Topic: Educational Transformation
Past Event
November 9, 2023
Increasing Adult Learner Enrollment and Resolving Stranded Credits
“Stranded credits” are credits that students have earned but can’t access because their former institution is holding their transcript as collateral for an unpaid balance to the institution. Ninety-five percent of institutions withhold transcripts when students have a balance, and Ithaka S+R estimates that 6.6 million students nationally have stranded credits. Like student loan debt, stranded credits are inequitably distributed: institutions with higher shares of students of color and Pell-eligible students are estimated to have more former students…
Past Event
July 12, 2023
NISTS Award Winner Spotlight
AACRAO Technology & Transfer Virtual Summit
Join a AACRAO Technology and Transfer Virtual Summit session honoring this year’s Bonita C. Jacobs Transfer Champion-Rising Star Award winners, including Ithaka S+R’s Emily Tichenor. Learn about their journeys as transfer agents, connectors, and advocates, how they’ve overcome challenges to find success, and their top tips and strategies for influencing change. Both seasoned professionals and newcomers to the transfer community will walk away with valuable insights and practical takeaways for creating and sustaining transfer-focused policies, programs, and supports. This…
Past Event
June 25, 2023
Elevating Student Voices
A Culturally Responsive Program Evaluation for First-Generation Student Success
As higher education institutions serve more diverse student populations, culturally responsive research practices and equity-based perspectives are critical to ensure program evaluation is responsive to all students’ needs. In this session at the 2023 NASPA Conference on Student Success in Higher Education, presenters from Ithaka S+R and the Kessler Scholars Collaborative will highlight promising practices for conducting a culturally responsive evaluation and share a case study example from the Kessler Scholars Program, a comprehensive support program serving first-generation, limited-income…
Past Event
June 14, 2023
The Chair’s Role in Enrollment, Retention, and Student Success
At 11 am on June 14, 2023, Martin Kurzweil will moderate a panel on “The Chair’s Role in Enrollment, Retention, and Student Success,” hosted by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Featuring conversation with panelist Allison Calhoun-Brown, the 75-minute session will explore how and why department chairs should recruit students and put in place systems that support them to remain enrolled and on track, and to complete their degrees. Register here.
Past Event
June 13, 2023
National Trends in Higher Education
At 11 am on June 13, 2023, Martin Kurzweil will participate in a session on national trends in higher education, hosted by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The 75-minute session will focus on key trends in higher education and its economic and policy context, moderated by current department chair Manya Whitaker. Register to attend.
Blog Post
May 31, 2023
Advancing Student Success through Academic Equity Topical Research Projects
Research Reports by ATI Honorarium Awardees George Mason University, Marist College, and Muhlenberg College
Student success and equity are intrinsically linked. Students from lower-income, first-generation, and historically underserved backgrounds face deeply entrenched systemic inequities and a myriad of obstacles both on college campuses and beyond. To help address these challenges, with funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Gray Foundation, three American Talent Initiative members each received a $7,250 honorarium to tackle research on key topics of academic equity.
Blog Post
May 16, 2023
Findings from MAAPS: A National Technology-Enhanced Advising Experiment
Postsecondary outcomes for lower-income students have been disproportionately harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Intensifying and systematizing evidence-based student supports is a promising practice for helping these students. While initially conceived prior to the pandemic, Monitoring Advising Analytics to Promote Success (MAAPS) is one such project that aimed to learn whether and how technology-enhanced advising could better support low-income and first-generation students and promote equity. From 2015 through 2022, the University Innovation Alliance (UIA) and its institutional members tested…
Research Report
May 16, 2023
MAAPS Advising Experiment
Evaluation Findings after Six Years
MAAPS is a large-scale randomized-controlled trial designed to validate the effectiveness of intensive, proactive, technology-enhanced advisement in increasing achievement, persistence, and completion of historically underserved students. This final report on the project presents impact findings for the intent-to-treat effect of MAAPS advisement on participating students’ outcomes for the final analytic sample of 10,037 students and at each participating institution after six academic years.
Past Event
July 19, 2023
Addressing Return on Investment in Higher Education
Students and the general public are increasingly interested in whether higher education is worth the cost. While it is important to showcase the value of higher education beyond individual economic benefits, we must also directly respond to the growing skepticism of higher education’s cost and economic benefits. One clear way to showcase the extent to which higher education is a worthwhile investment is to measure a student’s return on investment (ROI) from their degree or credential. In this session, a…
Past Event
May 18, 2023
Martin Kurzweil at (Re)Engage Alabama
On May 18, Martin Kurzweil and Kent State University’s Chris Dorsten will talk about stranded credits and the Ohio College Comeback Compact at the (Re)Engage Alabama Convening in Montgomery, Alabama.
Past Event
August 7, 2023
Bans, Compacts, and Collections… Oh My! State Approaches to Addressing Stranded Credits
Institutions and states are facing increasing pressures to stop the practice of withholding student transcripts for failure to pay balances in full. In fact, over half of states have enacted or considered policies on this issue over the past several years. The Department of Education and the CFPB have also weighed in with guidance and new policies. In this session at the 2023 SHEEO Higher Education Policy Conference, leaders from three states that have taken unique approaches to addressing…
Past Event
July 11, 2023
CUNY Transfer Explorer
A Cross-Organizational Effort to Promote Credit Transparency
In May 2020, the Articulation of Credit Transfer (ACT) team, a collaboration between Ithaka S+R and the City University of New York (CUNY), introduced CUNY Transfer Explorer, an online, public tool which allows anyone to see how courses at one college are treated at any other college in the CUNY system upon transfer. At a presentation at AACRAO’s Technology and Virtual Summit on July 11 at 4 pm ET, CUNY Lehman’s Juan Villalona, ITHAKA’s Maddie Danks and Jessica…
Blog Post
March 23, 2023
Using Data to Uncover Barriers to Student Success and Increase Retention
One of the most significant challenges that higher education institutions are currently facing is shrinking undergraduate enrollment, a trend accelerated by the disruptions of the pandemic. Among four-year institutions, enrollment declines have been particularly acute for those institutions that admit a relatively large percentage of their applicants and are dependent on tuition for a significant share of their revenue.[1] Between fall 2020 and 2022, colleges and universities that admit between 75 and 85 percent of applicants experienced…
Past Event
March 22, 2023
Texas Student Success Program Inventory Launch
Ithaka S+R was commissioned by the Student Success Division of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to develop the Texas Student Success Program Inventory, an online resource that organizes information about student success programs at Texas institutions on an easy-to-use, searchable platform. On March 22, 2023 at 1:00 pm CST/2:00 pm EST, the THECB and Ithaka S+R will host a webinar to introduce users to this new resource. In this webinar, Ithaka S+R will provide some background…
Blog Post
March 9, 2023
An Expansive Inventory of Student Success Programs at Texas Colleges and Universities
Students can face numerous barriers on their path to a degree, especially given the hardships wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is therefore essential that colleges and universities provide students with the support they need to thrive on campus and complete their degrees. Student success programs play a vital role in facilitating this support through a range of innovative and evidence-based services. However, it can be difficult to access information about these programs across states and regions. This lack of…
Research Report
March 9, 2023
The Texas Student Success Program Inventory
How Public Undergraduate Institutions Are Supporting Student Success Across the State of Texas
Executive Summary The Texas Student Success Program Inventory (SSPI), available at https://www.highered.texas.gov/sspi, is an online database of information related to student success programs at public colleges and universities, commissioned by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). Consistent with nearly every other state, prior to the creation of the SSPI, there was no organized source of information about student success programming in Texas. By creating a user-friendly tool for publicly sharing information, the SSPI is…
Blog Post
February 16, 2023
Opening the Black Box of Credit Transfer to Everyone
$4.4 Million in New Grants to Enhance and Expand "Transfer Explorer" within CUNY and Beyond
Losing credits when transferring to a new institution is a major barrier preventing many college students from earning a degree. Providing better information about how credits transfer, and providing that information early enough to enable students and advisors to plan, are crucial steps to tearing down that barrier. With an additional $4.4 million in philanthropic funding, the groundbreaking Transfer Explorer is poised to take those steps, at scale.
Blog Post
February 14, 2023
An End to Affirmative Action Must Not—and Need Not—End the Pursuit of Diversity at Selective Colleges and Universities
If, as is widely expected, the US Supreme Court issues a decision in 2023 that significantly limits, if not completely prohibits, the use of race in college and university admissions, it would come at exactly the wrong moment in the ongoing struggle to address our racial history. To further socioeconomic mobility and racial equity in the United States, selective colleges and universities must create more opportunities for high-achieving students from racially minoritized backgrounds, not fewer. But even if the Court…
Issue Brief
February 10, 2023
Alternative Strategies to Support a Diverse Student Body
Affirmative Action at Risk
With a decision pending in two lawsuits challenging race-conscious admissions practices at Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), many observers are predicting that the US Supreme Court will significantly limit, if not completely prohibit, the use of race in college and university admissions. Such a decision would stand sharply crosswise to current needs. Selective colleges and universities, both public and private, are still far from embodying racial equity.
Blog Post
February 8, 2023
Educational Attainment and the Economy
Where Do We See the Best Opportunities for Growth?
Attaining a postsecondary credential has the potential to improve the life circumstances of people across the country as well as the financial and economic health of states. As individuals secure jobs that pay living wages, they become less reliant on social services, increase their personal spending, and generate additional tax revenue for the state. These benefits are likely to increase the state’s GDP, attract new industry, expand labor market opportunities, and reduce necessary state spending. Prior research shows…