If community colleges were to find all the formerly enrolled students whose academic records qualify them for an associate degree and retroactively award them the credential, then the number of associate degrees awarded in the United States would increase by at least 12 percent.

That's what David Molz writes in Inside Higher Ed, reporting on the Lumina-funded Project Win-Win. Project Win-Win is seeking out the low-hanging fruit which can boost states' goals of increasing the graduation rates. The project is supporting 35 institutions in sorting out awarded credits, complicated student records, and identifying students who actually do have enough credits to graduate, but who for some reason have not been awarded a degree. They're also identifying students ho are very close to a degree, and contacting them about opportunities to finish it.

Note that Predictive Analytics: Building a Crystal Ball for Student Success is a SCUP September 29 webcast which will focus on many ways that better, real-time data analytics will play a role in the country's completion agenda. More details about that will be available on SCUP's website soon.