North Carolina Reconnect re-enrollment coaching initiative
Case Study
Partner Profile

NC Reconnect: Re-enrollment coaching gives stopped-out learners the tools to return to college and complete their degrees

The Opportunity

To address North Carolina’s ambitious college-attainment goal for two million residents to become college-degreed workers by 2030, a statewide initiative called NC Reconnect was formed to support the over one million adults in the state with some college but no credential to return and finish what they started. Understanding that returning to school often comes with added complexities, the initiative sought to provide direct coaching to stopped-out learners to help them successfully reconnect to their education.

NC Reconnect: Re-enrollment coaching gives stopped-out learners the tools to return to college and complete their degrees

NC Reconnect: Re-enrollment coaching gives stopped-out learners the tools to return to college and complete their degreesarrow

The Solution

Strada Education Foundation and the John M. Belk Endowment funded a pilot program partnering InsideTrack re-enrollment coaching with five North Carolina community colleges to re-engage 12,000 stopped-out students. After the initial success, a second and third cohort of five additional community colleges each were added to the initiative. The NC Reconnect program is now expanding to their fourth Cohort of five more community colleges, set to launch spring 2024. Every student that has connected with an InsideTrack coach created a customized plan to address the difficulties they faced in returning to school and the potential challenges they would endure advancing toward their degree.

The Solution

Strada Education Foundation and the John M. Belk Endowment funded a pilot program partnering InsideTrack re-enrollment coaching with five North Carolina community colleges to re-engage 12,000 stopped-out students. After the initial success, a second and third cohort of five additional community colleges each were added to the initiative. The NC Reconnect program is now expanding to their fourth Cohort of five more community colleges, set to launch spring 2024. Every student that has connected with an InsideTrack coach created a customized plan to address the difficulties they faced in returning to school and the potential challenges they would endure advancing toward their degree.

Proven Results

22
%
total contacted student re-enrollment rate across three cohorts of 15 schools
$
3.5
M
institutional ROI since 2021
68
%
next-term completion and persistence rate for re-enrolled students

The Impact

Over the course of the three individual program cohorts, 2,035 former students who worked with an InsideTrack coach were able to reconnect with their original goal and re-enroll at their institution. For those re-enrolled in the Fall 2021 or Fall 2022 cohorts, between 66-68 percent completed their program or enrolled in the following term.

To double-down on the impact of coaching for re-enrolled students, the program expanded to include more focused retention coaching — allowing coaches to collaborate with enrolled students and support them to leverage their strengths in the face of challenges and persist through their education. Coaches get to know each student’s reason for committing to college and are able to reflect that back throughout the student’s educational journey, enhancing motivation for completing their degrees.

As a next step to advance the NC Reconnect initiative, stakeholders have scaled the program by training college staff in the InsideTrack methodology for sustainable re-enrollment and retention programs — embedding IACET-accredited coaching into institutional processes to create sustainable student-support impact.

Hear more about the impact from leaders and students involved in NC Reconnect:

The Impact

Over the course of the three individual program cohorts, 2,035 former students who worked with an InsideTrack coach were able to reconnect with their original goal and re-enroll at their institution. For those re-enrolled in the Fall 2021 or Fall 2022 cohorts, between 66-68 percent completed their program or enrolled in the following term.

To double-down on the impact of coaching for re-enrolled students, the program expanded to include more focused retention coaching — allowing coaches to collaborate with enrolled students and support them to leverage their strengths in the face of challenges and persist through their education. Coaches get to know each student’s reason for committing to college and are able to reflect that back throughout the student’s educational journey, enhancing motivation for completing their degrees.

As a next step to advance the NC Reconnect initiative, stakeholders have scaled the program by training college staff in the InsideTrack methodology for sustainable re-enrollment and retention programs — embedding IACET-accredited coaching into institutional processes to create sustainable student-support impact.

Hear more about the impact from leaders and students involved in NC Reconnect:

Adult learners want to be outreached. How they are outreached matters. And that’s what has made our partnership with InsideTrack so powerful. This is not a call center. This is a compassionate outreach to adults to say, ‘Hey, do you want to come back? And if you do, I’m here to help you.'

Mike Krause

Senior Advisor, John M. Belk Endowment

We cannot assume that adult learners come to us and know how to navigate college. So we hired success coaches, and we assigned every single adult to a success coach, and they check in with them once a week to ensure their success. That has probably been one of the most impactful investments in retention and completion that we as an institution have made.

Dr. Laura Leatherwood

President, Blue Ridge Community College

Community colleges are at the core of our workforce development strategy, as they are uniquely positioned to help reach the more than one million North Carolinians with some college and no credential. NC Reconnect is not only generating results, it’s providing insights that will enhance our understanding of how to drive re-enrollment at scale.

MC Belk Pilon

President and Board Chair at John M. Belk Endowment

Learn more about how funders, colleges and coaches joined forces to re-enroll adult learners and fuel degree attainment across the state.

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