IWPR’s Student Parent Success Initiative Draws Interest from Across the Country

by Tiffany Boiman and Elisa Garcia

IWPR’s Student Parent Success Initiative (SPSI) continues to gain momentum. The initiative, which was launched officially in 2010, is a multi-pronged effort intended to improve access, persistence, and completion rates for low-income student parents seeking postsecondary degrees and credentials. In December, IWPR officially launched the SPSI Network, an affiliation of more than 150 researchers,advocates, practitioners (e.g., community college administrators), and other stakeholders with a demonstrated interest in improving outcomes for lowincome student parents. The response has been overwhelmingly positive and the network continues to grow.

On March 23, SPSI released Improving Child Care Access to Promote Postsecondary Success Among Low-Income Parents, a report by Kevin Miller, Ph.D., Barbara Gault, and Abby Thorman, Ph.D. The luncheon event in Washington, DC, brought together an engaged audience. Prominent speakers included Joan Lombardi, Ph.D., Deputy Assistant Secretary and Inter-Departmental Liaison for Early Childhood Development, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and Sherrill Mosee, President and Founder of Family Care Solutions, Inc. Participants
traveled from Philadelphia, Boston, and Berkeley, CA, to attend the event. At the event, IWPR’s Dr. Kevin Miller presented findings from the report, highlighting that it is the first to quantify the gap between need and supply of campus child care centers for student parents. Keynote speaker Dr. Joan Lombardi helped contextualize this disparity, noting that children score significantly higher in reading and math proficiency and motor skills when their parents have a college degree.

For many, the highlight of the event was hearing from current student parents, such as panelist Lauren Des Londe, who spoke movingly about the difficulty of completing school without adequate child care. Panelists and event attendees alike expressed their excitement to use IWPR’s unique research in their advocacy work. Other initiative activities have met withabout one-quarter of the total undergraduate
population. Statistics show, however, that almost 50 percent of student parents fail to complete a degree or certificate within six years of enrolling. This poor success rate can impact the United States’ international standing in terms of graduation rates, as well as deprive parents of valuable skills for achieving employment and financial independence to better support themselves and their children. In an effort to reverse this trend, the project has three primary objectives:

• Raise awareness and educate
institutional leaders on
the need for and importance
of student parent supports as
catalysts for improved student
parent participation and graduation
rates in higher education
programs;

• Improve public policies
and resources that encourage
and provide support for lowincome
parents to achieve postsecondary
credentials; and,

• Increase knowledge sharing about
how to replicate and expand successful
support programs that student
parents in achieving postsecondary
degrees and credentials.
IWPR staff members are actively engaged
in meeting these goals through a
series of coordinated activities, including
original and commissioned research, networking
and outreach efforts, and the creation
of promising practices toolkits.