News

Their Stories Helped Lift a 26-Year Ban on Pell Grants for Prisoners

In December 2020, Congress lifted a 26-year ban on federal Pell Grants for incarcerated learners. The benefits of postsecondary education in prison extend far beyond recidivism, with positive ripple effects on families and communities, as well as individual learners. These are some of the stories that helped lift the ban.

Colleges See Steep Decline In Student Transfers During Pandemic

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s second COVID-19 Transfer, Mobility, and Progress Report reveals a steep decline in student transfer and mobility this fall.

New Postsecondary Education in Prison Resources, Welcome Bethany Miller and Our 2020 Support of Our Community

• Best Practices for Postsecondary Education in Prison Programs Released by Vera Institute of Justice
• COVID-19 Crisis and Transfer: What Institutions, Systems and States Can Do Today
• Bethany Miller Joins the Education Grantmaking Team

Giving Support to Our Local Community Throughout 2020

The extraordinary events of 2020 brought many challenges to all our communities. While our national philanthropy is focused on the power of education and training beyond high school to transform the lives of learners from low-income backgrounds, Ascendium recognized the need to be flexible and responsive in this time of crisis. As a result, we stepped up our local giving to help address this year’s challenges. Learn more about how we supported several local community organizations this year.

Bethany Miller Joins the Education Grantmaking Team

Join us in welcoming Bethany Miller to Ascendium’s Education Grantmaking team as deputy director - learning & impact. In this newly established role, Bethany will provide opportunities for the team to purposefully strengthen our strategy and operations, as well as inform the field in support of greater impact for learners from low-income backgrounds.

COVID-19 Crisis and Transfer: What Institutions, Systems and States Can Do Today

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased attention given to transfer students and further exposed weaknesses within the college transfer system. With the current crisis, we support the need to build urgency around stronger and better transfer pathways and issue a call to action to institutions, systems and states for accelerating the development of these pathways. Ascendium-funded briefs recently produced by the Aspen Institute provide recommendations that can be implemented today to improve outcomes for transfer students, both in the short- and long-term.

Best Practices for Postsecondary Education in Prison Programs Released by Vera Institute of Justice

Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) has released a new Ascendium-funded report outlining common issues and best practices in setting up postsecondary education in prison programs across 10 key areas. Learn how Vera is providing resources to college and corrections agency administrators on how to improve these programs.

Kentucky College System Mounts Effort to Close Gap Between Education and Work

With support from Ascendium, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System Foundation is launching a yearlong planning project to research what it would take to implement a competency-based education platform at scale within its general education, career, technical and workforce training programs.

Training for Online Math Teaching, a New Rural Podcast Series and New Resources

• College Math Instructors Praise Timely Training for Online Teaching
• Vera Institute of Justice Works to Develop Guidelines and Supports for Postsecondary Education in Prison
• Podcasts Raise Up Leaders in Rural Places

Ascendium Education Group, Employees Step Up Community Support

2020 was an extraordinary year that brought big challenges for the Madison-area community across both racial justice issues and the cornonavirus pandemic. While Ascendium Education Group’s philanthropic mission as a national funder focuses on the power of education and training beyond high school to transform the lives learners from low-income backgrounds, we recognize the importance of flexibility and responsiveness in times of crisis and needs in the community in which the majority of our employees live and work. This is why we have stepped up to meet these extraordinary needs with more than $440,000 in support for our community.