Policy & Research

Research shows that students are more likely to persist and complete when they see themselves reflected in faculty, staff, and leadership on campus. How can we ensure that diversity in leadership extends to LGBTQ+ professionals, particularly at community colleges?

With Pell Grant access restored, we can now move forward with more postsecondary programs in prison, which are an evidence-based way to shatter many of the inequities and obstacles associated with reentry that people with low-incomes and communities of color face—the very communities that colleges and universities are strive to serve better.

The time has come to make the structures, practices, and policies in STEM departments work better for underserved students, writes Vanderbilt professor Ebony McGee.

Regional partnerships between two- and four-year institutions, like Houston GPS, are increasingly a critical means to bolster transfer and degree completion. Starting with seven institutions, it has grown to include 13 two- and four-year institutions with an aggregate enrollment of more than 300,000 students in the Houston-Gulf Coast region.

Higher education is increasingly embracing the use of big data to increase and assess the effectiveness of institutional policies and practices and to drive needed change. The Central Florida Education Ecosystem Database (CFEED) offers one promising model for regional data-sharing agreements that can increase educational attainment.

Collaboration between two-year sending and four-year receiving institutions is key to improving community college student transfer and graduation rates. The Central Florida Educational Ecosystem Database and Houston Guided Pathway to Success are two innovative models for achieving this goal.