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Lumina Foundation is focused on one important mission — increasing the number of college degrees conferred on our nation's citizens. This mission requires innovative thinking, partnering with stakeholders, data-driven decision-making, and sound implementation of methods and practices that increase student success. The following publications underscore the challenges facing students, parents, institutions, and states and present new approaches that may light the way to increased college attainment in our nation.
Quality education: Some NSSE schools make scores public
The National Survey of Student Engagement
(NSSE) is trying to gauge the quality of undergraduate education by examining how involved students are with their studies, instructors and the campus community. Now NSSE, in partnership with USA TODAY, has published a database in which more than 250 schools disclosed their NSSE scores. Read
Experiences That Matter: Enhancing Student Learning and Success and search the database
to view scores of participating schools.
Can states meet demand for college-educated population?
Educational attainment in the United States is leveling off, while other nations are graduating a higher proportion of their population. A recent report from Making Opportunity Affordable
gauges each state's readiness to meet the demand for a better-educated population. Read Adding it Up and learn why all states must address educational and demographic challenges to compete in the world that is taking shape.
College access accelerates social mobility, according to new book
Increasing college enrollment rates over the last generation is a major step toward reducing chronic economic disparities. But many of the policies that broadened access to higher education — including affirmative action and need-based financial aid — have come under attack in recent years. A new book,
Passing the Torch, by Paul Attewell, David Lavin, Thurston Domina and Tania Levey, shows that widening college access can accelerate social mobility across generations.
Tuition increases in Western states
WICHE has released its annual report,
Tuition and Fees in Public Higher Education in the West
. It indicates that the average price among public four-year institutions in 2007-08 in the West rose by $367 (8.3 percent) over the previous year. The increase in the public two-year sector (not including California) was $91 (3.9 percent). The report also includes results from questions added to this year’s survey concerning the spread of differential tuition pricing strategies.
Student data can help identify problems and solutions
Building a Culture of Evidence in Community Colleges
, a policy brief by Jobs for the Future,
highlights four community colleges successfully using institutional research to identify the challenges that many students face and create programs that address them. The way these institutions organize and use institutional research reveals strategies that college leaders can apply to their institutions.
The post-high school choices of the class of 2004
The National Center for Education Statistics has released the
Education Longitudinal Study of 2002: A First Look at the Initial Postsecondary Experiences of the High School Sophomore Class of 2002
. This report examines the experience of the high school class of 2004 in transitioning to college, including information about what colleges students attended, what academic programs they pursued, and how their post-high school choices differed by characteristics such as income.
Online learning: A status report
A recent report by Babson Survey Research Group and the Sloan Consortium examines the current state of online learning and its future. The report,
Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning, reveals how many students are learning online, where the growth in online learning has occurred and the barriers to widespread adoption of online education.
Turning middle schoolers' aspirations into reality
According to an
Institute for Higher Education Policy report, most parents of middle-school children expect them to go to college, but not many have taken the steps to get them there. The report,
From Aspirations to Action: The Role of Middle School Parents in Making the Dream of College a Reality, is based on a survey of parents who were asked about saving for college, helping their children be academically prepared, and building college knowledge from researching institutions and meeting with counselors.
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