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Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count

In 2007, the Board of Higher Education was selected as the lead state policy organization for Massachusetts' Achieving the Dream initiative. The Massachusetts policy team will focus on strengthening state policies in three areas: data and performance measurement systems; K-12 and postsecondary alignment; and transfer and articulation.

The Board of Higher Education partners with the four Massachusetts colleges selected to take part in this multi-year program: Bunker Hill Community College, Northern Essex Community College, Roxbury Community College, and Springfield Technical College. Local funding is provided by the Boston Foundation, the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation, the Lloyd G. Balfour Foundation and TERI, a Boston-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting educational opportunities.

Achieving the Dream is a national effort to improve student success outcomes for underserved students. Achieving the Dream colleges maintain a high degree of access for historically underrepresented groups while working to increase the percentage of students who accomplish the following:

• successfully complete the courses they take;
• advance from remedial to credit-bearing courses;
• enroll in and successfully complete gatekeeper courses;
• enroll from one semester to the next; and
• earn degrees and/or certificates.