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The Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE) has received a grant from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) to assist the state in a planning study aimed toward the elimination of barriers that make it difficult for adult learners to obtain their degrees. The program, Non-traditional No More: Policy Solutions for Adult Learners will provide $65,000 in funding to the state over two years to stimulate and guide policy and practice changes that will make it easier for adults just shy of completing their degrees to finish school.
A Ready Adult in Arkansas is a students who is at least 22 years of age has at least a 2.0 grade point average (GPA) and earned at least 75% of the required credit hours for an associate degree (45 hours) or a baccalaureate degree (90 hours) and quit college before earning a degree.
Arkansas was invited through a competitive process along with two other states, Colorado and Nevada, to participate with WICHE through a grant from the Lumina Foundation intended to help increase degree attainment. The project will assist in creating a navigable path to college success through a focus on academic policies, financial aid, student support services, and communications.
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The purpose of this project is to encourage students and families to learn about, prepare for, and finance a postsecondary education. This project will be a comprehensive partnership that will focus the state’s attention on the need for its citizens to understand the positive impact of higher education upon the lives of all Arkansans and upon the economic development of Arkansas.
The scope of this project will include (1) a statewide outreach effort that will provide tools that can be used on a long-range basis to help tell the story of the importance of higher education. During College Awareness Week, February 16-22, 2009, there will be a statewide focus on higher education; (2) a training program to improve college advising will be developed for high school guidance counselors who are located in the poorest counties of Arkansas; and (3) improve the academic preparation for college for students that reside in the poorest counties of Arkansas.
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