tag: Basic needs
Blog Post
March 20, 2023
Supporting Public-Academic Library Partnerships
There are many intersections between public and community college libraries, both in the populations they serve and their functions within their local communities. However, there is little guidance on how to forge partnerships between these sectors to maximize resources and better serve students and the larger community. Today, I am delighted to announce the launch of a three-year research initiative funded by ECMC Foundation to help equip the library community to develop and maximize partnerships in order to better provide…
Blog Post
December 6, 2022
What Colleges Need to Know About Reentry
Takeaways from the Education Justice Project's Reentry Guide
The Education Justice Project (EJP) recently released its “National 2022 Interactive Reentry Guide, Mapping Your Future.” With the restoration of Pell funding for students in prison set to take effect July 1, 2023, it will be more important than ever for colleges and universities to build their awareness of the reentry process and the resources these students will need to support their success.
Past Event
June 23, 2022
Ithaka S+R at ALA
Meet up with Nicole Betancourt, Melissa Blankstein, and Kurtis Tanaka
If you are headed to the ALA Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, we encourage you to meet up with the Ithaka S+R staff who will be in attendance: Nicole Betancourt, Survey and Research Operations Analyst, runs our local surveys program. Connect with her on Twitter or via email if you would like to reach out about running a survey of your faculty or students in the 2022/23 academic year.
Blog Post
May 2, 2022
Addressing Food Insecurity Will Pay Off for States
In order to achieve their ambitious attainment goals, most states will need to rapidly increase credential production. Increasing attainment improves a state’s fiscal outlook, increases individual wages, improves individual health and life outcomes, and increases civic engagement. However, our research suggests that most states’ goals will remain out of reach unless their plans…
Issue Brief
April 28, 2022
Supporting Low-Income Students with SNAP
States and institutions of higher education have, until recently, been approaching the problem of student food insecurity in separate, sometimes contradictory ways. While some institutions have developed wrap-around assistance programs for low-income students that have improved retention and completion rates, the students with the most needs often attend institutions with the fewest resources to support them. Developing state policies that support low-income students will not only increase the number of successful graduates but also improve students’ work-readiness and earning potential.
Past Event
February 17, 2022
Melissa Blankstein at the DREAM 2022 conference
On Thursday, February 17, from 3:00-3:30 pm EST, Melissa Blankstein will present on “Leveraging the 21st Century Academic Library: Opportunities for Collaboration for Student Success” at the DREAM 2022 conference. For more information, please visit the conference website. Abstract How can your library best position itself to support students holistically? Current library programs often straddle both missions of academic and student affairs–how can this unique role be maximized to enhance both institutional and student success? Join representatives from Bunker…
Blog Post
January 13, 2022
15 Best Practices for Basic Needs Data Collection and Management in Higher Education
Over the past two years, we have been examining how community colleges define and measure student success. Through an extensive landscape review, interviews with institutional research and effectiveness officers, and a national survey of community college provosts, it has become clear that student success is often tied to whether students’ basic needs are being met sufficiently. But collecting data on basic needs—such as…
Blog Post
August 2, 2021
Leading Community College Libraries During the Pandemic
Library Directors Share Their Experiences
Community colleges and their students have faced enormous challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two-year colleges serve especially diverse student populations, including a high percentage of students of color, first-generation students, working students, and student parents, many of whom have been disproportionately impacted by the social, economic, and public health effects of the pandemic. Community colleges have made considerable efforts to meet student needs, despite having fewer resources than most four-year colleges and universities…
Blog Post
April 28, 2021
What Will it Take to Move the Needle on Student Basic Needs?
Last year, we released a landscape review delving into how different metrics of student success are currently prioritized, defined, quantified, and used within the community college sector—examining how traditional metrics of success, like those aligning with typical college objectives like graduation, retention, enrollment, and course completion, are more often prioritized and required for funding, accountability, and accreditation purposes. Subsequent interviews with institutional research and effectiveness officers provided even…
Research Report
April 28, 2021
Moving the Needle on College Student Basic Needs
National Community College Provost Perspectives
For many years, higher education data collection and funding efforts have focused on student success metrics like enrollment, graduation, retention, and course completion rates. At the same time, higher education leaders have become increasingly aware—in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic—of the vast array of challenges that college students face outside of the classroom that prevent them from fully succeeding. To shed light on the challenges and opportunities associated with the collection and prioritization of a broader set of student…
Past Event
April 28, 2021
Christine Wolff-Eisenberg and Melissa Blankstein at NISOD 2021
Christine Wolff-Eisenberg and Melissa Blankstein will unveil brand new national survey findings of community college provosts on efforts to measure and address student basic needs. Join them to discuss the current landscape of metrics for determining student success and opportunities for including new holistic student metrics going forward. For more information, please visit this site. …
Blog Post
October 27, 2020
Student Success, Basic Needs, and the COVID-19 Pandemic
Institutional Research Perspectives on Holistic Student Success Metrics
This year has undoubtedly been marked with unprecedented challenges for higher education, as we and others have documented through ever-building evidence from students, faculty, and administrators alike. As colleges and universities work to maintain enrollment, retention, and student learning outcomes, they are grappling with how to better understand and address the challenges their students are facing. The growing urgency to support students holistically—that…
Blog Post
September 30, 2020
Holistically Measuring Student Success
Higher education institutions often use quantitative, outcome-based metrics to define student success. These measurements, which are reported to and used by government, regulatory, and accrediting agencies, are influential for decision-making, benchmarking, ranking, and most importantly, funding. However, these traditional outcome metrics provide a limited view of the goals, challenges, and experiences of college students, especially those who attend community colleges. Employing additional, holistic metrics—such as those that focus on basic needs, feelings…
Research Report
September 30, 2020
Measuring the Whole Student
Landscape Review of Traditional and Holistic Approaches to Community College Student Success
As colleges and universities work to enhance student success, they frequently use traditional outcome-based metrics—such as graduation rates, year-to-year retention, and post-graduation employment—to define that “success.” These measurements, which throughout this report we refer to as traditional metrics, are often prioritized across higher education given their impact on and consequences toward institutional decision-making, benchmarking, and most importantly, funding. While these quantitative metrics can provide a useful—albeit limited—view into student experiences inside and outside of the classroom, they often focus on…
Blog Post
September 23, 2020
A Letter to College Administrators
Considerations for Virtual Learning
Kimmy Cacciato graduated from The College of New Jersey with a major in Deaf/Hard of Hearing Education – Mathematics Teaching. This fall, she returned to TCNJ to pursue an MAT in Deaf/Hard of Hearing Education. She is currently serving as a student advisor to Ithaka S+R’s Holistic Metrics of Student Success project. Dear College Administrators, As a senior I thought I had it all figured out. But then COVID-19 hit, and the game changed. As we all experienced, there…
Blog Post
September 3, 2020
What Your Students Want to Hear
Effective Communications in the Time of COVID-19
Kimmy Cacciato is currently serving as a student advisor to the Ithaka S+R Holistic Metrics of Student Success project. She graduated from The College of New Jersey with a major in Deaf/Hard of Hearing Education – Mathematics Teaching. This fall, she is returning to TCNJ to pursue an MAT in Deaf/Hard of Hearing Education. During this time of uncertainty, effectively communicating with students is more important than ever. Campus administrators and…
Blog Post
November 21, 2019
Increasing Awareness of Basic Needs
Holistic Measures of Student Success for Community College Leaders
Higher education institutions typically use quantitative metrics like year-to-year retention rates, graduation rates, and post-secondary outcomes to measure student success. Most, if not all, institutions are required to report these data to government, regulatory, and accreditation agencies, and use them for benchmarking and measuring progress towards goals. To date, however, the student perspective of what success means — and what barriers stand in the way of achieving it — has often been omitted from these practices. Our research with seven…
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 16, 2019
Why we are adding a basic needs module to the Ithaka S+R local surveys
Students often struggle with balancing their personal, professional, and academic responsibilities, including affording their most basic needs in conjunction with course expenses. Recognizing this reality, we will be offering a basic needs module for the Ithaka S+R local student surveys starting in spring 2020. In late 2018, colleagues and I worked in partnership with a cohort of community colleges to survey their students about their goals and challenges.