Over five years, a team of coaches reached out to tens of thousands of students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Nearly all of the coaches were HBCU graduates themselves. The students they contacted had either left school or were at risk of leaving. A new report from InsideTrack finds that the effort paid off. Students who had stopped out re-enrolled at 2.5 times the national average, and those still enrolled posted a fall-to-spring retention rate of 83.8 percent.

The Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit released the report, "Empowering Student Momentum at HBCUs," in August. It tracks the initiative across 39 campuses from fall 2021 through spring 2026.

Coaches worked with more than 43,800 students in all. Among them were 23,886 who had stopped out before earning a degree. Another 11,815 were enrolled but facing obstacles to staying in school, including work and family responsibilities, financial strain and the adjustment to college life.

The National Student Clearinghouse verified the outcomes. After a coach contacted them, 1,343 stopped-out students returned to school. More than 2,300 who worked with a coach have gone on to graduate. The participating institutions recovered or retained an estimated $26.9 million in tuition revenue.

HBCUs represent 3 percent of American colleges and universities but produce nearly 20 percent of Black graduates. Many have seen applications climb in recent years, along with new philanthropic support, and some have reported record enrollment.

Seven partnership directors and 28 trained success coaches carried out the work.

"Effective partnership with HBCUs starts with respect for the history, culture, and leadership already present on each campus," said Dr. Henri A. LaSane, associate vice president of HBCU programs at InsideTrack. "Our role was to add capacity in ways that strengthened, rather than replaced, those institutional relationships. These results show that this approach can help more students stay connected to the support, momentum and sense of belonging that keep completion within their reach."

The initiative puts particular focus on students whom traditional retention programs often miss. Adult learners made up nearly 40 percent of those coached, and Black men made up about a third.

At 13 public HBCUs, Black male students who met with a coach re-enrolled at a rate of 15.1 percent. That was 10.8 percentage points higher than the rate for peers in the same cohort who did not meet with one. The initiative was funded by a coalition that included Blue Meridian Partners, UNCF's Institute for Capacity Building, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, and Ed Advancement.

"HBCUs are powerful engines for social mobility. By supporting institutions with tools like Re-enrollment Coaching from InsideTrack, we've helped more students enroll, persist, and graduate," said Jim Runcie, co-founder and CEO of Ed Advancement. "As a result, more students are on a path to economic opportunity, and more institutions have built internal capacity to support re-enrollment."

InsideTrack is also working to keep the coaching going after the five-year initiative. Through a separate Coaching Development and Training program, 233 staff members and leaders at 21 HBCUs are learning to coach students on their own campuses. That training is set to finish in late 2026.

"The national conversation around HBCUs has rightly shifted toward recognizing their outsized contribution to student success and economic mobility," said Julian Thompson, senior director of UNCF's Institute for Capacity Building. "The next step is ensuring these institutions have the enduring capacity to meet the changing needs of students while remaining true to the mission that has defined them for generations. The outcomes in this report demonstrate the impact that's possible when HBCUs are empowered to build on those strengths."