Sara Hebel - The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 21, 2010

States must increase the number of college degrees awarded each year in the United States, every year, by a total of nearly 280,000 if the nation is to meet the Lumina Foundation for Education's goal of increasing the proportion of American adults with a college degree to 60 percent by 2025.

In a new report, "A Stronger Nation Through Higher Education: How and Wh...

Kimberly E. Arnold - EDUCAUSE Quarterly, Volume 33, Number 1, 2010

This article by Kimberly Arnold from the EDUCAUSE Quarterly provides a fuller description of the development of the Signals program at Purdue University, which enables faculty and students to receive real-time assessments, throughout the semester, of students’ performance in particular courses, normed against past experiences of successful students.  The article discusses how the program has been received and perceived by students.

Clifford Adelman - Institute for Higher Education Policy, November 2009

The research report, The Spaces Between Numbers: Getting International Data on Higher Education Straight, reveals that U.S. graduation rates remain comparable to those of other developed countries despite news stories about our nation losing its global competitiveness because of slipping college graduation rates. The only major difference—the data most commonly highlighted, but rarely understood—is the categorization of graduation rate data. The United States measures its attainment rates by “institution” while other developed nations measure their graduation rates by “system.”

Jennifer Engle and Mary Lynch - National Association of System Heads and The Education Trust, December 3, 2009

In fall 2007, the leaders of two dozen public higher education systems formed the Access to Success Initiative.  With support from The Education Trust, the system heads worked toward the goals of increasing the number of college graduates in their states and ensuring that those graduates are more broadly representative of their states' high school graduates.  This document represents the first report to the public on the progress of that initiative.

Institute for Higher Education Policy - January 2010

In 1999, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation began an innovative scholarship program that provides full financial support to low-income minority students across the United States. The Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) program has already awarded more than 10,000 scholarships to exceptional students, with the ultimate goal of funding at least 20,000 students over the course of the 20-year program. Extensive research conducted on the program examines outcomes for several cohorts of Scholars using comparative data from non-recipients (students who applied but did not receive the scholarship) and national comparison groups of low-income, high-achieving minority students.