Lower-Income Working Families in the Post-Welfare World – Lessons for Higher Ed

Caring for students will not guarantee success. Ongoing critical attention to students’ histories, experiences and values is essential for institutional effectiveness in higher education. For those of us who work at open access institutions, this means special awareness and sensitivity to issues of money, poverty, and agency.  According to the federal government, a working family of…

Toolkits and Community College Presidential Searches

As a community college president, I read Aspen Institute publications closely. Aspen has positioned itself as one of the nation’s preeminent nonprofit foundations involved in community college education. Several years ago the foundation initiated the Aspen Prize to recognize community colleges for exceptional outcomes in student learning, degree/certificate completion, employment and earnings, as well as access and…

Facing Facts: Student Persistence

The study of higher education is professionalizing. Theories are maturing, research is expanding, and we are steadily learning more about what works, and what doesn’t, when people head off to college. The results are sobering. Knowledge can empower – and also humble. Wesley R. Habley, Jennifer L. Bloom, and Steve Robbins recently collaborated on Increasing Persistence:…