Stories

Mapping for student success

Local students will benefit from The Hamilton Community Research Partnership (CRP) — a coalition whose groundbreaking work will provide insights into their pathways to, and through, secondary and post-secondary education.

CRP’s members are Hamilton’s two school boards, McMaster University and Mohawk College. Hamilton Community Foundation and the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario brought the group together in 2018, and are providing funding and organizational support.

The group’s purpose is to connect data housed by individual educational institutions, to provide a fuller understanding of students’ trajectories and how they could be affected by spending and other decisions. Within a secure infrastructure, CRP provides the means to share de-identified data and fill critical information gaps. This will lead to knowledge such as the characteristics and predictors of students’ likelihood to attend post-secondary and their success once there. It can provide information about the programming and assistance that may increase this likelihood, and how colleges and universities can support incoming students, particularly those who need it most.

“CRP is a good example of HCF’s systems-change work in education,” says Lorraine Valmadrid, HCF’s Learning and Evaluation Lead. “Deepening our understanding of student pathways also helps to ensure HCF’s roles as funder, convener and policy influencer are based on the best evidence.”

Like the Foundation, all CRP members will gain an improved, evidence- based understanding of how educational systems can support student success across the learning journey.

“Our interest in students doesn’t end when they leave us in Grade 12,” says Dave Hansen, director of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board. “CRP highlights what we can do at an early stage to increase the likelihood of success later, and defines the partnership’s shared purpose: to serve the students of Hamilton.”

Excerpt from 2021 Fall Legacy newsletter