The department invites submissions from institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, states, systems of higher education, adult education providers, researchers, and institutional faculty and staff, or consortia of these groups.

The aim is to collect strategies that could ...]]>

The U.S. Department of Education released a Request for Information on promising and practical strategies to increase postsecondary success.

The department invites submissions from institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, states, systems of higher education, adult education providers, researchers, and institutional faculty and staff, or consortia of these groups.

The aim is to collect strategies that could be replicated or scaled-up to meet national college-completion goals. In addition to information about the program or strategy, submissions should include information on the factors perceived as most important to successful implementation, a relevant context that enables successful practice, and any evidence available on the impact of the program or strategy.

This is the second round of requests; responses from the first round have been posted along with outcomes data.

New England submissions posted from the first round include:

• Boston College, “Learning to Learn”
• Cape Cod Community College, “College Reading and Study Skills Embedded in Learning Communities”
• Eastern Connecticut State University, “Predictive Analytics to Target Appropriate Resources to At-Risk Students”
• Eastern Connecticut State University/Quinebaug Valley Community College, “Dual Enrollment Program”
• Rhode Island College, “Paul V. Sherlock Center on Disabilities”
• Southern Vermont College, “Pipelines in Partnership”
• Western Connecticut State University, “Building a Bridge to Improve Student Success”

For more information, please contact Federick Winter at 202-502-7632 or frederick.winter[at]ed.gov.

The American Association ...]]>

The term "Access" has acquired a bit of a Rodney Dangerfield complex since back in the day when I suggested: "If one word captures the range of compelling issues that the New England Board of Higher Education should focus its energy on at the start of the new century, the word is access."

The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) wants you to know that access still deserves respect, even in an age when the focus on graduation rates makes the term "access" feel soft and fuzzy unless it's coupled with "success." It's especially tricky navigating in the case of community colleges, where access is the name of the game, or was.

"Community colleges provide access to higher education for nearly half of all minority undergraduate students and more than 40% of undergraduate students living in poverty," according to a new AACC policy brief called "Why Access Matters: The Community College Student Body."

"But the open door philosophy found at community colleges is not being rewarded by policymakers focused on completion rates and success indicators buoyed by enrollment data that does not accurately capture what community colleges do and whom they serve," says the paper funded partly by the Lumina Foundation.

More than eight in 10 community college students work while going to school and six in 10 work more than 20 hours a week. Holding a job can increase the chance that students do not successfully earn degrees.

"Community colleges offer higher education access to anyone who wants to learn, regardless of their income, status in life, age or ethnicity," said AACC President Walter G. Bumphus. "We fear that success indicators focused on degree completion only, will lead to restricting college access to those who are the most likely to succeed, not those who need it the most."

Related Posts:

Alignment Job: Community Colleges and Workforce Development

From Paternalism to Self-Advocacy: Obama’s community college graduation strategy and students with disabilities

Focus on Community College Issues (pdf)

Sbrega on Community Colleges and Graduation (pdf)

The policy guide cites Connecticut Public Act 04-212 as a low-cost way to coordinate workforce training and professional ...]]>

Policies to foster college completion in three New England states are cited in The College Completion Agenda 2011 Progress Report and State Policy Guide, new national reports published by the College Board and National Conference of State Legislatures.

The policy guide cites Connecticut Public Act 04-212 as a low-cost way to coordinate workforce training and professional advancement ladders for early-childhood providers.

The guide also profiles Rhode Island’s requirement that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education department work with schools districts that have dropout rates higher than 15%. The College Board also cites Rhode Island’s focus on revamping teacher-evaluation metrics to include student academic growth.

And it refers to the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, which aligns academic standards, curriculum frameworks, assessments, high school accountability measures, and teacher certification requirements, as one way to better coordinate K-12 education systems and college admissions expectations. Massachusetts is also cited for legislation requiring that all public colleges report annually to the governor and Legislature on measures including student college-completion rates.

The College Board outlines strategies for state legislators to adopt in increasing college completion in 10 categories:

1. Provide a program of voluntary preschool education;
2. Improve middle and high school college and career counseling;
3. Implement research-based dropout prevention programs;
4. Align K-12 education systems with international standards and college admissions expectations;
5. Improve teacher quality and focus on recruitment and retention;
6. Clarify and simplify the admission process;
7. Provide more need-based grant aid while simplifying and making financial aid processes more transparent;
8. Keep college affordable;
9. Dramatically increase college-completion rates; and
10. Provide postsecondary opportunities as an essential element of adult education programs.

From President Obama to private foundations ...]]>

The New England Board of Higher Education released a policy brief that encourages states to tie a portion of higher education appropriations to institutional outcomes. Currently, New England states tend to apportion institutional funding based on enrollment levels—a practice that rewards quantity, but not necessarily student success and degree attainment.

From President Obama to private foundations like Lumina and Gates, higher education stakeholders increasingly stress the significance of college persistence and degree completion to the national education agenda. If the U.S. is to thrive in a knowledge-based economy and remain globally competitive, American institutions must retain and graduate more students.

NEBHE—in its report entitled “Catalyst to Completion: Performance-Based Funding in Higher Education”—suggests that performance-based funding strategies can encourage student success. States should earmark at least 5% of higher education appropriations to reward institutional improvements in areas like: remediation, retention, degrees conferred, research and service dollars, and six-year graduation rate.

To make its case, the report examines performance-based funding strategies at work in three states: Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee. Each state, in consultation with institutional leaders and in light of state-specific goals, overhauled its enrollment-based funding model in favor of a formula inclusive of outcomes.

While not a silver bullet, performance-based funding stands to improve college persistence and completion in New England, especially among low-income students and other “at risk” populations. States should consider such funding strategies alongside college access initiatives, increased aid and financial literacy programs, partnerships between education and industry, and other student success efforts.

NEBHE unveiled this research in a webinar held by its Policy and Research Department late last week.

NEBHE launched the first phase of its college-completion project, New England 2025.

Supported with a Lumina Foundation grant and the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, NEBHE's Department of Policy and Research built a series of state-level "dashboards" and models that can examine college completion and various metrics with new levels of sophistication.

These models allow ...]]>

NEBHE launched the first phase of its college-completion project, New England 2025.

Supported with a Lumina Foundation grant and the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, NEBHE's Department of Policy and Research built a series of state-level "dashboards" and models that can examine college completion and various metrics with new levels of sophistication.

These models allow decision-makers and users to take otherwise complex sets of data and formulas and test various scenarios to better understand the realities around raising degree attainment in each of the New England states.

Coupled with these models, NEBHE has also developed a college-completion "toolkit," which can produce the models, additional reading and information on college completion, and state-level summaries of college completion that can give the reader an "under two minute" briefing on the state of college attainment in the region.

All the material is available online at http://www.nebhe.org/policy-research/new-england-2025/.

Related Posts: College Attainment: Throwing a Complete Game; SREB Calls for 60% College Completion; Trends & Indicators: College Success; Complete College America Launches State Grants for Innovative Ways to Boost Degrees

In line with the priorities set forth by the Obama administration and the Lumina Foundation, the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) released a report outlining the goals and policy initiatives needed to propel the 16 Southern states to 60% postsecondary degree and certificate attainment by the year 2025.

In the preface to No Time to Waste, ...]]>

In line with the priorities set forth by the Obama administration and the Lumina Foundation, the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) released a report outlining the goals and policy initiatives needed to propel the 16 Southern states to 60% postsecondary degree and certificate attainment by the year 2025.

In the preface to No Time to Waste, SREB President Dave Spence points to the looming gap in America between the need for educated workers and the lagging production rates at the U.S. institutions. “By 2018, the United States will fall far short of the number of new college degrees needed for an emerging economy that increasingly depends on workers with postsecondary education,” Spence wrote.

The report recommends that states develop a clear vision for 60% completion, augment affordability initiatives to allow for increased access to higher education and re-evaluate secondary education outcomes to ensure that high school graduates are ready for postsecondary education and training. No Time to Waste also recommends that states tie budget allocations to the meeting of completion goals. This approach, the report argues, will “hold presidents, chancellors and state higher education agencies responsible” and ultimately enable the effort to be successful.

In addition to highlighting policy priorities for states as they strive for 60% completion, No Time to Waste minces no words in entreating SREB-member states to “make college completion a top priority and create a statewide plan for improvement with detailed goals, roles and responsibilities.”