All Grants

This grant supports Ascendium‐Sponsored Practitioner Fellows' participation in the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison's National Conference on Higher Education in Prison, November 11‐14, 2021.

This grant supports the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Student Success Through Applied Research Lab in completing an analysis of demographic shifts in rural communities and college enrollment trends in rural places facing the greatest demographic shifts. This research will uncover new insights into rural college opportunity and access and will help education leaders and other stakeholders identify practical ways colleges can successfully navigate and respond to these increasing demographic challenges.

This grant supports Ascendium's sponsorship of National Rural Education Association's 2021 National Forum to Advance Rural Education, November 11-12, 2021 and attendance of 10-20 researchers and career pathways staff as fellows at the event.

This grant supports the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in creating resources and tools to assist institutions that are implementing guided pathways reforms at scale. AAC&U is working with 20 community colleges to field test a framework for ensuring student learning on a program pathway.

This grant supports the University of Wisconsin System in helping its colleges increase completion of math gateway courses. The colleges will collaborate on improving developmental math offerings and establish new pathways that are aligned and developed concurrently with meta-majors.

This grant supports The Graduate! Network in developing a platform-agnostic quantitative and qualitative analysis of their data to construct a predictive analytic model to further understand patterns in adult learner pathways to degree completion. The analyses produced from this project will ultimately culminate in a report that will inform institutional policies and practices to further support adult learner re-engagement strategies and increase degree completion.

This grant supports the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness in connecting educational researchers with philanthropic organizations to advance high-quality education research.

This grant supports Education Commission of the States in better understanding rural residents’ perceptions of the value of education, barriers to entry or completion, connections to work and general satisfaction with prior education and training experiences, leveraging insights for state policy audiences.

This grant supports the Aspen Institute in helping three states—Minnesota, Texas and Virginia—adopt transfer reforms to promote bachelor’s degree attainment among students who begin at community colleges. This project will also produce learnings about the conditions and strategies for replicating or adapting comprehensive transfer reforms in other states.

This grant supports the Iowa Department of Education, in partnership with the Iowa Department of Corrections, Iowa Central Community College, Des Moines Area Community College and the University of Iowa, in developing a plan for expanded postsecondary education options across Iowa that are workforce-relevant and support varied academic and career pathways.