This evaluation report of Achieving the Dream’s Catalyst Fund builds on the emergent research on scale,and its reconceptualization from replication to transformation.
In Section One of this report, we provide a brief overview on the importance of scale in the context of a national movement to increase college completion, including a review of the most salient literature on sustainability and scale that informed our evaluation.
In Section Two, we describe the Catalyst Fund initiative to support four community colleges to scale an innovative practice to serve most of their students, followed by an overview of our evaluation approach.
In Sections Three and Four, we discuss our evaluation findings, and offer illustrative examples of the key factors that appear necessary to achieve scale. Finally, we conclude the report with recommendations for colleges and other stakeholders that wish to scale innovation –and transform their organizational culture –in service of student success and the college completion agenda.
