Back to the books: Tennessee wants 'never graduateds' to go back to college

Lisa Gordon, 36, is planning to return to Chattanooga State to complete an Associate Degree in Science. Gordon carries a better than 3.0 GPA.
Lisa Gordon, 36, is planning to return to Chattanooga State to complete an Associate Degree in Science. Gordon carries a better than 3.0 GPA.

Tennessee Reconnect

What does Tennessee Reconnect offer to students and to institutions of higher learning?• State marketing and outreach• Outreach from community colleges and universities to their former students who have dropped out and not yet completed a degree• A one-stop shop adult learner portal (www.TNReconnect.gov)• Grants to institutions to improve the way they serve adult learners.• Grants to institutions to improve the way they serve veterans• Community-based institutional-neutral advising and support services for adults returning to college.• The TCAT Reconnect Grant, a last-dollar scholarship to attend one of Tennessee’s 27 Colleges of Applied Technology and the Community College Reconnect Grant Pilot to provide last-dollar scholarships for an adult to attend a community collegeSource: Tennessee Higher Education Commission

It always bothered Lisa Gordon that she came just a few classes short of finishing her associates' degree at Chattanooga State Community College.

"I left due to financial issues. I always wanted to come back and finish a degree," says Gordon, 36, who works full-time as a health technician in the Head Start preschool program for the city of Chattanooga's Youth and Family Development Office.

So Gordon jumped when a postcard from Chattanooga State came in the mail alerting Gordon that she likely was eligible for Tennessee Reconnect, a new state program with financial aid that aims to lure back the "never graduateds," students who racked up some college credit - but never finished their degree.

"I decided to seize the opportunity and go back to take classes. All I needed was six classes," Gordon says.

Gordon, who grew up in Collegedale, plans to finish her associate's degree from Chattanooga State and then get a bachelor's degree in agriculture and nutrition science.

Gordon isn't alone. There are an estimated 110,000 Tennesseans between the ages of 25 and 64 who have dropped out of college since 2007, when they were more than halfway toward a degree.

A new program called Tennessee Reconnect is designed to help those with plenty of college credit under their belt - yet never finished their degree for one reason or another.

It's all part of Gov. Bill Haslam's Drive to 55 effort, which is meant to boost the number of Tennesseans with two- or four-year degrees to at least 55 percent of the adult population. Currently, only one third of all Tennessee adults have some type of college or advanced degree.

Drive to 55's centerpiece is Tennessee Promise, a new scholarship program that basically makes it free for high school graduates in Tennessee to attend two years of community college or technical school. Statewide, more than 18,000 students completed the requirements to receive the Tennessee Promise scholarship when the program launched in the fall of 2015.

State officials expect it will be trickier to bring one-time college students back into the fold.

"How do we get that 40-year-old single mother of two back to school?" Haslam has asked. "We don't have that problem solved yet because that's a lot more difficult, but I think you'll see us turning our focus to that in the next couple of years."

'We've made it more accessible'

In January, the state launched a $1 million advertising campaign with billboards along the freeway and commercials on TV and radio to encourage adults to finish college. Each state college has put a staff person in charge of overseeing adult outreach. College staff members also have been trained to work with adult students, who often balance families and jobs with their education.

And colleges and universities in the Chattanooga area and elsewhere have taken steps to be more supportive of adult students who return.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, which is trying to lure back some 900 students who came close to finishing their degree, looks out for students in numerous ways.

"Come back, we have more support for you, we have more programs for you, we have more ways to helping you succeed," says Stuart Benkert, the assistant provost for student success at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Free - and flexible - tutoring is one example cited by Benkert of how UTC tries to help students succeed.

"We have 24-hour tutoring online now," Benkert says. "Students can call anytime. They can even get tutoring at night online."

UTC offers tutoring through a third-party service, such as Tutor.com, so a returning student who's raising young children can sit down at the computer and get help after the kids have gone to bed from a tutor via video conference.

"You're talking face-to-face," Benkert says. "Most of these people who work for these companies are professors working part-time."

And the support doesn't end there. If a tutor thinks that a student is going to have problems with an upcoming test, the tutor will contact Benkert and let him know so Benkert can offer additional help.

UTC watches out for students in other ways, Benkert said, including warning students away from combinations of demanding classes - say, organic chemistry and thermodynamics - that have a history of driving down students' grades.

"We actually run the analytics on this, and we find dangerous combinations of classes. We have software for that now," Benkert says. "Hey, I wish someone had done that for me."

It's not babysitting, Benkert said, to look out for students.

"We haven't made it too easy. We've made it more accessible, and there's a difference," he says. "This is what universities didn't do in the past, but this is what we're doing now."

'It's all about completion'

Chattanooga State has increased its emphasis on helping students finish school, including by giving them help finding part-time jobs. Chattanooga State also employs staff members with such job titles as director of adult services and director of veterans to aid older students and those with military service.

"I think all across the state, the focus has shifted to not how many you get in the doors, but it's all about completion," says Debbie Adams, vice president of student affairs at Chattanooga State. "We have all shifted our focus to support services, and what can we do to better support that student once they get in college."

Chattanooga State likes a mix of students, but has seen the number of adult students drop over the last five years as the job market has strengthened, said Nancy Patterson the college's vice president of college advancement and public relations.

So she's happy that Tennessee Reconnect is bringing adult students back to college.

"We want more adult students," Patterson says. "I think that there were various incentives for high school students to come to college, but there were not that many for adults.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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