Topic: Student outcomes
Case Study
February 14, 2024
Texas Student Success Programs Poised for Impact
Highlighting High Potential
Each student enters college with their own unique set of goals, lived experiences, challenges, and hopes. Postsecondary institutions are challenged to build robust student supports that help these students each achieve their own version of success. This requires developing supports that work for a wide variety of target populations, such as for traditional-aged students entering college directly after high school as well as for returning adults seeking to build on credits they earned elsewhere a decade ago.
Blog Post
February 13, 2024
No Longer Stranded?
How New Department of Education Rule Creates Opportunities for Students and Institutions
In 2020, Ithaka S+R estimated that approximately 6.6 million students did not have access to their educational transcripts due to past due balances, resulting in stranded credits. This challenge may impact any student, but our research indicated it was more likely to affect students who identified as women, racial and ethnic minorities, and those from low-income backgrounds. During our initial investigation of stranded credits, we found that nearly all higher education institutions used transcript holds as a tool to…
Blog Post
February 6, 2024
Unveiling AI in Academia
Insights from the University of Baltimore's Study
In September 2023, Ithaka S+R kicked off its Making AI Generative for Higher Education project, a two year collaboration with 19 universities who are committed to learning about generative AI’s impact on higher education and developing institution-specific strategies to best leverage the technology. This fall and winter, each university in the cohort has been focused on assessing the needs and experiences of their campus communities in relation to generative AI. One of these institutions, the University of Baltimore, surveyed…
Past Event
February 20, 2024
Expanding Access to Adult Learners with Institutional Debt
Achieving the Dream Conference 2024
Join us at the Achieving the Dream annual conference in Orlando, Florida for a session on the Ohio College Compact presented by Ithaka S+R’s Joanna Dressel and Brittany Pearce. The Ohio College Comeback Compact is a novel approach to re-enrolling adult learners with some college, no credential (SCNC) who stopped out with institutional debt that inhibits their return to higher education, whether back to their original institution or to a new institution. The Compact permits these students to…
Past Event
March 5, 2024
Shark Tank: Edu Edition
SXSW EDU 2024 Session
The Chronicle of Higher Education’s ninth annual pitch-a-thon pays homage to the TV show, but with a twist. The panel of experts bring a mix of viewpoints—from a journalist, a college-president-turned-equity expert, and an entrepreneur—weighing in on transformative ideas from contestants representing new companies, nonprofits, and big dreamers for improving the college experience. Panelists include Goldie Blumenstyk (The Chronicle of Higher Education), Catharine Bond Hill (Ithaka S+R), and Paul Freedman (Guild Education). Learn more about the panel, on…
Past Event
March 14, 2024
Improving Accreditation through NACIQI Oversight
At the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) Annual Conference on March 14, 2024, Ithaka S+R’s Bethany Lewis will present findings from a qualitative study examining the relationship between the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) and individual higher education accrediting organizations, with a focus on meaningful ways NACIQI can influence accreditors’ behaviors that may lead to improved student outcomes. Learn more about the conference.
Blog Post
January 22, 2024
Announcing a New Project on Higher Education, Civic Engagement, and Democracy
Political polarization, mis/disinformation, and the lack of civil deliberation are affecting campus climates across the country, while at the same time trust in colleges and universities is on the decline. Against this backdrop, how are higher education institutions thinking about their role in stewarding democratic principles and civic engagement, and what are they doing to shape informed, active citizens? To begin answering those questions, today we are thrilled to share that Ithaka S+R is collaborating with the American…
Blog Post
January 18, 2024
Understanding ROI on Postsecondary Education
Using Data to Support Strategic State Investments
The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) recently shared findings from their annual survey, shedding light on the top ten policy priorities among the public executives in each state responsible for overseeing postsecondary education. Topping the list were three key areas: (1) supporting workforce and economic development, (2) ensuring adequate funding for public colleges and universities, and (3) addressing the growing concern among students and the public regarding the value of a college degree. States need better data…
Past Event
February 22, 2024
ACT Community of Practice: Collaboratively Designing a System-wide Student Transfer Tool
National Institute for Transfer Student Success Annual Conference
At the National Institute for Transfer Student Success Annual Conference, this session will spotlight how the ACT Community of Practice has been vital in the development, enhancement and implementation of CUNY Transfer Explorer. Presenters Pooja Patel, Emily Tichenor, Rocio Rayo, and Tracy Newton will give a brief background of the Community of Practice’s inception and discuss how the model has fostered collaboration across colleges within CUNY and across systems between CUNY and SUNY. Examples of activities, discussions, and contributions…
Past Event
February 21, 2024
The Enormous Benefits of Credit Mobility Transparency: CUNY Transfer Explorer as a National Model
National Institute for Transfer Student Success Annual Conference
Having faculty work together to articulate courses and programs across institutions is notorious for taking years to complete, if it completes at all. In a session at the National Institute for Transfer Student Success Annual Conference in St. Louis, MO, Ithaka S+R’s Martin Kurzweil will join Lexa Logue and David Wutchiett to describe an alternative approach for facilitating student transfer consisting of obtaining high-quality credit transfer information and then making it public, enabling students intending to transfer and those persons…
Blog Post
November 30, 2023
Improving Data Collection and Management Practices to Understand Stranded Credits
Institutional debt is an understudied and overlooked type of student debt that hinders stopped-out students’ ability to complete or further their education. This specific debt often results in “stranded credits”—earned credits that students cannot access because their former institution is withholding their transcript or blocking registration until they settle their unpaid balance. Institution record systems are not designed to facilitate easy access to understanding who is affected by stranded credits. But, with small changes and greater collaboration, institutions…
Blog Post
November 16, 2023
Supporting College Teaching
Providing excellent instruction is a key priority across colleges and universities in the United States, but the on-the-ground experiences and needs of college teachers are often taken for granted. When approached thoughtfully, evidence about how faculty teach can be used to make meaningful interventions into their day-to-day activities, which in turn benefits their students. Today, we’re publishing a new issue brief intended to serve as a resource for institutions working to improve their support for college instruction through cross-unit…
Issue Brief
November 16, 2023
Who Cares About College Teachers?
An essential step to refining an institution's underlying strategy for advancing teaching and learning excellence is to understand the models for instructor support at universities and how evidence about teacher practices and needs is used to inform those services. This paper outlines which units on campus have instructional support mandates and how those units typically engage with teachers both at their own institution and nationally.
Research Report
November 9, 2023
Institutional Supports for Students with Stranded Credits
Survey Results from the Ohio College Comeback Compact
As of 2023, 43.6 million borrowers owe more than $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. The burden of debt negatively impacts borrowers' ability to provide for their families, purchase a car, or buy a home. However, there is another, often overlooked, institutional debt that students may owe their former institutions after stopping out. It is estimated that 6.6 million students owe $15 billion in unpaid balances to their institutions.
Blog Post
November 8, 2023
Op-Ed in The Hill Highlights Opportunities Following Education Department’s New Transcript Withholding Ban
Almost exactly three years after Ithaka S+R first published national research on “stranded credits”—credits that students have earned but can’t access because their college is holding their transcript and blocking registration until they pay a balance due—the federal government is on the verge of eliminating transcript withholding as a debt collection practice. In a new op-ed in The Hill, we discuss a package of regulations issued by the US Education Department and aimed at protecting beneficiaries of…
Past Event
November 30, 2023
Comprehensive Recruitment and Transfer Advising Tools for Student Success
Promoting Transfer Equity and Transparency in Higher Education
At the New York State Transfer and Articulation Association Downstate Meeting, Ithaka S+R’s Emily Tichenor will join Nechelle Calhoun, Lexa Logue, and Chris Buonocore in a panel on recruitment and transfer advising tools for student success. The session will include a presentation on the Ithaka S+R Articulation of Transfer Credit (ACT) project as well as a demo of CUNY T-Rex Transfer Explorer and Universal Transfer Explorer. The panel is scheduled for November 30 at 10am ET.
Blog Post
November 3, 2023
Revisiting Student Success
Insights from the 2023 NISOD Fall Virtual Conference
The National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) hosts an annual fall virtual conference to bring together faculty, librarians, and student support services personnel to exchange best practices aimed at enhancing student success in community and technical colleges. The conference schedule focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, holistic student supports, and teaching across different modalities. Sessions highlighted insights from faculty and staff across different departments on how to improve students’ educational experiences and equip them for success…
Blog Post
November 1, 2023
The Importance of Student Veteran Belonging
Over the past summer, we spoke with institutional and organizational leaders committed to supporting student veterans in higher education, and in every conversation, we heard about the importance of belonging to student veteran success. Many of these administrators and leaders observed that today’s student veterans are not who most faculty members, administrators, and other students think they are. For more than a decade, the image of the typical student veteran was shaped by the public image of combatants returning…
Blog Post
October 19, 2023
Assessing the Effectiveness of Transfer Associate Degrees in Washington
In the state of Washington, 45 percent of bachelor’s degree earners at its public universities transfer from a Washington community and technical college (CTC), similar to the average transfer rate nationally. Considering how many students in Washington take this path to a credential, it is important for the state to understand how various transfer pathways and transfer degrees impact student outcomes.
Blog Post
October 17, 2023
Best Practices at the Institutional Level
Enrolling and Supporting Student Veterans
Last month, my colleagues and I spoke with institutional representatives from five different institutions: Columbia University, Cornell University, Syracuse University, Texas A&M, and the University of Chicago. These institutions all have a strong commitment to student veteran enrollment, but are at different stages of the process. For example, Cornell and UChicago have been actively scaling up the enrollment of veterans over the last few years, while Texas A&M has long enrolled many hundreds of veterans each year. At Columbia and…