Student Achievement Initiative 3.0 - A Policy Focus on Equity

Oct 15, 2026

Student Achievement Initiative (SAI) 3.0 provides a policy framework for Washington state community and technical colleges to improve student success through readiness building and college-credit attainment, including college math and English. The document reviews how the performance-based funding system evolved through 2012 and 2016, using stakeholder analysis and outcome data to target credential completion and close equity gaps. Revisions emphasize transitions to college-level skills, added milestone weighting, and measures to increase parity for underprepared students.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Student Achievement Initiative (SAI) 2.0: 5-year summary

Basic Education for Adults (BEdA) transition

SEPTEMBER 2020 | 20-4.1 STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT INITIATIVE 3.0: A POLICY FOCUS ON EQUITY Introduction The Student Achievement Initiative (SAI) is the guiding framework for the Washington state community and technical college system’s goals for student success. SAI emphasizes student momentum for college success by both building college readiness (such as basic skills gains and completion of precollege education, sometimes known as developmental education) and earning college credits, including college math and English. In this way, SAI captures critical educational gains made by all students, from those who come in the least prepared to those who are college ready. This progressive continuum of points recognizes the system’s strategic goal of increased educational attainment for all residents by supporting the key milestones that students make along the way to completion, as well as completion. SAI has been the performance-based funding (PBF) system for the community and technical colleges since 2006. The system underwent reviews in 2012 and 2016, following national experts’ recommendations for continuous evaluation of PBF systems to ensure its overall goals and principles are being met and to incorporate best practices. In each review, a system-wide group of stakeholders came together to evaluate the goals and principles behind SAI and analyzed data to ensure the outcomes were aligned with those priorities. In the 2012 review, the growing national spotlight on higher education outcomes through the Completion Agenda raised the need to focus on credential completion. However, to meet the policy goals of serving historically underserved students, extra incentives were built in for students beginning in basic skills and precollege in order to support students with a long path ahead of them to completion. Another area of increased focus was the second year of college, with new milestones added for retention and moving along a specific pathway (45 credits) towards an academic transfer or professional-technical degree program. In the 2016 review, new guiding principles were established that reflected a focus on college-level credit accrual leading to credential attainment and closing equity gaps for historically underserved students. Thereview included an analysis of student outcomes with the goal of identifying group differences and how revisions might aid student populations who are falling behind. The results reiterated that basic education students, low-income students, and historically underserved students of color (American Indian, Black/African American, Hispanic, and Pacific Islander) were attaining college level credits and degree completions at a lower rate. The exception was in certificate attainment, where students of color tend to achieve at a higher rate compared to their makeup in the student population. Based on that analysis, the SAI framework was revised to emphasize success in transitioning from basic skills and precollege to college-level, college English/Communication attainment, and retention and completion for historically underserved students. These changes included additional weighting of the milestones for the first 15 college-level credits and degree and apprenticeship attainment, a new 6 credit transition milestone for basic education students, a de-emphasis on precollege course completion and anew emphasis on English/Communication college-level attainment. The draft new framework and milestones were tested to ensure the new equity principle was being met. The analysis revealed a conflict between the new emphasis on college-level milestones and the focus on underserved students to where colleges with high numbers of the best prepared students (primarily dual enrollment/Running Start) were benefitting the most from the changes. As a result, all dual enrollment and other non-state funded students were removed from the SAI framework to create more parity for colleges with a greater share of und

FAQs

What is the purpose of the Student Achievement Initiative (SAI) framework?

SAI is the guiding framework for Washington state community and technical colleges to support student success by building college readiness and helping students earn college credits toward credential completion.

How did the SAI system evolve through the 2012 and 2016 reviews?

The 2012 review increased focus on credential completion and milestones supporting historically underserved students. The 2016 review added guiding principles centered on college-level credit accrual, analyzed outcome differences, and revised milestones to close equity gaps.

What major changes were introduced in SAI 3.0 to improve equity?

SAI 3.0 revised weighting and milestones to emphasize transitioning from basic skills to college-level attainment, added a 6-credit transition milestone for basic education students, de-emphasized precollege course completion, and adjusted participation by removing dual enrollment and other non-state funded students from the framework.

Oct 15, 2026

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