History of Breaking Through
The Breaking Through initiative has been implemented in three phases.
In Phase 1, researchers documented the four high-leverage strategies being utilized by colleges across the country to engage and support lower-skilled adults. This phase resulted in the 2004 report, Breaking Through: Helping Low-Skilled Adults Enter and Succeed in College and Careers.
In Phase 2, 35 colleges across 18 states conducted demonstration projects based on these strategies.
These colleges have helped foster the innovations developed in Breaking Through:
In the current phase, Breaking Through is scaling up the effective practices identified during the demonstration phase, spreading these strategies to other institutions, and implementing these innovations with new special populations or in new contexts. In addition, we are developing and implementing state- and system-level policies that help expand and sustain this work.
With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, seven colleges broadened their Breaking Through programs to reach more students by implementing a number of innovative approaches, including partnerships with other organizations. The initiative is cataloguing these approaches for dissemination to the entire Breaking Through network.
In addition, Breaking Through has widened its network through several regional and statewide projects. It now includes 41 colleges in 22 states.
