News

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.

Helpful Resources for Institutions Seeking Funding Under the College Completion Fund for Postsecondary Student Success

Know any Historically Black Colleges or Universities, Tribal Colleges or Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions or other Minority-Serving Institutions seeking funding under the U.S. Department of Education’s new College Completion Fund for Postsecondary Student Success? The briefs in MDRC’s College Completion Strategy Guide summarize the research on strategies to increase college completion and should prove useful in completing the application before the Oct. 11 deadline.

Free Workforce Trainings Expanded to More Hawai’i Residents

Building on a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, an Ascendium grant supports the University of Hawaii System in coordinating with local industry partners to identify and map career ladders, credentials and degree pathways that lead to a range of high-demand, entry-level occupations.

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.

Q&A: Molly Lasagna on the State of Postsecondary Education in Prison Ahead of Pell Restoration

There’s less than a year to go before the restoration of Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated learners. Ahead of this historic moment, our new senior program officer focused on expanding postsecondary education in prison shares what is being done to prepare providers, what goes into creating high-quality programs and how Pell restoration is informing Ascendium’s philanthropy.

Hold Up: What We Do and Don’t Know About the Impact of Holds on Postsecondary Student Success

Policy changes at institutions, systems and states are curtailing the use of transcript holds. These types of holds can be detrimental to student success. However, there are other types of administrative holds that colleges can impose on students who are still enrolled (e.g., a registration block for an incomplete immunization record, an unpaid library fine or poor academic standing). The impact of these varied holds, especially on learners from low-income backgrounds, requires further examination to be understood.