Getting to Graduation: The Completion Agenda in Higher Education

List of Contributors

contributors thomas bailey is the George and Abby O’Neill Professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is also director of the Community College Research Center and the National Center for Postsecondary Research, both housed at Teachers College. An economist specializing in education, labor economics, and econometrics , Mr. Bailey has recently analyzed student access and success at community colleges, with a particular focus on the experiences of low-income and minority students. In June 2010, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan appointed Mr. Bailey chairperson of the Committee on Measures of Student Success, which will develop recommendations for community colleges to comply with completion-rate disclosure requirements under the Higher Education Opportunity Act. In 1996, with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Mr. Bailey established the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, which conducts a large portfolio of qualitative and quantitative research based on both fieldwork at colleges and analysis of national - and state-level datasets. The findings of much of CCRC’s work are found in his most recent book, Defending the Community College Equity Agenda (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006). elaine delott baker is senior counsel to the vice president for community outreach at the Community College of Denver and director of its accelerated remediation programs, FastStart@CCD and College Connection. She was principal investigator of the Colorado Community College System’s Lumina Initiative for Performance and director of its Ready for College grant. Ms. Baker’s current interests are the successful transition of low-skilled youth and adults to postsecondary education and training, the challenges of scaling innovation, and the interplay of policy and practice in postsecondary reform. She is a frequent presenter at national forums, webinars, and conferences on issues of acceleration, contextualization, and workforce development. 313 314 Contributors Her recent publications include Technology Solutions for Developmental Math (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2008), Calculating the Productivity of Innovation (Ford Foundation, 2009), and Contextual Teaching and Learning (Bay Area Workforce Collaborative and the California Community College System, 2009). Ms. Baker serves on the advisory boards of the National College Transition Network and the GED Testing Service and consults with numerous foundations, intermediaries, and public interest groups. eric bettinger is an active researcher in the economics of higher education at Stanford University. His research is quantitative and uses statistical techniques to identify causal relationships between components in higher education and student outcomes. In recent years, he has published several articles focusing on the role of remediation in higher education. Mr. Bettinger has also published articles about the effects of need-based financial aid on student retention. Using statistical tools and exploiting “natural experiments,” his research suggests that need-based awards significantly improve students’ likelihood of persisting in higher education after the first year. In other work, Mr. Bettinger has studied the role of adjunct faculty and other faculty characteristics in student outcomes. He has conducted randomized interventions to examine the factors that impact student success in primary and secondary school, and he helped conduct research on educational voucher programs in Colombia and the United States. Currently, Mr. Bettinger is involved in evaluating a randomized experiment that streamlines the financial-aid application process for low-income families in the United States. brian bosworth is the founder and president of FutureWorks, a private consulting and public policy research firm based in Seattle, Washington , that focuses on postsecondary education and regional economic development. Before establishing FutureWorks in 1999, Mr. Bosworth spent more than a decade in international development assistance work in Latin America and 12 years as an executive leader in statebased economic growth programs in the United States. He also worked as an independent consultant with several state and regional economic development groups. FutureWorks offers policy research and development and consulting services on regional economic development , with a particular focus on issues of equity, sustainable growth, Contributors 315 and skill development. Mr. Bosworth has directed several projects designing new approaches to regional workforce education and postsecondary education. These projects typically have involved research, policy analysis and development, and implementation engagement with development practitioners and educators. FutureWorks is now working with national and state organizations to develop and implement strategies to increase postsecondary completion and labor market success for low-income youth and working adults. matthew m. chingos is a fellow in the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, a postdoctoral fellow at the Program on Education Policy...