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Over the years, NERCHE has focused its resources on a variety of projects addressing its commitment to three core areas: (1) reflective inquiry into practice; (2) the scholarship of engagement; and, (3) transitions to and through higher education:
Reflective Inquiry into Practice
The New England New Presidents Network (NENPN)
With a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, NERCHE developed a program for new college and university presidents in the Northeast. Among the primary goals of NENPN were to strengthen the leadership capacity of first-time presidents and maintain institutional momentum during leadership transitions. Most importantly, NENPN sought to provide new presidents with ongoing confidential and objective guidance from seasoned academic leaders. Click here for more information.
National Issues Forum Public Policy Institute
On September 14, 2006, NERCHE sponsored “Democracy’s Challenge: Reclaiming the Public’s Role” at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester MA. This one-day Public Policy Institute was open to educators interesting in learning how to be a National Issues Forum (NIF) facilitator, to join the NIF network, or just get better acquainted with models of public dialogues. In this six-hour institute, participants learned about national efforts to reengage Americans through public discourse, essential facilitation skills, and some tips for organizing forums. (To learn more about the National Issues Forum, go to www.nifi.org)
The Scholarship of Engagement
Campus Community Partnerships
The New England Resource Center for Higher Education and the Worcester UniverCity Partnership are hosting a series of events focusing on the role of colleges and universities in economic development. Through the use of nationally recognized speakers and engaged local practitioners, the programs are intended to stimulate dialogue around the efforts of institutions of higher education and their public and private partners as they seek to revitalize their local communities. Click here to learn more.
Reversing the Telescope: Community Development from Within
Community outreach has become a recognized and entrenched part of the agenda for higher education. Thus far, the concept of community development has only been applied to reaching out to the community beyond the campus. Colleges and communities can do a lot of good looking outside their campuses; however, they need look no farther than into their own campuses for members of the external community - many of whom are employed in the lower paid service jobs. They clean our classrooms, prepare and serve food in our cafeterias, manicure our grounds, and process our paperwork. With a grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, NERCHE will chart the domain of the "civic microcosm" within the university. Project activities include holding conversations of key stakeholders with the capacity to leverage and redirect resources to support institutions of higher education in addressing the community within their institutions, developing written materials and identifying concrete programmatic examples, and developing strategic partnerships with influential groups and allies who can mobilize institutions to develop innovative programs that are responsive to local needs.
Evaluation of the Institutionalization of Learn and Serve America Programs
The Corporation for National Service (CNS) has contracted with NERCHE, Westat, and the Center for Youth and Communities at Brandeis University, to conduct an evaluation of the impact of Learn and Serve America grants on the institutionalization of service-learning in schools, community-based organizations, and higher education institutions. The goal of the evaluation is to assess the role of Learn and Serve grants in establishing and expanding service-learning in those institutions and in promoting the long-term sustainability of service-learning opportunities for young people. The evaluation process was carried out over 2001-Fall 2002.
Project Engage
Project Engage evolved from NERCHE's Program on Faculty Professional Service and Academic Outreach and sought to enhance all three academic missions - research, teaching and service - by bolstering faculty/student collaborations. NERCHE announced the ten winners of grants of $3000 - $5000 to support action research projects carried out by teams of student, faculty, and community members. Click here to see past winners.
Civic Engagement Cluster Project
The Project which concluded in July, 2001 worked with a group of ten institutions nationwide that were undertaking significant transformation to strengthen civic learning. Click here for more information on the project and the Cluster institutions.
Project Colleague: A Program for Faculty
As part of the Program on Faculty Professional Service and Academic Outreach, Project Colleague, aimed to correct some of the obstacles to effective service and outreach. Find out more about "Swinging Doors: Making Community-College Partnerships Work" - a workshop for community based organizations.
Transitions To and Through Higher Education
Economic, Informational, and Cultural Barriers to Community College Student Transfer Enrollment at Selective Institutions
NERCHE recently completed work on a national study aimed at examining the opportunities and barriers surrounding transfer to the most elite colleges and universities in the United States for low-income community college students. Funded by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation (JKCF), Lumina Foundation for Education, and Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the Study of Economic, Informational, and Cultural Barriers to Transfer Access at Selective Institutions will inform JKCF’s Community College Transfer Initiative. This five-year initiative seeks to increase opportunities for high-achieving, academically prepared, low- to moderate-income students to transfer to selective colleges and universities and includes funded research, grants, and a national conference.
The results of the study are detailed in the final report, Transfer Access to Elite Colleges and Universities in the United States: Threading the Needle of the American Dream.
The research team, led by Dr. Alicia Dowd and Dr. Glenn Gabbard from University of Massachusetts Boston’s (UMB) New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE), comprise a pool of talent with extensive expertise in higher education research generally, and community colleges and selective institutions specifically. The research team also has broad experience in qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. The other members of the research team are Dr. Dwight Giles, senior associate at NERCHE, Dr. Estela Bensimon, director of USC’s Center for Urban Education, Dr. Elsa Macias, a senior research associate in USC’s Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, Dr. Tatiana Melguizo, an assistant professor in USC’s Rossier School of Education, Dr. Dwight Giles, faculty member in UMB’s Higher Education Leadership program, Dr. Jay Dee, co-director of UMB’s New England Center for Inclusive Teaching, Dr. John Saltmarsh, NERCHE director, and Dr. John Cheslock, an assistant professor the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education. Contact: Dr. John Saltmarsh: 617-287-7740.
Concept Paper on Student Debt
NERCHE received a planning grant from The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) to prepare a “Concept Paper on Research and Policy Implications Concerning College Student Debt.” This project was completed by Alicia C. Dowd from UMass Boston with the support of NERCHE staff. Additionally, Alicia presented at the November 16, 2005 TICAS/American Enterprise Institute symposium in Washington, D.C. TICAS's Project on Student Debt brings together experts from across the political spectrum to focus on the implications of rising student debt. By promoting examination of the changing role of student loans, the Project on Student Debt aims to identify potential improvements to the systems and policies that help families pay for college (http://projectonstudentdebt.org).
The Community College Student Success Project
With funding from the Lumina Foundation for Education, Dr. Alicia Dowd, Assistant Professor of Higher Education at UMASS, Boston, has begun the Community College Student Success Project. The project is designed to support community colleges in conducting effective evaluations of the factors that affect student retention, graduation, and academic progress. Part of this yearlong national project, aimed at exploring issues of accountability, institutional effectiveness, and student outcomes assessment is a series of topic-focused Think Tanks, sponsored and facilitated by NERCHE. The Think Tanks include administrators and institutional researchers, all whom were selected from across New England for their interest and expertise in the relationship between institutional assessment and student success. The group will be balanced among individuals with responsibilities for academic affairs, student affairs, and institutional research- those sometimes disparate functions that have shared responsibility for understanding the factors hat influence student achievement.
Getting Back To Basics? Remedial Education And College Opportunity
Efforts to reevaluate and reform remedial education have increased significantly in recent years, in states ranging from Florida, to New York, to California, to Massachusetts, to Texas. The Institute for Higher Education Policy and NERCHE—with support from the Ford Foundation—examined how changing remediation policies have affected the organization and delivery of remedial education, admissions practices, and the allocation of financial aid on campuses, particularly for low-income and minority students in the New England region. This project, which ran from September 2001 through August 2002, combined quantitative analysis, case studies, and small discussion groups to: 1) assess changes at the institutional level that occurred in light of the shifting policy environment, 2) identify best practices and innovations, and 3) improve the public discourse on the issues associated with remedial education.
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