New Study: California Statewide Initiative Helping Thousands of Stopped-Out Adults Return to — and Finish — College Through the Power of Coaching

InsideTrack's California Reconnect initiative finds coached students nearly 4x more likely to re-enroll; first-generation and Hispanic/Latino learners saw the biggest gains as statewide initiative reaches 25,000 adults across 20 campuses

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — A new independent evaluation released today shows that California Reconnect, a statewide initiative led by student success coaching nonprofit InsideTrack, has continued to significantly outperform state and national benchmarks in re-engaging adult learners who stopped out of college. According to the new report from third-party evaluator Education Northwest, the initiative achieved an overall re-enrollment rate of 8.15% across more than 25,000 learners — nearly three times California's statewide average of 2.9% and the national average of 2.7%.

"The adults who stopped out are not people who gave up — they're people whose potential was interrupted, but not extinguished, by the real demands of work, family, and financial pressure," said Ruth Bauer, president of InsideTrack. "When someone reaches out with genuine support and walks alongside them through the complexity of coming back, adults can not only re-enroll, but persist, finish and carry that credential forward for themselves and their families. These findings have powerful implications not just for institutional leaders, but for policymakers looking to scale re-enrollment to meet attainment goals, strengthen enrollment pipelines and meet workforce needs.”

Even as California has made progress in expanding postsecondary access, the state is on pace to miss its goal of achieving a 70 percent attainment rate by 2030. A new Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce report, supported by College Futures Foundation, finds that reaching that 70 percent goal across all demographic groups would unlock $4.4 trillion in net economic gains for the state over the next 50 years — a figure larger than the entire state economy today. At the same time, more than 5.9 million Californians under 65 have some college credit but no credential (SCNC) — many of whom stopped out due to financial pressures, work demands, and family responsibilities that made it impossible to stay enrolled.

Since launching in 2023, California Reconnect has reached more than 25,000 SCNC learners across 20 public two- and four-year institutions statewide — achieving an overall re-enrollment rate of 8.15%, nearly three times the national average of 2.7% reported by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Of those who re-enrolled, 38% persisted into a subsequent academic term compared to 22% who re-enrolled, but did not receive coaching.

The results point clearly to the power of personalized coaching. Despite coaches reaching only 25% of the total outreach pool, 59% of all re-enrolled learners had received one-on-one coaching support. Coached students returned to college at a rate of 19%, compared to 4.5% for those who received outreach alone — nearly quadrupling re-enrollment likelihood and driving the initiative's outsized results.

The evaluation identified first-generation college students as a population that particularly benefits from the coaching model. While first-generation learners made up 44% of those who received outreach, they rose to nearly two-thirds — 62% — of all learners who persisted after re-enrolling, suggesting that personalized coaching helps close gaps for students who may have fewer institutional supports to draw on. Hispanic/Latine students, who represent California's largest undergraduate population, made up 43% of re-enrolled students and 48% of those who persisted.

California Reconnect coaches use a multi-channel communication strategy combining email, phone, and SMS to meet learners where they are. Text messages generated the most frequent engagement — 85% of inbound learner responses came via SMS — while phone calls proved most efficient, with most learners reached on the first attempt.

"Two years in, the data are clear: California is showing a path forward for reaching the adults who started college and never finished," said Leanne Davis, managing researcher at Education Northwest. "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."

Coaches also served as advocates within campus systems, connecting learners to financial aid, emergency grants, and campus offices and facilitating warm handoffs to ensure learners weren't lost in bureaucratic processes. The evaluation found that institutional support and buy-in helped to amplify the success of the program. For example, campuses with dedicated re-enrollment staff, leadership buy-in, and active coordination with coaches saw more consistent results. Technical assistance provided by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) supported cross-campus learning and helped institutions streamline re-enrollment policies.

The evaluation recommends that future program development deepen integration with institutional processes, expand data-informed targeting to prioritize learners closest to completion, and build connections to career services and workforce pathways to support learners from re-enrollment through credential attainment.

California Reconnect represents a scalable, evidence-backed model for translating that potential into credentials — and into stronger workforce and economic outcomes for the state.

Read the full evaluation report and learn more about California Reconnect here. To learn more about the report, register for InsideTrack’s upcoming webinar here. 

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About InsideTrack: InsideTrack is a mission-driven nonprofit that leverages the transformative power of coaching to advance learners along their educational and career pathways. Our expert coaches leverage our evidence-based methodology to build personalized relationships with learners — helping them develop the knowledge, skills and beliefs they need to complete their credentials and obtain quality jobs. We also partner with institutions to train and upskill their leaders and staff to utilize the transformative power of coaching, creating a ripple effect that impacts even more learners. Since 2001, we’ve served more than 3.6 million students across 425 institutions. We believe everyone should have access to quality coaching as a catalyst to fuel equitable social mobility. InsideTrack is a division of Lemnis, a public charity dedicated to expanding learning for all. To learn more, visit  www.insidetrack.org  and follow us on LinkedIn @InsideTrack.

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About Education Northwest: Founded in 1966, Education Northwest is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to helping all learners reach their full potential. Through research, evaluation, and professional development, Education Northwest partners with organizations across the country to promote improved student outcomes.