‘Modernizing Postsecondary Policy to Better Support Adult Learners’: A Special Report

Photo of adult student in computer lab

Inside Higher Ed published a new special report, “Modernizing Postsecondary Policy to Better Support Adult Learners,” with insight provided by HLA’s Julie Peller, executive director, and Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield, managing director of policy and research. This free, print-on-demand report explores how current federal and state policies can impede working learners, veterans, student parents and other…

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Q&A With Nicole Lynn Lewis, Founder & CEO of Generation Hope

book cover of Pregnant Girl, a story of teen motherhood, college, and creating a better future for young families by Nicole Lynn Lewis, founder of Generation Hope

Nicole Lynn Lewis is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Generation Hope, which works to surround motivated teen parents and their children with mentors, emotional support, and financial resources they need to succeed in higher ed, as well as supporting their children through school. Nicole, a former teen parent who worked while pursuing her…

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Fall 2020: A Senior In The Making, A Mother Soon Breaking

woman holding awake infant frustratedly staring at laptop screen

I, like the rest of nearly four million student parents, am already juggling a million different tasks all at once. Student parents juggle ever so carefully because we have perfectly balanced everything out. However, in March, those carefully balanced tasks were all thrown out of balance and we were tasked with yet another hundred things…

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Reimagining Higher Ed for Equity and Student Parent Success

woman holding a sleeping infant working on a computer

“Was higher ed designed for minority students?”   A student asked this question during a Temple University “Sociology of Education” class I spoke to this fall about parenting college students.   My answer? “No.” The first college in the United States, Harvard University (then Harvard College), was founded in 1636, and its legacy and history are bound…

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Time to Innovate: How We Can Harness an Unprecedented Moment in Higher Education to Better Serve Student Parents

mother with daughter on lap working on computer at the kitchen table

Before the COVID-19 pandemic upturned how all of us work and learn, nearly four million student parents—more than a fifth of the entire U.S. undergraduate student population—faced near-impossible demands on their time and resources as they worked to juggle school and child care. Life before the pandemic was not working for most student parents.  To…

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Centering Student Parent Families in COVID-19 Response

Father working on a computer with daughter on his lap in the kitchen

For the nearly four million undergraduate students with dependent children—including 2.7 million mothers—earning a college degree can make a life-changing difference in their family’s lifetime economic security. According to an unpublished Institute for Women’s Policy Research analysis of the Beginning Postsecondary Student Longitudinal Study, however, just 37 percent of parenting students earn a degree or…

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The Other Costs of College: Four Ways to Support Today’s Students Beyond Tuition

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The idea of free college is currently dominating headlines and the 2020 Democratic primary race. And for good reason: Americans now collectively owe $1.6 trillion in student debt. But supporting today’s students requires more than plans for offering free tuition or debt relief.  More students than ever before are now going to college. They are…

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