Topic: Student learning and outcomes

Ithaka S+R and Kentucky CPE worked together to understand how administrative holds and unpaid balances affect institutions and adults with come credit, no credential. This reportsummarizes our key findings and offers potential solutions for institutions and states across the country, using examples from Kentucky. Part one covers administrative holds, part two focuses on past due balances, and part three discusses how institutions can adjust to the changing landscape of administrative holds.

To further examine and develop effective strategies to foster college fluency, Ithaka S+R and BMCC have collaborated on the College Fluency Capacity Building initiative with support from IMLS. The fourth case study in this series looks at Montgomery County Community College in Pennsylvania and explores how effective MCCC has been at connecting students to resources even in the absence of a dedicated college fluency program, while pointing to the additional impact these efforts could have if they were formalized.

The American Talent Initiative’s Student Success Research Grant Program supported research studies aimed at deepening our understanding of the institutional practices and strategies that can improve student success at high-graduation-rate institutions. The findings will offer actionable recommendations for supporting lower-income students, while raising awareness of the challenges that they—and the institutions that serve them—continue to face. These short briefs aim to equip institutional leaders with key research insights, empowering them to implement strategies that foster meaningful, lasting change.

A growing body of research documents the barriers faced by incarcerated students—such as limited access to technology and conflicts with correctional staff—but far less attention has been paid to the role of the built environment in shaping educational experiences. This project, led by Ennead Lab and Ithaka S+R, examines how spatial, architecture, and design features impact learning inside prisons. It draws on qualitative interviews and site visits to advance both research findings and a portfolio of design interventions.

This report is the third in a three-part series examining how institutions of higher education have responded to state and federal policies limiting the use of transcript holds for unpaid balances, produced in partnership between Ithaka S+R and AACRAO. The prior reports explored the anticipated and actual impacts of the July 2024 federal regulation limiting transcript holds on higher education institutions in states that did not have existing laws related to the practice.

One way to achieve bachelor's degree attainment for community college transfer students at scale is through state- and region-level initiatives dedicated to supporting transfer from community colleges to independent colleges and universities. The Teagle Foundation and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations’ Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts initiative aimed to create such pathways. This playbook draws on the experiences of grantees building pathways in 14 states.

To understand the complex nature of learning recognition and credit transfer in American postsecondary education and examine the systemic barriers to entry many students face as they navigate its institutions, Ithaka S+R conducted a series of qualitative interviews in fall 2024 with state and system-level leaders in Idaho, Illinois, Ohio, and the University of North Carolina System, and representatives from Charter Oak State College and Florida International University.