Six organizations recognized for collaboration during Student Success Summit

February 27, 2024

The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) and the Kentucky Student Success Collaborative (KYSSC) recognized six organizations for their partnership in improving student success.

The awards were a highlight of the 2024 Student Success Summit, CPE’s signature event that promotes innovative approaches to student success. This year’s theme was Partnerships that Work, which focused on partnership development as a tool to advance student success.

“Congratulations to these six organizations and thank you for your partnership in advancing student success in Kentucky,” Dr. Aaron Thompson, CPE president, said.

• Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College and Western Kentucky University received the Partnership for Transfer award for their work to improve transfer through improvement science. Over the course of the past two academic years, transfer between the two institutions increased by 54% through strong collaboration and commitment to remove barriers for students.
• Bluegrass Community and Technical College (BCTC) received the Partnership for Gateway Course Success award for exceptional commitment to improving student success and fostering academic excellence. BCTC led the College Algebra Success Project - a collaboration with eight Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) colleges and Pearson Analytics - to research the impact of peer outreach on student success in college algebra. The award is a testament to BCTC’s contributions toward advancing the goals of gateway course success in Kentucky.
• James Graham Brown Foundation (JGBF) received the Partnership for Student Success award. JGBF’s partnership with CPE to create the Kentucky Student Success Collaborative has been instrumental in advancing student success initiatives. JGBF's vision, partnership and financial investment have transformed the culture of collaboration and problem-solving to address the state's most pressing challenges and barriers to student success.
• The Kentucky Office of Adult Education (KYOAE) received the Partnership for Student Basic Needs award for its support of and dedication to addressing postsecondary students’ basic needs. KYOAE has a shared goal to increase postsecondary attainment among adult learners in need of upskilling and is committed to leveraging time, expertise and resources to mitigate barriers to postsecondary education and improve pathways for all learners.
• The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) received the Partnership for Student Basic Needs award for their commitment to place full-time benefit navigators called “kynectors" at all KCTCS colleges with the vision of scaling to meet the needs all postsecondary students and improve pathways to postsecondary education for individuals receiving public benefits. The kynector partnership represents a $1.6 million annual investment in student success.

More than 400 higher education professionals gathered Feb. 26-27 at Western Kentucky University for the summit.

The conference included a keynote from Dr. Thompson, which included Kentucky’s successes, some of the key issues facing the commonwealth in the future and insights on how campuses can continuously improve. Other panels and discussions included transformative partnerships for learners and workers; an update on the KYSSC; applying AI to transfer advising; understanding credit for prior learning; ways to support financially vulnerable students; preparing students for careers of tomorrow; collaboration to improve transfer student success; a statewide vision for gateway course success; and best practices to support student basic needs.