OPE/HEP/FIPSE Postsecondary Student Success Grant Program (PSSG)

The U.S. Department of Education is inviting applicants for the 2023 Postsecondary Student Success Grant Program (PSSG).

Donor Name: U.S. Department of Education

State: All States

County: All Counties

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline: 09/25/2023

Size of the Grant:

• For Early-phase: $4,000,000
• For Mid-phase/Expansion: $8,000,000

Grant Duration: 48 months

Details:

The purpose of this program is to equitably improve postsecondary student outcomes, including retention, transfer (including successful transfer of completed credits), credit accumulation, and completion, by leveraging data and implementing, scaling, and rigorously evaluating evidence-based activities to support data-driven decisions and actions by institutional leaders committed to inclusive student success.

Priorities

This notice contains two absolute priorities and one competitive preference priority.

These Priorities are:

• Absolute Priority 1 (AP1)
  • Applications that Demonstrate a Rationale. ‘‘Early-phase’’. Under this priority, an applicant proposes a project that demonstrates a rationale to improve postsecondary success for underserved students, including retention and completion.
• Absolute Priority 2 (AP2)
  • Applicants that Demonstrate Moderate Evidence, ‘‘Mid-phase’’ or Strong Evidence, ‘‘Expansion’’. Under this priority, an applicant proposes a project supported by evidence that meets the conditions in the definition of ‘‘Moderate Evidence’’ or ‘‘Strong Evidence,’’ to improve postsecondary success for underserved students, including retention and completion. Projects under this priority must be implemented at a multi-site sample or include at least 2,000 students.
  • Applicants addressing this priority must:
    • identify up to two studies to be reviewed against the WWC Handbooks (as defined in this notice) for the purposes of meeting the definition of moderate evidence or strong evidence;
    • clearly identify the citations and relevant findings for each study in the Evidence form; and
    • ensure that all cited studies are available to the Department from publicly available sources and provide links or other guidance indicating where each is available.

 Competitive Preference Priority

For 2023, and any subsequent year in which it makes awards from the list of unfunded applications from this competition, this priority is a competitive preference priority.

• It awards up to an additional 6 points to an application, depending on how well the application meets the competitive preference priority.
• This priority is:
  • Applicants that have made progress towards or can demonstrate they have a plan to improve student outcomes for underserved students by using data to continually assess and improve the effectiveness of funded activities and sustain data-driven continuous improvement processes at the institution after the grant period (up to 6 points). Applicants addressing this priority must:
    • Identify or describe how they will develop the performance and outcome measures they will use to monitor and evaluate implementation of the intervention(s), including baseline data, intermediate and annual targets, and disaggregation by student subgroups (up to 2 points);
    • Describe how they will assess and address gaps in current data systems, tools, and capacity and how they will monitor and respond to performance and outcome data to improve implementation of the intervention on an ongoing basis and as part of formative and summative evaluation of the intervention(s)(up to 2 points); and
    • Describe how institutional leadership will be involved with and supportive of project leadership and how the project relates to the institution’s broader student success priorities and improvement processes (up to 2 points).

Funding Information

• Estimated Available Funds: $44,550,000.
• These estimated available funds are the total available for new awards for both types of grants:
  • Early-phase—$22,275,000 for AP1.
  • Mid-phase/Expansion—$22,275,000 for AP2.
• Estimated Range of Awards:
  • Early-phase (AP1)—$2,000,000– $4,000,000 for 48 months.
  • Mid-phase/Expansion (AP2)— $6,000,000–$8,000,000 for 48 months.
• Estimated Average Size of Awards:
  • Early-phase (AP1)—$3,000,000 for 48 months.
  • Mid-phase/Expansion (AP2)— $7,000,000 for 48 months.
• Maximum Awards:
• • They will not make awards exceeding the following amounts for a 48-month budget period.
  • Early-phase (AP1)—$4,000,000.
  • Mid-phase/Expansion (AP2)— $8,000,000.

Eligibility Information 

Institutions designated as eligible to apply under Title III/V (which includes HBCUs, TCCUs, MSIs and SIP); nonprofits that are not an IHE or part of an IHE, in partnership with at least one eligible Title III/V IHE; a State, in partnership with at least one eligible Title III/V IHE; or a public system of higher education institutions.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.