Topic: Educational Transformation
Case Study
November 21, 2019
Bard High School Early College
A Case Study
A rigorous liberal arts undergraduate experience has long been the benchmark for higher education in America. Broad-based, with areas of depth, and many opportunities for rich discussion, application, and writing, the liberal arts experience cultivates human potential, prepares students for the start of their career, and readies them for lifelong learning and for adapting to new circumstances. As automation extends throughout our economy, the human skills developed through the liberal arts will only become more important.
Past Event
January 27, 2020
Leading Change: Senior Leaders Examine What is Possible
Catharine Bond Hill Speaks at the Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice Conference
On Monday, January 27, Catharine Bond Hill is speaking on “Leading Change: Senior Leaders Examine What is Possible” at the Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice Conference in Los Angeles. She will be joined by Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education. The conference theme is “Reclaiming Public Trust in Admissions and Higher Education.” For more information and to register, please see the conference website.
Past Event
November 16, 2019
Danielle Cooper and Kurtis Tanaka at the National Conference on Higher Education in Prison
On Saturday, November 16, ITHAKA is hosting a breakfast session to share an update on “Providing Offline Access to High-Quality Library Resources in Prisons”at the 2019 National Conference on Higher Education in Prison in St. Louis, Missouri. With support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in 2019 ITHAKA launched an initiative to help improve higher education in prison and reduce barriers for student research. In this session, Danielle Cooper and Kurtis Tanaka will provide an update on the project’s research…
Blog Post
November 11, 2019
Flipping the Script From Obligation to Opportunity
The American Talent Initiative’s Inaugural Veterans Community of Practice Convening
United States military veterans are underrepresented at high-graduation rate colleges and universities, with only one in ten veterans attending institutions that graduate at least 70 percent of their students. And yet, we know that veterans who do attend these colleges and universities thrive. In fact, student veterans are 1.4 times more likely to earn a certificate or degree than adult learners overall, and student veterans have an average GPA of 3.34, compared to the average for traditional…
Blog Post
November 7, 2019
Adaptive Learning Technology + Active Learning Pedagogy in Introductory Statistics
New Reports on Results and Lessons from a Multi-Year, Multi-Campus Pilot in Maryland
There is a general consensus that a quality postsecondary education and credential are critical to success in today’s rapidly changing economy. However, a growing body of evidence has shown that entry-level mathematics courses required to progress toward a degree constitute a formidable barrier to completion of postsecondary credentials, especially for underrepresented minority, first-generation, and lower-income students. Key reasons for this include the disconnected nature of these course offerings and their misalignment with students’ academic and career aspirations, as well as…
Research Report
November 7, 2019
Aligning Many Campuses and Instructors around a Common Adaptive Learning Courseware in Introductory Statistics
Lessons from a Multi-Year Pilot in Maryland
The Adaptive Learning in Statistics (ALiS) project was a multi-year pilot initiative in which faculty members from multiple two-year and four-year public institutions in Maryland used a common adaptive learning courseware in their introductory statistics courses and received training and instructional resources on an active learning and flipped classroom pedagogical approach. The project was organized and led by Ithaka S+R in collaboration with Transforming Post-Secondary Education in Mathematics (TPSE Math), the William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation at the…
Blog Post
October 30, 2019
Innovation in the Talent Pipeline Development Sector
FEATuring YOU: A Case Study
Ithaka S+R is excited to announce that we will be partnering with Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) to document how SNHU conceptualized, developed, and designed the Future Employment Assessment Tool (FEATuring YOU) to offer scalable, reliable, and engaging methods to assess soft skills and connect “opportunity youth”–young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are neither enrolled in school nor participating in the labor market–to learning and employment…
Blog Post
October 29, 2019
Do Emergency Micro-Grants Help Financially-Disadvantaged Students Succeed?
Over the last 10 years, tuition and fees at degree-granting institutions have risen by 27 percent, making it more difficult for students, especially those already struggling to cover basic needs like housing and food, to afford to remain in college in the face of unexpected financial trouble. In many cases, unpaid term balances prevent students from continuing in the current term or enrolling in the following one, and as a result, students dropout or are automatically dropped. Unpaid balances…
Blog Post
October 22, 2019
Driving Liberal Arts Transfer Pathways
It’s Time for Independent Colleges to Target Community College Students
Every fall, an estimated 1.1 million American students begin their postsecondary education at community colleges. While most (80 percent) intend to earn their bachelor’s degree, less than a third transfer to a four-year institution and only 13 percent actually earn their bachelor’s degree in six years. Transfer practices between two- and four-year institutions are not adequately serving students. What’s more, scalable policies designed…
Past Event
October 8, 2019
James Dean Ward at the National Council for Workforce Education Conference
Meeting the Challenge of Achieving Educational Attainment Goals
On Tuesday, October 8, James Ward is presenting on “Meeting the Challenge of Achieving Educational Attainment Goals,” as part of a panel discussion at the National Council for Workforce Education Conference in San Antonio, Texas. For more information, please see the conference website. About the session Based on Anthony P. Carnevale’s research and educational attainment goals recommended by the Lumina Foundation, 42 states have established attainment goals. To achieve these goals, new policies and practices are required to recruit…
Blog Post
October 17, 2019
How to Develop a Successful Collaborative Network in and around Higher Education
New Playbook
At the same time that it is becoming more essential to individual mobility, economic vitality, and social cohesion, postsecondary education is becoming a more complex endeavor. In response, a growing set of leaders in higher education, workforce development, business, and government are turning to focused and deep collaborative efforts to drive change within their own organizations and across the ecosystems in which they operate. In a new Ithaka S+R publication, Unlocking the Power of Collaboration, Jenna Joo, Jeff Selingo,…
Playbook
October 17, 2019
Unlocking the Power of Collaboration
How to Develop a Successful Collaborative Network in and around Higher Education
Recognizing that solutions to today’s complex problems go beyond the boundaries of a single organization or institution, some postsecondary education leaders and training providers are turning to a more focused and deeper level of collaboration to drive both individual and broader systemic change with potential for far-reaching social impact.
Blog Post
October 15, 2019
Prisons, the Higher Ed Market, and Second Chance Pell
Both houses of Congress are debating a set of bills to update portions of the Higher Education Act, the key federal postsecondary education law. The long-overdue refresh has been held up by disagreements over levels of funding, accountability, and how to handle sex discrimination under Title IX, among other issues. Whenever the HEA finally does come up for reauthorization, the move to restore Pell grants to the incarcerated is expected to make the final draft. Legislators who care about improving…
Past Event
November 16, 2019
Towards a Higher Education in Prison Research Infrastructure
Rayane Alamuddin and Meagan Wilson Host Meeting at the 2019 National Conference on Higher Education in Prison
On Saturday, November 16, from 1:00 – 2:00 pm, Rayane Alamuddin and Meagan Wilson are hosting “Towards a Higher Education in Prison Research Infrastructure,” at the 2019 National Conference on Higher Education in Prison in St. Louis, Missouri. For more information, please see the conference website. About the meeting The lack of an adequate research infrastructure surrounding postsecondary prison programming greatly limits our ability to facilitate empirical research evaluating the quality of higher education available to incarcerated students.
Blog Post
October 2, 2019
An Interview with Dr. Dominique Baker
The Strategic Alignment of State Appropriations, Tuition, and Financial Aid Policies
Dominique Baker is an Assistant Professor of Education Policy and an Associate at the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies at Southern Methodist University. Dr. Baker is an expert in financial aid policies and student debt, and examines the equity implications of higher education policies. Ithaka S+R graciously thanks Dr. Baker for sharing her thoughts on the strategic alignment of state higher education finance policies. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length. With limited funding, where…
Issue Brief
October 2, 2019
The Strategic Alignment of State Appropriations, Tuition, and Financial Aid Policies
In response to the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009, states reduced their expenditures on many public services and goods, including substantial cuts to higher education spending. Despite a strong economic recovery since the Great Recession and significant increases in student enrollment, most states’ spending on higher education has not returned to pre-recession levels. Reductions in state spending and rising costs have led a number of public colleges and universities to increase tuition, making college less affordable for many students…
Past Event
October 25, 2019
Jenna Joo at Adaptive Lifelong Learning Pathways Workshop
From October 25-27, Jenna Joo is taking part in a workshop at the Virginia Tech National Capital Region Center in Arlington, Virginia, on “Adaptive Lifelong Learning Pathways.” The workshop is designed to build connections among participants and create opportunities to develop further research and implementation of innovative education initiatives. In order to support the implementation and outcomes of this national workshop, participants will contribute to an online living document entitled “Adaptive Lifelong Learning Pathways for an Inclusive Economy.” Participants will…
Blog Post
September 23, 2019
Supporting Postsecondary Access and Success for Rural Students
The American Talent Initiative (ATI), a coalition of high-graduation-rate colleges and universities committed to enrolling and graduating more low- and middle-income students, began a webinar series on special interest topics that we hope will elevate best practices in recruiting talented low- and moderate-income students. This summer, we hosted a webinar on the challenges of identifying, recruiting, and enrolling rural students. In this post, we summarize the key research and best practices presented on the webinar. What is the definition…
Past Event
September 19, 2019
Rayane Alamuddin and Daniel Rossman at the UIA’s Proactive Advising Public Learning Event
Monitoring Academic Analytics to Promote Success (MAAPS)
On Thursday, September 19, at 9:40 am, Rayane Alamuddin and Daniel Rossman will provide an overview of data from the Monitoring Academic Analytics to Promote Success (MAAPS) project at the University Innovation Alliance (UIA) Proactive Advising Public Learning Event in Arlington, Virginia. Later that morning, Rayane is moderating the panel “Lessons from MAAPS.” Panelists include Allison Calhoun-Brown (Georgia State University), Alex Aljets (Oregon State University), and Christina King (Purdue University). These morning sessions are open to the public, and…
Past Event
September 11, 2019
Quality and Equity in the New Credentialing Landscape
Martin Kurzweil at Lumina Foundation Action Meeting
From September 11-12, Martin Kurzweil is participating in the Lumina Foundation’s Action Meeting on “Quality and Equity in the New Credentialing Landscape.” The meeting is convening experts and advocates, along with members of a Lumina task force, to share ideas on how to improve the policies and practices through which various entities help assure and improve quality in postsecondary education.