Columbus Promise doubles college degree and certificate completion for Columbus City Schools grads, expert analysis shows
The three-year study finds more local graduates are staying in college, earning job-ready certificates, and finishing two-year degrees
Campus News | Wednesday, September 9, 2026
A new three-year study by national experts shows that the Columbus Promise program has nearly doubled the number of Columbus City Schools (CCS) graduates who go on to earn associate degrees and certificates at Columbus State Community College.
“Data show improvements in the academic performance of each successive cohort of Columbus Promise students, suggesting that retention and completion metrics will continue to rise in coming years,” the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research report says.
The Upjohn Institute is nationally recognized for its expertise on “Promise” programs that offer tuition-free college education. Upjohn has provided independent third-party analyses of Columbus Promise since the program launched in 2022.
The new report looked at 2,237 CCS students from the high school classes of 2022, 2023, and 2024 who joined the program. Upjohn researchers compared results for these students against five years of data from a pre-Promise comparison group.
“It’s been a privilege to watch the Columbus Promise unfold over the past few years, as partners worked together to smooth the transition from high school to college and strengthen student support,” said Dr. Michelle Miller-Adams, lead Upjohn researcher. “The increase in enrollment and completion rates and numbers is evidence of the hard work of many parties.”
“This report confirms what matters most: our students are staying in school, passing their classes, and earning degrees that lead to great careers,” said Dr. Jen Gilbride-Brown, Columbus State’s vice president for student success and experience. “When you take away the stress and uncertainty of paying for tuition and give students focused coaching and support, they succeed.”
Completion and employment findings
Twice as many credentials earned: From the first group of Promise scholars alone, 70 earned associate degrees and 94 earned job certificates by Summer 2025. That represents 32 more associate degree graduates than the district would normally see without the program. Columbus Promise offers tuition-free education to students for up to six semesters (three years), so the entering class in 2022 was the only cohort to have completed their eligibility during the study period.
Accelerated degree completion: More students in the second group (CCS class of 2023) are finishing their associate degrees within two years than the first class did at the same point in time. By the end of their second year, 24 students had already earned an associate degree, showing a bigger early gain over past students and putting the group on track for higher graduation totals.
The Upjohn report is consistent with Columbus State’s internal data, which shows that student success is accelerating with each Promise class. Through spring 2026, Columbus State’s data shows that a total of 336 Promise scholars have completed credentials, compared with 182 CCS graduates from Autumn 2018 through Spring 2022. Many Promise scholars have completed more than one credential — in total, 440 degrees and certificates so far.
Columbus State had approximately 1,500 Columbus Promise scholars enrolled last year across multiple cohorts.
Credentials tied directly to local jobs: Nearly half (45.7%) of degrees earned by the first class were in hands-on, applied science and technical fields. The top job certificates included Nurse Aide, Real Estate, Basic EKG and Phlebotomy.
Other key findings
New students, not diverted students: Columbus Promise has dramatically increased the number of Columbus City Schools graduates attending college. Four-year university enrollment among CCS graduates remained essentially unchanged after Promise launched, confirming that expanded enrollment at Columbus State attracted new students into higher education rather than pulling them from bachelor's degree paths.
Students are staying in school: Enrollment persistence has grown with each new group. Nearly 80% of students in the 2024-25 class (Cohort 3) returned for their second semester — up 7.5 percentage points over past baselines. That builds on strong first-year retention from Cohort 1 (76.0%) and Cohort 2 (76.1%), with nearly 58% of Cohort 2 continuing straight into their second full year of college.
Big wins for high school dual-credit participants: Promise scholars who took College Credit Plus (CCP) courses during high school saw huge benefits – nearly 80% of these students in Cohort 3 stayed in college from fall to spring, outperforming historical rates by nearly 15 percentage points.
About Columbus Promise
Started by a partnership between the City of Columbus, Columbus State, Columbus City Schools, and the college-access group I Know I Can, the Columbus Promise covers full tuition (after other grant aid) for qualifying CCS graduates for up to six semesters. Scholars also receive a $500 stipend each semester for books and living costs.
The program has been funded by the city, Columbus State and private philanthropy. An initial pilot covered the CCS graduating classes of 2022, 2023 and 2024. Thanks to the pilot’s success, Columbus Promise has been extended through the CCS graduating class of 2027.
The full Year 3 Evaluation Report from the W.E. Upjohn Institute, the independent evaluator of the Columbus Promise program’s performance, is available at https://research.upjohn.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1328&context=reports.
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