A Q&A with Geronimo Rodriguez, Chief Advocacy Officer at Ascension Texas
An attorney by training, Geronimo Rodriguez currently serves as the Chief Advocacy Officer for Ascension Texas, one of the leading non-profit and Catholic healthcare systems in the United States. Previously, he served as Counsel to the Solicitor at the U.S. Department of Labor, overseeing 140 labor and employment laws in the United States during the…
Read MoreAccess and Outcomes Are Not at Odds
For more than 150 years, access to higher education, regardless of a student’s financial background, has been the driving force behind efforts to make good on the transformative promise of education. It is a paradigm that began with the Morrill Land-Grant Acts in the late 1800s and was later dramatically shaped by the GI Bill,…
Read MoreWhat Do Businesses Want? The Same Things Individuals Do
What does human capital strategy mean? The answer seems to differ, depending on who you ask. Ask local elected officials, and the answer will likely involve their plans for K-12 schools or community colleges. Ask economic development leaders, and they might discuss their strategy to attract more jobs to their region. Ask an employer, and…
Read MoreHonda’s Approach to Bridging the Gap Between Technical Education and Workforce in Ohio
Growing up, Scot McLemore developed an interest in technology, innovation, and inventions, which led him to study Engineering Technology at Purdue University and then on to a 28-year career at Honda Motor Company. Scot was the first in his immediate family to attend college and when met with the challenge of finding his own pathway,…
Read MoreEmployers are a critical piece of higher education reform
Companies are finding it difficult to fill open positions, saying they simply can’t find workers with the right qualifications. The half-life of skills continues to shrink, with many technical skills losing their usefulness after just five years. According to the Pew Research Center, more than half of all working adults now say it is necessary…
Read MoreThe Student Success Movement’s Next Push: Career Services: A Q&A with Bridget Burns, Executive Director, University Innovation Alliance
Earlier this month, the University Innovation Alliance announced its next scale project, with a cohort of seven institutions teaming up to close the gap between college and the workforce. This next scale initiative, which received $2.4 million in funding from Strada Education Network, will involve career services professionals developing innovative concepts to pilot both on…
Read MoreEquity: Everything and the Kitchen Sink
Equity seems to be the “it” term of the day when it comes to student success and college completion. You’d be hard pressed to find an institutional strategic plan or statewide task force report focused on increasing postsecondary attainment that doesn’t reference a commitment to equity, or its oft used counterparts, diversity and inclusion. Everyone’s…
Read MoreIncentivizing Equity: A Q&A with University of Northern Colorado Professor Amy Li
Insights & Outlooks: Your work centers on the topic of state higher education accountability policies and their impact on educational equity. In a few sentences, what are the key findings of your research? Dr. Amy Li: My work on accountability has focused on state performance funding policies. Key findings about performance funding are that these…
Read MoreBeating the Odds in Tennessee: A Q&A with Kenyatta Lovett, Executive Director of Complete Tennessee
Insights & Outlooks: Can you share more about your personal story and why equity in higher education matters to you? Kenyatta Lovett: My higher education story begins with the college journeys of my father and mother. Both were the first in their family to go to college. My father sat out a year after high…
Read MoreSeeing the Forest Beyond the Trees: Connections in Negotiated Rulemaking
The US Department of Education’s (ED) proposals for new regulations presented to the negotiating team in the current negotiated rulemaking (aka “neg reg”) are being thoroughly analyzed by a number of constituents. These thought leaders are dissecting the issue, the history of the issue, reasons for change from status quo and, at times, the risks…
Read More