Topic: Student learning and outcomes
Blog Post
November 4, 2025
The Liberal Arts in Challenging Times
Webinar Recording
Last month, I had the opportunity to take part in “The Liberal Arts in Challenging Times,” a webinar that explored the value of a liberal arts and sciences education and strategies for strengthening it across the higher education sector. As part of the session, I highlighted key findings from our recent report, Measuring the Economic Value of a Liberal Education, and suggested some ways to conceptualize what a “liberal education” encompasses, its impact on civic engagement and career adaptability,…
Upcoming Event
November 12, 2025
Leveraging Collaboration to Address Barriers to Adult Learner Re-Enrollment
In this session at the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) Conference in Memphis, TN, representatives from the Tennessee Adult Learner Working Group will share insights from their collaboration across ten participating community colleges that audience members can bring home to their own institutions and systems. Panelists Lindsay Hager, Jessica Gibson, and Joanna Dressel will share how the working group structured collaborations within and across institutions, what participating members learned about adult learners with SCNC, and how they…
Blog Post
November 3, 2025
Strategies to Support Adult Learner Enrollment and Success
Highlights from a New Playbook
To celebrate the publication of our new playbook and the success of the Pennsylvania Adult Learner Re-Engagement Community of Practice, Ithaka S+R is hosting a virtual convening on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, from 9:30am-12:00pm ET. Individuals interested in supporting adult learner enrollment and success from institutions, community organizations, and policy spaces are invited to attend. The convening will feature presentations and discussions with institutions about strategies implemented during the community of practice, conversations about future work related to adult…
Playbook
November 3, 2025
Re-Engaging Adult Learners with Some College but No Credential in Pennsylvania
A Playbook
This playbook is designed to help institutions think about the key strategies and concrete next steps to engage and support adult learners from pre-enrollment through credential completion. It is organized around four areas of impact in the adult learner re-enrollment journey, which guided the year-long Pennsylvania Adult Learner Re-Engagement Community of Practice. Over 50 institutions were represented in the community of practice, including public and private four-year colleges, community colleges, occupational training providers, and more.
Upcoming Event
November 15, 2025
Measuring the Economic Value of a Liberal Education
At the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Conference in Denver, CO, Ithaka S+R’s Kyle Gray and Daniel Rossman will introduce a new methodological framework to measure how individual students’ exposure to a liberal arts educational experience relates to academic, labor market, and civic outcomes. The study found that greater exposure is positively associated with academic performance, educational attainment, career adaptability, civic engagement, and openness to diversity and pluralism. The session will take place on November…
Past Event
November 3, 2025
Accelerating Holistic Credit Mobility – What is it? Why now?
The Credit Mobility Convening, hosted by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), will bring together stakeholders from Pennsylvania and surrounding states who care to improve credit mobility, with breakout sessions highlighting promising approaches related to improving transfer and credit mobility, technology tools to improve transfer resources for students, and granting credit for prior learning and military experiences. Madeline Trimble will provide an opening address laying out the holistic credit mobility framework and why it matters, and Pooja Patel…
Blog Post
October 14, 2025
Keeping the Value of the Liberal Arts in Mind as “Workforce Pell” Becomes Reality
Federal financial aid for short-term certificate programs, dubbed “Workforce Pell,” is now the law of the land. By making it financially feasible for more students to enroll in these programs, this policy creates an opportunity for higher education institutions to expand existing short-term programs or offer new ones. With public confidence in higher education broadly declining over the last decade and affordability and a focus on practical skills cited as areas where higher education most needs to improve,…
Blog Post
October 9, 2025
“Who Isn’t in the Room Yet?”
Reflections from the Carolinas College Food Insecurity Summit
On September 27, I joined more than 100 advocates for students’ basic needs at the second annual Carolinas College Food Insecurity Summit at Newberry College in South Carolina. Participants gathered from across North and South Carolina, as well as Georgia, to share ideas, strategies, and challenges in addressing students’ basic needs. The event began with a welcome from David Coffman, who helps lead Newberry College’s Wolves Pantry, and reminded us that the tables in our lives, whether at…
Upcoming Event
November 12, 2025
Academic Momentum and Credit Mobility
Examining the Role of CUNY’s Transfer Explorer
At the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and Council on Public Policy Higher Education (CPPHE) Pre-Conference on November 12 at 9am-10:30am, Ithaka S+R’s Alex Monday will join David Wutchiett (CUNY) and Alexandra Logue (CUNY) to discuss how colleges and policymakers can serve student-parents, transfers, and scholars of color. The session will share findings from a study that evaluates CUNY’s Transfer Explorer (T-Rex) as a systems-level policy tool to enhance academic momentum and credit mobility. Findings show T-Rex use…
Blog Post
September 26, 2025
The Impact of Generative AI on the College Internship
Beneath the headlines of white collar lay-offs as companies explore the potential of generative AI to do entry-level office work, another change to the workforce is happening that may be of more immediate concern to current students and higher education institutions. The college internship is changing along with the rest of the American employment landscape. Students and administrators alike should prepare for what is happening now and begin thinking about what may happen over the next several years.
Blog Post
September 25, 2025
More Than a Major
Defining the Features of a Liberal Education
Prior research on the value of a liberal arts and sciences education has traditionally relied on two proxies for whether students receive a liberal education: what they majored in or what type of institution they attended. We contend that this view is limited. Rather than assume that major and institutional type are adequate proxies, our 2020 research led us to develop a clearer, more comprehensive definition and measure of a liberal education.
Past Event
October 22, 2025
The Liberal Arts in Challenging Times
Join us for a conversation on the future of the liberal arts in today’s uncertain and challenging times, on Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at 11:00 am – 12:30 pm ET. Hear from leaders in higher education as they discuss the value of a liberal arts education and strategies for strengthening it across the higher education sector. Register today Catharine Bond Hill, managing director of Ithaka S+R and former president of Vassar College, will…
Issue Brief
September 24, 2025
Supporting First-Generation Students in a Time of Crisis
Lessons from the Kessler Scholars Program Response to COVID-19
Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound effect on higher education and students. In the spring of 2020, amidst great uncertainty, many colleges and universities closed campuses and abruptly shifted from in-person to virtual instruction to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Several studies point to negative impacts of these disruptions on students, including reduced academic performance and learning loss,[1] decreased opportunities to participate in high-impact practices,[2] greater financial hardships, and basic…
Blog Post
September 19, 2025
Beyond the Barista Myth
Where Liberal Arts Graduates Actually Work
When people discuss the value of a liberal arts degree, one stereotype often emerges: the humanities graduate working at a coffee shop. This trope is widely used, but it does not reflect the evidence. In reality, graduates with liberal arts degrees, as we define them, are employed across nearly every sector of the economy, and in jobs at all levels of earnings.
Blog Post
September 18, 2025
Launching the Rural-Serving Institution Student Success Network
With support from ECMC Foundation, Ithaka S+R is forming a network of rural-serving institutions supporting student success and economic mobility. The two-year grant will help rural-serving institutions support community college transfer students and adult learners, and align their program offerings with local workforce needs. Rural-serving institutions are engines of opportunity and vital to their communities. Yet, many face unique challenges: shifting demographics, declining enrollment, and limited resources. Boosting enrollment, improving student outcomes, and aligning degree offerings with local and…
Upcoming Event
February 15, 2026
Design Thinking for First-Year Success
Create, Evaluate, and Transform Programs
In a session at the Conference on the First-Year Experience in Seattle, Washington, Ithaka S+R’s Carmen Araoz will join Christine Harrington and Michael Sparrow of Morgan State University to explore how design thinking can transform the first-year seminar, orientation, advising, and other FYE programs. During this interactive workshop participants will learn about using a first-year seminar assessment tool and engage in a user-centric design thinking approach to transform the first-year experience. The session is scheduled to take place on…
Past Event
November 5, 2025
Pennsylvania Adult Learner Re-Engagement Virtual Convening
Today, 37.6 million Americans under 65 have attended some college but hold no credential to show for it, due to financial, administrative, or practical obstacles. Against this backdrop, it’s crucial that higher education institutions redouble efforts to re-engage stopped out learners. Since 2022, we’ve worked across six states to streamline the path for adults on their way to a credential of value. In Pennsylvania, we’ve collaborated with the PA Department of…
Blog Post
September 11, 2025
Student Success Research Featured in Special Edition of Peabody Journal of Education
We are excited to announce the publication of a special issue of the Peabody Journal of Education, now available online and in print, featuring a series of original research articles that examine strategies for improving lower-income student success at high-graduation-rate institutions. You can read about the American Talent Initiative grant program that funded this research here, and find short summaries of the articles here. This special issue brings together a wide range of perspectives and methodologies, offering…
Blog Post
September 10, 2025
What the Proposed Federal Data Collection Changes Mean for IPEDS
On August 15, 2025, the US Department of Education published a notice in the Federal Register announcing proposed revisions to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The proposed changes would expand data collection to include new items on college admissions and applicants, such as standardized test scores, family income, information on students who apply but are not admitted, and disaggregate the data in very complex ways. Stakeholders are invited to comment on these revisions as part of…
Blog Post
September 9, 2025
Purposeful Cross-Sector Collaboration Boosts Learning Mobility and Student Success
As the “normal” higher education experience continues to evolve, to better serve students colleges and universities must not only work closely together across systems and regions, but they must also collaborate with K-12, employer, and community partners. These essential collaborations, when effective, can result in an interconnected ecosystem of learning opportunities that seamlessly connect students to careers. At the August convening of the holistic credit mobility acceleration cohort, participants discussed the opportunities and challenges of cross-sector collaboration within…