Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Improving postsecondary completion rates has been the primary policy focus in the American higher education sector for the past decade. Since 2009, when President Obama declared that the U.S. would lead the world in degree attainment by 2020, states and public institutions began enacting policies and programs to help the population meet expected workforce needs and job availability. Besides receiving attention from the federal government, the completion agenda has been advanced through an extensive array of intermediary organizations, often connected to the Lumina and Gates Foundations, which serve primarily in translation and dissemination roles between researchers and policymakers. Among the organizations most centrally supporting these initiatives, Complete College America (CCA) operates as one of the leading single-issue intermediaries advocating specific college completion solutions and providing information and data to its Alliance of States. Established in 2009, CCA’s Alliance has grown to include 43 members and 35 states. Our paper examines the evolution of CCA and its influence on state-level college completion efforts through research brokering activities.

We employ an embedded comparative case study of three states — Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas — that are CCA members and share regional and demographic characteristics, yet vary in the duration of involvement with CCA, scope of state college completion activity, and level of centralization of postsecondary governing agency. The data for this paper include a bevy of relevant documents and 67 interviews with participants representing CCA, state-level elected officials and their staff, representatives from state higher education agencies, and campus officials. Data analysis followed two approaches: (1) deductive coding based on an analytic framework informed by core constructs of policy networks and research brokering, and (2) inductive coding to identify emerging themes from in vivo, local language.

Preliminary findings suggest CCA created a network by strategically identifying, approaching, communicating, and aligning themselves with power brokers in both the completion sphere and targeted states. CCA tactically recruited Tennessee for its reputation for innovation in higher education; Georgia for its economic strength and centralized, authoritative governance system; and Texas for its size and attention to shifting population dynamics. In each of these states, CCA leaders strategically approached state leaders and aligned CCA’s agenda with that of the state’s power brokers. CCA’s ability to identify and gain access to power brokers was, in part, due to their ability to portray themselves as a trusted, credible source, which is largely due to the strong reputation of the late CCA president, Stan Jones, based upon his 30 years of experience in state politics and higher education leadership. With this advantage, CCA engaged in knowledge brokering practices such as utilizing concise, direct communication featuring attention-grabbing infographics and idiomatic language to advocate and raise awareness; facilitating networking opportunities at convenings; and working with other intermediary organizations in mutually beneficial relationships. Ultimately, CCA created a network of individuals and organizations in the college completion space that transcends the formal CCA Alliance, while providing a blueprint of how intermediaries can influence policy decisions through policy advocacy, information and data sharing, and networking.