Resource Library

To complement their rural-serving institutions (RSIs) data tool, the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges (ARRC) also released a report detailing their process and findings. The report uses ARRC’s new metric to identify over one thousand RSIs, providing insights on these institutions, their learners and the communities they serve.

The final segment of an eight-part Rural Matters podcast series, sponsored by Ascendium, features the work of University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Nicholas Hillman and his colleagues at the Student Success Through Applied Research Lab. Hillman discusses his current research efforts and goals to map rural-located postsecondary providers, providing a deeper understanding of rural institutions and learners.

This rigorous three-semester study of community college students in Minnesota and Wisconsin found a higher percentage of students who were placed using multiple measures assessments finished college-level English and math courses, compared to those who were placed in remedial courses using traditional methods. MDRC and Community College Research Center collaborated on the study. Ascendium supported this effort in keeping with its strategy to validate promising practices that improve outcomes for learners from low-income backgrounds.

The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) collaborated with Excelencia in Education and Strada to create the Latino Adult Student Success (LASS) Academy, the first cohort in CAEL’s Adult Learner Academy model. The LASS Academy brought 15 Hispanic-serving institutions together to learn, collaborate and use data to guide decision-making about how they can best serve students. Ascendium supports efforts to increase data-driven decision-making to drive more equitable student outcomes.

The Institute for Evidence-Based Change’s Caring Campus approach is based on faculty identifying behavioral commitments to implement intentionally and campus-wide at their colleges. This summary presents the six most common behavioral commitments among institutions adopting the Caring Campus approach. Ascendium supported development of this guide for in-person and virtual environments.

This report from the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison, partially funded by Ascendium, is the second annual data report on the Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison Programs. It is the basis for the National Directory of Higher Education in Prison Programs. The Directory serves as a comprehensive resource for people seeking information about college in prison programs. It helps the field answer key questions about these programs and is a point of reference for advocates working to expand access to postsecondary education in prison.

Ascendium co-funded this interactive directory from the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison that collects descriptive data to help the field answer key questions about postsecondary education in prison (PEP) programs. The Directory includes statistics about PEP programs (by region or state); facility location and participating academic institutions; and a list view of all programs. With data collected from annual surveys on postsecondary education prison programs, the Directory now includes data from the 2019-2020 academic year.

This report from The Chronicle of Higher Education shares information about first-generation students, why supporting them is important, the challenges they face and how colleges can better support them. This is part of a yearlong effort to explore the challenges institutions face today and raise up the successful and innovative approaches needed to maintain progress in enrolling, retaining and graduating students. Ascendium supports The Chronicle of Higher Education’s initiative to guide institutions to make actionable changes that will remove barriers students face today and prioritize student success.

Building transfer and career pathways for rural learners is a key issue for rural communities. The seventh in an eight-part podcast series from Rural Matters, sponsored by Ascendium, features discussions with two experts. This episode covers a range of topics from important issues in transferring between colleges, lessons learned from the COVID-19 health crisis, a STEM transfer partnership project and ideas on improving rural student transfer success.

The Community College Research Center produced this workshop curriculum and support material for colleges that have not been well served by existing technical assistance providers in the guided pathways reform movement. Funded by Ascendium’s Guided Pathways What and How To Educational Series grant, the suite of materials includes a facilitator’s guide and a customizable presentation, one-page overview, samples and activities.

New America is creating the first national database on Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) programs. Partially funded by Ascendium, this database will help policymakers and institutional leaders better understand CCBs. This brief provides data visualization to offer a first step towards documenting the types of degrees, program areas and geographic concentration of CCB programs.

This episode is the sixth in an eight-part podcast series from Rural Matters and sponsored by Ascendium. It features discussions with three expert guests on the challenges and opportunities involved in building and sustaining postsecondary partnerships in rural America.