Infinite Campus’ Post

And come attend my session Marketable Skills: Helping Students Connect Your Class to Their Resume while you are at the conference. #highereducation #studentsuccess #professionaldevelopment

Indiana University Indianapolis is taking its seamless admissions initiative to new heights by expanding to more schools throughout Marion County. Discover how this groundbreaking program is breaking down barriers and making higher education more accessible for everyone: https://bit.ly/49E5BV8

I'm thrilled to share that my perspective has been published today in EdNC.org, one of North Carolina's leading education journals. It’s an honor to contribute to the conversation about the vital role of community colleges. Community colleges may not always be seen as the most glamorous institutions—you won’t find people cheering for their football teams—but they play an incredibly important role in education and workforce development. They provide accessible, affordable education and hands-on training that truly make a difference in people's lives. As faculty members, many of us have experience in the real world. We bring practical, industry-specific knowledge to the classroom, bridging the gap between education and employment. In today’s world, where it seems like we disagree on just about everything, there’s one area we should all be united on: the need for strong funding and support for community colleges. They are the backbone of local communities and key to building a skilled workforce for the future. https://lnkd.in/esn-iveQ

Grand View University is breaking barriers and making higher education more accessible with the launch of Go Private. Pay Public! Starting in the fall of 2025, this innovative initiative will make a high-quality, private college education as affordable as attending Iowa’s public universities. Grand View also offers the GV Next program for students with the greatest financial need—providing eligible Iowa students with a tuition-free college experience. #HigherEdAccess #GrandViewUniversity #GoPrivatePayPublic #CollegeAffordability #EducationForAll

Nationally, 54% of undergraduates identify as first-generation college students (Center for First-generation Student Success, 2024). And often unspoken in our conversations about #firstgen is its intersection with family income. Parental income for first-generation college students remained steady at $41,000 since data was last published by the Center for First-generation Student Success, and this highlights the continued need for services (#TRIOworks) and financial supports that empower our first-gen students to keep pursuing their educational and career goals. Bringing it down to the lived experience level, there is an indelible quality to the first-generation student experience that connects all of us that have and continue to trek on the journey. To be first-gen is to punch an entrance ticket to a world we and our families didn't know previously. It's a testament that we dream big and go the distance, in spite of the systemic inequities that undergird our higher education system, particularly in our rural communities. We are poverty cycle breakers; we are worthy of the opportunity that education beyond high school affords us. Thankful to continue doing the work in supporting our #Scholars in community with my colleagues at The Ford Family Foundation and our wonderful campus partners!

Mid-State Technical College announces its Tailored Solutions for Adults and Employers Roadshow, a unique event series designed to bring personalized workforce and adult education services directly to rural communities. The series of events begins in January and wraps up in June with stops in Granton, Auburndale, and Pittsville. At each stop, Mid-State workforce and adult education experts will be on-site to provide customized guidance. Read the full story at https://lnkd.in/grEF9nUD.

Grand View University launches Public Price Program! Iowa students can now experience the benefits of a private college education at Grand View University at a price comparable to Iowa’s public universities. This new initiative breaks down financial barriers, making quality education more accessible. Learn more about eligibility and how to apply: https://loom.ly/YSDn744 #YouthInvestment #Education

I always look forward to the new #PDKPoll results, particularly for an update on how the public is feeling about their child/ren entering the teaching profession. In looking at this year's topline data, I find it very interesting (and amusing) to see how much more opinionated on this question the public has become since 1969, when 10% of respondents didn't have an opinion either way. This grew to 22% of respondents in 1983 before a sharp decline to get to single digits in 1993 - today, 1% of respondents replied "no opinion" I have to imagine that the impacts of the release of A Nation at Risk in April of 1983 and the subsequent shift in how we talk about K-12 education and its "failures" (including who to blame for them) is being shown here. In working with state leaders to address teacher recruitment and retention issues over the past several years, the need for a marketing campaign around the positives of being a teacher has been raised every time. This data is a stark reminder that the way we as a field talk about what it means to be an educator matters - not that we shouldn't advocate for higher pay and better working conditions and publicly share student achievement data, but that we probably need to be more considerate of how we do so and aware of the unintended consequences of our attempts to hold people accountable within the unwieldy system(s) of K-12 education in our country.

The future is full of promise as we recognize the potential for reimagining high schools to center learners and create systems that fully support them in their educational pathways. Explore All4Ed's Pathways to Progress resource → https://lnkd.in/ehgzu6JN

Good reporting on Free Community College - I think the big takeaways for Houston are: (1) Free tuition is NOT enough - we need additional funding for incidentals AND advising to support students. (2) Auto-enrollment in community college (i.e. what Houston Community College did with P-SOAR in Alief ISD) likely won't hurt enrollment at 4-year institutions. (3) We should the San Jacinto College Promise Program to see what the effects are. Hope we can get some folks at our local Community Colleges thinking about this! https://lnkd.in/gpTEaN8i