OCC to use federal grant to help low-income students

ONONDAGA, N.Y. — The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Onondaga Community College (OCC) a five-year, $3 million grant under Title III to help it assist low-income students.

The grant, which was awarded under Title III’s “strengthening institutions” section, helps institutions “expand their capacity to serve low-income students,” OCC said in a Wednesday news release.

Nearly three-quarters of OCC’s first-time students are identified as low-income, the school said.

Title III — which is part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 — focuses on language instruction for limited English proficient and immigrant students, as described on Department of Education website.

OCC’s project, Guided Pathways to Success (GPS), extends the college’s work on “structured pathway maps.” They focus on “common” first-year learning outcomes; a structured non-academic support system and intake processes; advising; and “accelerated” pathways to completion for developmental students, per the OCC release.

Each of these measures are “well documented” in research to increase student retention and degree completion, the school said.

A small project team supported by OCC faculty and staff will lead the GPS project. Implementation begins immediately and will continue through 2022.

OCC’s Title III application included details on the economic-recovery plan that the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) has developed. The plan includes “improving educational attainment as a central strategy” to address persistent poverty.

The city of Syracuse is ranked as the 29th poorest small city in the U.S. and has the “highest concentration” of poverty among African American and Hispanic residents in the nation, and more than 50 percent of children in the city of Syracuse live in poverty, per the OCC release.

U.S. Rep. John Katko (R–Camillus) supported an increase in funding for Title III in the recent omnibus package, OCC said. Katko’s office worked to help secure the grant said, the school added.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com