Complete College America recently challenged the nation’s governors to improve the postsecondary performance of low income students and students of color by enacting innovative, high-impact reforms in their states.

Their potential reward: a $1 million grant from Complete College America, a national non-profit whose sole mission is to work with states to significantly improve college completion.

We called it the Completion Innovation Challenge, and we designed the competition to inspire states make a real and lasting improvements on how their postsecondary systems operate. For example, governors agreed to fund institutions for performance rather than attendance, to reduce the time it takes to get to a degree, and to implement new class schedules to help today’s  students balance work and school. They also created plans to transform remedial programs so that students can enter college-level classes faster, and are deploying technology to customize learning for today’s students, who are often working full time, living on their own and supporting a family.

Governors also agreed to track success and college completion using new measures designed by Complete College America and the National Governors Association. The new measures require states to assess the success of all students, including part-time and older students who have returned to school. Currently, institutions typically only track the progress of first-time, full-time students, even though at least 40 percent of students today attend part-time.

There’s no question that the Completion Innovation Challenge leveraged noble intentions to greater and deeper commitments for change. 

Here’s just one example, Gov. Nathan Deal wasn’t satisfied to simply announce that Georgia had won $1 million for improving his state’s remedial programs. He also grabbed the opportunity to unveil the most comprehensive college completion reforms in that state’s history.  We were honored when Gov. Deal named it Complete College Georgia.

Committed leaders with bold plans to hold their states, their institutions and their students accountable for progress are the common attributes of the Completion Innovation Challenge winners: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

Few can deny that a powerful movement for college completion is building in America.  We look forward to the important work ahead with our grant winners, the 29 states that now make up our Alliance of States, and all who are prepared to move urgently to remake American higher education to meet the needs of today’s students.  And we are grateful to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for giving us the opportunity to do so.