News

Investments in Dev Ed Reform, Rural Workforce Training Among $17 Million+ in Recently Approved Grants

Ascendium recently approved nine new grants totaling over $17 million. These grants support a range of initiatives designed to help learners from low-income backgrounds, including developmental education reform, expanding pathways to upwardly mobile careers in information technology and the scaling of proven strategies to improve transfer outcomes.

Advancing Colleges in Appalachia

Like many community colleges across the country, members of the Community Colleges of Appalachia (CCA) faced challenges during and in the wake of the COVID-19 health crisis. However, membership in CCA remains strong. With a grant from Ascendium, CCA will enhance their ability to support member colleges in better serving learners from low-income backgrounds.

New COVID-19 Transfer Data Findings, the Impact of Media Grant Partners on Inequity and More

• COVID-19 Transfer Data Reveals Trends that Can Inform Equity and Student Success Policies
• Engaging with Media Showcases Grant Partners’ Positive Impact on Inequity
• Are You Interested in a Student-Centered Partnership?

Special Edition: New Rural Grant Opportunity Available and More

• New Grant Opportunity Available: Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success
• Program Officer Perspectives: Kirstin Yeado Reflects on Rural Guided Pathways Work
• Data Tools Help Stakeholders Identify and Support Rural and Rural Serving Institutions

New Grant Opportunity Available: Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success

At Ascendium, we know there are critical gaps in the knowledge available on effective postsecondary education and workforce training policies, practices and programs that consider the unique assets of rural communities and the learners within them. Through this new grant opportunity, we will invest in applied research projects that generate actionable knowledge, yielding evidence and insights that improve outcomes for rural learners from low-income backgrounds.

Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success

Now accepting applications for action-oriented research projects that address gaps in evidence for rural learner postsecondary education and workforce success.

Program Officer Perspectives: Kirstin Yeado Reflects on Rural Guided Pathways Work

This June, Kirstin Yeado, a program officer in Ascendium’s Support Rural Postsecondary Education and Workforce Training focus area, traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota for the first institute of the National Center for Inquiry and Improvement Rural Guided Pathways Project. Yeado shares her reflections from this institute, which was supported via a grant from Ascendium.

A Pivotal Time for Postsecondary Education in Prison, the Impact of Administrative Holds on Student Success and More

• Q&A: Molly Lasagna on the State of Postsecondary Education in Prison Ahead of Pell Restoration
• Hold Up: What We Do and Don’t Know about the Impact of Holds on Postsecondary Student Success
• Congratulations to 10 Exemplary Community Colleges in the Running for 2023 Aspen Prize

Data Tools Help Stakeholders Identify and Support Rural and Rural Serving Institutions

Defining and identifying institutions that support rural learners nationwide has long been challenging. Recently, Ascendium funded two projects resulting in publicly available, interactive data tools that do this. One identifies diverse institutional settings in which rural learners are enrolled. The other identifies a metric that accounts for institutions that are attended by rural learners and deliver rural-focused programs regardless of whether they are in a rural location. Together, these projects help stakeholders to advance their understanding of diverse, rural learners and aid in resource allocation to address the growing economic gaps between rural and non-rural communities and to help rural learners succeed.

Ascendium Grows its Team to Further Our Grantmaking, Bringing Together Rural College Leaders and More

• Education Philanthropy Positions Will Enhance Evidence Based Grantmaking, Translate Evidence to Insights and Enrich Strategic Connections
• Learning Communities Bring Together Rural College Leaders
• Proposals Still Being Accepted for Fund for Workforce Equity