WICHE and the Center for Urban Education (CUE) at the University of Southern California are partnering on a project supporting the implementation of Colorado’s bold higher education reform agenda. With funding from the Ford Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WICHE and CUE will work with three postsecondary institutions in Colorado – the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and the Community College of Aurora – as well as with the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) and the Colorado Community College System to align the state’s higher education policy measures with concrete, equity-focused measures. Equity in Excellence, a two-year, $1 million project funded equally by the Ford Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is building on work already underway in Colorado. Over the past two years, the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and other education and political leaders have created a new strategic plan and legislation aimed at increasing the number of Coloradans aged 25 to 34 who hold high-quality degrees and certificates. Equity in Excellence will assist the state’s public colleges and universities in translating the goals outlined in the plan and legislation into concrete action at the campus level.

 “Closing the postsecondary education gap has become more critical than ever, as our student population has become more diverse,” says David Longanecker. “To succeed in our fiercely competitive global economy, it’s critical that all our young men and women receive the benefit of a higher education and put it into play, in their careers and their communities. We also need to create a postsecondary environment that allows our older adults who didn’t finish college to return and earn their degrees.”

Increased educational success for racial/ethnic groups is also a matter of civic health and social justice. Equity in educational outcomes means greater opportunity for individuals and families from all of Colorado’s diverse communities. “A focus on equity in access and in success must accompany the completion agenda that currently dominates the national higher education discourse,” says Estela Mara Bensimon, CUE’s co-director. “Meeting ambitious statewide completion goals will require on-the-ground ownership of equity and excellence as institutional and systemwide goals, as a matter of policy and of practice.”

April 2013  | Share this on Twitter | Post this on Facebook