Writing for The 74, Sara Allan of the Bill & Melida Gates Foundation, explained a new Gates-funded project, Accelerate ED, which is providing grants in 12 states for programs that seek to link K-12 education, college, and the workplace. Excerpts of the piece appear below: Today, we’re proud to launch Read more
Colleges and universities fail to graduate just under half of all students who enter their programs. This is often due to external factors and barriers that affect students’ ability to focus on learning—like being a student parent or provider for their family, encountering mental health difficulties, or the rising cost Read more
The College in High School Alliance (CHSA) has released a series of resources focused on providing design principles for policymakers at the federal level looking to expand support for college in high school programs like dual enrollment and early college. Federal Design Principles are provided for: Creating a Dual Enrollment Read more
Writing for the Fordham Institute, Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Andrew Scanlan recently reviewed their research on the role of advanced placement courses in narrowing achievement gaps. Excerpts from the piece appear below: This report presents key findings from Learning in the Fast Lane: The Past, Present, and Future of Read more
As its name suggests, the middle-skills pathway sits between a high school diploma and a bachelor’s degree. There are a wide variety of credentials associated with this pathway, but certificates and associate degrees are the most popular. In general, associate degrees include a mix of general education courses and career Read more
As automation, AI, and other technological advances continue to disrupt jobs, more Americans will need to upgrade their skills throughout their lives to stay competitive. Right now, however, the postsecondary credentialing system is fragmented. It doesn’t acknowledge or connect the learning that happens through different sources of education–from school to Read more
Time-based systems, also known as “seat-time” requirement systems, still form the basis of today’s traditional schools. The prevailing assumption has been that state policies for seat-time requirements constrict schools and hinder attempts to innovate. However, far more flexibility exists than originally thought. New research by ExcelinEd examining seat-time requirements for Read more
A new policy scan from Education Commission of the States reveals the incredible growth of dual enrollment policies across the nation. Because dual enrollment programs offer advanced learning opportunities to high schoolers and can lower the cost of college for students and families, state policymakers have been looking at ways Read more
Recently, Tom Vander Ark reviewed the literature on early college high school for the Fordham Institute. Excerpts of his piece appear below: Ten years ago I called early college high schools the best philanthropic initiative in education that never scaled. But the idea keeps chugging along gaining steam with policy Read more
GripTape asserts that learner agency—defined as the ability to make intentional choices about and take an active role in the course of one’s own learning—is the key to a self-reinforcing cycle of learning and development. After two years spent working directly with more than 400 young people nationwide designing and Read more
Can teaching and learning practices that foster deeper learning among all students-not just the most advantaged-be successfully replicated across large numbers of schools? The answer is an unqualified “yes,” according to the Learning Policy Institute’s recently released study, Deeper Learning Networks: Taking Student-Centered Learning and Equity to Scale. The study Read more
We know more than ever about the science of learning and development, but education policy hasn’t kept pace with these advancements. In a new report, iNACOL (Renamed the Aurora Institute) explores the emerging research and offers a set of recommendations to align policy with how students learn best. Aligning Education Read more
Researchers from the Community College Research Center at Columbia University are working with Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program to improve the outcomes of college acceleration strategies for underrepresented high school students, particularly students of color and those from low-income families. This research project is designed to better understand the drivers Read more
The College in High School Alliance (CHSA) has partnered with the Level Up coalition to publish Unlocking Potential: A State Policy Roadmap for Equity and Quality in College in High School Programs. This resource can serve as a roadmap for states that want to design policy that drives meaningful change Read more
Listening closely to what students say about their school experiences can be beneficial to educators for understanding and addressing school-related topics and problems and for rethinking policies and practices. A new toolkit from REL West provides educators a purposeful and systematic means to gather and analyze local data by eliciting Read more
A team of current and former Stanford University researchers studied whether racial and ethnic segregation at school still matters today by looking at 350 million test scores across nearly every school in the United States from the 2008-09 school year to the 2015-16 school year. The study looked at student Read more