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Lumina Foundation is focused on increasing the number of college degrees that students earn in this country. 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.
Best practices at minority-serving institutions
A new monograph, Increasing Student Success at Minority-Serving Institutions: Findings from the BEAMS Project
, outlines the best practices of participants in the Lumina-funded Building Engagement and Attainment of Minority Students (BEAMS) project. The five-year initiative included 150 four-year colleges and universities and focused on analyzing institutional performance data to improve student engagement, learning and attainment. Accompanying project briefs offer details on individual school efforts, as well as key findings and lessons learned.
Graduation rate gap can be reversed, says report
At a growing number of colleges and universities, the graduation rate gap between black and white students is significant. An Education Sector
report offers insight on colleges and universities that have reversed these trends, achieving small or nonexistent gaps between white and black students' graduation rates. Graduation Rate Watch: Making Minority Student Success a Priority
also includes recommendations on providing better incentives for institutions to close graduation gaps and give minority students the resources they need to earn a college degree.
Strengthening federal grants could aid students most in need
The Pell Grant is an essential financial-aid source for low-income students, but its ability to significantly reduce financial burdens for these students is diminishing. In
Window of Opportunity: Targeting Federal Grant Aid to Students with the Lowest Incomes, authors discuss specific policy options to revive the Pell Grant program.
State funding priorities: Prisons or higher education?
For the first time ever, more than one in every 100 adults in America is in jail or prison, according to a report by the Pew Charitable Trusts
. As corrections budgets consume a larger share of states' general funds, less is available for higher education and healthcare. One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008 identifies how corrections spending compares to other state investments, why it has increased, and what some states are doing to limit growth in both prison populations and costs while maintaining public safety.
Cost containment: Strategy is essential for institutions
Containing operational costs while increasing affordability and access has become a priority for U.S. colleges and universities. A survey from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities
and SunGard Higher Education shows that, while many postsecondary institutions are engaged in cost-containment activities, their strategies are ad hoc and focused on business operations.
Cost Containment: A Survey of Current Practices at America's State Colleges and Universities offers recommendations for curbing institutional spending, while maintaining education quality and access.
Community colleges need more distance ed offerings
The Instructional Technology Council conducted a survey of community colleges' online education.
Tracking the Impact of E-Learning at Community Colleges reveals that student demand exceeds online offerings. Respondents reported an 18-percent increase in distance education enrollments over the prior year, with 64 percent of institutions surveyed offering at least one online degree. Training professors remains an ongoing challenge for institutions offering distance education.
Building community workforce development partnerships
The National Fund for Workforce Solutions: A History of Collaboration
shows how local and national foundations and government agencies helped to shape a new national workforce-development initiative. The $50 million project was designed to expand promising workforce-development partnerships in communities across the country.
Strategies to increase college success for low-literacy adults
Almost 90 million adults in the United States lack the academic skills for admission to community college occupational or technical-degree programs.
Overcoming Obstacles, Optimizing Opportunities: State Policies to Increase Postsecondary Attainment for Low-Skilled Adults describes the education challenges among low-skilled adults and offers policy recommendations to overcome them. The publication is part of
Breaking Through, a multiyear initiative of Jobs for the Future and the
National Council for Workforce Education.
Report warns of loan risks for low-income students
About a quarter of America's community colleges do not participate in the federal student loan program, leaving more than 1 million community college students-many of whom are minorities and low-income students-without access to lower cost and fixed interest-rate loans.
Denied: Community College Students Lack Access to Affordable Loans by the Project on Student Debt
explains that a growing number of these students often resort to riskier, more expensive funding options. | 
