Daily Lumina News 041123

Author and professor Elizabeth Aries first explored the impact of diversity on undergraduates in 2005. Today, she returns to her subjects as they reach 30 and finds new evidence about the success of affirmative action.
Aries explains more in this interview.

For 40 years, U.S. News and World Report has released rankings of the nation’s top colleges, universities, and graduate schools. They’ve been used in advertising materials for schools and showcased in the national media. But in recent months, dozens of the nation’s top-ranked institutions have stopped providing data to the publication.
How important should rankings be for prospective students? Several leading experts tackle this difficult question.

Some want better jobs or need to support their families. Others are trying to break through longstanding barriers. Adult learners have good reasons for seeking college degrees, but too often their plans fall short.
Lumina Foundation and American Institutes for Research are conducting an in-depth study to better understand the processes, systems, and structures that shape adult learners’ educational journeys, especially the journeys of Black, Latino, and Native American students. Early interviews with students reveal important insights.

While every community college offers some advising support, the SENSE program at Chattahoochee Valley Community College in Alabama is an unusual effort to automatically offer coaching to a certain group of students and to guide them through whatever life and academic challenges they might face until they complete their program.
SENSE, now in its third year, aims to solve a challenge that affects community colleges across the country: poor completion rates.

Apprenticeships are, in many ways, the holy grail for working learners—providing an education that’s targeted to in-demand roles and paying them full-time wages for work they do while they’re learning.
It’s a powerful package. But there’s one big catch: Apprenticeships leave out the 95 million frontline workers who already have jobs, but who still may need additional education to move up in their careers.

Having a child changed everything for Malia Capers-Cristabol—including her hopes and dreams for a college education.
She is far from alone. Without adequate support such as childcare, financial aid, and schedules that accommodate their other responsibilities, many student-parents never make it to or through college. Capers-Cristabol was fortunate. She beat the odds, thanks to the personalized support she received from Austin Community College.