Tools for all States

A State Policy Framework guides the Achieving the Dream state policy effort, developed by the states in collaboration with Jobs for the Future. The Framework describes the policy priorities on which states should focus their time and energy in order to maximize student success in their state, such as improving data systems and expanding access to financial aid.

The Framework is supported by the State Policy Self-Assessment Tool that poses questions about state policies focused on student success.  In the tool, states indicate whether they do or do not have a variety of student success-oriented policies in place. As examples, the self-assessment tool poses the following questions:

• Does the state have the ability to share student-level information between K-12, community college, and other higher education data systems?
• Is performance funding tied to improvements in low-income, underprepared students' success or narrowing of success gaps (e.g., funds sent to schools that increase retention and/or completion rates of Pell Grant recipients)?

States have found the tool invaluable in a number of ways:

• States have used the self-assessment tool as a means of facilitating in-state conversations about student success policies and future priorities.
• States can compare their policymaking environment to those of their peer states.
• By filling in the self-assessment tool annually, states can track how much progress they have made on changing state policies.