Grant award means more opportunities for high school dropouts and other at-risk students

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Transitions Academy, located in Long Beach, has received a grant through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) that will provide at least $100,000 per year from July 2015 through June 2018 for expansion of a program that provides education and training for high school dropouts and low-income and other nontraditional students. The Transitions Academy, the first of its kind in the state, opened in 2014 and has served as a model for other community college programs.

This week, the Mississippi Community College Board announced that the grant was available to all of the state’s 15 community colleges for implementation of the Mississippi Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (MI-BEST) Project.

“Thanks to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Mississippi Community College Board, MGCCC will be able to expand its Transitions Academy program to provide much-needed education and training to more at-risk individuals in South Mississippi,” said MGCCC president Dr. Mary S. Graham.  “Many of these individuals feel they are mired in low-income, low-skill jobs or are unemployed and without hope.  This grant will allow us to provide them renewed hope and the opportunity for a better future.”

Under the Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) program model, basic skills and career-technical instructors will teach as a team in the classroom so that students gain basic and occupational skills simultaneously.  Quantitative analysis provided through a program implemented in Washington state suggests that the program substantially increases the rate at which adult basic skills students earn college credits and complete postsecondary occupational credentials.  Instructors from around the state have already begun the training to implement the team-teaching model. MI-BEST is patterned after the highly successful Washington state program.

More than 14,000 students leave the K-12 system each year in Mississippi, costing the state economy $458,302,726 in net annual costs.  Only about one-third of those dropouts work or seek work, and those who do earn 27 percent less than high school graduates over their lifetime.  They are 30 percent more likely to use state Medicaid and are 3.5 times more likely to be incarcerated than those who graduate.  Only 60 percent of the state’s ninth graders graduate from high school.  Through MGCCC’s Transitions Academy, these individuals have the opportunity to receive a high-school equivalency diploma (GED); a Career Readiness Certificate, pertinent industry credentials for a chosen pathway; at least 15 hours of career pathway college credit hours; completion of employability and life-skills training; participation in work-based learning; and either employment in a chosen pathway or related field; continued college enrollment toward a certificate or associate degree; or enlistment in the military.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.  The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Michigan, and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans, and internationally are in Mexico and Haiti. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org.

*Sources for Mississippi dropout statistics: Mississippi Values Campaign and the Mississippi Community College Board