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EDUCATION PHILANTHROPY DIVISION OF ASCENDIUM EDUCATION GROUP

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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A Better Way to Place Students What Colleges Need to Know About Multiple Measures Assessments

A Better Way to Place Students: What Colleges Need to Know About Multiple Measures Assessments

February 2021
Placement testing often determines whether a student is required to take developmental education courses or college-level courses upon entry to postsecondary education. Placement testing can also be a barrier for students, which is why Ascendium supported the research captured in this resource by MDRC and the Community College Research Center which explores an alternative to high-stakes placement testing.
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Comprehensive Approaches to Increasing Student Completion

Comprehensive Approaches to Increasing Student Completion in Higher Education: A Survey of the Landscape

November 2020
This Ascendium-sponsored paper describes the challenge of college non-completion in the U.S. and a variety of explanations for the high rate of non-completion. This is complemented with an overview of evidence from eight specific college completion interventions designed to increase college completion and the potential to replicate these programs and deliver them at scale.
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Responding in the Moment Practices to Advance a Next Generation Transfer System

Responding in the Moment: Practices to Advance a Next-Generation Transfer System

November 2020
This Aspen brief and its companion (Responding in the Moment: Policies to Advance a Next-Generation Transfer System), both supported by Ascendium, offer specific policy and practice recommendations that can be implemented today to advance transfer student success, both in the short-term and as part of a strategy to address structural barriers.
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Covid 19 Transfer Mobility and Progress Report First Look Fall 2020 Report

Covid-19 Transfer, Mobility, and Progress Report: First Look Fall 2020 Report

October 2020
This first of nine National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reports outlines transfer pattern data in a rapid-response series beginning with data as of September 24, 2020, when 54% of colleges reported fall enrollments to the National Student Clearinghouse. The immediate effects of the pandemic will be revised and updated in the subsequent reports, with support from Ascendium Education Group and ECMC Foundation.
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How to Encourage College Summer Enrollment Final Lessons from the EASE Project

How to Encourage College Summer Enrollment: Final Lessons from the EASE Project

October 2020
MDRC’s Encouraging Additional Summer Enrollment (EASE) study used behavioral insights and a financial incentive with the goal of boosting enrollment rates. This report, supported by Ascendium, presents findings from the EASE evaluation and is the final report on this project. It examines impacts on academic outcomes one year plus one summer after students were randomly assigned.
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How Did Six Community Colleges Design Support of Part-Time Faculty?

July 2020
The final report by Columbia University's Community College Research Center analyzes the experience of six community colleges' efforts to support adjunct faculty and issues four recommendations to the field.
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Remove Structural Barriers to Success

May 2020
This overview of one of Ascendium’s funding focus area explores Ascendium’s investment priorities supporting leadership development and student success, and the desired outcomes of that support.
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About Ascendium Education Philanthropy

May 2020
This overview of Ascendium's education philanthropy details our strategic approach to philanthropy: how, where and what we fund, our four focus areas and our belief in the power of education for upward social mobility.
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Providing Student Support Services in Extraordinary Times A Caring Campus Approach

Providing Student Support Services in Extraordinary Times: A Caring Campus Approach

May 2020
This well-attended webinar from the Institute for Evidence-Based Change (IEBC) explores how colleges can engage students and best connect with them in a virtual environment. Ascendium supported this webinar as part of IEBC’s Caring Campus programming.
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Caring Campus Guide Two Supporting the Professional Staff

Caring Campus Guide Two: Supporting the Professional Staff

May 2020
This Institute for Evidence-Based Change (IEBC) resource focuses on strategies for keeping staff informed of their college’s policies, practices and other updates. This work is part of two multi-year grants from Ascendium in support of IEBC’s Caring Campus programming.
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EASE: Handbook for Community Colleges

April 2020
Students who take summer courses can potentially speed up the time it takes them to graduate. This guide helps college administrators and staff members implement two interventions designed to increase summer enrollment rates.
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2019 Education Philanthropy Report: A Sharper Focus

April 2020
2019 was not only our first full year under the Ascendium name, we literally sharpened our focus to four areas: removing structural barriers, postsecondary education in prison, rural education and workforce training, and streamlining transitions.
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