Complete College America
Complete College America (CCA) is the most comprehensive and ambitious higher education initiative ever undertaken by the state of Oklahoma. The goal is to increase the number of degrees and certificates earned in Oklahoma 50,900 by 2023. This must be done to meet the projected need of 313,073 additional college-educated workers to keep Oklahoma competitive in a global economy.
Gov. Mary Fallin is a strong advocate for the initiative, saying at the kickoff press conference in September 2011, "We can and must do better in producing a highly skilled and educated workforce in our state. This is part of our agenda – developing the Complete College America program."
More attention must be placed on college completion because Oklahoma’s community and economic development depends on developing human capital and preparing citizens for innovation and flexibility in an ever-changing economy.
The CCA action plan includes working with K-12 by focusing on college readiness, transforming remediation, expanding collaboration with CareerTech, enhancing adult degree completion efforts, and tracking and rewarding improvements in degree completion.
Significant progress is being made toward these goals. In year one of these initiatives, our public colleges and universities reported more than 1,900 additional graduates in the 2011-12 academic year than in the previous year. Additionally, in April, the State Regents, with cooperation and input from our college and university presidents, adopted a new approach to our higher education funding formula, making it a performance-driven model. This action and other initiatives solidify the designation that Complete College America has given Oklahoma as its national model for degree completion.
Five national foundations are providing multiyear support to Complete College America: the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Lumina Foundation for Education.
