A Deeper Look into Massachusetts’ Struggling Community College System

By: Konrad Mugglestone   To me, one finding from our recent deep dive into Massachusetts public higher education has been particularly shocking. Bay State students of color are much more likely to attend a community college than the national average and much less likely to complete their degrees. Massachusetts Black high school graduates are 50 percent more likely,

No Commencement in the Commonwealth

ERN Report Reveals Bay State’s White-Latinx College Graduation Gap Ranks as 37th Worst in the Country Research—Supported by Latinx Organizations in Massachusetts—Analyzes What’s Going Wrong for Latinx Students and Others & Makes Recommendations for How the Commonwealth Can Increase College Affordability and Close Graduation Gaps at the Same Time WASHINGTON, D.C. – Education Reform Now – a progressive think tank and advocacy organization

The Moral Imperative to Tackle Higher Ed Reform

by Michael Dannenberg and Konrad Mugglestone Education reform advocates should recognize that extending their work to higher ed is a moral imperative that also happens to present a political opportunity.   Here’s a summary of our argument: Education reform will fail to deliver on its goals if we do not improve the quality of higher education

Are College Graduation Gaps in Massachusetts Improving or Getting Worse?

By: Konrad Mugglestone Recently, Michael Dannenberg and I released a report entitled No Commencement for the Commonwealth. In it, we highlighted startling discrepancies in the way that Massachusetts’ public higher education system serves their Black and Latino students – resulting in a White-Black bachelor’s degree completion gap that ranks as the 3rdsmallest out of the

No Commencement in the Commonwealth: Summary Presentation

By: Michael Dannenberg and Konrad Mugglestone In the midst of college graduation season, Education Reform Now recently released a new report, “No Commencement in the Commonwealth: How Massachusetts’ Higher Education System Undermines Economic Mobility for Latinos and Others – And What We Can Do About It” (available here) that analyzes public higher education in the Bay State and reveals that the

Louisiana Could Have Redefined ‘Merit’ Scholarships with TOPS Reform

By Konrad Mugglestone “If you have to be cynical, if you can’t think about the kids, if you can’t acknowledge that our society owes them a chance, then fine. I’ll settle it for you: Educate them or support them. Can we build enough projects? Enough prisons? Can we hire enough policemen? Can we, in fact, support them?”

Five Matchups Worth Watching in March Madness (…and We Aren’t Talking Basketball)

by: Konrad Mugglestone   March Madness hype is at a fever pitch. 68 teams will converge in cities across the United States to vie for the NCAA National Championship. In this period of intense school pride, where metaphorical Davids get to face (and sometimes slay) Goliaths, it can be easy to forget the real head-to-head

Do the Nation’s Wealthiest Universities Live Up to their Tax-Exempt Promise?

By Konrad Mugglestone At the end of 2017, as the GOP tax reform bill was being debated, universities with multi-billion-dollar endowments, such as MIT and Harvard, were aggressively lobbying against taxation on their massive accounts. MIT’s president, Rafael Reif, lamented, “It will reduce MIT’s ability to undertake exactly the kind of activities that Congress wants

The “Earned Aid” Scholarship Formula, Explained

by Konrad Mugglestone and Michael Dannenberg While testifying before a special joint legislative commission in Louisiana this morning, Education Reform Now’s Michael Dannenberg recommended the state adopt an altered method of measuring merit in awarding state student financial aid. The method combines assessments of need and academic performance. We call it ‘earned aid’ much like

Slow Completion & Fast Spending: What Does It Cost Your State?

by Konrad Mugglestone In our previous post, Michael Dannenberg and I noted that students who complete their bachelor’s degrees at public universities in five or six years instead of the regular four are costing themselves, their states, and their institutions, over $5 billion per year. But these costs are not distributed evenly among the states.