Resource Library

With funding support from Ascendium, The Graduate! Network has continued to expand their predictive analytics model to better understand the patterns and various impacts that influence a returning adult learner’s progression to a credential. This report explores three challenges along their postsecondary education odyssey: affording a college degree, navigating mid-journey changes and persevering as a returning student.

This toolkit supports college faculty, administrators and advisors in ensuring that corequisite mathematics classes provide the support students need to be successful, particularly those who are students of color, first-generation and from low-income communities. It also provides nationally agreed-upon design principles for math corequisites, as well as tools and resources to make them actionable. It’s part of the Strong Start to Finish initiative led by Education Commission of the States and supported by Ascendium, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Kresge Foundation.

The Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) – The College System of Tennessee recently released Coursetaking and Success for Returning Adult Students at Community Colleges. This is the third in a series of working papers that are part of TBR’s Pathways to Success for Students with Some College, No Degree initiative developed with support from Ascendium. This report addresses which courses reconnecting adults take, course success rates for reconnectors in their first term back and how course success impacts reconnectors' persistence and graduation.

This Strong Start to Finish (SSTF) toolkit aims to build capacity for large-scale, equity-grounded, student-focused change by providing tested change leadership strategies for mid-level campus managers. SSTF is led by Education Commission of the States and supported by Ascendium, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Kresge Foundation.

The Tackling Transfer Policy Advisory Board has partnered with HCM Strategists, Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program and Sova Solutions to develop policy recommendations. These recommendations span three interrelated areas: harnessing data for transformational change, maximizing credit applicability and recognition of learning and advancing strategic finance and impactful student aid. Ascendium supports the Aspen Institute's transfer efforts through our focus area to streamline key learner transitions.

The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, HCM Strategist and Sova Solutions are promoting transfer policy reform through the identification and assessment of 16 transfer-specific state or systemwide policy elements that research has shown to affect student outcomes. Ascendium supports the Aspen Institute's transfer efforts through our focus area to streamline key learner transitions.

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 third in an eight-part podcast series from Rural Matters and sponsored by Ascendium, this episode features four rural community leaders. Each guest shares insight on topics that range from remote work certification, the importance of bringing job opportunities directly to rural residents, and centering equity in remote work and industry-community collaboration.

The COVID-19 health crisis posed many challenges for learners, particularly for those from low-income backgrounds. New America, in collaboration with State Higher Education Executive Officer's Association and supported by Ascendium, brings to light recommendations for policy changes focused on online learning to make it more equitable and higher quality for learners from low-income backgrounds.

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 Tennessee Board of Regents - The College System of Tennessee, supported by Ascendium, launched Pathways to Success for Students with Some College, No Degree, a TBR project focused on paving the path to success for returning adult students at the state’s community and technical colleges. This working paper presents evidence that flexibility in course scheduling, locations and modality results in increased course success rates for returning adult students.

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association and New America partnered to develop a greater understanding of how the shift to remote teaching and learning impacted marginalized students. This report, developed with support from Ascendium, is aimed towards federal, state and institutional policymakers and provides recommendations to ensure a robust recovery as learning transitions back to in-person.