Topic: Student learning and outcomes
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,…
Past Event
September 10, 2024
Using Student Data to Tackle Attrition and Boost Student Success and Retention
Access-oriented, tuition-dependent colleges and universities are grappling with ways to enroll more new students and retain those already enrolled. At the 2024 SREB Student Success Summit in Kentucky on September 10, Ithaka S+R’s Daniel Rossman will lead a session describing key findings and takeaways from Ithaka S+R’s recent engagements with three four-year institutions in which Ithaka S+R collected and analyzed student data to uncover barriers to retention and present strategies and recommendations for addressing them. …
Past Event
November 20, 2024
Communities of Practice: Advancing Institutional and Collective Impact in the American Talent Initiative
This presentation at the 2024 FGLI Consortium Annual Conference will explore how Communities of Practice (CoPs) have been pivotal in advancing the American Talent Initiative’s (ATI) efforts to attract, enroll, and graduate Pell-eligible students with first-generation and other underrepresented student intersections. The panel will examine how Ithaka S+R and the Aspen Institute collaborate in shaping and facilitating these communities, responding to the needs of higher education administrators, leaders, and practitioners in an evolving CoP structure. With detailed examples and best…
Blog Post
August 6, 2024
Using Student Data to Tackle Attrition and Boost Student Success and Retention
Despite gains in higher education enrollment in the 2023-24 academic year–the first increase following years of enrollment declines–an impending drop in the country’s college-going population threatens the prospect of future enrollment growth and stability. To that end, colleges and universities need timely and data-driven insights on the drivers of attrition and the policies that might impede or support progress to better meet the needs of students and increase student success and ultimately retention.
Past Event
October 1, 2024
Transfer Credit Information at your Fingertips
Preliminary Findings on Use and Implementation of CUNY Transfer Explorer
CUNY T-Rex, launched in May 2020, is a publicly accessible tool that allows any user (inside and outside of CUNY) to see how courses at one CUNY college are treated at any other CUNY college after transfer. Over the past year, Ithaka S+R conducted a qualitative research study to examine the use and implementation of CUNY T-Rex amongst stakeholders. In this session, Ithaka S+R’s Madeline Trimble and Pooja Patel will provide an overview of the tool’s development and introduce the…
Past Event
September 6, 2024
Assessing the Civic Campus with Ithaka S+R
On September 6 at 2:00-3:00pm ET, join AASCU and Ithaka S+R for an interactive webinar that shares insights from a recent report exploring the link between higher education and civic engagement. The report draws on studies from the past few decades and focuses on how researchers and practitioners define civic engagement, the nature of the relationship between higher education and civic behaviors and attitudes, the equity implications of civic education, and what the research says about the effectiveness…
Blog Post
July 30, 2024
Using Student Data to Understand the Economic Value of a Liberal Education
Announcing a New Project
The question of the economic value of the liberal arts and sciences has long captivated the public imagination and vexed stakeholders across the higher education landscape. Proponents argue that exposure to a liberal education prepares students to think critically, communicate effectively, and adapt flexibly to the changing demands of the labor market. Critics argue that without the technical or “hard” skills sought in our increasingly technology-driven economy, students will not succeed in the job market and earn high wages. Now,…
Blog Post
July 23, 2024
Next Steps in Student Mobility
Ithaka S+R and Complete College America Partner to Support Student Success through Holistic Credit Mobility Policies, Practices, and Technologies
The typical postsecondary student of 2024 accumulates credits from multiple sources and attends multiple institutions before earning a credential. Yet many of our state, system, and institutional policies and practices have not adapted to this reality. To help address this challenge and support the higher education community in better serving today’s mobile students, Ithaka S+R and Complete College America are collaborating on a new, multi-faceted project, with funding from Ascendium Education Group. Through conducting research, launching a cohort of networks…
Blog Post
July 18, 2024
Defining Undergraduate Research Across Disciplines
Takeaways from ConnectUR
Identified as a high-impact practice by the American Association of Colleges and Universities in 2008, undergraduate research, scholarship, or creative activity is known to be especially transformative for underrepresented students, who are likely to face more barriers to participation. While most scholarship and funding of undergraduate research experiences is centered on the sciences, universities are making efforts to provide equivalent experiences for undergraduates in the arts, humanities, and social sciences—especially in the first two years of undergraduate study.
Issue Brief
July 11, 2024
Evaluating the Kessler Scholars Program
Findings from the Academic Year 2022-23
Ithaka S+R has served as the external evaluation partner for the Kessler Scholars Collaborative since 2022 when the network expanded to 16 institutions. The evaluation is a five-year, mixed-methods, formative assessment, which aims to support implementation and maximize impact across the entire network and at each of the 16 participating institutions. This Ithaka S+R evaluation builds on an evaluation of the program's initial years gathered by the Center for Education Design, Evaluation, and Research (CEDER) at the University of Michigan.
Past Event
July 19, 2024
Chess or Tic-Tac-Toe: Strategies to Build Bridges in Civic Engagement
Ithaka S+R’s Ioana Hulbert will participate in a panel discussion at the AASCU 2024 Summer Meeting for Academic and Student Affairs Leaders. On Friday, July 19 at 8:30-9:20am, the session will focus on strategies to build bridges in civic engagement, with Catherine Copeland, Timothy K. Eatman, Steven Koether, Elizabeth Parmelee, and Willie Redmond. She will share more insights from Ithaka S+R’s recent collaboration with AASCU on the link between higher education and civic engagement in a poster session on…
Blog Post
July 9, 2024
Digital Innovation in Dual Enrollment
Insights from the Digital Innovation for Equity & Excellence in College Admissions Cohort
The inaugural 2023-24 cohort of the Digital Innovation for Equity & Excellence in College Admissions (DIEECA) community seeks to open additional postsecondary pathways for the pool of well-prepared, diverse high school graduates in the United States. Composed of 12 highly selective colleges and universities from the American Talent Initiative, these institutions are leveraging technology solutions to devise novel strategies that enhance the recruitment and enrollment of students from low- and…
Issue Brief
July 9, 2024
Leveraging Digital Innovation in College Admissions and Dual Enrollment
Many selective colleges and universities are considering alternate strategies to enroll diverse student bodies following the 2023 US Supreme Court ruling against race-conscious admissions. Developing high-quality online courses for college credit, and offering them to students at lower-income high schools in a hybrid format, has the potential to both increase the pool of well-prepared, diverse high school graduates and create a direct recruitment pipeline for these institutions, and others.
Past Event
June 7, 2024
AI Powered Student Engagement and Success
Ithaka S+R’s Claire Baytas presented at the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) webinar as part of the AI Powered Student Engagement and Success series, for the Council on Information Measurement and Analysis (CIMA) and Council of Student Affairs (CSA). The slides and recording are available on the APLU website.