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Topic: Student learning and outcomes

Blog Post
October 15, 2024

American Talent Initiative Awards Grants to 16 Colleges and Universities

Five Million Dollars to Advance Innovative Practices to Support More Low-Income Students

The American Talent Initiative (ATI) has seen an 18,100 increase in the enrollment of students with Pell Grants since its founding in 2015. To continue and build on this progress, ATI is awarding $5 million in grants across 16 ATI-member institutions to support innovative strategies that break barriers and increase college access and success for lower-income students. The 16 institutions were selected from a competitive pool of 47 applicants.
Case Study
October 15, 2024

College Fluency Capacity Building

Insights from a Northeastern Community College

The Borough of Manhattan Community College and Ithaka S+R, with support from IMLS, are publishing a series of case studies to understand how institutions are currently addressing college fluency needs. The second case study in this series looks at a small northeastern community college that has been developing college fluency programs with both their library and non-library faculty and staff.
Research Report
October 7, 2024

Uneven Terrain

Learning Spaces in Higher Education in Prison

How can prison education programs fulfill their obligation to provide their students with an educational experience that is as close as possible to the one of students on main campuses? Thus far, our research into equitable access has focused largely on instructional delivery and practices, and technological access and use. This report broadens our interrogation of that central question by exploring the role of space, architecture, and design in the context of higher education in prison.
Past Event
October 17, 2024

Re-Enrolling Adult Learners with Administrative Holds and Past Due Balances

When students with some college, no credential (SCNC) are unable to re-enroll at their former institutions, institutions lose out on potential enrollments and students lose out on continuing their education. A number of administrative and financial barriers stand in the way of reenrollment, including transcript holds, registration holds, past due balances, and other related issues. To help address these barriers within Kentucky, the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) partnered with Ithaka S+R to identify a set of actionable recommendations related…
Blog Post
September 30, 2024

An Introduction to Reentry Service Provision and Community Partnership for College Administrators

New Report

When revised federal Pell Grant regulations went into effect in July of 2023, one of the provisions stipulated that college in prison programs would now be obliged to document how they or the organizations they partner with provide reentry services. Ithaka S+R’s new report, Exploring the Landscape of College and Community Reentry Partnerships, examines how colleges and community organizations can best partner to deliver effective services for reintegrating students. This report represents the first findings from a multi-year project…
Research Report
September 30, 2024

Exploring the Landscape of College and Community Reentry Partnerships

Now that federal Pell Grant funding has been reinstated for learners who are incarcerated, the field is in flux. Higher education in prison programs are adapting and developing their practices to meet new policy and regulation needs. Two major facets of the revised regulations for Pell funding are particularly critical for college in prison programs, namely the requirement to track and report student data, and the obligation to document how they or their partner organizations provide reentry services.
Past Event
October 7, 2024

Ithaka S+R Research on Sustaining OER

Open 2030 Working Group Meeting

At the Open 2030 Working Group Meeting on October 7 at 11:00am, Ithaka S+R’s Ioana Hulbert, Deirdre Harkins, and Mark McBride will present on Ithaka S+R research on sustaining open educational resources (OER) and OER usage for teaching and learning. The Open 2030 Working Group, comprised of thought leaders and educational innovators and funders, focuses on building educational equity and social justice through OER.
Past Event
October 1, 2024

Tracking – and Reporting – Students’ Participation and Gains from Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement

Ithaka S+R’s Ioana Hulbert and Deirdre Harkins will join David Paris, Charles Ansell, and Jillian Kinzie in a panel on “Tracking — and Reporting — Students’ Participation and Gains from Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement,” sharing insights from a recent Ithaka S+R report exploring the link between higher education and civic engagement. The panel is scheduled to take place on October 1 at 4:10pm at a virtual event led by Civic Learning for an Engaged Democracy. Learn more about…
Past Event
October 3, 2024

Universal Transfer Explorer

This session at the South Carolina Transfer Excellence Convening will include a demo of the in-development Transfer Explorer website and draw from Ithaka S+R’s research on CUNY Transfer Explorer and Holistic Credit Mobility to demonstrate the importance of comprehensive credit mobility technology solutions for students and institutions. Join the session on October 3, 2024 at 2:20pm – 3:30pm ET, with Ithaka S+R’s Emily Tichenor.
Blog Post
September 19, 2024

The American Talent Initiative Student Success Research Grant Program Funds Five Mission-Aligned Projects

The American Talent Initiative (ATI) is committed to creating postsecondary opportunities for low- and moderate-income students and expanding this group’s access to high-graduation-rate institutions. ATI supports its member institutions by organizing communities of practice to enable peer-to-peer sharing among institutions, collecting and analyzing data to identify trends and best-practices, creating practical analytic tools to develop effective financial aid strategies, and advising presidents on ways to increase the pipeline of low- and moderate-income students into their institutions. To further this…
Past Event
November 20, 2024

Lessons Learned from the Kessler Scholars Collaborative to Support FGLI Students from Rural Communities

Support systems and resources for first-generation, limited-income (FGLI) college students have steadily increased, but the distinct needs and challenges of rural FGLI students are often overlooked. These students bring unique experiences and face challenges that can be minimized with tailored support to enhance their college experiences. Recognizing these students’ diverse and intersecting identities is crucial in our efforts to create inclusive and affirming spaces where all FGLI students can thrive. During an interactive session at the 2024 FGLI Consortium…
Past Event
November 19, 2024

Using a Holistic Credit Mobility Strategy to Improve Student Success

At the Complete College America Annual Convening on November 19 at 11:30am-12:15pm, Elise Miller McNeely and Kyle Gray will highlight Ithaka S+R’s holistic credit mobility framework as well as share examples of systems and institutions using technology, policy, and practices to support students as they navigate the higher education system and accumulate credits from multiple sources and thorough multiple modalities. Learn more about the session.
Issue Brief
September 10, 2024

Transfer Credit Information at Your Fingertips

Preliminary Findings on Use and Implementation of CUNY Transfer Explorer

CUNY Transfer Explorer (CUNY T-Rex) was developed to simplify the transfer of credits and represents an at-scale technology tool solution that provides transparent and up-to-date information about transfer credit equivalencies to students, faculty, and advisors. We undertook a mixed-methods evaluation to understand the process, conditions, and business requirements that were involved in the launch and proliferation of CUNY T-Rex, as well as to understand the behaviors, uses, and implementation of CUNY T-Rex at individual institutions and system wide.
Blog Post
September 5, 2024

Highlights from the SHEEO Annual Policy Conference

State Higher Education Executives Convene to Talk Policy, Research, and Data

Last month, several Ithaka S+R staff members attended—and presented at—the State Higher Education Executive Officers annual policy conference in Washington, DC. Themes from the conference included how states are addressing the current skepticism about the value of higher education, the importance of aligning higher education to meet workforce needs, the growth of artificial intelligence and its impact on the higher education sector, re-engagement of adult learners, improving transfer, and the importance of using research data to support policy- and…
Blog Post
September 4, 2024

Improving Holistic Credit Mobility to Help Adult Learners Succeed

A New RFP from Ithaka S+R and Complete College America

Today’s postsecondary students accumulate credits from various sources of learning, and most attend multiple institutions on their path to earning a credential. This presents challenges for the states, systems, and institutions as they work to support these students on their educational journeys. To help the higher education community find solutions, Ithaka S+R and Complete College America are launching a coalition of institutions committed to advancing comprehensive methods of credit transfer. We call this approach holistic credit mobility. …
Past Event
September 17, 2024

Holistic Credit Mobility (HCM) Cohort Request for Proposals Information Session

On September 16th from 12:00 to 1:00pm ET, join Ithaka S+R and Complete College America for an informational webinar presenting an overview of the Holistic Credit Mobility (HCM) cohort project and the recent Request for Proposals. This next phase of the HCM project, a collaboration with Complete College America (CCA), will include supporting the early-stage work of a cohort of systems or institutional consortia seeking to improve credit mobility through one or more of the three pillars of…
Blog Post
August 27, 2024

Fostering a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Highlights from the 2024 Kessler Scholars Collaborative Annual Convening

Last month, leadership and staff from the 16 partner institutions of the Kessler Scholars Collaborative gathered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the annual Kessler Scholars Summer Convening. The Kessler Scholars Collaborative brings together campus partner staff each summer for an annual convening designed to build community, foster opportunities for shared learning, and support the growth and advancement of first-generation students. The 2024 convening was co-hosted by the Collaborative and the University of Pittsburgh, and included representatives from Ithaka S+R, the Aspen…
Past Event
November 8, 2024

Empowering Librarians to Support Students Navigating College with College Fluency

College fluency—the knowledge and abilities enabling students to effectively access, and utilize, and advocate for needed college services and resources. In a session at the Library Assessment Conference in Portland, Oregon, Melissa Blankstein and Elmira Jangjou will share insights from an Ithaka S+R project empowering librarians to support students navigating college with college fluency. This IMLS-funded research initiative explores how leaders, faculty, and staff members both within and outside of the library respond to students’ non-curricular inquiries, how familiar…
Past Event
September 16, 2024

Supporting Students by Reframing the Higher Education Experience

Library Research Seminar: Telling Library Stories

“For me the college is just so big. Sometimes you get bounced back and forth from departments to departments… you get lost in bureaucracy.” For prospective and current students, the culture, nomenclature, and organization of higher education systems is often confusing, creating barriers to accessing needed services and information for enrollment and persistence. At the Library Research Seminar: Telling Library Stories conference on Monday, September 16, Melissa Blankstein will join a panel with jean amaral (Borough of Manhattan Community…
Blog Post
August 21, 2024

Increasing Adult and Latino Adult Student Success

New Report from Ithaka S+R and CAEL on the Latino and Adult Student Success Academy

Latino student enrollment at postsecondary institutions has increased significantly over the past few decades. Between 1980 and 2020, the number of Latino students enrolled at a degree-granting institution in the United States grew from 470,000, representing just four percent of students enrolled in a postsecondary institution, to 3.7 million students, representing 20 percent. Despite this tremendous growth, Latinos are less likely to be enrolled in college or have a bachelor’s degree than Asian, White, and Black Americans. However,…