TN Promise Students success rate better than national average

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)– The Tennessee Promise program is doing better than other similar programs across the nation.

This program has only been around for two years, but the state is now able to look at the success of the students working toward obtaining associates degrees. Chattanooga State administration says they can already see a huge change in the attitude on campus.

The Tennesse Higher Education Commission says the success of the TN Promise students is more than 3 times the national average… A little more than 56 percent of students are successful, compared to the national average of just 17 percent.

Rebecca Ashford, Chattanooga State President, says, “It’s important for our students to enroll, but it is even more important for those students to graduate and be successful.”

Ashford says she is proud of the success that she’s seen with the TN Promise program.  This last-dollar scholarship that allows recent high school graduates to complete an associate degree or certificate program free of tuition and fees.

“The conversation around the dinner table is not could I ever afford to go to college… its ‘I’m going to college. Now I need to figure out where’. It has given students who thought that college wasn’t an option … it’s given them a viable option,” says Ashford.

It’s an option that Ashford says is keeping the student in schools, with the retention rate for TN Promise students last year at 80 percent overall and 79 percent at community colleges.

The amount of high school seniors completing the federal financial aid process (FASFA) in the last 2 years has increased by 10 percent.

Ashford says, “It’s actually made our college a little younger because we have more students right out of high school coming to us because of Tennessee Promise.

The state says that less students are relying on federal loans to make their dreams of going to college come true… and they say it is a testament to state’s efforts to make education more affordable if not free.

“No matter what the students’ goal we have an option for them,” Ashford says.

In addition to providing financial aid, TN Promise students are paired with a mentor to guide them through the application and enrollment processes.