SSEI Initiative
This multi-year cohort experience helps regional public universities adapt and evolve to meet the unique needs of current and future students.
We help our members accelerate change where it matters most.
SSEI is a cohort-based learning community that fosters connection, accountability, and shared learning. Cross-functional campus teams—including students, faculty, staff, administrators, and senior leaders—work together to create conditions where every student can thrive.
Program Participants
Thanks to the generous support of the Gates Foundation, 55 institutions enrolling over 500k students have been able to participate in SSEI at no cost to them.
The Experience
A transformative approach rooted in history and evidence.
For over 50 years, AASCU has partnered with regional public universities to expand access to affordable, high-quality education and support the communities they serve. In 2016, we began documenting how our most successful member institutions made real progress. Through listening, research, and data analysis, we’ve identified a set of core practices that consistently drive lasting change. These pillars are the foundation of SSEI:
- A process of continuous improvement
- A culture of evidence and assessment
- Integrated student-centered structures, processes, and supports
- Engagement with community and regional stakeholders
- A culture of shared leadership and vision
Continuous improvement—the AASCU way.
Shaped by insights from more than 70 member institutions, national experts, and support from the Gates Foundation, our 5-step continuous improvement process gives teams the structure, tools, and expert guidance to strengthen the foundations of lasting institutional change.
This cohort experience accelerates transformation by providing targeted, customized support to help institutions use data to remove barriers and improve outcomes for students who have been historically underserved. Participant objectives include:
Work with subject matter experts in data analytics, student success, advising, institutional transformation, and strategic and systems planning:
- Collaborate with other institutions to uncover shared challenges and solutions to improving outcomes for all students.
- Collaborate with cross-campus teams to develop, articulate and act on a shared vision for student success and prioritized action plan.
- Recognize individual strengths and growth opportunities to build the long-term ability to contribute to transformation.
Take an integrated, student-centered, comprehensive approach to transformation:
- Leverage a continuous improvement process to make informed, data-driven decisions grounded in the reality of students.
- Develop a clear, shared purpose that helps everyone see their role in making the institution more responsive to student needs.
- Hear success stories from other campuses and experts in the field and understand how to apply learnings to their own context.
One of the cornerstones of AASCU’s student success efforts is our emphasis on engaging senior leaders in key positions at participating institutions as a student success team.
Team members work together to understand and elevate student experiences, review data to inform student success strategies aligned with institutional strengths and growth opportunities and engage others on their campus in transformation.
Each participating institution has assembled a campus team consisting of at least the following required roles: President, Campus Team Lead, Provost, Data Lead.
Program Structure
- 55 institutions participating in a multi-year, team-based learning journey focused on student success
- Blended convenings (in-person and virtual) for connecting with content experts and collaborating across cohort teams
- Strategic, institution-specific coaching from AASCU to support goal alignment and long-term sustainability
- Access to a robust suite of tools, resources, templates, subject-matter experts, and a peer learning community
Moving forward, the program will emphasize:
- Reflective sense-making grounded in data
- Strategic delivery of technical assistance
- Facilitation of cross-cohort learning and collaboration
Our Impact
Transforming Systems, Elevating Futures
By focusing on SSEI’s 5 pillars, participating institutions are making upward mobility a reality for more students.
55
institutions enrolling 585,827 students
100%
of institutions have median student earnings that exceed those of the average high school graduate in their state and allow students to earn back the cost of their college education
41%
of students enrolled at participating institutions are Pell-eligible
62%
of institutions have median student earnings that allow them to move into the upper-middle income quintile
News Releases
Our Partners In This Experience
AASCU is connected to a network of content and subject matter experts, from advising to strategic finance. Here are some of the partners that participating institutions would have access to as part of the experience.
Questions about the SSEI Initiative? Let us know.
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