Academic Supports

Reducing Summer Melt: Helping 12th Graders Successfully Transition to College

How many students have you or a colleague helped get into college with a good financial aid package only to discover later that they never enrolled? Unfortunately, every year, thousands of 12th graders finish high school excited about going to college, only to fall off track. This is especially common among those whose families have little to no experience navigating the final steps they must take to matriculate.

New REL Midwest Report Highlights Online Course Use in Iowa and Wisconsin

The use of online courses has grown rapidly over the past decade and is projected to increase, yet few states or districts collect data about how and why schools enroll students in online courses. Accurately capturing student participation is complicated by the variety of ways that schools use online learning. As online learning grows exponentially, we need more information about how schools are using it to inform policy and best practice.

Concurrent Enrollment Thriving in Rural Schools Despite Challenges

Rural students are less likely to enroll in college than their urban peers.[i] But new college credit programs have given rural students a convenient alternative path to post-secondary education. Concurrent enrollment programs – high schools offering college coursework – can benefit rural students, given that participation in concurrent enrollment programs increases the likelihood of not only college enrollment, but college completion.

Reducing Complexity for Students: A Tool to Help Colleges Implement Low-Cost Solutions

Community colleges serve a huge variety of students: traditional and nontraditional, daytime and evening, part-time and full-time, those seeking short-term career-technical credentials, and others who intend to transfer to four-year colleges. To meet the wide-ranging needs of this unique student population, community colleges offer a complex array of programs and courses. When students enroll at community colleges they therefore face a broad range of course, program, and degree options that can be confusing or overwhelming.

15 to Finish: From Idea to Action: Part 1 – Time to Completion and Importance of Advisors

15 to Finish, a campaign designed by Complete College America, works to increase the overall number of students taking 15 credits per semester (for an academic year of 30 credit hours) with the ultimate goal of increasing postsecondary degree completion. Complete College America’s Webinar on April 29, 2014, featured education leaders from around the country discussing their degree completion efforts and program results. This post is the first in a two-part series recapping this Webinar event.

Lessons on Community College Transformative Change

During the tenure of the Obama administration, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program has made an unprecedented investment—nearly $2 billion—in community colleges. Designed to transform community colleges in order to help put Americans back to work and improve the U.S.

Promoting College and Career Readiness Through ESEA Flexibility Plans

The American Institutes for Research recently released a pocket guide, Promoting College and Career Readiness: A Pocket Guide for State and District Leaders, to support state and local policymakers and practitioners as they implement the college and career readiness initiatives included in their state Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) flexibility plans.

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