July 17, 2015

Using IPAS to Motivate Reform

In a blog post for the AACC 21st Century Center, Melinda Mechur Karp writes about the process of implementing integrated planning and advising services (IPAS) at colleges, focusing on the human side of technological reform.

May 12, 2015

The Real Change Agents

In Inside Higher Ed, James Jacobs looks at the call for institutional change in Redesigning America's Community Colleges and points out the importance of gaining support for reform from middle-level management.

May 11, 2015

Rethinking the "Cafeteria" Approach to Community College

In The Washington Post, Thomas Bailey lays out the central argument of the book he authored with Shanna Smith Jaggars and Davis Jenkins—that to improve student transfer and completion rates, community colleges must fundamentally rethink how they operate.

May 05, 2015

Why Are Graduation Rates at Community Colleges So Low?

In an interview with The Hechinger Report, Thomas Bailey discusses the weaknesses of the "cafeteria model" of community colleges and why they should restructure their offerings to create more defined program pathways.

April 25, 2015

Q&A: The Politics of Performance Funding for Higher Education: Origins, Discontinuations, and Transformations

Kevin Dougherty and Rebecca Natow discuss findings from their new book on performance funding in an interview with the New Books Network.

April 07, 2015

A Simpler Path, Authors Say, Is Key to Community-College Completion

In an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education, Thomas Bailey talks about the book he authored with Shanna Smith Jaggars and Davis Jenkins and its argument that streamlining program pathways could improve student completion rates.

April 07, 2015

No, Online Classes Are Not Going to Help America's Poor Kids Bridge the Achievement Gap

In The Washington Post, Shanna Smith Jaggars refutes the idea that massive open online courses (MOOCs) will revolutionize postsecondary education and make a high-quality education free for all students.

April 02, 2015

Redesigning Community Colleges

Thomas Bailey, Shanna Smith Jaggars, and Davis Jenkins discuss the findings from their new book, Redesigning America's Community Colleges, in a Q&A with Inside Higher Ed.

March 31, 2015

How to Simplify the Complicated Process of Applying for Federal Student Aid

In a blog post for the Urban Institute, Sandy Baum and Judith Scott-Clayton describe how simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) could help more students attend college, and how the process of awarding Pell Grants could potentially be automated to further reduce barriers to college attendance.

March 02, 2015

Beyond Carrots and Sticks: Helping Colleges Meet the Challenge of Performance Funding

In a blog post for Completion by Design, Kevin Dougherty writes about how states can craft their performance funding policies to support colleges in making the changes necessary to drive improvements in student outcomes.