Resource Library

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.

This report, supported by Ascendium, examines innovative ways Ohio community colleges are providing personalized student supports within the guided pathways model. The report finds that personalizing universal supports has the potential to increase equity by better recognizing and meeting the needs of underrepresented students, a step towards reducing structural barriers to their success.

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.

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center released the fourth of a nine-part report series to provide institutions and researchers with near real-time data on how the COVID-19 health crisis is impacting transfer students. This report, co-funded by Ascendium and ECMC Foundation, shows transfer overall was down 10% and community college transfer enrollment declined 16.3%, a worrisome trend for learners from low-income backgrounds.

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.

Effective policies around transfer were important before COVID-19 and are arguably even more important as institutions recover from the health crisis. This brief, produced by the Charles A. Dana Center through Tackling Transfer, co-funded by many partners, including Ascendium, showcases work completed by the Texas Transfer Alliance as it relates to emerging transfer practices that show promise in improving student success and social mobility.

The University Innovation Alliance produced a comprehensive suite of materials to provide qualitative analysis for the completion grants strategy and a roadmap for institutions considering starting their own programs. With support from Ascendium and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it draws on the experiences of 11 member institutions using completion grants to increase graduation rates for low-income learners.

In February, Ascendium supported Open Campus Media’s virtual convening of more than 100 attendees exploring the future of technology in postsecondary education in prison. Representatives from universities, advocacy groups, funders and state corrections systems examined such topics as student perspectives on technology in prison education and the lifting of the Pell Grant ban. This summary highlights the day’s discussions.

Reverse credit transfer is an emerging policy that awards an associate degree retroactively to students who hadn’t been awarded one before transferring from a two-year to a four-year school. This study examines how reverse credit transfer impacts students’ education and career outcomes using data from Texas, where the legislature mandated the policy in 2011. Ascendium funded this research as part of Degrees when Due, a completion and equity initiative to increase degree attainment among the "some college, no degree" population.