Browsing by Author "Reinert, Leah"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Campus-Based Practices for Promoting Student Success: Faculty Policy Issues
    Horn, Aaron S.; Reinert, Leah; Kamata, Takehito (Midwestern Higher Education Compact, 2014-06-01)
    The academic profession has encountered significant change over the past several decades, such as a higher priority on research; increasing enrollment of non-traditional students; the need to manage, advise, and instruct larger student bodies; and greater expectations to use instructional technologies (Gappa & Leslie, 1993: Geiger, 2011; Schuster & Finkelstein, 2006, 2007; Umbach & Wawrzynski, 2005). The faculty profession has transformed over time from a body of full-time tenured or tenure-track academics to a diverse group of employees with myriad designations: full and part-time, tenure and non-tenure track, adjunct, lecturer, instructor, and post-doctoral fellow (Kezar & Eaton, 2014). Full-time, tenured and tenure-track faculty are characterized by duties related to teaching, research, and service. In contrast, full- and part-time non-tenure track or “contingent” faculty members often have more limited responsibilities. This article examines key issues that confront institutional leaders in creating faculty policies conducive to student success, including employment status, faculty roles and reward systems, and faculty development.
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    Campus-Based Practices for Promoting Student Success: Financial Aid
    Horn, Aaron S.; Reinert, Leah (Midwestern Higher Education Compact, 2014-05-01)
    The relationship between financial aid and student success, is partly determined by the nature of the aid package. Whereas the receipt of grant aid and work-study has generally yielded a positive effect on student persistence, the receipt of loan aid has been unassociated with persistence (Hossler et al., 2009; U.S. General Accounting Office, 1995). Moreover, the accumulation of student loan debt has been mainly negatively correlated with persistence (Hossler et al., 2009). This report thus summarizes key findings from research that may inform institutional policy regarding grant aid and work-study programs.
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    College Funding in Context: Understanding The Difference In Higher Education Appropriations Across The States
    Weerts, David; Sanford, Thomas; Reinert, Leah (Demos, 2012-12-20)
    State appropriations have historically been the most important source of funding for higher education, but over the past two decades that support has waned. Between 1990 and 2010, real appropriations per full time equivalent student (FTE) declined by 26.1 percent, putting funding today at its lowest level since 1990. This report analyzes patterns in state appropriations for higher education across all 50 states for the 20-year period from 1988 to 2009, looking at a broad array of factors that influence budgetary decisions. This study evaluates the importance of those factors, grouping them into three categories of influence on the outcome of state funding for higher education: economic, political, and cultural.
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    Transparent Pathways, Clear Outcomes: Using Disciplinary Tuning to Improve Teaching, Learning, and Student Success
    Stein. Robert; Reinert, Leah (Midwestern Higher Education Compact, 2014-03-01)
    Attention to the value of higher education degrees—including their connection to workforce demands—has increased over the last decade (Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2010; Gaston, 2010). In response to the call by government leaders to increase the number of US citizens completing college degrees, many foundations, non-profits, and institutions are promoting new initiatives to ensure that the increased productivity of colleges and universities is linked to quality. One of the most innovative and promising initiatives in this regard is Tuning. This report explains how tuning is a faculty-driven process intended to articulate what a student should know and be able to do in a given discipline at the point of degree completion. The process involves consultation with various higher education stakeholders in creating a framework that establishes clear learning expectations for students at each degree level. A key goal of Tuning is to improve the alignment of students’ mastery of agreed-upon learning objectives for specific degrees and the relevance of said learning objectives to the workplace—that is, how outcomes match entrance needs in the field.