Sinclair Community College is one of ten institutions nationwide selected to participate in the Aspen Institute’s Unlocking Opportunity network, a strategic effort that engages community college leaders and teams to develop and enact bold reforms focused on increasing the number of students who complete programs that lead directly to jobs that pay a sustaining wage or to transfer and completion of a bachelor’s degree.
This goal pushes us to be more intentional about which programs we grow, how we support students along the way, and how we use data to ensure the outcomes we promise are actually being delivered. The initiative is currently in Phase II, having completed Phase I in early 2025. Click the links below to learn about each of the phases.
Phase II focuses on scaling promising strategies from Phase I to drive measurable student outcomes. Priorities include increasing enrollment in high-value, living-wage programs; enhancing structured transfer pathways; improving post-graduate outcome tracking; and embedding data-informed decision-making across the college.
Building on the foundation laid in Phase I, Sinclair’s 2025 Unlocking Opportunity efforts center on deepening impact across four institutional focus areas:
Goal
Increase the number of students each year who earn a credential and transfer to four-year institutions.
Target
Increase the 6-year credentialed transfer rate from 14% to 30% (1,125 students)
Goal
Increase enrollment and retention in living-wage, under-enrolled programs.
Target
30% increase in enrollment by 2028 (from 4,600 to 6,000 enrolled students)
Goal
Meet 5-year enrollment projections for Sinclair’s Bachelor of Applied Science degrees.
Target
From 155 to 585 by 2028
Goal
Strengthen understanding of post-graduation outcomes by combining labor market analytics, alumni outreach, and survey data.
Target
Identify the post-graduate destinations of at least 70% of Sinclair students by 2028.
Goal
Leverage advanced, data-informed decision support to scale high-impact initiatives, identify emerging workforce opportunities, and guide timely interventions that improve student outcomes.
Target
Support no fewer than five institutional strategies or initiatives with actionable, predictive, and equity-minded insights.
Goal
Launch an annual, institution-wide event dedicated to collaborative data reflection, planning, and KPI development that aligns academic strategies with student success and institutional priorities.
Target
Host the inaugural Sinclair Promise Day(s) in 2026.
In the first year of Unlocking Opportunity, Sinclair launched seven cross-functional work teams focused on aligning institutional efforts to improve credential completion and transfer outcomes. This phase emphasized building shared understanding, strengthening collaboration across departments, and creating the foundation for scalable, data-informed reforms. Early wins included the development of new transfer tools, enrollment growth for Sinclair bachelor’s degrees, and student-centered scheduling pilots.
During Phase I, we connected the efforts of Unlocking Opportunity and the Higher Learning Commission's Quality Initiative.
The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program (Aspen) and its partners at the Community College Research Center (CCRC) have launched a first-of-its-kind initiative that reflects the next wave of the community college student success movement: Unlocking Opportunity: The Post-Graduation Success and Equity Network. This networking is taking a bold focus on excellence and equity in post-completion outcomes and post-graduation success.
Sinclair College has been selected to participate in this initiative as one of only 10 leading community colleges making up the nationwide network.
The initiative's goal is to encourage and drive thousands more community college students—including those from lower-income backgrounds—to enter and complete programs that lead directly to jobs that pay a family-sustaining wage, or to the efficient and effective transfer to complete a bachelor’s degree. Sinclair is committed to unlocking student potential and driving regional prosperity.
For the Dayton Region, the family-sustaining wage is $43,315 annually (or $20,82/hour) without employer paid healthcare benefits.
A living-wage program is one whose completers are able to earn the family-sustaining wage within one year of program completion.
Sinclair has created five internal goals to reach the initiative's overarching goal. For more information about each internal goal, see "Work Team Details" below.
The network will run from 2023 through 2028, with a three-year hands-on period followed by three years of monitoring and research.
The Open Pathway Quality Initiative is a requirement of the Higher Learning Commission: to qualify for Reaffirmation of Accreditation, an institution must designate one major improvement effort. Sinclair has selected the following Key Reforms:
Sinclair's five Key Reforms named in the Quality Initiative are action items that closely align with and support the five major Unlocking Opportunity goals—they are essentially a subset of the action items fueling Unlocking Opportunity. Because of this close relationship, Sinclair has internally combined both efforts to maximize efficiency and employee efforts.
Sinclair has formed seven work teams—under the leadership of an Administrative Work Team—to achieve its goals and align the actions across all college operation and academic areas. Each work team has a 2028 goal and target (or goal alignment) and is led by an Administrative Sponsor and a Team Lead. Faculty and Staff members from across Sinclair are participating as Work Team Members. More information about each individual Work Team is below.
Work Team Members:
Unlocking Goal
Increase the number of new, degree-seeking with the intent to transfer full-time and part-time students who earn a credential and transfer within 6 years.
Target
From 346 to 470 by 2028
Unlocking Goal
Double the number of students who complete credentials within in-demand, living-wage (1 year) or full-credit transfer programs.
Target
From 1,500 to 3,000 by 2028
Unlocking Goal
Meet 5-year enrollment projections for Sinclair’s Bachelor of Applied Science degrees.
Target
From 155 to 585 by 2028
Unlocking Goal
Triple the number of students participating in career exploration and experiential learning in living-wage programs.
Target
From 1,000 to 3,000 by 2028
Unlocking Goal
Double the number of those participating in custom training options that are connected to living-wage occupations.
Target
From 635 to 1,270 by 2028
Goal alignment
Increase utilization of Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) to convert the learning that students experience outside of the classroom to academic credit.
Goal alignment
Leverage new and existing technologies, expand wrap-around support to students, and reform advising practices to better inform students about living-wage programs.
Revised 7/24/2025