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Navigate Reconnect, Tennessee’s primary model of college coaching and advising for independent and over-25 students in Tennessee, has played a key role in getting adult learners to and through college, according to this report from the Boyd Center for Business & Economic Research.
Between 2019 and 2021, “navigators” helped nearly 11,000 Tennesseans explore and fulfill their hopes to enroll in or return to college. The report is the first in a series documenting college and workforce outcomes for prospective students who have worked with a navigator through the Navigate Reconnect program (“reconnectors”) in Tennessee.
Among the key findings:
- About two-thirds of reconnectors were female, and they were 33 years old on average, with a lower household income than the state average. Reconnectors were more likely to be non-white than the state population. About one in seven previously received unemployment benefits. A majority would have been the first in their family to attend college.
- Between 33 percent and 43 percent of reconnectors enrolled in college within one year of first speaking with a navigator. The volume of new reconnectors peaked in Spring/Summer 2020, and this cohort was more likely than others to enroll in college.
- Among reconnectors who enrolled in Tennessee institutions, six percent enrolled in a TCAT, seven percent enrolled in a four-year college or university, and 87 percent enrolled in one of the state’s community colleges.
- Reconnectors were more likely to persist in college and complete college credentials than other nontraditional students. For example, 55 percent of reconnectors who enrolled in community colleges were still enrolled two years later or had attained a college credential in that time. The corresponding figure for other nontraditional students was just 44 percent.