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About the Institute
Policy Issues
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Press
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Institute for Higher Education
Leadership & Policy


The mission of the Institute is to enhance leadership and policy for higher education in California and the nation through producing research and services for policy makers, practitioners, and educators. The Institute has an emphasis on community colleges in recognition of their importance to providing an educated and diverse citizenry and workforce.


Recent Publications

NEW! Steps to Success: Analyzing Milestone Achievement to Improve Community College Student Outcomes
October 2009
IHELP’s newest report offers a framework, based on the research literature, for guiding educators in using available knowledge and tools to improve student outcomes. Using data for the California Community Colleges, the report illustrates the framework, which consists of milestones, or intermediate educational achievements that students reach along the path to degree completion, and indicators of success, or academic patterns students follow including remediation, gateway courses, and credit accumulation. The report shows how the framework can be used to diagnose where and why students fall off the path to success, to suggest appropriate interventions, and to improve accountability in community colleges.

Community College Student Outcomes: Limitations of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and Recommendations for Improvement.
August 2009
IHELP’s report on the IPEDS analyzes the value and effectiveness of the system for understanding student outcomes in community colleges. The report discusses the system’s shortcomings such as the limitation of the graduation rate data to full-time students, the difficulty in discerning student intent in order to report on the appropriate outcomes, and the limitations for using the data to make comparisons across colleges. Recommendations are made for improving the data collected and for better use of the data.

Student Progress Toward Degree Completion: Lessons from the Research Literature
September 2009
This report reviews the research literature on student success to identify intermediate outcomes, sometimes called “milestones,” along the college pathway that give students momentum toward degree completion. It points to academic behaviors and patterns that have been found to predict student progress and success that can, therefore, be tracked to identify where and why student progress stalls and how changes to policies and practices might increase degree completion. The report was prepared as background for upcoming reports on milestone achievement among community college and university students.


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In the Higher Education Policy Community

Milestones and Indicators of Success: A Framework for Improving Student Outcomes
Presentation to the National Association of System Heads (NASH)
Access to Success (A2S)
Leading Indicators Project
November 11, 2009

Crossing the Divide: Making a Difference with Policy Research
Presented at the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Graduate Policy Seminar,
November 5, 2009

California Higher Education:
Performance, Policy, and
Prognostications

Presented to the University of California Office of the President
October 22, 2009


In the News

College Crisis is a disaster California can't afford
San Diego Union-Tribune,
November 15, 2009

Community Colleges Urged to Focus on Outcomes Data
Inside Higher Ed, October 22, 2009

Report Urges Better Tracking of Students' Intermediate Progress to
Degrees

The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 21, 2009

In California transferring from city or community colleges: not so simple anymore
Examiner.com, September 4, 2009

Transfer Troubles in California
U.S. News and World Report,
August 31, 2009

Report calls for overhaul of California community colleges' transfer process
Los Angeles Times, August 27, 2009

Improving California's Course-Transfer System Is Vital to Future, Report Says
The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 27, 2009

Report Urges California to Follow Other States in Easing Student Transfer
Inside Higher Ed, August 27, 2009

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IHELP Newsletters

October 2009

September 2009

View All Newsletters