The mental health crisis in higher education is a systemic challenge requiring coordinated action at national, state, and institutional levels. The SHEEO-JED Mental Health and Wellness Learning Community, launched by the State Higher Education Officers Association (SHEEO) and The Jed Foundation (JED) in the fall of 2023, brought together state…

Signed into law in May of 2019, the Student Success Act (Oregon House Bill 3427) is an historic opportunity for Oregon schools. The bill makes significant investments in programs to support historically underserved students. When fully implemented this act will invest approximately $2 billion per biennium for early learning and K-12 education. The…

The Assessing Tuition- and Debt-Free Higher Education Task Force was convened in July 2016. Charged by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators's (NASFAA's) Board of Directors with evaluating the existing landscape of state and local promise programs with a focus on scaling such models to the national level, the task force…

Are statewide college Promise programs an effective way to increase college access and success? It's hard to say. While these programs are becoming more common, they vary widely along a number of dimensions. RFA's new "Statewide College Promise Framework" is a tool that can be used to capture and compare important variation in the…

Research for Action has studied statewide Promise programs since 2017, with in-depth analysis in four states--Delaware, Nevada, Oregon, and Tennessee. Our research in these states includes an extensive review of legislative and policy documents; 146 interviews with policymakers, institutional leaders, and high school staff; site visits to 8…

This report provides six mini-case studies of higher education policy reforms enacted in other states, exploring the important role that state policy leadership played in developing, promoting, and implementing these policies aimed at improving higher education outcomes, and discussing the relevance of each reform effort for California. This…

Few states have established systems for overseeing dual enrollment programs to encourage institutions to align their practices with quality standards. Five states (Arkansas, Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota), have established incentives or requirements for post-secondary concurrent enrollment providers to pursue the National Alliance of…

In 2009, Excelencia in Education launched the Ensuring America's Future initiative to inform, organize, and engage leaders in a tactical plan to increase Latino college completion. An executive summary of Latino College Completion in 50 states synthesizes information on 50 state factsheets and builds on the national benchmarking guide. Each…

As part of the educational planning process, the Oregon State Board of Higher Education requested this review of alternative models for the Oregon University System (OUS). Staff of the Board of Higher Education synthesized existing literature on the variety of U.S. higher education governance structures, including newer models such as the public…

Higher education's presence in school reform is limited because many university people equate reform with lowered standards and instrumental knowledge, view portfolios as complicating the admissions process, and have low expectations for the secondary school system. Oregon's Proficiency-based Admission Standards System (PASS) is a state-mandated…

Describes the first year of a program conducted by two Oregon institutions of higher education that "warranty" their teacher education graduates. The program provides support to graduates and their employers, encourages collaboration between the teacher education program and local schools, makes the teacher education faculty accountable,…

The purposes of this study were to formulate recommendations for the general and specific direction and organization of public affairs programs and publications administered by the Oregon State System of Higher Education; and to develop guidelines for the general direction of public affairs in the Oregon institutions of higher education and…

This report describes the model used by the Oregon State System for Higher Education to assess the impact of higher education on the growth and change in students as a result of participation in higher education. The model prescribes assessments of general knowledge and abilities, learning environment, major field knowledge, degree completion,…

A cooperative program of the Oregon Mental Health Division and the University of Oregon Medical School was initiated in Oregon in 1975 to give future psychiatrists intensive training experience in community psychiatry. Curriculum for residents included an introductory first-year seminar, a second-year required field training experience, and a…

In 1987, Oregon moved to an outcome-based approach to teacher preparation and licensure, insisting on evidence of learning gains by students taught as one of the accomplishments that teachers need to demonstrate. Oregon's program and its implications for teacher education and educational improvement are discussed. (SLD)