Blog
January 15, 2025
Reflections on Creating a Cross-Campus Collaboration for Reproducibility
Challenges in reproducible research The ability to reproduce results is a cornerstone of scientific integrity in academic research. Reproducibility in research ensures that results can be independently verified, thereby enhancing the credibility and reliability of findings. However, achieving reproducibility is not without its challenges. Researchers often grapple with organizing their analyses, learning new computational tools, and diligently documenting their data and methodologies. These were some of the challenges raised during interviews with faculty at the University of Victoria (UVic) conducted…
January 14, 2025
Supporting Adult Learners and Boosting Degree Completion in Tennessee
Announcing a New Project
Ithaka S+R is excited to announce a collaboration with the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) to better understand the challenges faced by Tennesseans with some college but no credential who have been prevented from continuing their education due to administrative holds and past due balances, often called stranded credits. TBR governs the College System of Tennessee, the state’s public community and technical colleges. As a leader in state strategies to promote…
January 7, 2025
Higher Education in Prison and Return to Title IV (R2T4)
The July 2023 restoration of Pell grants for incarcerated students was a watershed moment for increasing access to higher education in prison. But with this change came a complex set of administrative and regulatory issues confronting both prison education programs and students. Return to Title IV (R2T4) rules create risks for all Title IV Federal Student Aid recipients, not just incarcerated learners. If a student receives Title IV funding and withdraws during the semester, the college or university may have…
December 18, 2024
How Dual Enrollment and Articulation Agreements Help Students Earn Degrees Faster in Georgia
This blog post is based on reports prepared for the TIAA Institute by George Spencer, Alex Monday, and Renni Turpin,[1] as well as an article in the journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.[2] Dual enrollment programs, which allow high school students to take college-level courses, have rapidly expanded in the United States over the past two decades. These programs are praised for increasing access to higher education, reducing costs, and accelerating degree completion (found in prior…
December 17, 2024
Higher Education at a Crossroads
Reflecting on the 2024 Complete College America Annual Convening
Complete College America’s (CCA) 2024 Annual Convening, hosted in Indianapolis this past month and framed around going “All In” on college attainment, brought together an array of postsecondary practitioners, leaders, and researchers focusing on student mobility and outcomes. At the conference, Martin Kurzweil and I led a strategy showcase focused on the Holistic Credit Mobility project, a cornerstone of our continuing efforts to support increasingly mobile students. In collaboration with CCA, Ithaka S+R is in the final stages of…
December 12, 2024
Collaborating Towards Student Success
Insights from a National Survey of Community College Library and Campus Partners
Many college students face challenges that extend beyond the classroom, requiring holistic support that addresses both academic and non-academic needs. “College fluency,” which is the knowledge and a corresponding set of abilities that enable students and staff to effectively locate and use relevant college services, programs, and resources, can help students successfully engage with and self-advocate within the culture and bureaucracy of higher education institutions to achieve their goals. Through our College Fluency Capacity Building research initiative, undertaken with…
December 9, 2024
An Education Technology Implementation Playbook for Correctional Leaders
Planning Tools and Collaborations that Foreground Student Learning Objectives
As both the owner and operator of correctional facilities and the official oversight entity for higher education in prison programming, it is up to departments of correction to determine what technology to make available for education on the inside. This means that correctional leaders are responsible for considering security and safety as well as educational best practices. There is little research on how to negotiate these, at times differing, value sets. As a result, there are very few…
December 6, 2024
Highlights from the 2024 Future of Museums Summit
In October, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) hosted their second annual Future of Museums Summit, hosted by Elizabeth Merritt, AAM’s vice president of strategic foresight and founding director of the Center for the Future of Museums. The summit focused on four themes that emerged from this year’s TrendsWatch report: Culture Wars 2.0 What role can museums play in bridging the gaps that divide the communities they serve? This theme featured presentations relating to attacks on DEAI,…
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December 2, 2024
Library and Information Science First-Generation Professionals: Workplace Barriers and Cultural Assets
Call for Participants
What are the challenges faced by first-generation BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) professionals in the Library and Information Science (LIS) field? How do biases, policies, and practices impact their workplace experiences and career advancement? These are critical questions we aim to address through focus groups as part of a new, IMLS-funded research project, and we are now seeking participants to share their valuable insights. This study, conducted by Africa Hands, assistant professor in…
November 22, 2024
Exploring Workplace Experiences of BIPOC First-Generation Professionals in Library and Information Science
Announcing a New Collaboration
We’re excited to announce that the Department of Information Science at the University at Buffalo (UB) and Ithaka S+R are collaborating on an IMLS-funded research project to investigate the workplace experiences of first-generation BIPOC professionals in the library and information science (LIS) field. This three-year study will focus on understanding the challenges these professionals face and the cultural assets they bring to navigate and succeed in the workplace. The LIS workforce, like many professional fields, is grappling with…
November 18, 2024
The State of the Humanities
Reflecting on the World Humanities Report and Humanities in the United States
From the end of World War II through approximately 1980, this country’s market-driven system of higher education has been praised for its accessibility, absence of central authority, broad-based political support, multiple sources of revenue, and demographic, institutional and structural diversity. More recently, perceptions of declining affordability, diminishing pools of traditional-age students, the ongoing replacement of tenured and tenure-line faculty by adjunct instructors, and an unrelenting privatization of public higher education have, among many other issues, raised concerns about higher education’s…
November 15, 2024
How the American Talent Initiative Is Using Communities of Practice to Advance Student Success in Higher Education
The American Talent Initiative (ATI) is dedicated to addressing longstanding disparities in bachelor’s degree attainment for low- and moderate-income students by fostering collaboration among research, philanthropy, and educational entities. Since 2016, ATI membership has grown to include over 135 high-graduation-rate institutions, enrolling more than 18,000 additional Pell Grant students since the project began. A key strategy in ATI’s approach has been the adoption of Communities of Practice (CoPs) to assist member colleges and universities in achieving their socioeconomic diversity…
November 12, 2024
Improving Re-Enrollment for Adult Learners with Some College, No Degree
Announcing a New Project with the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education
As states and postsecondary institutions work to achieve critical degree attainment and workforce development goals, establishing policies and practices to effectively support adult learners who have some college but no degree is crucial. Through the statewide “Some College, No Degree” initiative, the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE) is working to increase adult learner re-enrollment and degree completion in the state. Beginning fall 2024, the New Jersey OSHE and Ithaka S+R are working together to…
November 1, 2024
Paying It Forward
First-Generation Higher Ed Professionals Empowering Current First-Gen Students
A Conversation with Dr. Shakima M. Clency, Adan Hussain, and Christin Kloski of the Kessler Scholars Collaborative. The Kessler Scholars Collaborative supports and connects more than 1,000 Kessler Scholars across 16 institutions, transforming the college experience and supporting degree attainment for first-generation and limited-income students. The Kessler Scholars Program follows a cohort-based model. This means that, in addition to financial support, Kessler Scholars at each institution receive academic, professional, and personal guidance to help them not just access higher…
November 1, 2024
Pennsylvania Adult Learner Re-Engagement Community of Practice
New Project Announcement and Call to Participate
Higher education institutions currently face the unique challenge of maintaining enrollment in the face of demographic cliffs and changing attitudes towards the value of higher education. One area where institutions may see growth is in re-engaging their own pool of stopped out students who are now adult learners with some college credits and no credential (SCNC). The recent regulation limiting transcript withholding by the US Department of Education creates an opportunity for institutions to identify clear pathways for their stopped…
October 31, 2024
Prospective Student Veterans Face Complex Choices on the Journey to a Bachelor’s Degree
As Veteran’s Day approaches, there is renewed attention paid to those individuals who have served in our nation’s military and to the ways our nation repays that service. The majority of military service members often cite education benefits as one of their primary motivations for joining the military. However, once they leave the service, many veterans are not making best use of those benefits due to undermatching, whereby students attend institutions where they…
October 31, 2024
From Service to Study
Exploring Barriers and Expanding Opportunities for Veterans in Higher Education
Introduction On Thursday, September 19, 2024 in New York City, The Teagle Foundation, Warrior Scholar Project (WSP), and Ithaka S+R convened a group of higher education and philanthropic leaders for an off-the-record, roundtable discussion focused on the unique value military veterans bring to college campuses, the barriers institutions face in recruiting and supporting them, and the role nonprofit partners and education funders could play in bolstering these efforts. Committed to the proposition that an expansion of postsecondary educational opportunities for…
October 30, 2024
What Does Generative AI Mean for Scholarly Publishing?
Over the past 24 months, generative AI has become inescapable. As a tool that is capable of generating content, its implications for how scholarly research is conducted and for scholarly publishing and communication are potentially transformative. What is not yet clear is how transformative this impact will be, and which areas of scholarly communication may see more rapid and revolutionary change than others. In a report published today, with funding from STM Solutions and six of its member organizations, we…
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October 29, 2024
New Research Examines How State Bans on Transcript Withholding Have Impacted Institutions
In July 2024, a new set of federal regulations significantly limiting transcript withholding for students who owe a balance to their institution went into effect. Predating this policy, 13 states created their own rules prohibiting or limiting this practice. These policies varied across states with some creating blanket bans on transcript withholding and others only banning the practice in limited circumstances, such as when a transcript was needed by employers or the military for education verification. Ithaka S+R partnered with…
October 28, 2024
Turning Debt into Credentials
The Ohio College Comeback Compact Continues to Benefit Adult Learners, Institutions, and Northeast Ohio
After a successful pilot year and transition to full program implementation, the Ohio College Comeback Compact continues to show growth and positive student outcomes for adults with some college but no credential who departed postsecondary education with past due balances. With continued generous support from Lumina Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation, Ithaka S+R is pleased to continue partnering with the eight public colleges and universities in Northeast Ohio for the third year of the Compact.