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EDUCATION PHILANTHROPY DIVISION OF ASCENDIUM EDUCATION GROUP

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Resource Library

Sharing knowledge is at the heart of our mission. Explore Ascendium’s growing library of publications that examine the complex challenges facing postsecondary learners, and how we’re helping our partners address them.

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UofMReport
University of Montana

Categorization of Place-based, Postsecondary Learning Experiences for Rural Students

July 2022
Place-based learning is an outside-the-box approach to curriculum design. It integrates local and regional cultures, history and resources into educational curricula, making it a good fit for rural learners. It encourages them to be more engaged in postsecondary education by making it relevant to their lives and their communities. This resource includes case study profiles of rural institutions and how they utilize place-based learning programs.
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Rural Community Colleges with Lisa Larson
Rural Matters

Diving Into Place-Based Education Programs (Part VI)

June 2022
The final installment in a six-part series, this Rural Matters podcast episode highlights place-based education programs, particularly how they can benefit rural learners and communities. Place-based learning involves engaging the community, which can help make college learning more accessible, relevant and motivating to first-generation learners and learners from low-income backgrounds.
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Rural Educator Academy Background
Community Colleges of the Appalachia Region

Rural Educator Academy Background, Brief and Core Competencies

June 2022
Created by The Community Colleges of Appalachia, the Rural Educator Academy (REA) is a unique, two-pronged approach to professional development for rural postsecondary educators. Through REA, a community of practice has formed to identify ways leaders can improve student success for learners from low-income backgrounds while also focusing on equity. A curriculum for training will be produced from the REA professional development program.
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Rural Community Colleges with Lisa Larson
Rural Matters

The Importance of Digital Skills and Leadership in Rural Postsecondary Education (Part V)

May 2022
The fifth in a six-part podcast series, this Rural Matters episode features a discussion with leaders of two organizations working with rural community colleges to prepare students for the digital economy. These organizations focus their work on helping rural college leaders to understand and use data so that they can identify barriers faced by learners from low-income backgrounds and create equitable pathways to career success.
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Center on Rural Innovation

Rural America’s Tech Employment Landscape: How to Increase Tech Talent and Tech Employment

May 2022
Two national surveys, a labor market data analysis and more than 50 interviews have culminated in the release of this Center on Rural Innovation report on tech employment in rural America. The report provides knowledge and recommendations to policymakers, funders, training providers and leaders at local and national levels around how to address the supply of and demand for tech talent in rural communities.
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Rural Community Colleges with Lisa Larson
Rural Matters

Engaging Employers to Benefit Rural Students with Dani Douglas, John Fitzsimmons and Joshua Howe (Part IV)

April 2022
The fourth in a six-part podcast series, this Rural Matters episode features conversations with leaders of three postsecondary and workforce training organizations that are exploring how they can better engage employers. By engaging employers, institutions and organizations can directly help rural learners find and fill job opportunities in their communities. This episode has a particular focus on tech jobs in rural areas and the importance of pathways from postsecondary education to those jobs.
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Rural Community Colleges with Lisa Larson

The Incredible Work of Education Design Lab & Partners (Part III)

April 2022
The third in a six-part podcast series, this Rural Matters episode features Education Design Lab and community college partners participating in their BRIDGES initiative. Partners share what they’ve learned through their participation in the project so far and how they can continue to support the future of work for rural learners.
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Micro-credentials for Social Mobility in Rural Postsecondary Communities: A Landscape Report

March 2022
The impact of earning micro-credentials on the social mobility of rural learners is explored in this report from Digital Promise. Case studies of four postsecondary institutions that are using micro-credentials to create pathways for rural learners are also featured, providing institutions with innovative ideas to meet regional labor market needs.
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2021 annual report

2021 Education Philanthropy Report: Stronger Together

March 2022
In 2021, we saw the impact partnership and collaboration can make in helping transform the lives of learners from low-income backgrounds. Our report tells the story of our philanthropy during 2021 and what can be achieved when organizations work together.
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Rural Community Colleges with Lisa Larson

ARRC’s Landmark Report on RSIs with Andrew Koricich, Alisa Hicklin Fryar and Cecilia Orphan (Part II)

March 2022
The second in a six-part podcast series, this Rural Matters episode spotlights research that identifies rural-serving institutions (RSIs). Representatives from the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges share why having a metric for identifying RSIs is important and how they hope their research continues to strengthen the narrative about the relationship between rural colleges and rural communities.
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Rural Community Colleges with Lisa Larson

Funding Access to Postsecondary Education with Kirstin Yeado, Shanell Watson, Denise Callahan and Allison Pennington (Part I)

February 2022
This episode is the first in a new six-part podcast series from Rural Matters. Four representatives from philanthropic organizations, including Ascendium, share why it’s important to support rural postsecondary education and workforce training. Through their strategies, each organization is working to remove roadblocks and close equity gaps for learners in rural communities.
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Untitled 1

BRIDGES Rural Design Insights Part 2

February 2022
The second in a series from Education Design Lab, this brief dives into five pilot projects from rural community colleges participating in the BRIDGES Rural Design Challenge. Each pilot was designed to increase knowledge, connections and understanding which can lead to institutional change and economic growth in rural communities.
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