Equity: Everything and the Kitchen Sink

Pen on top of Note pad on the desk with glasses

Equity seems to be the “it” term of the day when it comes to student success and college completion. You’d be hard pressed to find an institutional strategic plan or statewide task force report focused on increasing postsecondary attainment that doesn’t reference a commitment to equity, or its oft used counterparts, diversity and inclusion. Everyone’s…

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Incentivizing Equity: A Q&A with University of Northern Colorado Professor Amy Li

two women embracing as they walk down an alley

Insights & Outlooks: Your work centers on the topic of state higher education accountability policies and their impact on educational equity. In a few sentences, what are the key findings of your research? Dr. Amy Li: My work on accountability has focused on state performance funding policies. Key findings about performance funding are that these…

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Affordable Higher Education is Essential to Preserving the Black Middle Class

Higher education has long been touted as a gateway to the middle class. This is especially critical for black Americans, as blacks still face economic adversity in not only achieving middle-income status, but also maintaining this status for future generations. In 2017, about 40 percent of black households qualify as middle class, with household incomes…

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When Brand Names Don’t Fit

Man walking toward foggy fork in the road

Over the past few decades, many education advocates and reformers have advanced a philosophy that what low income, students of color need most is to attend a brand name institution, filled with wealthy students whose families have attended college for generations. For years, people have focused on undermatching – a philosophy that says that very…

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Stephanie Shaw: Using Business Acumen to Drive Change in Education

Stephanie Shaw portrait

It was never a question of if Stephanie Shaw would attend college. She always knew she would. A first-generation college student, she had to rely heavily on her extended family members, friends, and teachers who had attended college to lead her in the right direction. “I have been very, very fortunate to have educators in…

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Recommendations to Support Students of Color

Today, Higher Learning Advocates submitted proposals in response to a request from Senator Doug Jones (D-AL), Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) on empowering students of color and ensuring their success in postsecondary education. Today’s students, and in particular today’s students of color, often face significant challenges…

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Can they find common ground on HEA?

Julie Peller was on a panel at the Inside Higher Education Leadership Series event, where she discussed challenges Congress may encounter while working toward comprehensive HEA reauthorization.

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Seeing the Forest Beyond the Trees: Connections in Negotiated Rulemaking

Tree lined forest path

The US Department of Education’s (ED) proposals for new regulations presented to the negotiating team in the current negotiated rulemaking (aka “neg reg”) are being thoroughly analyzed by a number of constituents. These thought leaders are dissecting the issue, the history of the issue, reasons for change from status quo and, at times, the risks…

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I’m Not Wonder Woman: A Student Parent’s Story

Jenifer Gernert and child

“There’s never enough time!” As a parent and student, I say this to myself nearly every semester, but yet I keep signing up for a full course load. I guess I must be a glutton for punishment, as I barely have free time to begin with without the added pressures of taking four classes. You…

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