This article was written by Tia Caldwell for New America and the original post can be accessed here.
When I sat down to interview Gabe Santner, an administrator who handled the federal Perkins funding for Quinsigamond Community College (QCC) in Worcester, MA, I was expecting a dry discussion of paperwork and the minutiae of federal grants. Instead, I came away inspired by the work he and his team put into ensuring the money went to serving the students who needed it most.
Each year, the federal government apportions around $1.4 billion in Perkins funding to help states improve their career and technical education (CTE) offerings. States, in turn, send most of the funds to local school districts, colleges, and other educational institutions to develop CTE programs and support students interested in CTE.
To receive these funds, states must ensure schools submit a needs assessment every two years. The assessment involves taking stock of the school’s CTE programs, analyzing data on student outcomes and the local labor market, and consulting stakeholders to develop a spending plan.
At Quinsigamond Community College, Gabe saw the needs assessment as an opportunity. “We took it very seriously,” he explained. Gabe started by requesting the Perkins state coordinator for data on QCC students pursuing CTE degrees. He then enlisted a data analyst to dig deeper.
The analysis revealed something Gabe hadn't expected: 40 percent of the students enrolled in CTE programs were parents. Compared to their peers, these students had relatively high GPAs yet relatively low retention rates. The pattern suggested that parents struggled not because of classroom challenges but because of obstacles outside the classroom. Gabe, who had years of experience managing grants at colleges, found this hopeful: “That’s almost easier because money can help with nonacademic issues.”
He went to work researching how, exactly, money could help parenting students. He soon found several evidence-based suggestions, including a recommendation to hire a student parent coordinator. A coordinator could champion parent-friendly reforms across the campus, from improving child care options to updating faculty training.
“We could help 40 percent of our Perkins students with one person,” Gabe explained. “Because if we change campus-wide policies, it can genuinely impact every single student that is a parent.” Compared to typical Perkins expenditures on expensive, specialized equipment, hiring a coordinator would have an impressive bang for its buck. The leadership of QCC that were struck to learn that 40 percent of the students were parents, agreed.
The Perkins state coordinator was also convinced. Most of QCC’s students were pursuing degrees in CTE fields, so the student parent coordinator would mainly assist CTE students. For the remaining 20 percent or so of students in liberal arts and general studies programs, getting help balancing child care, work and school could give them space to consider CTE programs.
Michelle Brennan, the student parent coordinator who was hired as a result of the needs assessment, has made an impressive impact on the college’s culture and policies. Her encyclopedic knowledge of the schools’ student-parent initiatives and her strong relationships with top administrators has already led to new child-friendly spaces across campus. QCC has begun construction on a drop-in child care center to ensure students can still attend class even when their plans for care fall through.
Michelle’s commitment to supporting QCC’s students is impressive, but these successes don’t have to be unusual. Many other community colleges across the country receive Perkins funding. Nationally, about a third of the students assisted with Perkins funds are college students, though this varies widely, from around 60 percent in California to only 7 percent in Iowa.
While states define the specifics of allowable Perkins expenses on support for student parents, Federal law requires that Perkins dollars be spent on “increasing student achievement” in CTE programs. This broad category can include hiring administrators or counselors, funding activities to expand access for underrepresented students, and providing “support to reduce or eliminate out-of-pocket expenses for special populations” (See section 135(b)(5) of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act). Single parents are a Perkins special population, and schools are required to consider single parents’ success in their needs assessments. Given the strong evidence that targeted interventions help parents succeed in college and the Perkins program’s focus on single parents, community colleges with many parents in CTE programs can likely use their Perkins funds for a variety of student-parent initiatives.
As other community college staff conduct their own needs assessments, I hope they too find inspiration in Gabe’s experience. After conducting their own data analysis, they may also discover that supporting parenting students is one of the most effective ways to strengthen their CTE programs.