Resource Library

Education Design Lab received funding from Ascendium to complete a three-year design challenge aimed at developing transformative new models that improve education and career outcomes for rural learners and their communities. This brief offers insights used to develop new models for rural community colleges to serve as critical economic growth engines. Education Design Lab's efforts are supported by Ascendium in line with our focus area to support rural postsecondary education and workforce training.

The COVID-19 health crisis hit rural community colleges hard, but leadership at those institutions quickly began to focus on solutions. The Rural Leader Learning Community, created by the National Center for Inquiry & Improvement and funded by Ascendium, developed a series of briefs that explore how rural community colleges can best support learners from low-income backgrounds after the COVID-19 health crisis.

The second in an eight-part series from Rural Matters and sponsored by Ascendium, this episode includes discussion on how to best support rural learners using insight gained from a recent Education Commission of the States report and through the Aspen Rural Community College Success Initiative. Two community college students also share how postsecondary education has transformed their lives.

The first in an eight-part podcast series from Rural Matters and sponsored by Ascendium, this episode features four rural community college leaders. Each share their experiences of focusing on student success and the integral role community colleges play in rural regional economic success.

These videos are presentations from a virtual convening in February 2021 of more than 100 attendees who explored the future of technology in postsecondary education in prison. The convening was produced by Open Campus Media with support from Ascendium. Participants included representatives of universities, advocacy groups, funders and state corrections systems.

This Education Commission of the States report, in partnership with Strada Education Network and Gallup and funded by Ascendium, provides a greater awareness and deeper understanding of how rural residents perceive postsecondary education and training, particularly in light of the COVID-19 health crisis.

The profile of many rural communities across the U.S. is not that dissimilar from those in Puerto Rico. Understanding the context of Puerto Rican institutions to enroll, retain and graduate their Latino students can inform efforts to better serve this student population on the island, as well as on the U.S. mainland. This report, produced by Excelencia in Education with support from Ascendium, provides an overview of the educational environment in Puerto Rico and is part one of a two-part series exploring institutional resilience and transformation in Puerto Rico.

Our 2020 report, Empowering Possibilities, tells the story of our philanthropy during an unprecedented time and the tremendous efforts of our grant partners who were able to advance their work despite numerous challenges.

These reports by MDRC are a special supplement to a series of four Rural Matters podcasts which were funded by Ascendium. Offered in these reports are ideas and recommendations for education professionals and policymakers to boost success for postsecondary education and workforce training in rural areas, along with links to listen to the original podcasts.

This Ascendium funded report lays out findings and insights gleaned from focus groups of students who live in and/or attend college in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands. The information sheds light on how these rural institutions, students and communities have fared – both prior to the global pandemic and now.

A College Lifeline, supported with funding from Ascendium, looks at the ways higher ed is serving rural and incarcerated students along with the unique benefits and challenges both educators and students face.

Rural college leaders are responding to demographic declines in innovative ways, including aligning more closely with regional workforce needs, creating satellite locations and using technology to close distance gaps. (Report produced by The Chronicle of Higher Education and sponsored by Ascendium)