Framework for Learning grants, Degree Qualifications

[from Philanthropy News Digest] The Lumina Foundation has announced three grants totaling $2.35 million to test and refine the beta version of its Degree Qualifications Profile, a framework for defining the knowledge and skills individual students need to earn an associate, bachelor's, or master's degree.

The foundation awarded $1.5 million to the Senior College Commission of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges to transform its accreditation process with an eye toward assuring clearer standards for graduation rates, levels of learning, and degree outcomes. Using a four-phased process, WASC will redesign the process for member schools in California and Hawaii with the Degree Qualifications Profile as a central reference point. The work is expected to be completed by the fall of 2014.

In addition, the Higher Learning Commission and the Council of Independent Colleges each received grants of $425,000 to explore the applicability and usefulness of the Degree Profile model. To that end, HLC will recruit a cohort of twenty diverse institutions, including community colleges, that are eligible for the region's Open Pathway model, while CIC also will recruit a number of schools to apply and test the model.

"We hope to learn both how well the draft profile works as a common definition for degree levels and whether it can plan an ongoing role in the accreditation process," said HLC president Sylvia Manning. "Does the Degree Qualifications Profile offer descriptions of attainment for American higher education that are broad and flexible enough to fit such a diverse enterprise but also specific and substantive enough to constitute a valid standard? And how might it be improved?"

“Lumina Foundation Awards Three Degree Profile Grants: Testing a New Framework for Learning.” Lumina Foundation Press Release 5/12/11.

UEDA Identifies "Talent Development", "Innovation and Entrepreneurship", and "Research and Analysis" among Categories in 2011 Awards of Excellence Com

May 17, 2011

The University of Economic Development Association (UEDA) has announced that nominations are currently open for UEDA's 2011 Awards of Excellence. Nominations are due by June 30.

Click here for complete background and a description of the application process.

There are five new Award of Excellence categories for 2011:

1. Talent Development
2. Innovation and Entrepreneurship
3. Community Connected Campus
4. Leadership and Collaboration
5. Research and Analysis

Several of the category examples may be of interest to the workforce community. The Talent Development award focuses on the partnerships needed to create flexible, responsive career pathways to expanding business, offering as an example "collaboration between a community college and a research university to develop a new certificate program in sustainable manufacturing." The Research and Analysis ategory focuses on the capacity of colleges and universities to provide new forms of research and to design the next generation of analytic tools for community, economic and workforce development practitioners.

STEP-UP Short Term Education program

Description

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications from institutions to implement and evaluate the NIDDK Short-Term Education Program for Underrepresented Persons (STEP-UP). STEP-UP is a national program designed to provide ten to twelve weeks of summer research education and training for high school and undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds underrepresented in the NIDDK mission areas including diabetes, endocrinology, metabolism, nutrition, obesity, and digestive, liver, urologic, kidney, and hematologic diseases.

Link to Full Announcement

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-DK-11-011.html

Talent Dividend Prizes

[from Philanthropy News Digest] The Kresge Foundation in Troy, Michigan, has announced that more than fifty metropolitan areas have entered its $1 million Talent Dividend Prize competition, which aims to boost college attainment in U.S. cities by 1 percent.

Supported by Kresge and the Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation for Education, the prize will be awarded to the metropolitan area with the greatest increase in the number of post-secondary degrees granted per capita over three years. The metropolitan area that wins can use the prize to launch a national promotional campaign centered on talent development. Kresge also announced that it will award up to $570,000 in $10,000 challenge grants to cities that secure a like amount of support from donors to support local college achievement.

According to CEOs for Cities, the nonprofit organization that will award the prize, a 1 percent increase in college attainment would spur an estimated $124 billion a year in increased earnings nationwide. "There are huge financial gains that can be achieved through small improvements in educational attainment in our cities," said CEOs for Cities president and CEO Lee Fisher. "This competition is part of our ongoing effort to generate awareness — and ultimately action — among urban leaders of the potential economic returns that can be achieved by increasing the rate of college degrees by just 1 percentage point. Simply put, the more educated a city's population, the more robust its economy will be."

“$1 Million Competition Aims to Boost Number of College Grads in Urban Centers Across the U.S..” Kresge Foundation Press Release 5/10/11.

Math Sciences Workforce Program

Description

The long-range goal of the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) Workforce program is to increase the number of well-prepared U.S. citizens, nationals, and permanent residents who pursue careers in the mathematical sciences and in other NSF-supported disciplines. The Research Training Groups in the Mathematical Sciences (RTG) activity is a part of the Workforce program. RTG supports education through research involvement in groups centered on a common research interest that span the entire spectrum of educational levels from undergraduates through postdoctoral associates.

Link to Full Announcement

NSF Publication 11-540

American Graduate Initiative

[from Philanthropy News Digest]

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has announced the launch of a $4.4 million public media initiative to help improve high school graduation rates in the United States.

Public radio and television stations located in twenty community "hubs" where the dropout crisis is most acute will receive grants through the American Graduate initiative. In turn, the stations will provide resources and services designed to raise awareness of the dropout crisis, coordinate action with community partners, and work directly with students, parents, teachers, mentors, volunteers, and leaders to lower dropout rates. Stations in up to forty additional markets will receive grants through the National Center for Media Engagement. In addition, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, through its support of CPB's Teacher Town Halls and the StoryCorps National Teachers Initiative, will give teachers a way to share their perspectives and experiences with helping all students graduate high school.

American Graduate builds on the success of public media in early childhood education to reach students in middle school — the stage in a young person's life when the disengagement that leads to dropping out often begins. Research shows that every year more than one million students drop out of high school. If the trend persists over the next decade, experts predict that it will cost the country more than $3 trillion in lost wages, productivity, and taxes.

"Public radio and television stations are deeply rooted in the communities they serve, and they have demonstrated time and again that they are an important resource in helping to address critical issues such as the mortgage crisis, at the local level," said CPB president and CEO Patricia Harrison. "Through American Graduate, public media will 'make it happen' by helping communities take on a new challenge — high school graduation rates — to create a more promising future for our children, the economy, and the entire nation."

“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Introduces Initiative to Combat the Dropout Crisis.” Corporation for Public Broadcasting Press Release 5/03/11.

Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation

The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program provides funding for new, mid-level and senior-level alliances, the Bridge to the Doctorate (LSAMP-BD) Activity, and knowledge generation activities in broadening participation, e.g., research on topics in STEM education related to retention and persistence of students from populations underrepresented in STEM majors and careers. In FY2012, the program plans to support up to two pilot regional Louis Stokes Centers of Excellence in Broadening Participation which will further scholarly research in broadening participation in STEM disciplines and mentor institutions regionally that have interest in increasing STEM B. S. degrees to underrepresented minorities but are not currently participating in one of the 41 existing alliances.

The LSAMP program assists universities and colleges in diversifying the STEM workforce through their efforts at significantly increasing the numbers of students successfully completing high quality degree programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Particular emphasis is placed on transforming STEM education through innovative recruitment and retention strategies and experiences in support of groups that historically have been underrepresented in STEM disciplines: African-Americans, Alaskan Natives, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Pacific Islanders. The knowledge generation portfolio contributes to the body of literature on successful practices in student recruitment, retention, persistence, and attainment of STEM undergraduate and graduate degrees, especially for the previously mentioned populations underrepresented in STEM disciplines.

Managed synergistically, the LSAMP program enables seamless transitions from pre-college to the STEM baccalaureate to attainment of the doctorate and entry to the STEM professoriate. Support begins at the baccalaureate level with emphasis on development of broad-based regional and national alliances of academic institutions, school districts, state and local governments, and the private sector to increase the diversity and quality of the STEM workforce. Eligible LSAMP undergraduate students may receive continued support for up to two additional years of STEM post baccalaureate study through the Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) Activity. BD participants are expected to transition to STEM Ph.D. programs and the professoriate and/or STEM workforce.

Linkages with NSF projects and other graduate programs in the nation furthers the graduate education experience of underrepresented STEM students through the doctorate level, preparing them for fulfilling opportunities and productive careers as STEM faculty and research professionals.