Our Partners & Featured Work

“Rachel Rush-Marlowe and the ResearchEd team were key research contributors to a first-of-its kind Guide to Rural Philanthropy. Rachel is passionate about her commitment to rural America.”

Allen Smart, PhilanthropywoRx

To support the publication of a research brief on the ways that community colleges are conceptualizing and implementing their role as apprenticeship intermediaries, ResearchEd conducted research and writing support to the CELNA team at New America. The resulting report can be found here.

In partnership with New America, ResearchEd is also conducting research on leveraging high quality paid work-based learning opportunities as a way to address student basic needs. In support of this work ResearchEd will conduct a series of in-depth interviews community colleges coordinating basic needs support and paid work-based learning opportunities. With more data about how this intersection is playing out on the ground, ResearchEd and New America will organize and facilitate a virtual convening of college leaders, researchers and advocates focused on student basic needs to explore the intersection. The project will also explore how community colleges are thinking about reforming career services to better serve low-income, students of color. Resulting from this research will be two briefs coming at this question of connecting students with better jobs to address their basic needs from different angles. The first will highlight the connection between the current focus on basic needs and getting students good jobs. The second will explore how community colleges can reform their career services to help create a systemic connection with students and high-quality employment.

Featured Work
Community Colleges and Apprenticeship: The Promise, the Challenge

ResearchEd and AAC&U are currently collaborating in a mixed-methods study regarding the impact of limited research on OER supporting student success outcomes research on campus OER adoption. As part of this work, ResearchEd and AAC&U published an Open Educational Resources campus-based advocacy document, as a tool for campus OER leaders to use to visually demonstrate the research evidence that exists on the ways that OER impacts student success. The intention of the resulting research synthesis is to clearly establish the state of this domain of research and to provide the higher education community with a freely available report of this research to immediately help campus OER leaders more easily make the case for OER as a component of their advocacy efforts.

Featured Work
Making the Case for Open Educational Resources

ResearchEd partnered with United Philanthropy Forum, Inside Philanthropy, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, PhilanthropywoRx, and MDC to research and write a report on the state of rural philanthropy. ResearchEd contributed research and writing to the report, as well as data analysis on historic levels of grant making, distribution of grant funding to urban vs. rural communities, and special issue areas within rural philanthropy.

Featured Work
The State of American Philanthropy: Giving for Rural Communities

ResearchEd partnered with Opportunity Consulting on Outcome-Led Equity Audits at the Winooski School District in Winooski, Vermont and for the DC Department of Employment Services (DOES). The OLE approach centers on grounding the analysis in outcomes, connecting these outcomes to lived experiences through interviews and focus groups, and then connecting these lived experiences and outcomes with potential policies and practices at the city, school, or organization level.

Winooski City and School District Audit Winooski is one of the most racially diverse municipalities in Vermont and contains one of the only majority-minority school districts in the state. The City of Winooski and the Winooski School District partnered with ResearchEd and Opportunity Consulting to conduct an equity audit and explore areas where experiences in the City and WSD are inequitable and find the opportunities to adopt equity-focused policies and practices to address these inequities. ResearchEd contributed research, writing, and data analysis, for this report.

DC Department of Employment Services (DOES) Audit ResearchEd worked with the DC Department of Employment Services to uncover inequality in the Washington DC workforce and identify the levers available to the agency to improve equity in employment. ResearchEd contributed analysis of publicly available and proprietary data sources and created recommendations that were presented by Opportunity Consulting to DC DOES.

Featured Work
City of Winooskiand. and Winooski School District Equity Audit

ResearchEd served as a subject matter expert and researcher with the Aspen Institute’s Rural Community College Leadership Initiative. Using a combination of Emsi, IPEDS, and other data sources, ResearchEd created summary statistic workbooks for the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program’s Rural Community College Initiative. ResearchEd supported full day site visits to five rural community colleges in which ResearchEd partnered with Aspen to conduct qualitative research interviews of college leadership and staff. The summary statistic workbooks that ResearchEd created were shared with Aspen team members in advance of site visits to ensure all participants had sufficient contextual information on the college ahead of conducting interviews. Workbooks include information on average educational attainment in the community where the college is located, any equity gaps in attainment, data on the high schools and postsecondary institutions in the area, demographic and population information, and industry and workforce data. This research culminated in the Aspen Institute’s Spring 2023 report.

Featured Work
Rural Community College Excellence: A Guide to Delivering Strong Opportunity for Students and Communities

ResearchEd was the principal investigator and published a study on behalf of CCLC investigating the driving factors behind high leadership turnover at California Community Colleges. ResearchEd conducted qualitative research including interviews, focus groups, and designed and distributed surveys of college leaders and trustees. Analysis supported a written report and policy recommendations that were supplemented by quantitative data analysis from campus-based data sources, as well as an interactive dashboard that ResearchEd updated with descriptive, demographic, and trend data about California Community College presidents.

Featured Work

CEO Tenure & Retention Study

To support ATD’s community vibrancy work, ResearchEd is partnering with ASA Research to conduct data analysis and create interactive data visualizations to support ATD and their member colleges in better serving the communities in which they are located. The heart of this initiative lies in understanding local communities deeply, improving accessibility, and tracking institutional and community metrics to ensure the success of all student groups. As part of this project, ResearchEd will analyze relevant data and translate it into accessible, interactive visual representations. These data dashboards will support colleges in effectively monitoring key institutional and workforce outcomes, and observe community vibrancy metrics. This work will not only enhance understanding of workforce outcomes and economic and social mobility, but also support institutional planning and strategic action around student supports. This work will help colleges to identify, address, and rectify systemic inequities, fostering the creation of equitable and economically vibrant communities.

ResearchEd provides institutions and intermediaries support with onboarding, data cleaning, data submission, and conducts virtual trainings for postsecondary institutions and intermediary groups on analyzing PDP data and conducting research using PDP data. The first phase of work is focused on understanding institutional and client needs. ResearchEd works with intermediary groups to distribute needs assessment surveys to their institutions to assess which SIS institutions are using, what coding software or other technologies they may be familiar with, and what experience they have conducting these types of submissions. After understanding institutional needs, ResearchEd works with intermediaries and institutions to create a strategy to provide customized support and communication between intermediaries, institutions, and the Clearinghouse to ensure efficient and smooth file submission.

ResearchEd also provides institutions and intermediaries with customized “resource libraries” that act as a one stop shop for all available public and proprietary resources that are needed to answer questions and provide guidance on all aspects of PDP and IPEDS processes. During the submission process, ResearchEd works with institutions to document steps, and find areas in which automization and increased efficiency may be possible. Once institutions have successfully submitted and certified data, ResearchEd will ensure that all processes are documented for future submissions, and begin holding webinars and trainings to help institutions effectively use their PDP across campus to facilitate data driven decision making in support of student success.

ResearchEd has worked with the following partners for PDP work: JFF, SHEEO, Yes we Must Coalition, SUNY Schools, Association for Public Land-Grant Universities, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, Scott Monsefan's Seamless Strategies, and others.