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?

Engaging with Media Showcases Grant Partners’ Positive Impact on Inequity

Ascendium is growing its partnerships with media organizations that share postsecondary education research and programs helping learners from low-income backgrounds achieve their education and career goals. Recently, we have added new partnerships with American Public Media, Chalk Beat, Rural Matters, Open Campus - Institute for Nonprofit News, Academic Intelligence and Restless Productions. These collaborations help get actionable information that fosters system level change into the hands of practitioners, researchers, funders and policymakers.

COVID-19 Transfer Data Reveals Trends that Can Inform Equity and Student Success Policies

The National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) Research Center has been reporting on student transfer patterns in near real time over the past two years. The data can help colleges and universities develop policies and system level initiatives that address student transfer and pipeline needs to support student success in the post-COVID environment. Doug Shapiro, executive director of the NSC Research Center, spoke with Ascendium to help us learn more about how this data can help inform systemic change to support learners from low-income backgrounds.

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.