Advancing Developmental Education Reform by Building Faculty Capacity, Scaling Evidence-Based Models, and Supporting Continuous Improvement Project Grant

The Illinois Community College Board is launching the Advancing Developmental Education Reform Project, offering grants of up to $50,000 to support community colleges in enhancing faculty capacity and scaling evidence-based models. Eligible colleges are encouraged to focus on data capacity, faculty development, and scaling successful reforms to improve student outcomes in developmental education. This initiative aims to foster continuous improvement and innovative practices in educational settings across Illinois.

Illinois Community College Board
In 1965, the Illinois General Assembly established the Illinois Community College Board to create a system of public community colleges that would be accessible to every resident. More than 50 years later, the Illinois Community College System is the third largest system in the United States, with 48 colleges and one multi-community college center throughout Illinois. The community colleges serve over 500,000 Illinois residents each year in credit and noncredit courses and serve many more through public service programs.
Advancing Developmental Education Reform by Building Faculty Capacity, Scaling Evidence-Based Models, and Supporting Continuous Improvement Project
The Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) is inviting eligible applicants to participate in the Advancing Developmental Education Reform by Building Faculty Capacity, Scaling Evidence-Based Models, and Supporting Continuous Improvement Project by applying for grants, which are GATA-exempt (as noted on the title page), up to $50,000 per institution. ICCB will fund a minimum of 9 grants to selected community colleges as they support faculty development, evaluate reform efforts, and continue to scale developmental education reform.
Grantees are required to engage in at least one of the following three grant objectives:
Expansion of data capacity and knowledge to evaluate the impact of existing developmental education reform efforts and guide continued scaling of efforts. This outcome could include, but is not limited to, a focus on staffing to expand capacity including the use of paid interns, consultants, expanding a staff position, or developing new staff for a portion of time to organize the structure of data. This may also include the creation of dashboards to measure performance outcomes and track and report on equitable outcomes related to student demographics of who is performing and how are they performing.
Grantees may support faculty development to enhance or expand faculty capacity to provide evidence-based developmental education learning opportunities. Building capacity for adjunct faculty is encouraged.
Grantees may choose to assess and scale reform. This outcome would require colleges to illustrate, through data, what is working to increase successful movement through developmental education and into and through gateway courses. Grantees would then need to move to scale these efforts. This explicitly precludes any further piloting of work and should focus exclusively on scaling efforts.