College Success for Single Mothers

Single mothers make up an increasing part of the postsecondary student population in the United States. Their educational success has the potential to reap intergenerational benefits, forging a path for economic mobility and success for their families. College Success for Single Mothers is a three-year project (2020-2022) of the National College Transition Network (NCTN) funded by ECMC Foundation. College Success for Single Mothers (CSSM) provides coaching and technical assistance to eight community colleges to identify the needs of single mother students on campus and develop an action plan to address their needs and expand key practices and services to enhance their success in college and careers.

Each college has convened a cross-functional task force of decision makers, practitioners, and stakeholders to identify the needs of single mother students on campus and develop a plan to expand key practices and services to enhance their college success. NCTN and partners will develop case studies documenting the colleges’ action plans, outcomes, and lessons learned through the project to share with policymakers, funders and investors, and other colleges interested in better addressing the needs of single mother students and parents on campus. 

College Success for Single Mothers builds on NCTN’s 2019 report, No Matter What Obstacle is Thrown My Way, which documents examples of 17 community colleges that offer targeted programming for student parents. The report recommends that significant work remains to increase institutional capacity to collect data to identify single mothers on campus; provide professional development to faculty and staff on the needs of single mothers; develop diverse and flexible funding sources; and advocate for policies within and outside of the institutions that support single mothers. 

To achieve the project goals, NCTN is partnering with the Program Evaluation and Research Group at Endicott College, developers of the Family Friendly Campus Toolkit: Using Data to Improve Outcomes, and Achieving the Dream, a national leader in community college reform. These two organizations complement NCTN’s expertise designing effective college and career pathways for adult learners.