Policy Analysis and Research
The Policy Analysis and Research unit offers analysis, support, and data to constituents on a variety of higher education issues. In fiscal year 2006, it continued its work on Changing Direction: Integrating Higher Education Financial Aid and Financing Policy, which focuses on aligning policy dealing with financial aid, financing, and appropriations. This three-year continuation project, funded by Lumina Foundation for Education, has supported the restructuring of policies and practices to maximize participation, access, and success for all students. Last year, the project continued to engage policymakers and higher education leaders in key policy issues related to the ability of states to sustain their investment in higher education. The project’s activities included a multistate policy forum for high-growth states and two invitational leadership institutes: one for legislators, cosponsored with the National Conference of State Legislatures, and a second for governors’ education policy advisors, cosponsored with the National Governors Association.
The Changing Direction project also assisted states in evaluating the ways they generate and sustain revenues for higher education and how this affects issues such as access, delivery, and quality. Fourteen target states – Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington – developed scenarios to help them design a fiscal plan to sustain their investment in higher education. In addition, Changing Direction looked at how to structure financing policy and financial aid to maximize access and participation. Under our current grant, we broadened the scope of the project to examine retention in higher education and how financial aid and financing policies impact student persistence to degree completion.
Another Policy endeavor related to access and success has been its work with the Pathways to College Network, an alliance of private and corporate foundations, nonprofits, educational institutions, and the U.S. Department of Education. The Pathways Network of researchers, policy analysts, educators, K-12 administrators, government, business, foundations, and community organizations works to improve access to and success in higher education for disadvantaged students. To support this effort, WICHE annually updates its web-based searchable policy database, SPIDO (State Policy Inventory Database Online), and helps with the implementation of Pathways’ national report, A Shared Agenda. WICHE also helps oversee the project’s major components, directs its policy component, and assists with its financial aid/affordability research efforts.
A third access-related Policy project, completed in fiscal year 2006, was the Western Consortium for Accelerated Learning Opportunities (WCALO). Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Advanced Placement Incentive Program, WCALO worked to increase the number of low-income and rural students succeeding in accelerated learning courses. Its nine member states – Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, and Utah – participated in the consortium in a number of ways: by supporting students from low-income families with fee reimbursement for Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams; by providing professional development for teachers, administrators, and counselors; by subsidizing online accelerated learning courses; and by participating in the consortium’s network of state education agency and SHEEO representatives.
A related project, Accelerated Learning Options: A Study of State and Institutional Policies and Practices, initiated in FY2005 and extending through FY2006, allowed staff to examine accelerated learning options and how they might be used to increase the number of low-income and underrepresented students participating and succeeding in college. Funded by Lumina Foundation for Education, the project produced a book-length report, Moving the
Needle on Access
and Success: A
Study of State and
Institutional Policies
and Practices (3MB
), designed to help guide K-12 and higher education policymakers and institutional leaders in channeling limited resources for students. A critical analysis of the cost efficiency, accessibility, and effectiveness of these programs, especially as they affect the participation and success of low-income students in postsecondary education, Moving the Needle offers assistance in the design of policies and practices that will broaden the opportunity for underrepresented students to participate in accelerated learning and succeed in higher education.
As part of our work on accelerated learning, WICHE convened a national policy forum in June 2006, "Accelerated Learning: Shaping Public Policy to Serve Underrepresented Youth,” in collaboration with the national organization Jobs for the Future. The meeting examined key policy issues related to accelerated learning options such as Advanced Placement, dual/concurrent enrollment, early college high schools, and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. The forum attracted over 200 state, institutional, and local leaders – including legislators, executive office staff, representatives of state superintendents of public instruction, and state higher education executive officers and staff –as well as practitioners and researchers who are concerned with issues of quality, financing, and access.
A new project, Escalating Engagement: State Policy to Protect Access to Higher Education, got underway in fiscal 2006. Funded by the Ford Foundation, Escalating Engagement supports our work on access with the Western states. Policymakers face difficult decisions as they begin to see revenues returning: higher education is competing for limited dollars with other state agencies and federal commitments; what’s more, its individual systems, sectors, and institutions are also vying for funds to replace those lost earlier. Through this project, we will make the case that new funds should be channeled toward access for underrepresented students, working to raise the visibility of “first dollar for access” and to examine the “new traditional student” as one of our key constituents in the West.
Escalating Engagement also allows us to focus more intensely on the connections between postsecondary education and state workforce and economic development. Over the three-year period which began in FY06, Policy is collaborating with the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS), the Council on Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), and other groups and states to examine the nexus between higher education and the state workforce and economic development needs. WICHE and its partners are promoting informed, balanced discussions that lead to public policy decisions supportive of strong education and workforce development initiatives within the states in the West, as well as initiatives that address unique regional challenges faced by groups of states. Working with Hawaii, South Dakota, and North Dakota in fiscal year 2006, the project provided technical assistance in analyzing state needs and priorities around economic development, the impact on workforce development, and the connections to higher education.
In fiscal 2006, we continued to communicate with key constituencies to broaden their understanding of WICHE’s programs and services. Our Legislative Advisory Committee convened its annual meeting in mid-August in conjunction with the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures to discuss the workforce and economic development challenges states are facing throughout the region and other important higher ed issues.
WICHE helps Western states to develop new strategic plans, designed to encourage greater accountability in relation to the states’ higher education investments. Our multiyear Expanding Engagement project provides an opportunity for policymakers, institutional leaders, and others in the higher ed community to better understand the relationships between finance and accountability issues. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education’s Measuring Up report, a state-by-state report card for higher education, allows WICHE opportunities to assist policymakers with accountability issues. Through state technical assistance, roundtables, and small meetings with state leaders, WICHE has supported Western states’ efforts on a broad range of accountability issues.
Our short report series, Policy Insights, covers a wide range of higher ed topics, while Policy Alerts and Stat Alerts provide weekly e-mail notices on new policy- and data-related reports. We also publish an annual Tuition and Fees report with detailed data on all public institutions in the West, as well as a regional fact book that provides a wealth of data on access, affordability, finance, faculty, technology, and workforce issues.