The theme of the 2025 SREB Student Success Summit is Bridging the Gap: A Framework for Students Success. The theme encapsulates our shared commitment to advancing student success through innovative solutions and collaborative efforts.

SREB’s comprehensive Student Success Framework serves as a guiding resource for integrating best practices across all levels of education to ensure lifelong learning and economic mobility. The framework highlights the importance of education as a cornerstone for individual success and regional economic development.

SREB invites proposals on this theme that contribute to the organization’s mission to support states as they advance all levels of education to improve the social and economic vitality of the South.

Session Types

• Program, Paper or Panel Session: Traditional sessions for presenters to discuss innovative papers, programs or projects related to postsecondary student success. These session types typically have time at the end for audience questions, although SREB encourages audience interaction throughout.
• Workshop: Interactive sessions equipping participants with practical skills, strategies or tools to address challenges or promote student success within their states, institutions, departments, or programs.

To assist prospective presenters, we have identified four pillars as the foundation of the framework for Student Success — access, persistence, retention and attainment:

Access

Access refers to the capacity of all institutional stakeholders to prepare each and every student to pursue and succeed in education beyond high school, encompassing awareness of postsecondary options, available resources, affordability, entry requirements and navigation of institutional processes.

Persistence

Persistence emphasizes individual agency, progress towards personal goals and self-reflection in an aligned and transparent system by actively engaging with available resources and student support programs.

Retention

Retention is providing students with tools and services that enable them to complete their intended courses of study, including streamlined processes, robust support services, comprehensive learning environments, clear academic and career pathways, and proactive monitoring and support of each student’s progress.

Attainment

Attainment refers to the completion of postsecondary education and training, including certificates, degrees and work-based experiences, to prepare individuals for fulfilling careers and foster a skilled workforce.