Public policy is a powerful force that can either promote or block college efforts to improve student success. Jobs for the Future leads a major strand of Achieving the Dream work which aims to influence state and national policy in support of efforts to increase community college student success. This strand is guided by a framework developed collaboratively by Achieving the Dream states that specifies six high-leverage policy areas:

• A clear public policy commitment
• A strong data-driven accountability system
• Aligned expectations, standards, assessments, and transition requirements across educational systems (K-12, community college, higher education, adult education)
• Incentives for improving services to academically underprepared students
• Financial aid policies and other financial incentives to promote persistenc
• Public support

In each participating state, the policy change efforts are managed by a lead organization that receives strategic policy development support and technical assistance in setting goals, developing a workplan, and implementing a change strategy. With support and strategic guidance, the state lead organizations have become a powerful network committed to defining a common state policy agenda and improving their capacity to collect, analyze and use data to develop policies that can increase success outcomes across their state’s community colleges.

• The Developmental Education Initiative’s State Policy Framework & Strategy specifies the levers that state policymakers have at their disposal to support more effective ways of changing the organization and delivery of developmental education—and public expectations of individual and institutional success.
  
• Achieving the Dream’s Framework for Policy Change and Framework Self-Assessment Tool  are both included on the initiative’s policy framework webpage. 
  
• Achieving the Dream State Workplans and Expected Outcomes, along with additional information, are included on each state’s webpage.