101: Single Moms in Higher Education We met Kimberly Salazar, a single mother of a 5-year-old, last year during Higher Learning Advocates’ National Student Parent Month Fireside Chat. A first-generation student at University of California, Berkeley, and 4.0 GPA sociology major, Salazar was accepted into her school’s honors program for seniors. She also represents one…

Higher Learning Advocates’ Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) Backgrounder offers an expert analysis that examines the roots of CPL and a 50-state table based on a nationwide review of CPL laws and legislation. Drawing on lessons learned from institutions nationwide, the policy paper puts forward three actionable recommendations for Congress that would allow today’s students…

Today’s Students 101 Higher Learning Advocates’ Today’s Students 101 contextualizes who today’s students are and why their needs matter to help inform essential higher education policy conversations. Understanding who today’s students are is fundamental to creating a higher learning system that leads to their success.   HLA’s Updated Today’s Students 101 features: The newest data…

Today’s students follow myriad pathways to and through higher learning. Providing today’s students with wraparound supports and tools to navigate complex career pathways systems can greatly boost their chances of success, but requires multiple resources. For students, this means the programs they rely on for career and income mobility have limited sets of resources from…

Means-tested federal and state programs help millions of low-income Americans access housing, food, health care, child care, and more. But complex programs combined with myriad eligibility requirements can make it difficult for students to access these benefits. This 101 provides an outline of the programs, how each program is connected to college students’ needs, and…

Every year, more than one million students drop out—70 percent do so because of financial insecurity, which is disproportionately felt by low-income students. That’s where means-tested benefit programs and income supports can help. Means-tested federal and state programs help millions of low-income Americans access housing, food, health care, child care, and more. But the myriad…

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) is a federal provision that requires institutions to establish criteria a student must meet in order to remain eligible for federal student aid, such as Pell Grants and student loans. Typically, to meet SAP requirements, students must meet a minimum grade point average (GPA), or its equivalent, and complete a minimum…

Online program management (OPM) entities are service providers that work through contracts with colleges and universities to take academic programs online. While most OPMs are for-profit, some are nonprofit. Typically, colleges and universities that utilize OPMs seek to expand access to college courses that they cannot financially or practically offer via a traditional physical environment,…