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EDUCATION PHILANTHROPY DIVISION OF ASCENDIUM EDUCATION GROUP

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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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Investing in Student Success at Community Colleges

Investing in Student Success at Community Colleges: Lessons from Research on Guided Pathways

April 2021
The Community College Research Center at Columbia University Teachers College prepared this primer and federal policy brief on Guided Pathways, a comprehensive reform approach whereby community colleges fundamentally reshape themselves in ways that create clearer pathways to credentials with strong labor-market value. The brief draws heavily on research funded by Ascendium in the past several years.
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Caring Campus An Initiative to Involve Community College Staff

Caring Campus: An Initiative to Involve Community College Staff in Increasing Student Success

April 2021
This research brief, developed by the Community College Research Center, highlights the Caring Campus initiative with a special focus on evaluating the importance of nonacademic college staff to the student experience. With funding from Ascendium, the work draws on observations at six colleges, plus interviews with representatives and staff, to detail initial findings related to the initiative’s potential to affect college culture and further change efforts for learners.
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2020 Education Philanthropy Report Empowering Possibilities

2020 Education Philanthropy Report: Empowering Possibilities

April 2021
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.
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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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CRCC Final Report July2020 thumbnail

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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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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