6 key takeaways from successful statewide re-enrollment initiatives

Table of Contents

• A win-win-win for students, schools and states 
• Proof of impact: Measurable re-enrollment initiative results
• Six lessons from successful statewide initiatives
• Building sustainable re-enrollment at any level

A win-win-win for students, schools and states

Investing in holistic and sustainable re-enrollment models generates powerful returns across the board. For students, it drives degree completion and upward mobility. For institutions, it significantly boosts ROI. For state workforces, it provides a vital pipeline of skilled labor. 

Large-scale re-enrollment initiatives move beyond one-off marketing campaigns and departmental silos in favor of cross-campus models that address the whole student. InsideTrack’s Reconnect to Complete initiatives, for example, have generated success stories across various states, demonstrating that combining personalized coaching, generous funding and network-wide insights can unlock real student and institutional outcomes — while helping meet state workforce needs.

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Proof of impact: Measurable re-enrollment initiative results

Across the country, large-scale re-enrollment initiatives are proving that a data-driven approach to re-engagement yields measurable returns for both learners and institutions.

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NC Reconnect: Fueling economic mobility and institutional gains

Built to support North Carolina's goal of reaching two million credentialed workers by 2030, NC Reconnect now serves students across 29 community colleges. Funded by the John M. Belk Endowment and powered by student-centered Re-enrollment Coaching, this initiative has made a life-changing difference for adult learners statewide:

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“At a minimum, this effort will show adults that their college cares about them. At a maximum, they re-enroll, complete their program, gain access to new career opportunities that allow them to enter the middle class, and totally change their lives generationally. The momentum does build, one student and one college at a time.”
— Mike Krause, Vice President, John M. Belk Endowment

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‍Interested in learning about the initiative’s next steps, which involve scaling the program for long-term sustainability? Read more here.

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‍California Reconnect: Increasing re-enrollment and persistence rates

California Reconnect, a statewide re-enrollment initiative including 20 public two- and four-year institutions, was launched in Fall 2023 by InsideTrack in partnership with the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP). Through personalized coaching and holistic re-enrollment support, the initiative has put returning students on the path to credential completion:

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‍A third-party evaluation by Education Northwest, which analyzes the full data from 20 participating partner institutions, documents the program’s effectiveness and shares recommendations for coordinating re-enrollment practices statewide.

Read the full report right here. 

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"Two years in, the data are clear: California is showing a path forward for reaching the adults who started college and never finished. What's striking is not just that coaching works, but how consistently it works — across different institutions, different demographics, and different points of stop-out. We're seeing the same pattern at a two-year institution in the Central Valley and a four-year campus in the Bay Area, among first-generation students and adults who have been away from college for years. That consistency is what separates a promising pilot into a national model."
— Leanne Davis, Managing Researcher, Education Northwest

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Reconnecting stopped-out learners in Kentucky, Louisiana and Nebraska

By partnering with institutions in an effort to bring their large populations of SCNC learners back to school — and ultimately equip them with in-demand skills for area workforces — InsideTrack has helped several other states establish initiatives. Each of these programs is off to a strong start:

• Kentucky Reconnect: Led by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) and the Kentucky Student Success Collaborative (KYSSC), the three-year pilot initiative aims to re-engage the state’s 544,000 SCNC adults. This includes coaching stopped-out students identified through local job sector data, allowing InsideTrack coaches to weave workforce insights and corresponding tuition support information into their sessions. 
• ‍Louisiana Reconnect: This three-year pilot initiative, launched in partnership with the Louisiana Board of Regents, unifies state resources to maximize SCNC adult re-engagement, re-enrollment and persistence. Using data from the Board of Regents, Louisiana is piloting an approach that targets stopped-out students who have accumulated enough credits to either immediately qualify for an associate’s degree or are very close to finishing.
• ‍Reengage Nebraska: The Nebraska State College System partnered with InsideTrack to connect with 3,000+ stopped-out adults across its three campuses: Chadron State, Peru State and Wayne State. Designed to support re-enrollment, persistence and completion, the initiative will address the state's acute labor shortage through individualized coaching and will build institutional capacity by certifying campus staff in InsideTrack’s coaching methodology. 

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“One of Kentucky’s re-enrollment efforts is to help students identify where opportunities in Kentucky’s high-demand fields exist. State-level efforts like these are crucial because the success of re-enrolling students in high-demand fields directly addresses the deepening skills gaps that underpin current workforce shortages. InsideTrack is helping us do just that.”
— Tracy Teater, Associate Director for Adult-attainment Strategy, The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education’s Student Success Collaborative

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Six lessons from successful statewide initiatives

Having partnered with various states to launch and sustain comprehensive re-enrollment initiatives, we know what it takes to bring stopped-out adults back to school. For statewide initiatives to be effective and sustainable, both institutional and SHEEO leaders have a role to play in their development. Here are six key takeaways that demonstrate how these leaders can successfully build and sustain these critical programs.

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What institutional leaders can do

‍Embrace a systems-wide culture shift to welcome returning learners 

Reconnect initiatives thrive when institutions can better serve those re-enrolling, which means ensuring they address the reasons they stopped out in the first place. Shifts in policies, procedures and culture may include:

• Student support, scheduling and advising offered online or after “working” hours
• Evening, hybrid or online course options
• Credits for prior learning and assistance with transferring credits
• Basic-needs support like housing funds, food aid, transportation vouchers, on-campus childcare and more

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“Our responsibility has become not simply to admit [returning] students but really to ensure that they immediately feel like University of Utah students [and] understand how they fit academically and socially… The institution, not the student, should be absorbing the complexity of all these variables.”
— T. Chase Hagood, Vice Provost for Student Success, University of Utah

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Prioritize a data-driven yet personalized multi-channel outreach strategy

Leading with empathy makes a huge difference, and proactive, human communication from a dedicated coach builds the essential trust adult learners need to overcome hesitation and re-engage. The goal isn’t simply to make contact — it's to understand why they stopped out, map out what a return looks like and support them all the way through graduation. Here are a few recommendations:

1. Include clear, career-centered value propositions in outreach, showing exactly how completing a credential increases employability and earning potential. This helps learners see a clear path forward.
2. Use multiple communication channels to meet learners where they are. Text messaging, for example, accounted for 85% of inbound student messages during the California Reconnect initiative. 
3. Maximize your resources by using student data to prioritize "near-completers" (those who are only a few credits away from a credential) and stopped-out learners who have been gone for two terms or fewer — they’re the most likely to return.

Leverage trend data and insights to coordinate, improve and streamline support

Overcoming the institutional barriers that re-enrolled adults face requires establishing cross-campus re-enrollment teams to identify the sticking points and streamline operations — significantly helping eliminate siloed student support. 

It’s important to remember that every interaction with a stopped-out student is a learning opportunity. InsideTrack coaches help institutions leverage student trend data to create process improvements, such as waiving application fees or clearing registration holds. Regular check-ins between campus teams and leadership will help your institution monitor student progress and fill support gaps.

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What state-level leaders can do

Fund re-enrollment initiatives that are rooted in evidence-based coaching 

Strong re-engagement starts with strong outreach, but providing personalized support along the re-enrollment journey is critical for successful outcomes. It pays to invest in proven support programs like InsideTrack Coaching, which is rooted in research and backed by evidence. As the state initiatives shared earlier show, these investments generate powerful, sustainable returns for learners, the institution and community workforces.  

Part of this holistic approach also means strengthening institutional readiness and willingness. State higher ed leaders don't need to launch at a massive scale right away. By starting small and partnering with just one or a few campuses on a pilot initiative, you can refine your processes and build momentum before expanding statewide.

Create stronger data ecosystems to close critical labor shortages

The best statewide re-enrollment initiatives don’t just bring students back to school, but actively help them find in-demand employment once they graduate. By analyzing diverse geographical areas, state leaders can link local employment trends, regional supply-and-demand metrics and wage data to specific degree pathways.

A good way to evaluate your state's current alignment is by asking: 

• Do regional college programs match the skills employers want and need? 
• Do stopped-out students understand the career and wage outcomes of finishing credential programs? 

If not, it’s time to determine which existing skillsets will most readily transfer to in-demand fields and accelerate the completion timeline. Use data-mining to identify quality candidates — including individuals who have already started down a relevant educational pathway — and invite them to return to upskill in relevant credential or degree areas.

Establish multi-tiered working groups to dismantle systemic barriers

If the goal is to make the process of returning as frictionless as possible, it’s best to start by detailing student re-enrollment hurdles — then eliminating them. Creating coordinated, multi-tiered working groups helps you clear these roadblocks at every level:

• Form cross-departmental state groups to tackle complex financial and legal barriers like debt forgiveness plans, emergency aid programs and tuition qualifications
• Empower campus-level teams to accept credits for prior learning, cut administrative red tape and adjust course schedules to fit the busy lives of adult learners
• Leverage diverse state funding streams — such as TANF, SNAP E&T and state aid — to cover wraparound services like housing, food aid and transportation

Ultimately, the smoother you can make the transition back to school, the more likely students are to persist all the way to completion.

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Building sustainable re-enrollment at any level

Bringing stopped-out learners back and supporting them to and through completion with the help of personalized coaching is life-changing for students. At the same time, successful re-enrollment initiatives increase institutional ROI and fuel regional economies. 

If you’re ready to discuss the impact InsideTrack Re-enrollment Coaching can have on your campus or in your state, we’d love to talk.

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