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EDUCATION PHILANTHROPY DIVISION OF ASCENDIUM EDUCATION GROUP

Resource Library

Sharing knowledge is at the heart of our mission. Explore Ascendium’s growing library of publications that examine the complex challenges facing postsecondary learners, and how we’re helping our partners address them.

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Rural Matters

Postsecondary Partnerships in Rural America with Sheila Martin, Dakota Pawlicki, and Gretchen Schmidt (Part VI)

November 2021
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.
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MCTA

Midwest Credential Transparency Alliance Pathways Action Team: A Brief

October 2021
The Midwest Credential Transparency Alliance Pathways Action Team, with funding from Ascendium, has been studying how career pathways can be improved through increased accessibility of credential information. The team shared their assessment of the current pathways in a new brief, which also lays out their plans to continue to support pathways for learners from low-income backgrounds in the Midwest.
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bucking the trend

Bucking the Trend: How Some Institutions Grew Their Transfer Enrollment Amid a Pandemic

October 2021
The National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) Research Center found that close to 200,000 fewer students transferred between colleges in the 2020-21 academic year than in the previous year. However, not all colleges saw steep declines in transfer enrollment. With funding from Ascendium and ECMC Foundation, the NSC Research Center continues to explore the data, with this guest authored report offering insights into how some colleges were actually able to grow their transfer enrollment in 2020-21.
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DWD2

Degrees When Due Case Study: Anoka-Ramsey Community College

October 2021
Anoka-Ramsey Community College is re-engaging adult learners with some college, but no degree and creating support programs to help learners of all ages achieve their educational goals. As a member of the first Institute of Higher Education Policy’s Degrees When Due cohort, the college’s experiences are highlighted in a new case study – the second in a series of three supported in part by Ascendium.
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SSTF Resource Library

Strong Start to Finish Knowledge Center

October 2021
The Strong Start to Finish (SSTF) Knowledge Center is a clearinghouse of research and resources from those in the SSTF network, intended for all institutions and systems interested in implementing developmental education reforms. Resources can be searched by keyword, sorted by format and filtered by topic. SSTF is supported by Ascendium, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Kresge Foundation.
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paths to success

How Community Colleges Are Strengthening Guided Pathways to Ensure Students Are Learning

October 2021
This report by the Association of American Colleges and Universities features narratives, best practices and recommendations from a two-year project to strengthen guided pathways implementation at 20 participating campuses. In this effort, funded in part by Ascendium, participants mapped academic paths and degree programs to student goals, helped students choose and stay on a degree path and built capacity to ensure students were learning.
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DWD

Degrees When Due Case Study: Shasta College

October 2021
Shasta College is a member of the first cohort of the Institute of Higher Education Policy’s Degrees When Due initiative, which supports community colleges in assisting learners with some college, but no degree. Insights from this community college are highlighted in this case study, the first of three supported in part by Ascendium.
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Rural Matters

Rural Research Initiatives with Danielle Vetter, Kirstin Yeado, Emily Cole, and Allen Pratt (Part V)

October 2021
This episode is the fifth in an eight-part podcast series from Rural Matters and sponsored by Ascendium. It features discussion on a new rural postsecondary education research agenda with program officers from Ascendium, along with representatives from Sova and the National Rural Education Association (NREA).
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understanding incentives

Understanding Incentives, Connecting the Dots for Transfer Student Success

October 2021
This Tackling Transfer resource includes tips and tools for postsecondary leaders who want to foster better and more strategic attention to incentives that result in better and more equitable outcomes for transfer students. The Tackling Transfer project is a partnership between the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program, HCM Strategists and Sova, and received grant co-funding from Ascendium.
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eval transfer student success

Evaluating Transfer Student Success and Equity

September 2021
This report provides information and data guides to transfer partners that are interested in developing data-sharing routines in service of their larger transfer student success and equity strategies. It was published through the Tackling Transfer project, a partnership between the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program, HCM Strategists and Sova, with co-funding support from Ascendium.
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transfer opp calc

The Transfer Opportunity Calculator

September 2021
This tool, developed through the Tackling Transfer initiative, provides data to college leaders as they assess the feasibility and impact of increasing transfer student enrollment from specific community colleges. It’s just one resource created from the co-funded initiative, which is a partnership between the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program, HCM Strategists and Sova.
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better parnerships

Better Partnerships, Better Results

September 2021
This guide provides an overview of core elements of short-term improvement cycles that aim to accelerate problem-solving for transfer student success. It was created as part of the Tackling Transfer project, a partnership between Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program, HCM Strategists and Sova, with co-funding support from Ascendium.
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