ResearchEd

Ayana Tapper & Michelle Foley joined the Complete College America Accelerator team to map how institutions can turn Postsecondary Data Partnership (PDP) data into actionable insights. We're excited to learn alongside these institutions as they put their data to work with purpose!

Rural schools in California’s West Kern County found a way to tackle limited access to student support resources. By sharing resources, schools leveraged each other's assets to provide student services that would otherwise have been out of reach.🔗buff.ly/rOQggXj🔗

Rural-based grantmakers account for just 8% of all grantmaking organizations. The lack of local funders creates structural challenges for institutions seeking funding for special projects. Learn more through the USDA data story 🔗 buff.ly/cuCSScr

Meet Alicia Gangone, an Indigenous graduate student who founded the Indigenous Student Collective at Wichita State University to create a sense of home and belonging for Indigenous students on campus. 🔗 buff.ly/dodtDrm Photo: Julie Denesha for The Chronicle

November is Native American Heritage Month, an opportunity to celebrate Indigenous cultures, amplify Native voices, and learn from the rich histories and traditions of Native communities.

The UK & the US are facing a similar problem: a missing link between education and employment. 🎯 Key takeaway: Community colleges must see themselves not only as educational institutions, but also as critical bridges connecting students to employment. 🔗buff.ly/7TivFkk🔗

Building equitable career pathways means understanding the labor market. A new dashboard from The University of Washington reveals that Women of color make up 16% of Washington's workforce but are overrepresented in the lowest-paid occupations. 🔗 buff.ly/W8pGPwm

We kicked off October by attending the Radically Rural summit in Keene, NH!Radically Rural is a national grassroots initiative that connects rural leaders, citizens, & organizations to share ideas. We are grateful to the folks at Radically Rural for a great conference!

We kicked off our 5th Anniversary event with a panel titled “Student Loans: Changing Rules, Lasting Consequences”. Thank you to our panelists for sharing their expertise, and to everyone who joined us! Watch the panel: buff.ly/FdMvA0h

A new EU report found that successful digital transformation initiatives combine technology with strong pedagogy. Digital education is about building digitally capable learners through strong teaching, thoughtful governance, & inclusive system design. 🔗buff.ly/SDqfKVd 🔗

📍 Rural colleges remain underrepresented in research. That’s why the National Rural Higher Education Research Center at MDRC is conducting research across 10 states and 25 colleges to generate actionable findings for rural college leaders. 🔗 buff.ly/T7WkhKZ 🔗

The Axim Collaborative 2026 Impact Report is out! We’re happy to see our work, Building Data Capacity for Student Success, featured among incredible partners. Read about our work with four broad-access colleges to build data capacity 🔗 buff.ly/13FoMpT 🔗

🚨 New Report Drop! We’re thrilled to share a new report by Sam and Michelle that explores the Detroit Regional Chamber’s efforts to improve longitudinal student data through the Detroit Drives Degrees Data Collaborative. 🔗 buff.ly/batJlUF 🔗

In the EU, international mobility is baked into vocational education and training. Their model can provide insight into how the U.S. can build systems to support industry-recognized credential portability across borders. 🔗 buff.ly/66rWZs6 🔗

Uncovering student transfer patterns is complex. For that reason, we’re excited to share our transfer toolkit, SDP Beyond Transfer Rates, developed in partnership with Harvard Strategic Data Project Download the toolkit here 🔗 buff.ly/HpahOwX 🔗

Spain is using an asset-based framework to help rural schools address challenges. The lesson: rural schools are poised to leverage place-based educational models and don’t need to imitate urban schools. 🔗buff.ly/Z4WaTVF🔗

Regional collaboratives can provide the ecosystem needed to connect students to high-quality college and career pathways. The core idea is that no single district can offer every pathway, but regions can. Learn more about the Empower Schools guide 🔗 buff.ly/N8JVwp5 🔗