In 2008, Lumina asked SPEC Associates (SPEC) to evaluate the foundation's grant making aimed at improving the productivity of higher education through statewide policy and program change. The initiative was initially known as Making Opportunity Affordable and later became known more broadly as Lumina's higher education productivity initiative. Eleven states received planning grants in 2008 and a year later seven of these states received multi-year grants to implement their productivity plans. In 2009, Lumina published Four Steps to Finishing First in Higher Education to frame the content of its productivity work. In 2010, the foundation, working with HCM Strategists, launched the Strategy Labs Network to deliver just-in-time technical assistance, engagement, informationsharing and convenings to states. Lumina engaged SPEC to evaluate these productivity investments in the seven states through exploring this over-arching question: What public will building, advocacy, public policy changes, and system or statewide practices are likely to impact higher education productivity for whom and in what circumstances, and which of these are likely to be sustainable, transferable, and/or scalable?

American Indian students have the lowest college graduation rate in the country, at just over 13%. In a new publication from the American Indian College Fund, several tribal colleges and universities share how to create systems and structures to promote Native student success.

This publication is the culmination of the College Fund’s efforts over three years in the Achieving the Dream (ATD) initiative, a national reform network devoted to community college student success and completion. Two tribal colleges, Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona, and Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Montana, participated in the initiative. The colleges’ participation in the Achieving the Dream program was supported by the Kresge Foundation, which provided tools, resources, and coaching to help the colleges engage in strategies based on data-driven decisions to address and close achievement gaps.

The publication will be shared across the 37-institution tribal college community to provide instruction in education best practices amongst Native students to promote similar success. It will also be published on the College Fund’s web site at www.collegefund.org.

American Indian students have the lowest college graduation rate in the country, at just over 13%. In a new publication from the American Indian College Fund, several tribal colleges and universities share how to create systems and structures to promote Native student success.

This publication is the culmination of the College Fund's efforts over three years in the Achieving the Dream (ATD) initiative, a national reform network devoted to community college student success and completion. Two tribal colleges, Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona, and Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Montana, participated in the initiative. The colleges' participation in the Achieving the Dream program was supported by the Kresge Foundation, which provided tools, resources, and coaching to help the colleges engage in strategies based on data-driven decisions to address and close achievement gaps.

The publication will be shared across the 37-institution tribal college community to provide instruction in education best practices amongst Native students to promote similar success. It will also be published on the College Fund's web site at www.collegefund.org.

As scholarship has become increasingly narrow and disconnected from public life, Kettering research has documented an intense sense of malaise in higher education, what Harry Boyte has called a loss of civic agency. Surprisingly, however, faculty at a few campuses have begun to self-organize to integrate civic work into their teaching and research. This study, by Blase Scarnati and Romand Coles, documents such efforts at Northern Arizona University. Rather than making civic engagement a specific project of one or two faculty, what makes this campus special is that civic engagement has taken hold across the university. Building on research by KerryAnn O'Meara, this working paper shows that civic engagement is not only fulfilling to faculty at an individual level but is starting to impact the civic culture of their institutions.

This report highlights key lessons from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Community Partnerships portfolio evaluation. It assesses the communities' progress over the course of the investment, and describes their work in the areas of building public commitment, using data, building and sustaining partnerships, and aligning policies and practices. The OMG Center served as the national evaluator of this initiative and the report also discusses the steps these communities can take to sustain their programs.

This report highlights key lessons from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Community Partnerships portfolio evaluation. It assesses the communities' progress over the course of the investment, and describes their work in the areas of building public commitment, using data, building and sustaining partnerships, and aligning policies and practices. The OMG Center served as the national evaluator of this initiative and the report also discusses the steps these communities can take to sustain their programs.