Return on Investment in Educational Success

Prior to 2007, only one out of every two Doña Ana County high school students graduated, leaving far too many young people unqualified to join the business community that desperately needed them. Today, Doña Ana County graduates 83% of students, and we seek to reach even higher.

In the past decade, the results from this powerful partnership, and the community’s focus on its students, have been startling:

• Increased graduation rate in the county by 20% in just two years, and now four out of every five high school students graduate.
• Increased earnings by $179 million to $310 million annually from those additional students who graduated, boosting the local economy while generating additional state and federal tax revenue.
• Created the collaboration and plan for a comprehensive workforce development plan, aligned to the county’s economic development targets, and mobilized a minimum of $51 million in just four years to achieve it’s goals.
• Built a ground-breaking collaboration between the K-12 and higher ed systems to launch the innovative Early College High Schools model that has been so successful, it became a statewide movement that helps first generation college attenders to:
  • Complete high school while earning a two-year college degree or career certification debt free
  • Be ready to enter high-skilled, higher paying career fields upon graduation
  • Shorten their time to a four-year degree by as much as half
  • Break the cycle of poverty and change the definition of success for their siblings and future generations
• Became the state’s leading voice for adequately funding dual credit courses and their likelihood to attend college.
• Piloted a “blended senior year” model in the Gadsden district, in which the senior year of high school becomes the freshman year of college to earn an employer-valued Career Certification.
• Supported the development of an approach to “blended advising” that supports students in gaining the most benefit from their Dual Credit Course choices
• Became a model for collaboration that has been replicated across Doña Ana County and the state of New Mexico.

Working together, transformation has taken place academically and economically. To see the full impact of our work to date, check out this video.