February 18, 2010
New Report Highlights Exemplary Postsecondary Access and Success Initiatives
The Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) and the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education (WISCAPE) have released “New Approaches to Improving College Access, Persistence, and Success: Three Exemplary Postsecondary Opportunity Programs.” Written by WISCAPE staff, the report focuses on three initiatives—in Illinois, Iowa and Michigan—aimed at improving postsecondary access and degree attainment through efforts at the institutional, state, and local community levels respectively. The publication is available online at http://www.mhec.org/pdfs/jan2010pp.pdf.
The report is the second in MHEC’s series, Promising Practices: What Works in the Midwest, which was launched to showcase innovative initiatives and effective ways to address common challenges and unique opportunities in higher education. In keeping with this goal, the authors of the new report discuss the promising characteristics of each of the three initiatives, called “postsecondary opportunity programs,” and the lessons to be learned from their successes.
“It’s our hope that policymakers, community leaders and administrators can use what we’ve taken from these case studies to help them in developing or improving their own postsecondary opportunity programs and ultimately enhance their service to students,” said Elizabeth Stransky Vaade, WISCAPE policy analyst and lead author on the report.
Chris Rasmussen, MHEC’s vice president for research and policy analysis, added, “Our colleagues at WISCAPE are at the forefront of research on the factors that support and impede the development and sustainability of postsecondary opportunity programs. Every community and every context is different, and one approach does not fit all. It’s for this reason that we titled our monograph series “promising practices” rather than “best practices.”
About MHEC
The Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC), founded in 1991, consists of twelve states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. MHEC sponsors a variety of programs to reduce costs, to increase student access and to conduct policy research and analysis. The Compact is statutorily created and governed by a board comprised of five commissioners from each member state. Commissioners include legislators, governor’s representatives and higher education leaders. The Compact is headquartered in Minneapolis and led by President Larry A. Isaak. For more information about the Compact, please visit www.mhec.org or call 612-626-8288.
About WISCAPE
The Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education (WISCAPE) was established in 2001 on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to study the challenges confronting postsecondary education while bringing together key stakeholders to discuss issues and solutions. The center is housed in the School of Education. WISCAPE recognizes that colleges and universities make significant contributions to society. To help these institutions better serve the public good, the center aims to inform and improve postsecondary education policy, research and practice through the creation and exchange of knowledge. In pursuit of this goal, WISCAPE conducts and supports research projects; sponsors public programs; produces and distributes publications; and convenes and fosters communication among key stakeholder groups.
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