Even as ongoing national conversations about income inequality intensify, wealth stratification is occurring not only among individuals but also among institutions of higher education, a study from theEducation Trust finds.

The report, "A Glimpse Inside the Coffers", found that roughly 3.6 percent of the nation's colleges and universities held 75 percent of all postsecondary endowment wealth. Despite that wealth, however, few of the hundred and thirty-eight colleges and universities with at least $500 million in their endowments were found to be investing significantly in students from low-income families, with nearly half those institutions ranking in the bottom 5 percent nationally in terms of the enrollment of first-time, full-time Pell Grant recipients.

The assets of these institutions totaled $149.5 billion at the beginning of 2010 and had grown to $202.3 billion just four years later. According to the report, if the thirty-five institutions that currently spend less than 5 percent of their endowments annually were to increase their spend-out rate to the 5 percent required of private foundations, an additional $418 million would become available for other things. And if those funds were allocated solely to financial aid, they could be used to enroll an additional 2,376 low-income students at the current net price for four years -- a nearly 67 percent increase from the enrollment numbers for first-time, full-time low-income students in 2012-13. Alternatively, the same $418 million also could be used to reduce the net price for low-income students at these institutions by an average of $8,000 per year for four years.

"It's common for institutional leaders to say that endowment spending is all about preserving the excellence of their institutions for years to come. But our data show that most could easily afford to do more to educate more low-income students now without compromising their futures," said Andrew Nichols, director of higher education research and data analytics and co-author of the report. "By choosing to serve more low-income students, these wealthy institutions could be leaders -- not just in riches, but in extending opportunity."

Investing in college tuition as an employee benefit helps companies attract and retain top talent, but a new study of Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI) shows there’s another compelling reason for employers to embrace the benefit: it improves the bottom line.

An analysis of health insurer Cigna’s Education Reimbursement Program (ERP) shows every dollar the company puts into the program is returned and generates an additional $1.29 in savings—a 129 percent return on investment. Lumina Foundation, a national foundation focused on increasing postsecondary attainment partnered with Cigna to design the study, which was conducted by Accenture, a leading global professional services company.

“We’ve long known that when companies support their employees’ pursuit of a postsecondary education, it improves employees’ lives and addresses our nation’s overall need to increase talent in our workforce,” said Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of Lumina Foundation. “With the release of this study, we also can further demonstrate that investing in employees’ tuition isn’t a benefit cost, but rather a valuable investment that positively impacts organizations’ bottom line. That should entice more C-suite leaders to embrace this approach.”

The study of Cigna’s ERP offers a rare glimpse at the financial impact of tuition assistance programs. About 60 percent of employers offer such support—investing an average of 10 percent of their learning and development budgets on tuition assistance—but only two to five percent of organizations evaluate the return of these investments. Cigna’s study examined differences in rates of promotions, transfers, and retention between employees who took advantage of ERP and employees who did not participate from 2012 to 2014, isolating factors such as employee tenure that could impact findings.

The study shows that Cigna’s ERP program increases career opportunity and employee retention, which drives financial payback. Program participants are 10 percent more likely to be promoted, 7.5 percent more likely to be transferred within Cigna, and eight percent more likely to stay at the company, reducing across-the-board talent management and recruiting costs.

Investing in college tuition as an employee benefit helps companies attract and retain top talent, but a new study of Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI) shows there's another compelling reason for employers to embrace the benefit: it improves the bottom line.

An analysis of health insurer Cigna's Education Reimbursement Program (ERP) shows every dollar the company puts into the program is returned and generates an additional $1.29 in savings—a 129 percent return on investment. Lumina Foundation, a national foundation focused on increasing postsecondary attainment partnered with Cigna to design the study, which was conducted by Accenture, a leading global professional services company.

"We've long known that when companies support their employees' pursuit of a postsecondary education, it improves employees' lives and addresses our nation's overall need to increase talent in our workforce," said Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of Lumina Foundation. "With the release of this study, we also can further demonstrate that investing in employees' tuition isn't a benefit cost, but rather a valuable investment that positively impacts organizations' bottom line. That should entice more C-suite leaders to embrace this approach."

The study of Cigna's ERP offers a rare glimpse at the financial impact of tuition assistance programs. About 60 percent of employers offer such support—investing an average of 10 percent of their learning and development budgets on tuition assistance—but only two to five percent of organizations evaluate the return of these investments. Cigna's study examined differences in rates of promotions, transfers, and retention between employees who took advantage of ERP and employees who did not participate from 2012 to 2014, isolating factors such as employee tenure that could impact findings.

The study shows that Cigna's ERP program increases career opportunity and employee retention, which drives financial payback. Program participants are 10 percent more likely to be promoted, 7.5 percent more likely to be transferred within Cigna, and eight percent more likely to stay at the company, reducing across-the-board talent management and recruiting costs.

Recognizing the critical need to help millions of community college students failed by current transfer practices and policies.  A new report provides a detailed guide for two- and four-year colleges on how to improve bachelor's degree outcomes for students who start at community college.

Every year, millions of students aiming to attain a bachelor's degree attend community colleges because of their affordability and accessibility. Most will not realize their goals. While the vast majority of students report they want to earn a bachelor's degree, only 14 percent of degree-seeking students achieve that goal within six years, according to recent research from CCRC, Aspen, and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The odds are worse for low-income students, first-generation college students, and students of color—those most likely to start at a community college.

For the better part of the past century, elected officials have sought ways to improve the performance of public sector operations, such as fire departments, libraries, health clinics, job training programs, elementary schools, and traffic safety. Interest in performance management has only grown over time, to the point today that it is nearly impossible to talk about government finance without also talking about performance. The idea of attempting to measure outcomes and paying for those results is compelling because of its simple logic. Proponents believe setting clear performance goals and tying funding to them will create incentives for public organizations to operate more efficiently and effectively, ultimately resulting in better delivery of public services. Fire departments, they reason, should not be funded according to the number of engines they own, but according to the number of fires they put out. Hospitals should be funded not by the number of patients admitted, but by the health outcomes of their patients. Schools should not be funded by the number of teachers they employ, but by each teacher's contribution to student learning.In recent years, advocates seeking to increase the number of college graduates in the United States have promoted the idea that states should finance their public universities using a performance-based model. Supporters of the concept believe that the $75 billion states invest in public higher education each year will not be spent efficiently or effectively if it is based on enrollment or other input measures, because colleges have little financial incentive to organize their operations around supporting students to graduation. When states shift to performance-based funding, it is hoped, colleges will adopt innovative practices that improve student persistence in college. The appeal of performance-based funding is "intuitive," its proponents argue, "based on the logical belief that tying some funding dollars to results will provide an incentive to pursue those results."However, while pay-for-performance is a compelling concept in theory, it has consistently failed to bear fruit in actual implementation, whether in the higher education context or in other public services.

State governments serve as a key funding source for public higher education. An alternative to historically based state subsidies or enrollment-based formulas, outcomes-based funding allows states to convey goals for higher education by allocating state tax dollars based on measures of outcomes. Within higher education institutions, the Responsibility Center Management model engages deans and other mid-level managers in the responsibility and accountability for revenue generation as well as expense management. Policymakers will benefit from understanding this approach and how it could be used in concert with outcomes-based funding to support the development and delivery of new academic paradigms, expand access to underrepresented students, and, ultimately, increase educational attainment for a greater number of people. This article describes the potential alignment between incentives created by the Responsibility Center Management model and goals of outcomesbased funding. With an integration of the two models, there is a greater assurance of achieving the goals of both—fiscal sustainability and student success. By using Responsibility Center Management, college and university administrators are better able to marshal resources to help students complete their degrees and other credentials while also reaping the benefits of an outcomes-based funding system that directs public funding toward institutions that are doing just that.

This brief outlines research on men of color in terms of access to and success in higher education, specifically pre-college programs, and policy initiatives designed to address these issues. It includes four interviews with practitioners and policy researchers and highlights exemplary programs that work with students of color along the educational pipeline and that can serve as resources for all who work to support men of color, primarily college access practitioners.

With its July 2015 announcement of the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program, the U.S. Department of Education ushered in what could be a new era of expanded opportunities for postsecondary education in our nation’s prisons. The Second Chance Pell Pilot makes students incarcerated in state and federal prisons eligible for need-based financial aid in a limited number of authorized sites—meaning postsecondary education is likely to become a reality for an increased number of the more than 1.5 million people in prisons nationwide.Research shows that—among other benefits to individuals, families, communities, and prisons—incarcerated people who participate in prison education programs are 43 percent less likely to recidivate than those who do not. This report offers lessons from the field on the implementation of these programs in corrections settings across the country.