,500 to support Ivy Tech College’s transformation to meet its responsibilities as a technical, a two-year academic college and a provider of workforce and skills training.

James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership (Chapel Hill, NC) – $250,000 to serve as the lead partner in the college affordability national summit.

James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership (Chapel Hill, NC) – $16,500 to provide additional convening support for the College Costs: Making Opportunity Affordable summit.

Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (Indianapolis, IN) – $5,000 to provide operating support for Keep Indianapolis Beautiful.

Martin University (Indianapolis, IN) – $721 to provide staff travel support to attend the NCAN conference.

Maryland Higher Education Commission (Annapolis, MI) – $60,000 to explore tuition policies, state appropriations to higher education and state financial aid.

National College Access Network (Cleveland, OH) – $10,000 to co-sponsor a lunch for 350 NCAN conference participants on September 27, 2005.

National Conference of State Legislatures (Denver, CO) – $16,500 to support the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL’s) convening role at the College Costs: Making Opportunity Affordable national summit.

National Governor’s Association Center for Best Practices (Washington, DC) – $500,000 to build state-wide longitudinal K-16 data systems.

National Governor’s Association Center for Best Practices (Washington, DC) – $75,000 to test the viability of a national collaborative comprised of education leaders and public policy-makers.

Ohio State University Foundation (Columbus, OH) – $194,800 to assess the impacts of alternative financial aid packaging on low-income student persistence.

OMG Center for Collaborative Learning (Philadelphia, PA) – $40,000 to plan and convene two Evaluation Roundtable meetings through 2008.

Oregon Business Council (Ann Arbor, MI) – $23,000 to evaluate the Oregon Higher Education Roundtable project.

The Posse Foundation (New York, NY) – $749,800 to expand the Posse program to more universities and students.

Sagamore Institute for Policy Research (Indianapolis, IN) – $100,000 to provide policy research, convenings and state-based strategies that address the rising costs of college.

San Felipe Humanitarian Alliance (San Diego, CA) – $10,000 to rebuild a community center and school in the town of Navalady, Sri Lanka, that was destroyed by the December 2004 tsunami.

Scholarship America (Minneapolis, MN) – $1,000,000 to support the Disaster relief Fund for Postsecondary Education Students.

SEED School (Washington, DC) – $9,900 to provide additional support and training to student participants of the SEED School College Access Program.

State of Indiana – Indiana Commission on the Social Status of Black Males (Indianapolis, IN) – $23,000 to support a national conference on the education and incarceration of African-American males.

Taproot Foundation (San Francisco, CA) – $20,000 to underwrite four service grants to build the capacity of Lumina Foundation grantees.

Teachers College of Columbia University (New York, NY) – $196,300 to conduct research and write a book on the characteristics of today’s college students and young adults who should be attending college but are not.

Teachers College of Columbia University (New York, NY) – $500,000 to support the development and dissemination of Teachers College’s report Card on Educational Equity.

Temple University (Philadelphia, PA) – $250,000 to examine how resource allocation across and within sectors of higher education affects the quality of education and retention in graduation outcomes.

Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, Inc. (New York, NY) – $361,460 to increase efficiency in the administration of financial aid at public Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

The Trustees of Indiana University (Indianapolis, IN) – $28,300 to provide leadership development for foundation chief executive officers.

Urban Institute (Washington, DC) – $207,000 to study the impact of postsecondary education programs on prisoners.

Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition (Seattle, WA) – $10,000 to fund the publication of an education resource booklet for low-income single women in Washington State.

About Lumina Foundation
Lumina Foundation for Education, an Indianapolis-based, private, independent foundation, strives to help people achieve their potential by expanding access and success in education beyond high school. Through grants for research, innovation, communication, and evaluation, as well as policy education and leadership development, Lumina Foundation addresses issues that affect access and educational attainment among all students, particularly underserved student groups, including adult learners. The Foundation bases its mission on the belief that postsecondary education remains one of the most beneficial investments that individuals can make in themselves and that society can make in its people.