News

Stackable Credentials: Making College Work for More Students

Stackable credentials are a way for learners to build their education and careers in steps, but evidence for these programs is scarce. RAND researchers pulled data from two states to learn if the programs deliver, under what circumstances, and for whom.

Grants to Community-Based Organizations Aim to Strengthen Workforce-Aligned Training Pathways for Rural Learners

Over the past two years, the federal government has invested billions of dollars to create good-paying jobs as part of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” framework. Additional legislation, like the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act, aim to create millions of new jobs through investments in clean energy and advanced manufacturing. Collectively, this legislation generates opportunities for rural learners seeking good jobs. It also accelerates the need for rural training pathways that prepare these learners.

Ascendium Welcomes Three Members to Education Philanthropy Team

Ascendium’s Education Philanthropy is pleased to announce the arrival of three accomplished professionals to our team. Join us in welcoming Dr. Brittany Corde, Vinya Cherian Hershberger, and Rachel Rogahn. Each contributes unique skills and experiences to strengthen our commitment to driving impactful, systemic change that improves the lives of learners from low-income backgrounds.

Postsecondary Education and Workforce Training Trends We’re Watching in 2024

Part of being a reflective funder is listening to our grant partners and tracking the evolving needs of learners from year to year. With 2024 underway, we’re seeing notable trends across postsecondary education, including statewide efforts to align postsecondary education and the workforce and continued concerns about the return on investment of college necessitating more flexible models of delivery. Remaining aware of these trends allows us to tailor our grantmaking for meaningful impact.

In this shrinking Mississippi Delta county, getting a college degree means leaving home behind

As part of the Rural News Networks’ “Rural Realities: Education, Workforce, and Progress” series, this article traces the economic and generational effects of one Mississippi county’s lack of access to primary and postsecondary education. By focusing on the feedback loop between education access and good jobs, it provides a powerful example of how important educational opportunities are for the long-term economic health of a geographical area and its residents.

Partners Reflect on Progress from Ascendium’s Rural Learner Success Initiative

Since March, seven grant partners have been engaged in work through Ascendium’s Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success initiative. They’ve been busy generating an array of research that advances the understanding of rural learners and the postsecondary education and workforce training pathways that best serve them. These partners recently convened to discuss their work and reflect on the progress they are making in their research.

Answering Questions About Learners and Employment Starts with Good Data

Despite investments in postsecondary education and workforce training by state and federal government, and from the learners themselves, we don’t today have adequate data to answer simple questions about the return on those investments in terms of employment outcomes. The Coleridge Initiative’s efforts to link postsecondary education and workforce training data, boost state data analysis capacity, and ultimately address knowledge gaps, can inform evidence-based policies and practices that lead to upward mobility and successful outcomes for learners.

A Boost for Skills Experiments

Ascendium is among several funders supporting an initiative that elevates the use of learning and employment records (LERs) to make more equitable skills-based hiring decisions. Kept by learners and workers, LERs are digital records that communicate to employers the skills an individual has to qualify for a job.

Introducing our New Deputy Director of Education Grantmaking, Ascendium Acts on Grant Partner Feedback, and More

• Introducing our New Deputy Director of Education Grantmaking, Dr. Janice Hicks
• Ascendium Acts on Grant Partner Feedback to Refine Philanthropic Practices
• New Resources Aim to Increase Understanding of CBE Program Designs

Preventing Second-Year Stop-Outs

The Gardner Institute launched its Transforming the Foundational Postsecondary Experience program to reduce equity gaps and help boost student success during the first two years of college.