Components of TRIO's Success: How One Student Support Services Program Achieved Success

Abstract

This article contends that TRIO's national acclaim says little about why individual TRIO programs have proven so effective. To identify the particular characteristics that have resulted in these programs' success with their target populations, the unique experiences of a university-based Special Student Services (SSS) TRIO program were examined from the perspectives of program staff. Staff held that their program was effective because it was responsive, synergistic, supportive, and successful. This investigation explores thesefour attributes as causativefactors leading to the program's status as one of the most popular and most highly utilized student service programs on campus. Most people who are familiar with TRIO have some idea why its programs are successful at the national level. If asked, they might indicate that every national study conducted by the federal government has found the programs effective and claims that they are meeting their goals and serving the populations they are funded to serve. They might also mention that for more than 30 years, the 1,200-plus TRIO programs have been well represented on Capitol Hill by the Council for Opportunity in Education (formerly the National Council of Educational Opportunity Associations, or NCEOA). Others might suggest that TRIO is successful because it has avoided the mounting controversies over race-based measures and affirmative action by early adopting eligibility criteria based on socioeconomic factors rather than race or ethnicity. Still others might attribute TRIO's success, even during difficult economic times, to the bipartisan support it enjoys in Congress. No matter which factors are selected to explain TRIO's widespread success, and regardless of the weight given one over the other, these findings say little about the success achieved by individual TRIO programs at the local level. Due to the wide variety among TRIO programs and the fact that each represents a unique contract between the U.S.