Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin today congratulated Mountwest Community & Technical College on the recent award of $2 million in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education to support Attendance Pays, a five-year comprehensive program to improve student attendance, retention rates and completion rates.
“Improved and increased educational opportunities are essential to ensuring our state’s continued growth and economic success,” Gov. Tomblin said. “We are preparing our students for today’s workforce demands, and our community and technical colleges are giving our future workforce the specialized training opportunities they need to be well-equipped and prepared to meet the needs of the jobs of today and tomorrow. This grant funding will help to provide Mountwest with necessary tools and resources to continue to improve and expand student support services to ensure our students future success.”
The Attendance Pays grant program provides Mountwest with resources to improve student attendance in the classroom, improve and expand student support services to address non-academic barriers for student success, improve job readiness to enhance employability after graduation, and reduce the student loan default rate and is designed to improve job readiness to prepare students to enter the workforce following graduation.
“This project is an excellent opportunity for Mountwest to strengthen our continued efforts to improve student success,” said Dr. Keith J. Cotroneo, president of Mountwest Community & Technical College.
Program activities include the incorporation of a college-wide attendance tracking system, an expanded pilot program for financial aid disbursement, mental health, life skills and employment skills support services, feasibility study on child care and the establishment of an Office of Institutional Research.
