The Edge: A big goal for more graduates falls short

APLU’s “Powered by Publics” project promised to help hundreds of thousands more students earn degrees by 2025. It didn’t. [The Edge Logo]( You can also [read this newsletter on the web](. Or, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, [unsubscribe](. I’m Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at The Chronicle covering innovation in and around higher ed. This week I report on the fate of a project that promised to help hundreds of thousands more students graduate from land-grant universities. My colleague Graham Vyse shares insights on better serving incarcerated students. And I offer two quick updates on stranded credits and the value of postsecondary degrees in the labor market. SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHRONICLE Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for unlimited access to essential news, analysis, and advice. The flip side of a bold campaign Projects with big goals always run the risk of falling short. Five years ago this month, an effort by more than 125 universities called Powered by Publics promised to produce “hundreds of thousands” more graduates from land-grant universities by 2025, while halving the gaps in retention and graduation rates for low-income and underrepresented-minority students. The project has now ended, and — spoiler alert — it did not hit those targets. Among the participating institutions, the overall number of graduates increased by only a nominal amount, and while some of the equity gaps did shrink, none declined by half. The goal was “perhaps too big and too ambitious,” Mark Becker, the president of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, told me. He and others involved in the project, however, say it did notch some successes. Publicly available [results for Powered by Publics]( (nicknamed PxP) cover only 89 institutions that reported numbers for each of the 2019, 2020, and 2021 academic years. Data for 2022 is still being tabulated, and organizers plan to also report data for the 2023 academic year. Overly ambitious goals weren’t the only problem. Another was funding that did not match the scope of this effort: a $3-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which chose not to renew the five-year grant, and just $850,000 more from Ascendium Education Group, the Lumina Foundation, and the TIAA Institute. By comparison, the University Innovation Alliance, which now has 17 member institutions, has received about 10 times that since 2014, including a big federal grant. “Given the resources, what was attempted wasn’t realistic,” said Becker, who inherited responsibility for the project when he went to APLU a little more than a year ago from the presidency of Georgia State University. It takes time — typically more than five years — to see an impact on graduation or even retention from changes in practice, Becker said. And, as he noted: “It didn’t help that there was a pandemic.” Participating institutions had formed 16 clusters, some organized by geography and others by topic. The clusters met monthly for more than four years, but once Covid hit, it got harder to keep the momentum going, said Julia Michaels, PxP’s executive director. Plus, she pointed out: “This was all uncompensated labor.” The project, championed by APLU’s previous president, M. Peter McPherson, may have been flawed from the get-go. Collaboration among institutions to improve student success can be an effective approach, and it’s one that [the Innovation Alliance has modeled]( nearly a decade. But as Becker told me, maybe “it’s not replicable at the scale that was intended” by PxP. Powered by Publics still has a chance to fare better on its third goal: “sharing key data, learning, and effective practices to drive innovation and transformation across the higher-education sector.” When we spoke, Becker and Michaels highlighted several outputs from the collaboration among institutions that I found interesting. For example, one cluster in the West organized [a mini-course on inclusive teaching]( taught by professors at Boise State University, to help instructors incorporate inclusive language and other techniques and avoid stereotypes. Another cluster that included members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance examined [which students were receiving the most D’s and F’s, in gateway courses, or withdrawing mid-semester]( to see if certain policies might be contributing to demographic disparities. One finding: Many students who registered relatively late — perhaps because they weren’t sure until the last minute that they could afford to stay enrolled — ended up in sections with less desirable meeting times. APLU typically works with university leaders at the vice-presidential level or higher. PxP differed from that because it engaged more university officials from the rank and file and gave them opportunities to share ideas with colleagues from other institutions — some in states where the political climate wasn’t necessarily friendly toward efforts that promote equity and diversity. Sure, that’s a nice byproduct, but I think other kinds of organizations can also foster the same kind of camaraderie, and ultimately, what matters most with projects like this are the results. The Powered by Publics [website]( has lots of reports, papers, and other publications describing its work. If APLU members and other universities choose to apply some of these findings to their own situations, maybe they will move the needle on graduation and retention. The Big Ten cluster, for one, has already committed to continuing its work. I’d love to see more of that. But absent some broader framework for pushing this work along, I’m not holding my breath. Teaching incarcerated students Effectively serving incarcerated students means accounting for their unique circumstances but not treating them like they’re completely different from other students, experts said in a recent Chronicle virtual [forum](. Here are two takeaways from that discussion, which was moderated by Ian Wilhelm, a deputy managing editor, and underwritten by the Ascendium Education Group as part of our ongoing [series]( on student success. Let instructors focus on teaching. Faculty members may field unfamiliar or uncomfortable requests from incarcerated students — for legal assistance, for example, or help with a job, said Andrea Cantora, an associate professor in the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Baltimore and the director of its Second Chance College Program. Being consistent with all students is key, she said, recommending that such requests go to administrators and staff members who are equipped to handle them. Instructors should generally make every effort to stick to their normal teaching methods, she said, noting a common need for help navigating the lack of internet access and other technology in prison classrooms, which can impede students’ ability to do research and complete assignments. Student engagement matters even more than usual. “These are students who have all experienced trauma. They’re all experiencing trauma on a daily basis,” said Deborah Smith Arthur, a general-education professor at Portland State University who directs its Higher Education in Prison program. “We want education to be engaging, beautiful, and fun. We want them to know it is for them.” —Graham Vyse Updates on stranded credits and the college degree in the labor market - [Newly issued regulations]( from the U.S. Department of Education forbid colleges to withhold transcripts for credits paid for with federal grants or loans. Given the complexity of discerning what fraction of a student’s tuition payment came from federal aid, experts say this new rule will effectively eliminate colleges’ practice of not releasing students’ transcripts over unpaid balances. As with[Ithaka S+R’s expanding College Comeback Compact]( which lets students with stranded credits re-enroll in college while helping institutions recover some of the debts owed to them, it’s nice to see action to reduce what many have identified as a barrier to adults’ re-enrollment in college. - Ten years ago the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce [predicted that nearly two-thirds of all jobs would require postsecondary education by the year 2020](. Now the center predicts even higher levels of education will be needed. Its latest report says that by 2031, nearly three-quarters of jobs will require education beyond high school. The main two reasons: The fastest-growing industries require workers with relatively more education, and occupations generally are requiring more education as their responsibilities become more complex. Got a tip you’d like to share or a question you’d like me to answer? Let me know, at goldie@chronicle.com. If you have been forwarded this newsletter and would like to see past issues, [find them here](. To receive your own copy, free, register [here](. If you want to follow me on the site formerly known as Twitter, [@GoldieStandard]( is my handle. Or find me on BlueSky Social, which I just joined with [the same handle](. NEWSLETTER [Sign Up for the Teaching Newsletter]( Find insights to improve teaching and learning across your campus. Delivered on Thursdays. To read this newsletter as soon as it sends, [sign up]( to receive it in your email inbox. Goldie's Picks A DROP IN NUMBER [It’s a Bleak Climate for Foreign Languages as Enrollments Tumble]( By Karin Fischer [STORY IMAGE]( All but three of the 15 most commonly studied foreign languages experienced enrollment declines. SOCIAL MOBILITY [Why College Access Is a Challenge for Rural Black Students]( By J. Brian Charles [STORY IMAGE]( Organizations like the College Advising Corps seek to create pathways from underserved high schools to college. It isn’t easy. DATA [How Do Humanities Majors Fare in the Work Force?]( By Audrey Williams June [STORY IMAGE]( While the worth of a humanities degree has been called into question in recent years, a new state-by-state analysis shows its earning power is stronger than what many people think, with an unemployment rate similar to graduates in other fields. JOB OPPORTUNITIES [New administrative job openings]( [Search all Administrative job openings]( on The Chronicle's job board and [create job alerts]( so you never miss new opportunities. FROM THE CHRONICLE STORE [Fostering Students' Free Expression - Buy Now]( [Fostering Students' Free Expression]( Many colleges are trying to expose students to views and ideas that challenge their own thinking. 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