Complete College America
"Our students don’t just need to go to college; they need to complete college." This simple statement is the foundation for Complete College America (CCA), a national initiative with the goal of working with Oklahoma and several other states to significantly increase the number of Americans with a college degree or college credential. 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.
Complete College America 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 by 1,700 per year for 12 years, resulting in a 67 percent increase 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.
Oklahoma’s long-term commitment to performance funding, our focused efforts over the last decade to generate more college graduates for the workforce and our state leaders' embrace of the CCA goals has led to Oklahoma being considered a national model for the 28 other CCA states to follow.
The commitment to college completion was exemplified during a press conference held at the University of Central Oklahoma by Gov. Mary Fallin on Sept. 22, 2011.
"We can and must do better in producing a highly skilled and educated workforce in our state," said Fallin. "This is part of our agenda – developing the Complete College America program."
Despite our best efforts. some Oklahomans are still falling through the cracks. These potential students and graduates include those who are:
- First-generation college students.
- From lower-than-average income.
- Hispanic, African American or Native American.
- Transfer students.
More attention must be placed on serving these populations because Oklahoma’s community and economic development depends on developing human capital and preparing citizens for innovation and flexibility in an ever-changing economy.
Ultimately, what is proposed under the CCA and the National Governors Association's Complete to Complete action plan is an acceleration of efforts to make significant improvements to two critical segments of the educational pipeline in Oklahoma: restructuring remedial and developmental education and developing accelerated degree completion options. Undergirding all of these efforts will be a revised Brain Gain accountability framework that utilizes appropriate components of the state and campus-level CCA and NGA metrics and that reflects these new priorities by measuring and rewarding these state priorities.
