News

The Turning Point

Educational offerings within correctional institutions not only impact incarcerated learners, but also workforce systems and communities. With grant funding from Ascendium, the Iowa Department of Education continues to study barriers and pathways to postsecondary education for incarcerated learners.

Community College Baccalaureate Research Roundup

Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) degree programs have the ability to change higher education. With grant funding from Ascendium and Joyce Foundation, New America continues to research the impact of CCBs on learners from low-income backgrounds and their communities.

New National Rural Postsecondary Research Agenda available, Washington Consortium One Year After Maintain Momentum Grant and More

• National Rural Postsecondary Research Agenda Now Available
• At One-Year Mark, Washington Consortium is Maintaining Momentum
• New Media Partnerships Spotlight Topics in Postsecondary Education

New Media Partnerships Spotlight Topics in Postsecondary Education

Grants from Ascendium to two national nonprofit news organizations will assist in coverage of postsecondary education and workforce training topics over the next two years. Stay tuned for great in-depth reporting that will come from these media partnerships.

At One-Year Mark, Washington Consortium is Maintaining Momentum

It’s the one-year mark of Ascendium’s Maintain Momentum for Student Success Initiative. This month, we’re checking in with the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area. With Ascendium’s support, the consortium was able to prevent members from departing due to financial constraints and offer programs and working groups to help address challenges posed by the COVID-19 health crisis.

National Rural Postsecondary Research Agenda Now Available

Deeply understanding the experiences of rural learners and the rural institutions that serve them is critical to removing systemic barriers that can stand in the way of their success. Ascendium is excited to share our newly released National Rural Postsecondary Research Agenda, developed in partnership with Sova, that outlines key questions to inform further research in the rural postsecondary education and workforce training field.

A Recommendation to ‘Reset,’ Not ‘Fix,’ Broken Transfer System

The Tackling Transfer Policy Advisory Board released a report on rethinking the traditional focus on transfer to address the need for a modern, student-centered transfer system through changes in federal, state and higher education policies. The board collaborated with the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, HCM Strategist and Sova Solutions to produce this report promoting transfer policy reform. Ascendium supports the Aspen Institute's transfer efforts through our focus area to streamline key learner transitions.

Rural community colleges respond to health crisis, a look at non-traditional models for students transitioning from training to the workforce and more

• Resources Help Rural Community Colleges in Aftermath of COVID-19 Health Crisis
• An Interest in Innovation: New Grants Explore Non-Traditional Models
• Keith Witham Named Ascendium’s New Deputy Director - Education Grantmaking

Keith Witham Named Ascendium’s New Deputy Director - Education Grantmaking

Ascendium welcomes Keith Witham as our new Deputy Director - Education Grantmaking. He will provide day-to-day supervision and support to program officers across Ascendium’s four focus areas to maximize the impact of investments that support learners from low-income backgrounds.

An Interest in Innovation: New Grants Explore Non-Traditional Models

Ascendium recently made three new grants to explore non-traditional models designed to increase credential completion, employment outcomes and wages for low-income workers. These innovative models each provide critical student success and job coaching supports and employer connections but differ in the ways they work with postsecondary institutions. This is all in support of our focus area to streamline key learner transitions. Through these investments, we hope more learners from low-income backgrounds can find pathways for socioeconomic mobility.