Group items tagged

Focuses on four areas where states can drive a more productive higher education system to improve degree completion while maintaining quality. The four steps include: Performance funding, student incentives, new models and business efficiencies. (Lumina Foundation for Education, August 2011)

Presents the next step taken by the Cross-State Data Work Group: a comparative analysis of a comprehensive set of intermediate milestones and final measures of success that practitioners and policymakers can use to rethink and remake their approaches to increasing student achievement.(Jobs for the Future, February 2012)

Explores 13 promising practices for strengthening community college student engagement and success. The practices include assessment and placement, support services, remedial education, academic alert and intervention, and others. (Center for Community College Student Engagement, February 2012 )

Highlights the challenges nontraditional students face to completing college credentials, best practices from states and colleges, and ideas of how the federal government could help, particularly by improving data collection and financial aid. (Advisory Committee on Student Financial Aid Assistance, February 2012)

Community colleges can improve graduation rates by offering a course that teaches students how to navigate college with lessons on study skills, time management and how to find the bursar's office. Yet while "student success" courses are increasingly common, resistance remains strong at many community colleges. (Inside Higher Ed, 02/21/12)

The newspaper article from the Albany Times Union details the efforts of the State Assembly's Committee on Higher Education. The committee has reviewed college readiness and completion data from SUNY institutions. The committee drew a link between underprepared students and its influence on the workforce and state's economic viability.

Brief by Bruce Vandal for NGA; highlights approaches to improve productivity, student success in remedial education; also has college completion implications

Partnering with six community colleges, MDRC developed and evaluated four distinct programs based on the following approaches: financial incentives, reforms in instructional practices, and enhancements in student services. (MDRC, March 2011)

Examines data from Washington State to chart the educational pathways of first-time community college students, with a focus on those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Looks at rates at which students enter a program of study or concentration, amount of remediation taken by students, and rates at which students earn certificates or associate degrees, or transfer to four-year institutions. The paper makes recommendations for practitioners and policymakers. (Community College Research Center, September, 2011)

Paper by Davis Jenkins finds that students should take their remedial education courses as part of a focused program of study, rather than as a stand alone academic activity.

The paper offers suggestions for ways community colleges can rethink their practices at key stages of students' engagement to substantially increase rates of program entry and completion. (Community College Research Center, January 2012)