The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) Rural Reconnect Initiative is a national effort to advance college completion and economic mobility for learners with some college and no credential (SCNC) living in rural communities across the South and Southwestern United States.
Through research, meaningful partnerships, and evidence-based practices, including collaboration with institutional learning partners East Mississippi Community College and South Texas College and guidance from the Rural Reconnect Advisory Group (RRAG), the initiative seeks to better understand how institutions, organizations, and states are working to:
- Support the re-enrollment of students with SCNC by creating meaningful opportunities for them to return and complete their education at rural-serving institutions (RSIs).
- Implement student-centered, evidence-driven strategies that promote re-enrollment, persistence, and degree completion.
- Navigate and address systemic barriers through local, institutional, state, and federal policies that influence rural student success.
As part of this work, TICAS and MDRC are collaborating with institutions to understand how policy environments impact re-engagement efforts and to develop actionable policy recommendations that reflect the realities of rural students and institutions.
Rural Reconnect Advisory Group (RRAG)
Guided by rural experts, the RRAG includes educators, researchers, institutional leaders, and student success experts rooted in rural communities. This group is helping TICAS shape project strategy, ensure local context is centered, and identify the most impactful solutions for long-term change.
Focus Regions
The RRI focuses on 11 states across the South and Southwest: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
These states encompass diverse rural communities and populations of adults with SCNC, as well as rural-serving institutions that play an important role in expanding postsecondary access and completion.
Why This Work Matters
More than 43 million adults nationally have some college and no credential (SCNC). Reengaging these learners represents an important opportunity to increase postsecondary attainment, strengthen economic mobility, and meet workforce needs.
Rural learners face interconnected challenges that can make returning to and completing college especially difficult, including:
- Geographic isolation and long distances to institutions and services.
- Limited transportation and childcare options.
- Limited broadband access.
- Limited access to student and basic needs supports.
- Capacity constraints facing rural-serving institutions.
These barriers do not end once a learner re-enrolls. Rural adult learners need continued support to persist and complete a credential, while the institutions that serve them need the capacity and resources to respond to their needs.
Addressing these challenges requires coordinated action across institutions, states, the federal government, and community partners. The Rural Reconnect Initiative identifies promising institutional practices and policy strategies to strengthen pathways for rural adults with SCNC to return to college, persist, and complete a credential.
Explore our foundational research in rural college completion:
RRI Resources
Through this initiative, TICAS and MDRC are developing a suite of resources to advance student success and drive impact:
- Rural Reconnect Data Explorer: An interactive tool providing data on rural populations, postsecondary attainment, and rural-serving institutions.
- Paving the Road Back to Postsecondary Success: Promising Institutional Practices for Reengaging Rural Learners: A guide highlighting promising practices for rural-serving institutions seeking to reengage learners with SCNC.
- Embedding Rural Learner Realities into State Adult Reengagement Policy: A report highlighting policy strategies states can use to support rural adult learner reengagement and completion.
- Building the Path Back to Postsecondary Success: Cross-Sector Leadership Can Reengage Rural Learners: A synthesis of RRI findings and recommendations for strengthening rural adult learner reengagement and completion.
Meet Our College Completion Team
Valerie Crespín-Trujillo, Ph.D.
Senior Director, College Completion and Basic Needs PolicyValerie is a Director, College Completion Policy at TICAS. She leads TICAS' efforts to expand and align state and federal investment with evidence-based student supports that research has demonstrated empower more students to enroll and graduate from college.
