In January, Victoria Ballerini joined Strong Start to Finish, an Education Commission of the States initiative, as its permanent director after serving on an interim basis.
Strong Start to Finish helps states and postsecondary systems reform developmental education, and Victoria has a bright vision for the initiative’s future. To learn more, we asked her a few questions about what’s in store.
What initially inspired you to pursue work in higher education?
As a college student, I faced numerous barriers to remain in college and graduate. I worked full time and took care of a parent. I had adult responsibilities that felt misaligned with the expectations set by the institution for students to be successful. I do this work to create conditions so any student can feel welcome and thrive at their institution.
Can you say more about those conditions you are working to create?
Any student can learn and succeed if provided with the right conditions. The work of Strong Start to Finish is about creating those conditions by removing barriers at the beginning of a person’s postsecondary journey. Specifically, for those who are deemed underprepared for college.
If you are a student in need of learning support, colleges have created a system of remedial education that is unlikely to work for you. We have accumulated over ten years of evidence that proves it. The same research has shown that there are three reforms that help students complete their first year of college: placement reform, corequisite learning support and mathematics pathways.
We collaborate with postsecondary state systems and agencies as well as institutions to implement these reforms.
Thinking further down the line, what is Strong Start to Finish’s north star for future years?
We have set an ambitious goal that all states adopt strategies that ensure all college students are on track to graduate after their first year by 2040. What this means is that by 2040, we would have fully reformed the first year of college so that any student, regardless of where they go to college in the country, benefits from these redesigned structures.
Currently, a limited number of states have scaled these changes. This is not enough when we know that students whose learning environments were disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic are getting to college, and that traditional remedial approaches will not help them.
We are thrilled to partner with thirteen technical assistance and research organizations, funders and state leaders who have seen what these reforms can achieve and are part of a growing movement to change the way we teach and provide learning support. Ultimately, this work is about creating student-ready institutions instead of asking students to be ‘college ready’.
How can state education leaders and policymakers get involved with Strong Start to Finish's work?
We have different opportunities for state engagement. First, we host policy academies for policymakers and practitioners to work on creating or refining a policy in a supportive and collaborative environment. Second, we provide states funding and match them with technical assistance providers to help them meet their needs. States that have already worked with Strong Start are some of our greatest champions.
When you’re not at work, what do you enjoy doing?
Literature and film are my primary sources of inspiration. I have degrees in sociology, public policy and higher education, and I strive to be up to date in my discipline. And yet, I see artists making sense of societal problems in innovative ways, and they inspire me to think outside the box both professionally and personally.
For example, I can share years and years of data showing why reforming the first year of college is important (and urgent). Artists I admire make arguments that are open enough for any person to enter, they invite people in, and then something happens, a question: why is this the way it is? Instead of “this is how we’ve always done things.” I aspire to communicate about our work in a way that allows decision makers to enter a student’s experience and understand the injustices that current systems create.
