Over 21 million Americans enrolled in college in the fall of 2011. Six years later, only about 12.6 million had attained a degree.

Community colleges improved stem persistence by 10% by sending text message ‘nudges’

Published sep. 10, 2019

A joint initiative by JFF, Persistence Plus, and the Helmsley Charitable Trust managed to bump college persistence by over 10% among STEM students at four community colleges. They did it by sending students encouraging text messages, or ‘nudges,’ via an automated system.

The Nudging to Stem Success (NTSS) initiative was implemented at four community colleges beginning in 2017: John Tyler College, Lakeland Community College, Lorain County Community College, and Stark State College. John Tyler is located in Virginia, while the rest are in Ohio.