1. 1 PBI Grant- Predominantly Black Institutions Grant
Research and Effective Practice Supporting Proposed Project
Two terms emerge from research on improving outcomes for African American male college
students: engagement and structure. Engagement is seen as the “missing ingredient” when at-
risk students fail, and structures are seen as ways to prevent it; as Terry O’Banion, President
Emeritus of the League for Innovation in the Community College, wrote (2008), “Where failure
has become the too-frequent pattern, a genuine commitment to success requires dramatic
interventions to shatter that pattern and engage students in new ways of learning and living.”
Gardner (2009) notes the need for a “cohesive strategic action plan,” and Schwartz and Jenkins
(2007) advocate coordinating and specifically targeting programs and services for minority
and at-risk students. Bradbury and Mather (2009) report that for at-risk college students from
Ohio Appalachia, who are even less likely to succeed than other at-risk students, “connections to
family, academic success, and sense of belonging were salient issues.”
In 2009, Prairie State College in Illinois, a Predominantly Black Institution with demographics
similar to PTC’s (e.g. 5,500 students, 38% male), received USDE funding to develop a program
based on the four tactics cited in Terms of Engagement to improve Black male student outcomes:
easing transition to college, supporting social connections, intrusive counseling and advising,
and help balancing financial and other responsibilities. Designed by four Black male
professors, Brothers and Scholars links career, academic and financial planning, social /
emotional support, tailored developmental courses, intrusive advising, success skill workshops,
counseling referrals if needed, and academic assistance. Called “exemplary” by the National
Council of Instructional Administrators and the Center for Community College Student
Engagement, Prairie State’s project serves as a model for structured approaches to increasing the
engagement and success of African American men in PTC’s target programs.

2. 2 PBI Grant- Predominantly Black Institutions Grant
Bridge Programs in which Genesis participants start “have traditionally been one of the
economical ways to increase access and retention of at-risk students” (McCurrie 2009). Murphy
et al. (2010) attribute higher graduation rates for minority students in technical fields to Bridges,
and Buzzetto-More et al. (2010) confirm this finding for students in computing. Among the
elements of successful Bridges are hands-on “exploration and discovery” ( McLoughlin 2008).
“Learning requires doing,” he says; “only through inquiry is learning achieved.”
Case management structures are the hallmark of TRIO projects such as Upward Bound, GEAR
UP, and SSS (including PTC’s own highly successful project). South Texas College, serving a
rural / urban area like PTC’s, reports “accelerated achievement” for its 95% minority students,
most of whom are low-income, first-generation, and underprepared, through case-managed
advising. Community College of Denver, also with high proportions of minority and at-risk
students, developed a case management model for first-generation students and then, with USDE
funding, for developmental students. The approach has yielded 90% full-time, 77% part-time
vs. 36% baseline fall-fall retention and earned recognition for best practices by the Lumina
Foundation and “the gold standard” as one of 13 Institutions of Excellence by the Policy Center
for First Year of College. Robert Morris University, an Illinois Predominantly Black Institution,
has achieved similar results—77% - 80% fall-fall retention for its 63%+ minority students—
using teams of faculty and staff in case-managed support service delivery much as we propose.
Miller and Tyree (2009) demonstrate that interventions matched to students’ individual needs
produce the most positive outcomes, which supports comprehensive student assessment as the
basis of effective case management. Among the needs we will assess is for financial aid
advising and application support: the PTC students dropped annually for financial reasons are