Ericca Pollack, coordinator of the College and Career Centers, Milwaukee Public Schools (second from the right) accepted the Partner of the Year Award for M³.
M³ (M-cubed) received the 2022 Partner of the Year Award of Excellence at NCAN's 2022 National Conference. This award recognizes an institution, department, or school district that collaborates with an NCAN-member college attainment organization or program
to ensure that the organization's students – and all underrepresented students served by the partner – get the supports they need to begin and complete a two- or four-year degree.
M³ is a powerful partnership between Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), all of which are dedicated to bettering
Milwaukee through education.
Serving more than 135,000 students, M³ is actively aligning student interests with regional employer needs and educational opportunities. Since 2015, they have helped to improve high school graduation rates, post-secondary enrollment rates, college freshman
credit completion, and post-secondary retention, and decreased the number of excess credits at graduation.
Some data that capture their impact on the students they service include:
An increase in four-year high school graduation rates from 58.2% in 2015 to 67.4% in 2020.
An increase in FAFSA completion from 56.7% in 2015 to 74.2% in 2019 (Note: methodology for tracking FAFSA data changed in 2020, preventing year-to-year comparison beyond 2019).
Between 2019 and 2021, an increased percentage of students who in their first year of college completed 30+ credits (full-time) or 15+ credits (part-time) in addition to their gateway math and English courses. The increase was eight percentage points
at MATC and ten percentage points at UWM.
Deepening their commitment to serving a diverse population in an urban setting, in 2020 M³ committed to a five-year partnership with education firm EAB for the “Moon Shot for Equity” challenge. The partnership aims to ensure that more students complete
college degrees, especially those most often left behind. By providing technical assistance, using data, implementing best practices, and building an equity culture, institutions will examine and modify policies and practices to increase student success.
M³ is developing a clear, affordable, and effective K-16 pipeline at the local level for Milwaukee’s publicly educated children, many who are BIPOC and economically challenged, to lift all persons and meet the regional workforce’s talent needs. The work
is rooted in an acknowledgement of Milwaukee’s significant educational needs but fueled by hope that through innovative realignment of the resources that the city’s three primary public educators possess, all students – and particularly those who
have faced challenges – will succeed.
“By working together, M³ has addressed a number of barriers that prevented students from transitioning between secondary and postsecondary,” President of Greater Milwaukee Committee Julia Taylor wrote in a letter supporting M3’s nomination. “It
is critical to address these issues as 40% of MPS students who enroll in a postsecondary institution within the first year following high school graduation attend MATC or UWM.”
As the Partner of the Year award recipient, M³ will receive $1,000 to put toward general operating support, scholarships, and/or professional development.
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