The University System of Georgia
Research to Support College Access and Completion
The Opportunity: Following several years of program implementation to support access and completion in technical, community and four-year public and private colleges through the federal College Access Challenge Grant, the University System of Georgia sought to understand how resources were being utilized across the state, and encourage local and regional partnerships.
Our Services: GSG conducted a variety of research activities including:
Collected and analyzed indicators on income, employment, education, and community risk factors to create county infographics for all 159 Georgia counties and corresponding school districts; for purposes of comparison, a Georgia profile was created and was included in each county profile document
Conducted focus groups with counselors and high school students across Georgia to assess knowledge and perceptions of resources to support college access
Conducted a scan of Georgia organizations supporting college access and completion
Benchmarked Georgia higher education performance against national indicators and best practices.
Results: GSG presented a detailed research analysis to the Georgia College Access leadership, and made specific recommendations to improve post-secondary attainment across the state. The county-level profiles were distributed to each community. GSG has updated these profiles over time, most recently to support a Bill and Melinda Gates-funded initiative to improve college access and success through the efforts of local community foundations.