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Publications from the
Center for Policy Analysis

Minorities in Higher Education: 2009 Supplement
This online publication is an update to the Minorities in Higher Education 2008: Twenty-third Status Report. While the 2008 edition is a comprehensive and detailed examination of educational achievement among races/ethnicities and by gender, the 2009 supplement offers updated results on selected key indicators such as high school completion, college enrollment, degrees conferred and educational attainment.

Minorities in Higher Education 2008: Twenty-Third Status Report
Produced with support from GE Foundation, the 2008 Report analyzes the latest racial/ethic and gender trends in high school completion, college enrollment, persistence, the awarding of degrees, and the hiring of college faculty, administrators, and presidents.

The long-term trend in the U.S. of young adults attaining higher levels of education than older adults appears to have stalled. Both Asian-American and white 25 to 29 year olds have attained some type of postsecondary degree at higher rates than those aged 30 or older. In contrast, young Hispanics and American Indians have lower educational attainment rates than their older counterparts, while African Americans have about the same attainment levels for both age groups.

Higher Education's New Economics: Risks and Rewards of Emerging Operational Reforms
The sixth installment of the series entitled Informed Practices: Syntheses of Higher Education Research for Campus Leaders, Higher Education's New Economics: Risk and Rewards of Emerging Operational Reforms synthesizes the evidence on institutional experiments with new policies, organizational structure, and approaches in pricing, budgeting, human resources, and compensation. This systematic review should prove extremely valuable to campuses as they consider new polices or programs in these areas. The report also includes an annotated bibliography of the most valuable sources for additional reading and a set of Questions to help focus campus discussions and strategic analysis.

On the Pathway to the Presidency
This report presents basic demographic and position information for those individuals in the senior campus leadership positions most likely to lead to the presidency. Produced in collaboration with the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) and with support from AIG Retirement, On the Pathway is part of The Spectrum Initiative: Advancing Diversity in the College Presidency.

2007 Status Report on the Pell Grant Program
The American Council on Education's 2007 Status Report on the Pell Grant Program provides a comprehensive picture of the history and current state of this vital program. Using data from various federal sources, this report tracks key indicators of the growth and distribution of Pell Grants over the program's history and describes how these grants fit into the overall college financing scheme of low-income students. It updates ACE's 2003 Status Report on the Pell Grant Program.

Apples and Oranges in the Flat World: A Layperson's Guide to International Comparisons of Postsecondary Education (2007)
This publication is a primer on making sense of comparative performance measures of postsecondary education. It explains the limitations of international comparisons, and describes the most frequently cited sources. Some of the more commonly cited indicators are presented, including categories of educational performance; production of scientists and engineers; finances; spending in science and technology; student mobility and international enrollments; and international rankings of institutions.

The American College President, 2007 Edition (2007)
This publication is the sixth report in the American College President Study (ACPS) series, conducted by ACE since 1986, describing the backgrounds, career paths, and experiences of college and university presidents. The report, which marks the 20th anniversary of ACPS, provides a detailed look at how presidents, and the presidency, have changed during the past 20 years.

Minorities in Higher Education Twenty-Second Annual Status Report: 2007 Supplement
This supplement provides updates for the most frequently used information from the 2006 Status Report. The most current as well as historical data are presented on key indicators tracking the movement of people of color into and through higher education in the United States. Beginning in 2007, the full version Status Report is produced biennially, while updates on selected information are provided as a supplement in the intervening years. 

Minorities in Higher Education Twenty-Second Annual Status Report (2006)
The Twenty-Second Annual Status Report on Minorities in Higher Education presents data on the progress of Hispanics, African Americans, Asian Americans, and American Indians in postsecondary education. This full edition of the annual report features more than 50 charts, tables, and graphs documenting patterns in high school completion, college participation, college enrollment, and the awarding of degrees by race/ethnicity, gender, and field of study, as well as employment trends in higher education.

Who Borrows Private Loans? (PDF)
This issue brief examines the rapid growth of private students loans and answers some important questions about private loan borrowers including their academic and demographic profiles; the other types of financial aid they receive; and the share of students who forgo federal student loans in favor of private loans.

Gender Equity in Higher Education: 2006
In 2000, the American Council on Education (ACE) published Gender Equity in Higher Education: Are Male Students at a Disadvantage? to aid campus leaders in analyzing and responding to gender equity in colleges and universities. Now, Gender Equity in Higher Education: 2006 updates the findings of the earlier report and contains new and more detailed analyses of college enrollment.

Adult Learners in the United States: A National Profile (2006)
This monograph summarizes published data and research about the characteristics and enrollment patterns of adult learners enrolled for credit in postsecondary institutions in the United States. It is intended as a convenient and concise reference for college and university leaders who currently serve—or plan to serve—adult learners and who seek more information on this student population for themselves, campus colleagues, or external constituents.

Increasing the Success of Minority Students in Science and Technology (2006)
This paper examines the path of students in the STEM fields, focusing on persistence toward bachelor's degrees, by race and ethnicity. It shows that African-American and Hispanic students entering four-year institutions major in the STEM fields at similar rates as white and Asian-American students, that they initially persist, but that they struggle in their final years to complete a bachelor's degree.

Credit Card Ownership and Behavior Among Traditional-Age Undergraduates, 2003–04 (PDF)
This issue brief summarizes the best available data on credit card ownership and use among traditional-age undergraduates.  Topics covered include carrying a balance, charging tuition, and combining credit card use with borrowing through student loan programs.

Working Their Way Through College: Student Employment and its Impact on the College Experience (PDF)
Working students are ubiquitous in American higher education. Students are more likely to work than live on campus, to study full time, to attend a four-year college or university, or apply for or receive financial aid. This issue brief explores who works, how much time they spend on jobs, why students work, and how work effect academic success and college financing.

College Students Today—A National Portrait (2005)
This reference booklet features some basic facts about the nation's college students. College Students Today looks at important characteristics of male and female students, students from each racial/ethnic group, adult students, foreign students, low-income students, and several other groups.

Federal Student Loan Debt: 1993 to 2004 (2005)
Summarizes the total student loan debt of undergraduate and graduate students completing their degrees. It describes recent trends in cumulative student loan borrowing of college graduates by institution type and degree earned.

Improving Lives Through Higher Education: Campus Programs and Policies for Low-Income Adults (2005)
Represents one of the first attempts to measure the institutional programs, policies, and services available to adult college students, particularly low-income adults.

The School-to-College Transition: Challenges and Prospects (2004)
Summarizes the growing body of research on the school-to-college transition, focusing on actions that college and university leaders can take to improve low-income and minority students' access to higher education.

Missed Opportunities: Students Who Do Not Apply for Financial Aid (2004)
Examines the rates at which undergraduates failed to complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as well as select characteristics of those students in terms of dependency status, income, attendance status, and institution type.

Overview of Higher Education in the United States: Diversity, Access, and the Role of the Marketplace (2004)
Provides snapshots of how most colleges and universities are governed and financed, their students and faculty, the nature of the curriculum and student life, and the effects of the marketplace on colleges and universities.

Debt Burden: Repaying Student Debt (2004)
Analyzes data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to take a closer look at debt burden—the percentage of monthly income dedicated to student loan payments after graduation—for those awarded baccalaureates in 1993 and 2000.

Frequently Asked Questions About Distance Education (2004)
In 2000, ACE published its first issue brief on distance education, reporting data from a U.S. Department of Education survey of colleges and universities on distance education offerings in the 1997–98 academic year. This issue brief updates that information with data from a similar Department of Education survey in the 2000–01 academic year.

Choice of Institution: Changing Student Attendance Patterns in the 1990s (2004)
Describes where individuals who participated in higher education enrolled and how those patterns changed during the 1990s, using data from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Low-Income Adults in Profile: Improving Lives Through Higher Education (2004)
Describes the background characteristics, academic profiles, and special challenges faced by low-income adult students, and features a special essay that defines the economic and social imperative for investing in the education of low-income adults.

Money Matters: The Impact of Race/Ethnicity and Gender on How Students Pay for College (2003)
An essential reference for anyone concerned about how students pay for college, this new report provides data and analysis for men, women, and each major racial/ethnic group on student demographic characteristics, students' choice of institution, grants and scholarships, student borrowing, student employment, and the impact of students' choices on their academic success.

Gender Equity in Higher Education: Are Male Students at a Disadvantage? (2003)
Gender Equity in Higher Education: Are Male Students at a Disadvantage?, produced by ACE's Center for Policy Analysis, examines data on the educational achievement of men and women to determine the validity of previous reports that concluded that women are more likely than their male peers to enroll in college and attain a degree. It concludes that there is no general educational crisis among men, but that gender equity in higher education varies tremendously by age, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

2003 Status Report on the Pell Grant Program (2003)
The American Council on Education (ACE) has produced its latest status report on the Pell Grant program. Examining historical trends, as well as concentrating on data for a single year, this latest status report offers vital data on Pell Grant recipients, comparing them with other undergraduate students in terms of demographic characteristics and financing choices.

Student Success: Understanding Graduation and Persistence Rates (2003)
Conflicting reports on the progress of students through higher education often confuse the issues of institutional retention, student persistence, and degree attainment. Although institutional retention measures and graduation rate are important campus planning and management tools, they do not reflect the overall student experience.

2003 Status Report on the Federal Education Loan Programs (2003)
Using data for 1999–2000, the American Council on Education has produced this report, presenting the most recent data on important trends in the largest federal education loan programs. It also describes the characteristics of student borrowers and outlines the role loans play in students' college financing schemes.

Diversifying Campus Revenue Streams: Opportunities and Risks (2003)
This report considers why higher education institutions are diversifying their revenue streams; examines revenue-generating efforts in instruction, research, financial management, franchising, and other domains; and synthesizes the research on decision-making processes regarding new revenues. Diversifying Campus Revenue Streams: Opportunities and Risks is the second paper in the series, Informed Practice: Syntheses of Higher Education Research for Campus Leaders.

Distributed Education: Summary of a Six-Part Series (2003)
This paper offers an executive summary of each of the monographs commissioned by the American Council on Education (ACE) and EDUCAUSE for the series, Distributed Education: Challenges, Choices, and a New Environment. This final report provides readers a brief overview of each monograph, which cover a variety of topics related to distributed education: the contemporary context of distributed education, self-regulation, the importance of institutional leadership, student learning, partnerships, and major challenges to the growth of distributed distance education.

Barriers to Distance Education (2003)
Although technology has broadened the boundaries of higher education, significant barriers to distance learning remain. This paper, the sixth and final monograph in the ACE/EDUCAUSE series Distributed Education: Challenges, Choices, and a New Environment, closely examines these obstacles, including those both inside and outside the academy.

Partnerships in Distributed Education (2002)
Partnerships among higher education institutions and between these institutions and for-profit firms can be effective and desirable vehicles for implementing distributed education. However, these relationships often raise issues related to curriculum control, faculty autonomy, trademarks, technology expertise, courseware ownership, and revenue sharing. This monograph, the fifth in the ACE/EDUCAUSE series Distributed Education: Challenges, Choices, and a New Environment, provides guidance to institutions seeking to form successful partnerships in distributed education.

American College President, 2002 Edition (2002)
The American College President, 2002 Edition provides the most comprehensive data available on college and university presidents. The only source of demographic data on presidents from all sectors of American higher education, the report presents information on presidents' education, career paths, and length of service, as well as personal characteristics such as age, race/ethnicity, gender, marital status, and religious affiliation. Information regarding the presidential search process and the growing demands on American college presidents also appears, as do comparisons with data from previous reports in the series.

New Professoriate: Characteristics, Contributions, and Compensation (2002)
The New Professoriate: Characteristics, Contributions, and Compensation analyzes the most complete data available on faculty, discussing the characteristics of nontraditional faculty and comparing them to their full-time colleagues.

Student Learning as Academic Currency (2002)
This monograph, fourth in the ACE/EDUCAUSE series Distributed Education: Challenges, Choices, and a New Environment, explores how distributed education challenges the credit hour as the standard measure of student progress. It describes a system based on alternate measurements of student learning that accommodates the asynchronous nature of distributed education. The paper also examines the institutional, state, and federal policy implications of an alternative measurement system.

Distributed Learning: New Challenges and Opportunities for Institutional Leadership (2002)
This monograph, third in the ACE/EDUCAUSE series, Distributed Education: Challenges, Choices, and a New Environment, focuses on the challenges faced by college and university leaders as their institutions begin to engage in distributed learning and the potentially transforming changes that lie along the way.

Touching the Future: Final Report (2002)
In 1999, the American Council on Education Presidents' Task Force on Teacher Education released To Touch the Future: Transforming the Way Teachers Are Taught. The report laid the groundwork for college and university leaders to engage actively and aggressively in reforming the way their institutions educate future teachers. Since that time, ACE has worked to raise awareness of the shortcomings in teacher education and devise ways to overcome these deficiencies.

Crucial Choices: How Students' Financial Decisions Affect Their Academic Success (2002)
This report examines the effects of students' financial choices on their prospect of succeeding in college. Using the most recent statistical data, Crucial Choices describes students who are entering college, their academic background, how they choose to pay for their education, and the potential effects of those choices on the likelihood that they will graduate.

Access & Persistence: Findings from 10 Years of Longitudinal Research on Students (2002)
Access & Persistence: Findings from 10 Years of Longitudinal Research on Students is a clear, cogent summary of what researchers have learned about access, persistence, and outcomes from 10 years of federally funded national longitudinal studies of college students.

Maintaining the Delicate Balance: Distance Learning, Higher Education Accreditation, and the Politics of Self-Regulation (2002)
This paper describes the impact of distance learning on the balance among accreditation (to assure quality in higher education), institutional self-regulation, and the availability of federal money to colleges and universities. The paper confronts the challenges of protecting students and the public from poor-quality higher education, and attending to quality in an increasingly internationalized higher education marketplace.

Distributed Education and Its Challenges: An Overview (2001)
Distributed Education and Its Challenges: An Overview is the first report in the ACE/EDUCAUSE series Distributed Education: Challenges, Choices, and a New Environment. This report identifies significant issues associated with distributed education and suggests a series of questions to help institutional leaders establish and validate their options.

Measuring Quality: Choosing Among Surveys and Other Assessments of College Quality (2001)
The purpose of this guide is to articulate a set of questions and issues that campus leaders can review when deciding whether to participate in a given survey or use a specific assessment instrument. The guide also describes in detail 30 of the major national surveys and assessments. Although the guide does not rate or recommend these services, it suggests the criteria campus leaders should use to determine the use and usefulness of any survey instrument or service, based on specific campus needs, capabilities, and goals.

To Touch the Future: Transforming the Way Teachers are Taught (1999)
This report addresses what college and university presidents can do, in their roles as academic and institutional leaders, to transform the quality of teachers serving the nation's classrooms, and why presidential leadership is so crucial to the success of this venture.

 

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policy@ace.nche.edu
This page last updated on 02/26/2010

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