Say Yes Cleveland – the ambitious scholarship program helping eligible graduates of the city’s public school district pay college tuition – says 713 students have earned a degree or certificate since the initiative launched in 2019.
These figures come from the group’s recently released six-year progress report. It’s the first time the group has shared a broad look at its progress. Leaders declined to share metrics with Signal Cleveland earlier this year, saying they were still gathering and analyzing data.
Now, aligned with the report’s release, those overseeing the distribution of the organization’s scholarships discussed the findings with Signal Cleveland.
The report touts all kinds of progress that’s happened over the past six years. More than $17 million in scholarship money has been awarded. College applications are up. An increasing number of scholarship recipients attending four-year universities are staying enrolled year-to-year.
While the group’s scholarship board members are proud of those accomplishments, they acknowledge one metric trumps all others.
“Completion is our ultimate measure of success,” said Ann Mullin, chair of Say Yes’ scholarship board and executive vice president of the George Gund Foundation. “We want students to get in, get through and graduate with a degree.”
These new figures show large percentages of CMSD students haven’t yet done that since Say Yes Cleveland’s launch.
Those 713 degree and credential holders represent about 7% of the 9,891 scholarship-eligible students who graduated from the district over the past six years. That percentage could change, though, as more of those eligible students eventually earn a degree or credential.
Only about half of eligible CMSD students are tapping into the Say Yes Cleveland program, the report notes.
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Say Yes Cleveland quietly rolls out report card
Say Yes Cleveland launched with great hype in 2019. In fact, the organization’s leaders revisited that announcement on the report’s first page, describing it as a “dynamic” scene.
“Students packed the bleachers, a DJ hyped up the crowd … media roamed the floor, and a live feed broadcasted the news across all district schools,” they wrote.
That same fanfare didn’t accompany the release of these new findings earlier this month. Instead, about 140 invited guests attended a two-hour event hosted in October at the MidTown headquarters of the Cleveland Foundation (The Cleveland Foundation also supports Signal Cleveland).
Leaders chose not to invite the news media to the announcement about its first report card. They said they wanted to share progress in private first with donors, scholarship recipients and other stakeholders. The organization is still working on a plan for how to share the report with those who weren’t in the room that day, including current students and families.
The biggest advertisement for the program, leaders hope, will come from those who have already utilized it. Six student testimonials are tucked across the report’s 30 glossy pages (read it in full by clicking here).
“Because of Say Yes, I was able to attend a highly prestigious university and focus fully on my academic and professional development,” read one from Aja Leatherwood, a graduate of both Cleveland High School for Digital Arts and Case Western Reserve University.
One of nearly 200 college “promise programs” nationwide, Say Yes Cleveland pledges to cover college tuition and fees for eligible CMSD graduates, once all other financial aid awards are applied, over the next 25 years.
In addition to the scholarships, a separate arm of the organization provides K-12 students and their families with “wraparound services” – including tutoring, mental health assistance and legal help – directly in Cleveland school buildings.
About half of Say Yes-eligible students enroll in college
The report gives a thorough look at how many Say Yes Cleveland scholarship recipients are making it to college.
Between 2019 and 2024, 12,050 students graduated from a CMSD high school or one of its handful of charter school partners.
About 9,900 – or 82% – of that group met the Say Yes eligibility criteria, which includes being continuously enrolled in a CMSD or partner charter school from grades 9 through 12.
A little more than half of those eligible students – or 5,122 – enrolled at a higher education institution. The report doesn’t note how many of them are still working toward a degree or failed to complete one.
The remaining 4,769 eligible students didn’t enroll anywhere at all.
Almost all eligible students enrolled at one of Say Yes Cleveland’s partner institutions. That includes nearly all of the state’s four-year public universities and many of its community colleges, as well as private schools in Ohio and beyond.
Say Yes Cleveland leaders point to metrics from the class of 2019 for the program’s most complete picture of how students are succeeding with the scholarship. Those scholarship recipients have about a 30% college graduation rate, the report notes.
Calling on CMSD to better prepare students
Maggie McGrath, chief administrator of the scholarship program, said there are two main hurdles stopping CMSD graduates from accessing higher education: Affordability and not being adequately prepared academically.
“Beyond that, we have a lot of students that just do not have the support around them to go,” said McGrath, who also works as College Now Greater Cleveland’s Chief of Higher Education Partnerships.
There are no academic requirements to earn a Say Yes Cleveland scholarship. Supporters say that makes the money more accessible and equitable. But, as the report noted, “the more prepared a student is academically, the better they do in college.”
“It is critical that the breadth and quality of instruction in the CMSD – beginning in preschool all the way through 12th grade – set our students on a path toward college and career readiness no matter what choice they make after senior year,” the report continued.
Getting a college degree or credential can change the lives of recipients and their communities. In addition to having the potential to earn more money, research shows those with bachelor’s degrees tend to be more civically engaged and healthier compared to those whose education ends at high school.
Making college more affordable
Say Yes Cleveland leaders also called on colleges and universities to offer students more financial support.
The organization’s average annual scholarship awards range from $1,900 for a student enrolled at a community college to $4,500 for one attending a four-year public university, per the report.
That money strictly covers tuition and fees. While students often receive additional state, federal and other financial aid, they’re still responsible for anything outside of the classroom. Books, living costs and other necessities often combine to be thousands of dollars each year.
The report asked for higher education institutions to change how financial aid is awarded to Say Yes Cleveland participants. Leaders want institutional scholarships to be able to go towards non-tuition expenses. McGrath said those shifts are already happening at Cleveland State, Kent State and Ohio State universities.
Yet the Say Yes Cleveland scholarship board said there are no plans to broadly change their award policies.
“Our financial model is built on a tuition-only model,” said board chair Mullin. “Any single change we make has an effect on that – what we can spend, what we have left, et cetera.”
Still, Mullin said the board knows out-of-classroom costs are “an enormous issue,” so they’ve made some tweaks over the past few years.
Now, low-income students can get an additional $1,000 per year to help with living expenses. Students can also get help to cover what the organization calls “small financial hurdles” – up to $500 per year – that might derail their education, such as a car repair or medical bill.
What comes next for Say Yes Cleveland
Eddie Taylor Jr., vice chair of the scholarship board as well as president and CEO of Taylor Oswald, said the program’s first six years contained both lessons and missteps.
The Say Yes Cleveland report identifies the challenges in a section labeled “looking ahead.” It notes those issues of academic readiness and college affordability, along with needing to offer scholarship participants more help when they arrive on college campuses.
But, ultimately, the organization just needs to have more CMSD graduates participating – or, as they write in the report, to close the gap that exists between “aspiration and enrollment.”
“We haven’t, nor will we, achieve perfection in this process, which is why we’re remaking ourselves and the efforts, improving and tinkering along the way,” said Taylor.
Scholarship board leaders believe they’re now at a restart. They said they’re forming committees to figure out how to best provide information about the scholarship to students and families. This comes as CMSD’s leadership recently introduced a plan that will reshape the district by merging and closing school buildings
This reset extends to the organization’s top leadership, too.
Founding executive director Diane Downing retired earlier this year. Sharese Ryan, who oversees the support services employees helping students in schools, was named Say Yes Cleveland’s second interim leader last week as the search to fill the role in a full-time capacity continues.
