2016 the Degree Gap - Vision Project Annual Report

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GA

THEDEGREE

A Report to the People of Massachusetts fromMassachusetts Department of Higher Educ

June 20

Honing In onCollege Access,

Affordability &Completion in

Massachusetts



THE VISIONTHAT DRIVES

We will produce the best-educatedcitizenry and workforce in the nation.

We will be national leaders in researchthat drives economic development.

THEDEGREE GAPFourth Annual Report on the Vision Projectto the People of Massachusetts from theMassachusetts Department of Higher EducationJune 2016

MASSACHUSETTS PUBLICHIGHER EDUCATION

29 CAMPUSES 15 COMMUNIT Y COLLEGES

9 STATE UN IVERSITI ES5 UNIVERSITY OF

MASSACHUSETTS CAMPUSES

290,000 STUDENTS

40,000 FACULTY & STAFF

43,000 NEW COLLEGE EDUCATED

CITIZENS & WORKERS A NNUALLY $630 MILLION IN ANNUAL

RESEARCH EXPENDITURES

FEATURES

2 LETTER FROMTHE COMMISSIONER& DATA SUMMARYHigher Education CommissionerCarlos E. Santiago reects on hisrst year as Commissioner andthe direction of the Vision Project

4 FACING THEFUTUREHow changingdemographics inMassachusetts arerevealing a worrisome“Degree Gap”

12 A QUESTION OF CAPACITYDespite a demand for grads,top nursing and computer science

programs lack room to grow

16 THE DEMAND FOR DIVERSITTo ll talent pool, tech sector seeksmore female, African American,Latino/a job candidates

20 HONING INThe “Big Three” Degree Planshapes Vision Project agenda

On the cover. A 2016 graduate of WesteldState University is the picture of success.



22 COLLEGEPARTICIPATIONOur work to improve college access

and affordability

32 CLOSINGACHIEVEMENT GAPSStrategies to increase opportunities forlow-income males and males of color

38 COLLEGECOMPLETIONSystemwide efforts to enddevelopmental math barriers,create new transfer pathways

44 STUDENT LEARNINGMulti-state consortium develops newassessment model based onMassachusetts’ pioneering workto measure learning outcomes

46 PREPARING CITIZENS

Campuses dene civic learningas an “expected outcome”of undergraduate education

48 RESEARCHResearch and development highlightsfrom the University of Massachusetts

Featured throughout

WORKFORCE ALIGNMENT Initiatives with a direct impacton the workforce needs ofthe Commonwealth

VISION PROJECT PERFORMANCEINCENTIVE FUND VP PIF$22.5 million in competitive grantsawarded since FY2012 to advance thegoals of the Vision Project

VIEWPOINTS

10 SCALE MATTERS BY CHRIS GABRIELI

27 EXPANDING ACCESSTO EARLY COLLEGE

BY JIM PEYSER

30 COLLEGE READINESSFOR ALL STUDENTS

BY SHEILA HARRITY

36 DIVERSITY AT THE

FLAGSHIP CAMPUS BY LEYKIA BRILL

42 THE ASSOCIATE DEGREE:REVALUED

BY NOEMI CUSTODIA LORA,LANE A. GLENN & DAVID R. LE

49 CHANGING LANDSCAPE

FOR RESEARCH BY MARTY MEEHAN

DATA

51 DATA DASHBOARDSDetailed summary of Massachusettspublic higher education’s standing,with national comparisons and

trends where available, in the keyoutcome areas of the Vision Project

ALSO

50 PHOTO CREDITS 64 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CAMPUS & SYSTEMHIGHLIGHTS

V P - P I F

F u n d e d



LETTER FROM THE COMMISSIONER

ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF MYFIRST YEAR AS COMMISSIONERof Higher Education has been the time

I have spent crisscrossing the state to meet with leaders,faculty, staff and students at our public campuses.

From the Berkshires to the Cape, from Salem to Springeld,people have taken time to share their personal storiesand professional achievements with me. I have witnessedthe transformative power of public higher educationto change the lives of low-income and homeless students.I have seen the results that come from local workforcepartnerships and regional collaborations betweencampuses. There is much good work to be proud of—and as the pages of this report make evident, ourpublic system of higher education continues to “get the job done” even when budgets are tight.

But with this fourth annual report of the Vision Projecthighlighting both demographic and economic challengesthat impact our system’s ability to produce much-neededcollege degrees, I believe it is necessary for us to redoubleour efforts in three specic areas of the Vision Project:

College Participation

Closing Achievement Gaps

College Completion

With the majority of undergraduates inMassachusetts now attending our public highereducation institutions, it is incumbent onall of us to ensure greater accessibility, morerobust completion, and less variation inoutcomes across the diversity of studentswe serve. Although there is outstanding work takingplace across all seven areas of the Vision Project, we havemade the difcult but necessary decision to focus ourefforts on achieving better outcomes in these “Big Three”areas of work.

As we hone in on a more focused agenda, described in detailbeginning on page 20, we must also look for ways tobring our best practices to scale (see Chairman Gabrieli’s

Viewpoint on this topic on page 10) and to work moreeffectively as a system. My campus visits have servedto remind me of the unique qualities of each individualinstitution. But my message to campus trustees and to

the readers of this report is the following: To truly live upto its full potential, public higher education in theCommonwealth needs to speak with one concerted voice.It is also necessary that we implement those effectivepractices that allow us to have the most widespreadimpact in key areas. My experience in other states hasdemonstrated that responding to educational challenges asa “system” of institutions, each one unique, yet committedto the overarching goal of serving the educational needsof all citizens of the Commonwealth, will accelerate thegood work that is reported herein.

During Santiago’s visits to campuses like Middlesex Community Colhe listened and talked to students, local board members, political leadbusiness leaders.

THE DE GREE GAP 2016 Vision Project Annual Report2



DATA SUMMARY

Inside the Degree Gap:What the Data ShowPages 51–63 of this report show how the Massachusettssystem of public higher education compares with otherstate systems by tracking performance across the sevenoutcome areas of the Vision Project. Overall, the system’sperformance remains relatively at, with some areas ofimproving or worsening performance as noted below.

CollegeParticipationIMPROVING PERFORMANCE

Massachusetts continues to bea national leader in the overallpercentage of recent highschool graduates who enrollin college.

FLAT PERFORMANCESizeable achievement and

opportunity gaps—biggerthan the national average—persist between white studentsand students of color whentheir ability to do college-levelwork in math and reading ismeasured and compared.

ClosingAchievement GapsWORSENING PERFORMANCE

The overall gap betweenthe number of White andAfrican American studentsat community collegeswho must take non-creditremedial courses has grownover the past ve years.

FLAT PERFORMANCE The overall gap betweenWhite and Latino/a studentstaking remedial coursesremains unchanged.

CollegeCompletionFLAT PERFORMANCE

Graduation rates for UMassand state university campusesare at an all-time high, withmarked improvement shownat individual campuses. Still,at the segment level, overallgraduation rates for publichigher education are not yetimproving at the ambitious,high-growth threshold of onepercentage point per year. (Seepage 9 for a list of campusesthat are meeting the threshold.)

IMPROVING PERFORMANCEIn the last year, the six-yeargraduation rate gaps betweenWhite and African Americanstudents has been reduced atthe state universities and at theUniversity of Massachusetts.

The White-Latino/a graduationrate gap has also been reducedat UMass. These gaps, however,remain in the double digits.

3Letter from the Commissioner



EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORand these preschoolers in class

at the East Boston YMCAtell animportant tale about

Massachusetts’ future.They represent the African American and Latino/a children who now

comprise 30 percent of the state’s population under the age of ve. As they pass through the K–12 system, these children will, ifrecent trends hold, perform better on MCAS, graduate fromhigh school in greater numbers, and enter college at higherrates than ever before.

There, the good news typically ends. Unlesscurrent rates of degree production atMassachusetts public colleges anduniversities improve markedly, too few of

the preschoolers pictured here can beexpected to earn a college degree,creating an unacceptable loss ofbrainpower in a state witha voracious need for newcollege graduates.

Facing theFUTURE




FIFTY MILES AWAY at Mount Wachusett

Community College ’s Fitness &Wellness Center, another vision

of the state’s future dances into view.Participants in the Silver Sneakers ® tness

program glide across a gym oor in theirWednesday morning exercise class.

No one in this group has come to campus to study orearn a degree; the seniors are here to relax and enjoy

themselves after long years in the workforce. Inthe next decade their ranks will swell, as an

estimated 660,000 college-educated workersacross Massachusetts retire. 1

5Facing the Future



Whenwe look atdemographic

changes occurringin Massachusetts, we cansee that the current metricson college completion arecertainly concerning, especiallyin under-representedcommunities like theones we serve.”VALERIE ROBERSON,

PRESIDENT, ROXBURYCOMMUNITY COLLEGE

FROM PAGE 5

Massachusetts’Changing Demographics

Combined with a seven percent decline inthe state’s population of high school

graduates, these trends impacting

the state’s youngest and seniorcitizens offer extraordinarychallenges for a public

higher educationsystem that noweducates morethan half of all

undergraduates—and more than 70

percent of Latino/a and African American students

seeking college degrees.

“When we look at demographicchanges occurring in Massachusetts, we

can see that the current metrics on collegecompletion are certainly concerning, especially

in under-represented communities like theones we serve,” said Valerie Roberson, president of

Roxbury Community College. “At RCC and othercampuses that serve our neediest students, we’re working

to address the barriers that typically prevent completion.”

Although Massachusetts prides itself on being the statewith the most adult degree-holders—51.5 percent of adultsages 25–54—research conducted by the Department ofHigher Education shows that demographic changes aretaking a toll. By 2022, the overall rate at which youngresidents earn college degrees will pivot from growthto decline unless the public higher education systemcan nd ways to raise college completion ratesfor all students, including those from underservedpopulations and communities.

Already, the demand for qualied graduates with degreesin high-need elds such as computer science and nursinghas begun to outstrip supply. “Massachusetts’ populationprojections and educational attainment rates portendcritical shortfalls in the supply of labor needed to sustainthe state’s leading industries,” declares the Workforce

Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) MassachusettsCombined State Plan,the state’s ofcial workforce planreleased in spring 2016. The warning echoes the ndingof a 2014 report from MassINC and the UMass DonahueInstitute, which predicted that, for the rst time sincedata was collected, “Massachusetts will end a decadewith fewer prime working age college-educated residentsthan it (started) with.” 2

Across all segments ofMassachusetts public higher

education, White femaleand White male students

consistently have the highestgraduation rates compared

with Latino/a and AfricanAmerican peers, while Latino

males and African Americanmales have the lowest.

While graduation rates forsome African American and

Latino/a subgroups areimproving, the disparities

remain signicant.

Community Colleges Cohort: First-time, dseeking students entering in fall 2008; mea

examines their rate of success by Septem2014. Trend data compares rates for stud

entering fall 2004–2008 and graduating by2010–2014 respectively. Source: MDHE

State Universities & UMass Cohorts: Firsfull-time, degree-seeking students enterin fall 2006–2008; measure examines trate of graduation within six years of in

enrollment by 2012–2014. Trend dcompares three-year averages for stude

entering fall 2002–2008 and graduating by2008–2014 respectively. Source: USDOE

In Massachusetts cities, there isa strong correlation between

low rates of bachelor’s degreeattainment and high rates

of unemployment.

Source for City PopulationShare of Population 25 Years aOlder with a Bachelor’s Deg

American Community Survey 2010

Source for Unemployment RaExecutive Office of Labor

Workforce Development (EOLWLabor Market Informatio

March 2016.

Where the Gaps Are




0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

African American Male

Latino Male

Latina Female

African American Female

White Male

White Female

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%


Latino Male


Latina Female

White Male

White Female

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%


Latino Male


Latina Female

White Male

White Female

5-Yr.Trend

C o m m u n

i t y

C o

l l e g e s

2 0 1 4

S t a t e

U n

i v e r s i t i e s

2 0 1 2

– 1 4

U n

i v e r s i t y o

f

M a s s a c h u s e t t s

2 0 1 2

– 1 4

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 1000%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

Fall River

Springeld

BrocktonLowell

WeymouthPlymouth

BostonWaltham

ChicopeeTaunton

LynnRevere

Haverhill

Malden QuincyMedford

FraminghamSomerville

WorcesterMA Average

Newton

Brookline

LawrenceNew Bedford

Cambridge U n e m p

l o y m e n t R a t e

Share of Population 25 Years and Older with a Bachelor’s Degree

25 MOST POPULOUS CITIES IN MASSACHUSETTS

Unemployment Rate vs. Educational Attainment Rate

MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION

Six-Year Graduation Rates by Ethnicity & Gender

7Facing the Future



If we

cannotcontinueto provide theskilled workersthat our growingemployers demand, theywill look elsewhere and thestate economy and its working

families will be the poorer for it.”MICHAEL GOODMAN, EXECUTIVE

DIRECTOR, PUBLIC POLICY CENTER,UMASS DARTMOUT H; CO EDITOR,MASSBENCHMARKS JOURNAL

FROM PAGE 6

Projected Workforce Shortages—Primarily at Baccalaureate LevelIn last year’s Degrees of Urgencyreport, the Department ofHigher Education projected that by 2025, the state’scommunity colleges, state universities and campuses of the

University of Massachusetts would fall short of producingtheir share of the state’s much-needed new collegedegrees by a minimum of 55,000 to 65,000. This year, amore detailed analysis shows that 80 percent of thoselost degrees will be at the baccalaureate level or higher.

The specic nature of the Massachusetts economy, with itsrapid job growth in health care and science, technology,engineering and math (STEM) elds, helps explain thestate’s outsized need for more highly educated graduates.

An analysis of online job data by the Georgetown UniversityCenter on Education and the Workforce shows thatMassachusetts leads the nation with 63 percent of its on-line job postings requiring a four-year degree or higher. 3

The size and depth of the Commonwealth’s talent pool hasdirect bearing on the strength of its economy. In February

2016, the New England Economic Partnership forecastthat, by 2018, Massachusetts’ economic growth rate

would drop by half, from 3% to 1.5%, preciselybecause the state will not produce enough

college-educated workers to ll jobs inhigh-demand industries. Perhaps notsurprisingly, Massachusetts commu-nities with the lowest percentages ofcollege-educated workers—Springeld,

New Bedford, Lawrence, Fall River—havethe state’s highest unemployment rates (see

graph on page 7).

“Massachusetts is in the midst of its most robusteconomic expansion of the century, but to date the

benets of this economic growth have yet to be experi-enced in any meaningful way by our regions outside ofGreater Boston,” observes Michael Goodman, professorand executive director of the Public Policy Center (PPC) atUMass Dartmouth and co-editor of MassBenchmarks,the journal of the Massachusetts economy published by theUMass Donahue Institute in cooperation with the FederalReserve Bank of Boston. “In particular, our urban commu-nities and the young and the poorly educated are growingmore and more disconnected from our economy and soci-ety, and we are paying an increasingly high price for this di- vergence of destinies. Our aging population and slow-grow-ing labor force are expected to curb job growth signicantlyin coming years. This makes closing the achievement gapand improving access to affordable and high-quality highereducation an essential economic and social imperative.”

“FACING THE FUTUSOURCES1

MassachusettsDepartment ofHigher Education(MDHE) analysisof 2012 AmericanCommunity Surveyand 2012 BLS LaborForce Projections(BLS MonthlyLabor Review,December 2013).2 MassINC & UMassDonahue Institute,

At the Apex: The 2030Educational Attain-ment Forecast andImplications for BayState Policymakers, September 2014.3 Burning Glass jobdata 2013 Q2.4 MDHE; NationalStudent Clearing-house. Calculationsby MDHE.5 MDHE,TechnologyTalent InitiativeWorkforce Plan, 2014.




Progress, But Not EnoughFor graduates holding college credentials, employmentprospects are strong. But for students who never earn theircollege diplomas, the best-paying jobs and most fulllingopportunities remain well beyond reach. In particular,college graduation rates for students of color remaintroublingly low, with little system-level change overthe years. In Massachusetts, 79 percent of Latino/aundergraduates and 72 percent of African Americanundergraduates attend a public college or university;yet six years after beginning their studies, less thanone third of these students earn college credentials. 4

“These gaps on their own are a non-story,” says Michael

Collins, associate vice president for postsecondary statepolicy at Jobs for the Future. “They’ve been there sinceBrown versus the Board of Education; we see them in everystate, every year. The real story is whether there is actualintention at the state level to close them. Who are theoutliers, the deviants who are having success in closinggaps? That’s where we need to look, to see progress.”

In the all-important tech sector, another degree gap is visible along gender lines, creating a further drag on hiringwithin the industry. Only one in ve students earning a

System Leaders in Raising College Completion RatesEight of the 28 public undergraduate campuses have met or exceeded the ambitious

Vision Project goal of an annual one percentage point improvement in six-yeargraduation/success rates and have sustained such growth for the past ve consecutive years:

Bridgewater State University

Massachusetts College of Art & DesignMassachusetts Maritime AcademyNorth Shore Community CollegeUMass AmherstUMass BostonUMass LowellWorcester State UniversityMethodology: For community colleges, analysis compared single-yearsuccess rates from the entering cohort of fall 2003 through the enteringcohort of fall 2008. For the state universities and UMass, analysiscompared six successive rolling averages from the entering cohorts offall 2001–2003 through the entering cohorts of fall 2006–2008.Rolling averages were used where available to moderate the impactof any inconsistent one-year spikes or dips in the data.

degree in computer science or information technologyfrom a public college or university is female. 5 (Learn morein the Demand for Diversitystory beginning on page 16.)

Thanks largely to a boomlet of millenials, Massachusettspublic colleges and universities were able to expandbaccalaureate degree production by a robust annualaverage of 4.6 percent from 2011 to 2015. But the numberof students who actually nish college—while improvingat many individual campuses—is not growing fastenough to offset the overall degree shortage facing theCommonwealth. Meanwhile, low college completion ratesfor students of color and low-income students continueto exacerbate degree shortages, limiting both human andeconomic potential.

“If we cannot continue to provide the skilled workers thatour growing employers demand, they will look elsewhereand the state economy and its working families willbe the poorer for it,” Goodman emphasizes. “In short,we can no longer afford to leave any of our peopleor communities behind. Extending more and bettereducational opportunities to our workers and their familiesis a no-brainer in an economic environment where werely so critically on our highly skilled workforce and ourworld-class innovation economy.”

9Facing the Future



THIS YEAR’S VISION PROJECT REPORTFOCUSES ON AN ATTAINMENT GAPthat we can see emerging and growing

as we look to the horizon. Even in America’sleading higher education state, the number ofresidents attaining a four-year baccalaureatecredential lags signicantly current demand byemployers for those skills, and the gap will growconsiderably in the years ahead unless we suc-cessfully adjust our course, in scale.

There are literally dozens of exciting and intrigu-ing model programs across our 29 campuses,each worth celebrating for the effort and theanecdotes of success. But there is a worrisome

lack of scale to the work, taken as a whole.I have seen this tendency towards exciting, prom-ising but small-scale and often unsustainableprograms addressing major needs throughoutmy career in K–12 education. I think it may evenbe more the norm in higher education. BecauseK–12 systems are obliged to educate all studentsin their cachement areas and students are legallyobliged to attend school until they are 16, systemleadership is held accountable across the board.By contrast, higher education is voluntary and

students choose the schools they attend. Fur-ther, Massachusetts has one of the nation’s moredecentralized higher ed systems with most of thedecision making taking place at each campus.No one among us is clearly responsible for thesum of the parts.

I would point to three main issues we must faceif we are really serious about taking the mostpromising practices to scale to the extent neededby our Commonwealth. Firstly, we should

only start experimental programs aimed ataddressing large-scale problems with a planfor success and for failure. Many will struggleor fail—we should expect that when we try newthings—and our goal should be as much to learnfrom our efforts as to hope we nd quick suc-cess. Programs should rapidly evolve based onevidence and be improved or shut down. Equallyimportantly, we should dene in advance thelevel of success sufcient that we would not onlysustain the program but shift it from experiment

towards mainstream.That’s where change will always hit the realhurdle for scale—to do more of something newin scale will require doing less or even aban-doning some of our old ways of doing things.

And there are guardians of the status quo andchangeover costs that will resist that conclusion.For example, even as we are in the midst of verypromising experiments with changing our ap-proach to assessing which students are ready for

Scale MattersBY CHRIS GABRIELI

VIEWPOINT

Chris Gabrieliis chairof the MassachusettsBoard of HigherEducation. He is theco-founder of three

non-prot educationinnovation and reforminitiatives and a lecturerat Harvard University’sGraduate Schoolof Education.

There are literally dozensof exciting and intriguing

model programs acrossour 29 campuses, eachworth celebrating for theeffort and the anecdotesof success. But there is aworrisome lack of scale tothe work, taken as a whole.




‘Mainstreaming’ successfulexperiments is very costly. Ifthey have proven their worth,these programs should be eligiblefor funding that will make itpossible to take them to scale ina fashion that doesn’t waterdown the model in order to

account for the increased expense.Many small-scale experimentsfall apart when they ramp up,not because they couldn’t besuccessful, but because theimplementation at scale is donewithout level amounts of percapita funding.”KATHERINE S. NEWMAN, PROVOST &

SENIOR VICE CHANCELLOR FORACADEMIC AFFAIRS, UMASS AMHERST

college-level courses, many campuses continueto use Accuplacer as well and many high schoolsdon’t know that the colleges their graduates aremost likely to attend now often value GPA andcourses taken over Accuplacer scores. While theperiod of experimentation is not yet complete,every campus and the DHE should be preparinga plan that we will implement if the experimentscontinue to succeed where we can rapidly changeover entirely to a new, better paradigm. Endinga remediation approach which has far too rarelysucceeded and trapped thousands of studentsevery year who never go on to degree completionshould be very high on our list of areas wherescale will matter.

Finally, we need leadership at both the systemand campus levels who are able to provide adap-tive leadership where it is needed. Leadershipgurus dene adaptive leadership as the approachneeded for thriving in challenging environments

“when you realize that your organization’s aspira-tions cannot be attained through your currentapproaches” (Heifetz & Linsky). Adaptive leader-ship focuses on helping organizations diagnosethe structures that worked under past conditionsbut are now barriers to the changes we need.

Large-scale change and gains cannot happenwithout adaptive change. What worked to makeus the leading state in the nation for highereducation won’t alone be enough to support thelevel of success we need in this century. We needthe experiments, the commitment to scalingwhat works and the adaptive leadership such anodyssey will require. Our students, our societyand our industry, together truly our Common-wealth, demand no less of us.

At Scale...At What Cost?

11Facing the Future



ION OAPITIn two high-demand elds—nursing andcomputer science—Massachusetts faces

critical shortages of college graduates trainedat the baccalaureate level or higher.




GIVEN MASSACHUSETTS’ RISING NEED FORMORE NURSES AND COMPUTER SCIENCEPROFESSIONALS,a reader might assume that publiccollege and university programs to prepare graduatesfor these careers would expand to meet demand. In somecases, there is room to grow. Elsewhere, public campusesreport that their programs are at or beyond capacity. Atthe same time, nancial pressures on students are slowingtheir progress toward degree completion.

Nursing Programs:Nowhere to Grow

According to IPEDS data, Massachusetts’ public collegesand universities increased the number of graduates withbachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degrees by 34 percentbetween 2010 and 2013. They did so primarily by focusingon an incumbent workforce with LPN, ADN or RN degrees,nurses seeking a higher level of education and training tostay abreast of changes in the increasingly complex healthcare eld. Massachusetts has set a goal to increase thenumber of nurses with BSN degrees from 55 to 66 percentby 2020.

But attaining the goal may prove challenging. Take theUniversity of Massachusetts Boston, for example. Itgraduates more students with BSNs than any othercollege or university, public or private, in the state. But itsprograms are at capacity and unable to grow further, duein part to a stagnating pool of clinical placements.

“All of the universities are competing for the sameplacement experiences for students,” says Marion Winfrey,associate dean of the College of Nursing and HealthSciences at UMass Boston. “We’re held up because there arenot enough placements—and without a placement, thereis no getting through the program.”

As prot margins in the health care industry have tightened,

pressures to limit or charge for clinical placements havegrown—not only in Massachusetts but in other states aswell. “You are down the cost of a Medicare reimbursement,”Winfrey explains, “because you can’t do four 15-minuteappointments back to back with a student nurse in tow.”

Indeed, clinical placement data from the MassachusettsCentralized Clinical Placement Management System, aweb-based program for scheduling and managing clinicaleducation placements, shows that health care organiza-tions in the Commonwealth are beginning to decline a

higher percentage of requests for clinical placement thanin prior years. While the actual number of placements isholding steady or even on the rise, the data suggest that isbecause campus nursing programs are working harder anddigging deeper to nd clinical placements for students—notbecause more such placements are available.

The University of Massachusetts Lowell has foundone solution: its move to offer clinical placements in thesummer has helped the University double its nursingprogram capacity.

Campuses are also using simulation labs and patientmanikins to create an alternative clinical placementexperience for students. At Salem State University, thereis one sim lab with four manikins and two additionalmanikins in a makeshift lab—serving an undergraduatenursing program of more than 650 students.

Seeking Cure for Clinical Woes. A shortage of clinical placemeseats is becoming a drain on nursing program capacity statewide. (Toin UMass Boston’s BSN program celebrate a much sought-after clinat Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. (Bottom) A Salem Stastudent gets clinical experience working with a simulation manikin;

available for every 100 students in Salem’s program.

13 A Question of Capacity



FROM PAGE 13

Like UMass Boston and Lowell, Salem State’s nursing pro-gram is highly competitive and also “at its limits in termsof classroom and science laboratory space,” according toNeal DeChillo, Salem’s Dean of Human Services. In fall2016, Salem State’s program received 1,165 applications foradmission and accepted just 235 students. University staff,also struggling with the issue of clinical placements, areadvocating for a higher-quality simulation environment.

“None of our (current) manikins can be used for a sophisti-cated sim lab experience,” says Salem’s provost, David Silva.

Salem nursing staff envision a new sim lab that could serveas a community resource, providing ongoing professionaldevelopment for nurses at area hospitals and health carecenters. For now, they describe themselves as “pretty des-perate” in hunting for space.

“We’re working with one of the local high schools to takeadvantage of space in their chemistry lab for classes, whichsends a curious signal to Salem State students who wentthere,” says Silva, noting that most students would expectto nd more advanced facilities on a college campus thanat the high school they attended.

UMass Boston’s Winfrey estimates that up to 50 percent oftheir clinical placements could be replaced by simulation,but only if another problem is addressed: the need to hirecomputer-savvy nursing faculty with the skills needed tooversee the new high-tech environments.

Two-thirds of the UMass Boston nursing faculty will retirein the next ve years; at Salem State, half the faculty willleave. Such a predicament is fairly typical; statewide, theaverage age of a nursing professor is 55, according to the

American Association of College of Nursing. Most nurs-ing instructors are women who earn their Doctorate ofNursing Practice (DPN) degrees relatively late in life, at anaverage age of 40, having rst taken time to work in theclinical eld or raise children. UMass Boston is using grantfunds to “fast track” students from BSN to DPN degrees;nonetheless, students often scale back to part-time statusbecause of nancial pressures.

“I’ve lost students because they are obligated to send moneyhome to family in Haiti, and they need to work more andcan’t afford to stay in school,” Winfrey says. She worries

that the sheer volume of students makes it difcult to helpthose who are struggling to cope with multiple demandsfrom family, employers and the academy.

“In our nursing lab we are working at 117% capacity. Thatis not the way to prevent students from dropping out.

You can’t give all your students the help they need at thatcapacity level.”

Computer Science &IT Programs FullIn the red-hot Massachusetts technology eld, meanwhile,there are 17 jobs for every one graduate with a degreein computer science or IT, according to the TechnologyTalent Initiative Workforce Planreleased by the DHE in 2014.The report found a “critical gap between the number ofdegrees granted in computer science and informationtechnology at our public institutions and the current andprojected growth in jobs requiring those credentials.” Thereport suggested that degree-granting in these elds wouldneed to double to meet employer demand.




But the reality on the ground suggests that that there areserious challenges to meeting that goal. At several UMasscampuses, highly regarded programs to train the nextgeneration of computer science and IT professionals areat capacity and looking for ways to increase the number ofstudents they can serve.

The computer science program at the University ofMassachusetts Amherst is ranked 25th by U.S. News andWorld Report,tied with Duke University and the Universityof North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In the last few years,however, the number of admits has roughly doubled, and

classes are at their limit. “We can’t hire faculty fast enough,”says Jack Wileden, associate dean of student affairs in thenew College of Computer Science.

At UMass Lowell, the online information technology pro-gram has seen dramatic growth in recent years, leading theuniversity to begin planning for a traditional on-campusday program in IT to accommodate more students. To ad-dress the need for more faculty, the University sought andwon a contract amendment which allows for the hiring offull-time, non-tenure track lecturers and clinical facultywho are fully focused on teaching and service, rather than

research. The benets are two-fold: they allow the univer-sity to improve its retention and graduation rates while alsoadding faculty positions to high-demand programs.

“We’re letting STEM and health care programs grow dispro-portionately,” says John Ting, UMass Lowell’s vice provostfor enrollment, explaining that the University is striving tomeet employer demand in key elds.

We can’thire facultyfast enough.”JACK WILEDEN, A SSOCIATE

DEAN OF STU DENT AFFAIRS,COLLEGE OF COMPUTERSCIENCE, UMASS AMHERST

computer science/IT departments are facing some of thesame issues that nursing programs are struggling with,plus some unique challenges:

Infrastructure: Unmet computer hardware andsoftware needs, which must be updated regularlydue to the pace of technological change.

IT staffing:Some campuses report not havingsufficient IT staff to manage the technologynecessary in Computer Science programs.

Student retention: Computer Science is one of

the toughest majors on any campus, due in no smallmeasure to the amount of math that’s required.

Bridgewater State University has used a National ScienceFoundation grant to support student success in computerscience and other science programs.

“Before, we were losing up to 50 percent of our studentsacross the board, across all demographics,” says JohnSantore, chair of the computer science department atBridgewater. “We added support structures for students;overall I’d say our failure rates in the entry-level ComputerScience courses have dropped down below 20 percent.”

Could Bridgewater double the number of computerscience graduates to meet industry need, as called for in theTechnology Talent Initiative Workforce Plan? “No, but we couldprobably go another 20 percent,” Santore says, noting thatthe program has seen steady growth in recent years and has just added an eighth full-time professor. “The problem isthat Bridgewater has no space.”

High-Tech Faculty in High Demand. A packed classroom atUMass Amherst’s new College of Computer Science is symptomatic of thestruggles that computer science and IT programs face given capacity issues.

15 A Question of Capacity



AT THE CHELMSFORDHEADQUARTERS OF WORKFORCEMANAGEMENT COMPANY KRONOS,an employee time clock in the company’s

lobby recently became the center ofthe universe for 10 UMass Lowell co-opstudents. The students were chargedwith reimagining the ubiquitous device,making important connections betweeninnovation and its real-world applicationsand impact through that process. ForKronos, the project and the co-oppartnership with UMass Lowellillustratesthe value of diverse perspectives inpromoting the company’s technical andbusiness objectives.

The Demand for

Diverse Hiring = Strategic Thinking. Kronos values the differeperspectives that a diverse pool of employees bring to product develoThirty-two percent of the UMass Lowell interns they selected this yeastudents of color, and 26 percent are women.

Tech Sector Seeks toExpand Talent Pool with Diverse Hires





Lack of Diversity inComputer Science

FEMALE STUDENTS REPRESEN

15 % of students enrolled incomputer science majors

21 % of computer science graduates

AFRICAN AMERICANSTUDENTS REPRESENT:

10 % of students enrolled incomputer science majors

7 %of computer science graduates

LATINO/ASTUDENTS REPRESENT:

13 %

of students enrolled incomputer science majors

11 % of computer science graduates

Source for enrollment in major: MDHE, Fall 2

Source for graduates: MDHE, FY2015 data focerticates, undergraduate & graduate degrees

“Everything we do, from volunteerism to charitable giving,is about engaging the next generation of our workforce,”says Barbara Vlacich, Kronos’ vice president of presalesoperations and sales effectiveness. The company’s leadersbelieve that diversity in its workforce is a strategic impera-tive, tapping partnerships like the one with UMass Lowell,along with internal and external programs, to bring adiverse pool of candidates to Kronos’ doorstep. Within thisyear’s co-op class, nearly 32 percent are students of color,and 26 percent are women.

“As the workforce continues to change, our productsmust evolve with it—and this evolution makes it critical forKronos and tech companies like ours to have a diversepool of employees who bring different backgrounds andperspectives to product development,” continues Vlacich.

“These different perspectives help us best meet the needsof our customers and their diverse workforces.”

The approach also helps the company to ll key long-termworkforce positions; of the 40 interns Vlacich has hosted

within her department alone, half have become permanentKronos employees.

Filling the Talent Pool:Simple ArithmeticScores of data reinforce the hiring challenge in computerscience-related elds. Juxtaposed with the 12,000 unique

job ads posted for Massachusetts IT positions (HelpWanted Analytics), the 3,848 computer science/informa-tion technology degrees granted by Massachusetts’ publicand private institutions in 2014 simply aren’t enough tomeet demand.

Kronos’ focus on diversity is becoming a common refrainthroughout Massachusetts’ innovation sector. Fromtechnology-reliant industries to health care elds like nurs-ing and life sciences, organizations in the Commonwealthhave acknowledged that they simply cannot maintainthe workforce they need to deliver the products andservices their brands promise without expanding the poolof diverse applicants. Yet across the state, the interestand participation in these elds among female studentsand students of color, although rising, remains low. OnMassachusetts’ public campuses, just 15 percent of stu-dents in computer science programs are women, 10 percentare African American and 13 percent are Latino/a.

“We just can’t afford to leave people on the sidelines if wewant to compete as a region in the global battle for technol-ogy talent,” says Tom Hopcroft, president and chief execu-tive ofcer of MassTLC,whose 2020 Challenge initiative hasset a goal of creating and lling 100,000 new tech sector

jobs in Massachusetts by 2020. Hopcroft, who is also a

The Demand for Diversity 17



FROM PAGE 17

member of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, points out that thedata illustrating the state’s pipeline challenges do not even account for theeconomic loss incurred as leading technology companies unable to ll positionshere relocate or expand their presence in other states.

Diverse Products Demand

Diverse PerspectivesFor Massachusetts’ technology-driven companies, however, the “talent gap”challenge extends far beyond the simple math of lling empty desk chairs withqualied workers. The benets of a diverse workforce, they say, impact their veryability to create the kinds of products and services that consumers want andneed. “As a company, we believe that in order to serve our customers well, weneed a workforce that reects multiple sets of interests and experiences,” saysAnnmarie Levins, general manager for technology & civic engagement in theCambridge ofce of Microsoft. “As our workforce has become more diverse,we’ve been able to build better products by being more sensitive to people’sneeds—and most companies in the tech sector understand that.”

Indeed, as the applications of technology continue to pro-liferate, the need for diversity among those developing theapplications is expanding. “If you don’t have women andunderrepresented populations involved in designing sys-tems, you won’t have systems that are friendly for all users,”says Rick Adrion, professor emeritus at UMass Amherst andprincipal investigator of the Commonwealth Alliance forIT Education (CAITE), whose mission is to broaden par-ticipation in computing and IT. “You’ll have tools createdby someone who grew up on computer games, that aren’tnecessarily intuitive for the broader community.”

This need for greater diversity at the product innovationlevel is well documented; the notion of the “sameness barri-er” created by a homogenous workforce is often implicatedas preventing truly disruptive innovation that leads to newand better products. Yet the same technical ubiquity that

impacts our daily life is also at play throughout the workforce, demanding thatemployees at all levels of an organization, regardless of position, come equippedwith technical skills.

“Here at Kronos, you’d be hard pressed to nd a job that doesn’t rely on tech-nology and require our employees to have a vast skill set,” says Vlacich. A focuson cultivating technical talent and interest among diverse candidates at all

levels, then, becomes an economic imperative if Massachusetts’ companies andeconomy are to thrive. This includes the “middle skills” demanded within rolesthat are the backbone of technology careers but require less than a four-yeardegree to attain. According to the Harvard Business School, 69 percent of HRexecutives say their inability to attract and retain middle-skills talent frequentlyaffects their rm’s performance.

Linking College and CareerKevin Burns, chief information security ofcer for the Commonwealth ofMassachusetts, is personally engaged in work to spread the word aboutopportunities in the fast-growing cyber security eld, where the educational

If you don’t have womenand underrepresentedpopulations involved indesigning systems, youwon’t have systems that are

friendly for all users.”RICK ADRION, PROFESSOR EMERITUS,UMASS A MHERST; PRINCIPAL INVEST IGATOR,COMMONWEALTH ALLIANCE FOR IT EDUC ATION




threshold for career entry begins at community colleges.This is also where the majority of students of color in thepublic higher education system are clustered.

“We need tactical roadmaps to recruit and retain peoplefrom underrepresented populations and help them becomealmost instantly successful in these careers,” says Burns.

“There is so much opportunity.” With a certicate, peoplecan secure well-paying jobs at rms that often fund

public associate and baccalaureate programs for employeeswith support from the state. Burns is working as partof an advisory panel for MassBay Community College,helping to shape the curriculum for its cyber-securitycerticate program.

Similar efforts are underway at other community collegesand at the University of Massachusetts Boston, whereBATEC (Broadening Advanced Technological EducationConnections), funded by the National Science Foundation,is working with academic partners to develop curriculumand examine pathways in computing and IT that lead

students from high school through college to careers. Partof that work, says Deborah Boisvert, principal investigatorand executive director for BATEC, is simply familiarizingstudents with the college environment. “It’s about help-ing students whose parents didn’t attend college to simplyhave the condence to walk onto a college campus,” shesays. “And then it’s about helping them understand thatwithin four or ve courses, they’ll be employable.”

This same message is being spread through efforts at thecompany level throughout the Commonwealth, whereco-op, intern and mentoring programs are helping

to engage the diverse groups of potential employeesthe companies say they need.

At the Cambridge ofce of Microsoft, the company’s12-week “Explore Microsoft” internship program provideshands-on training, mentoring and group project experiencefor freshman and sophomore college students, and encour-ages applications from underrepresented groups includingwomen and minorities. The local Women@NERD andBlacks and Africans at Microsoft groups hold mockinterview and mixer events for underrepresented students.

The popularity of one of these recent mock-interviewrecruiting events hosted through Blacks and Africans atMicrosoft offers encouraging data that these efforts aregaining traction. The 60 slots available for the event, adver-tised through student groups at institutions where employ-ees hold connections, were lled in just one week.

“Internships and other hands-on experiences help studentsnd their way to career options they wouldn’t otherwiseknow about,” says Tom Hopcroft. “Once the students areplugged in with these companies and opportunities, theyreach out and help more students nd jobs by showingthem what is possible.”


Lack of Diversity inInformation Technology

FEMALE STUDENTS REPRESEN

22 % of students enrolled inIT majors

21 % of IT graduates

AFRICAN AMERICANSTUDENTS REPRESENT:

14 % of students enrolled inIT majors

10 %of IT graduates

LATINO/ASTUDENTS REPRESENT:

15 %

of students enrolled inIT majors

11 % of IT graduates

Source for enrollment in major: MDHE, Fall 2

Source for graduates: MDHE, FY2015 data focerticates, undergraduate & graduate degrees

The Demand for Diversity 19



Massachusetts’ publiccolleges and universitiesand the DHE aresharpening the focuson three key areas ofthe Vision Project to

address the Degree Gap.

THROUGH THE VISION PROJECT,MASSACHUSETTS’ PUBLIC COLLEGES ANDUNIVERSITIES HAVE BEEN WORKING TO IMPR college completion rates and other performance outcomeswith the goal of producing “the best-educated citizenry andworkforce in the nation.” With this report, the Departmentshifts attention to three of the seven areas of the VisionProject, each central to the goal of reducing or eliminatingthe Degree Gap.

“While the Vision Project remains the Board-approvedagenda for higher education, I believe we need to ‘honein’ on these three priorities and also include more directemphasis on affordability,” said Commissioner Carlos E.Santiago. “Workforce alignment runs as an undercurrentthough this more tightly focused agenda, the goal of whichis to improve our rates of degree completion. Students, andthe employers who are waiting to hire them, are countingon us to achieve faster, more far-reaching results.”

“Drilling down on these three priorities will be essential ifwe are to hasten the pace of progress,” said Board of Higher

Education Chairman Chris Gabrieli. “Campuses are going toneed to work more closely in regional partnershipsand nd creative, meaningful ways to bring best practicesto scale if we are to realize system-level progress.”

INHoning

20



Improve CollegeAccess & AffordabilityExpand dual enrollment andSTEM early college opportunities

“Dual Enrollment Partnerships Open Doors” on “STEM Starter Academy Students Finish Big” o

Promote “knowledge about college” throughhigh school partnerships, events

“MetroWest College Planning Center” on page 2“GEAR UP and Sign Up for College” on page 29

Create more affordable pathwaysto—and through—college

“The Commonwealth Commitment” on page 23

Close Achievement Gaps Increase support to and expandopportunities for low-income malestudents and male students of colorwho are at risk of not entering ornishing college

“100 Males Pilot Programs Launch” on page 32“Cohort-Based Support Models Spell Success” o

Raise CollegeCompletion Rates

Overhaul developmental (remedial)education programs

“Breaking Remedial Math Barriers” on page 40

Expand use of retention softwareand student support/advising

“Excelencia in Education” on page 35

Map seamless, statewide transferpathways from two-year collegesto four-year universities

“Blazing New Transfer Pathways,Discipline by Discipline” on page 38

* All strategies aligned with workforce needs

The “Big Three”Degree Plan

LEARN MORE

LEARN MORE

LEARN MORE

21Honing In



Improving CollegeAccess & Affordability

COLLEGE PARTICIPATION“BIG THREE”

MetroWest College Planning CenterMASSBAY, FRAMI NGHAM STATE BUIL D COLLEGE KNOWLEDGE

MassBay Community College and Framingham State University

used a Vision Project Performance Incentive Fund (VP-PIF) grant toopen the Commonwealth’s rst regional college planning center

with the goal of achieving higher rates of college access and completion amongunderrepresented groups across MetroWest.

“I always say talent is distributed equally, opportunity is not,”Framingham State President Javier Cevallos said at the opening ofthe MetroWest College Planning Center (CPC) in September 2015. “I amoptimistic about this center in making a big difference in the opportunityfor people in this region.”

In its rst year,the MetroWest CPChas had thefollowing impacts:

Engaged 2500MetroWest residents inservices and trainings.

Provided 58 hoursof professionaldevelopment toK–12 guidance teams,adult basic educationcoaches, and collegeaccess counselors.

Partnered with 16community agenciesand six school districtspartnered with theCPC on college access/success programs.

Helped launch the DHE’s100 Males to Collegeprogram for malestudents attending

Framingham HighSchool and KeefeRegional TechnicalSchool. For more onthe 100 Males to Collegeinitiative, please seepage 32.

Never Too Early. Framingham State University sophomore Deron Hines (lower right) welcomesWoodrow Wilson Elementary School students to the College Planning Center’s “College for a Day” program.

V P - P I F

F u n d e d




Signing on the Line. On behalf of all 25 Massachusetts public collegeand university presidents, (seated from left) Barry Maloney, Worcester StateUniversity; Marty Meehan, University of Massachusetts; and James Mabry,Middlesex Community College, sign the Commonwealth Commitmentagreement, while Commissioner Santiago (right) looks on.

For transfer to mostState Universities &UMass Campuses

Biology* Business +

Chemistry* Communications & Media Studies +

Computer Science +

Criminal Justice +

Early Childhood Education +

Economics* English +

History* Liberal Arts+

Mathematics +

Political Science* Psychology* Sociology +

STEM Natural/Physical Sciences +

For transfer to MassachusettsCollege of Art & Design

Painting* Printmaking* Sculpture*

For transfer to MassachusettsMaritime Academy

Emergency Management* Energy Systems Engineering* Facilities Engineering* International Maritime Business* Marine Safety &

Environmental Protection*

* Becomes eligible in Fall 2016 + Becomes eligible in Fall 2017

MORE INFO ATWWW.MASS.EDU/MACOMCO

In a systemwide effort to advance the “Big Three” goals, the campuses andDHE have announced the new Commonwealth Commitment to CollegeAccess, Affordability and Completion. In less than six months, campusleaders, faculty and staff forged agreement on a groundbreaking plan tofreeze college costs, offer end-of-semester tuition and fee rebates and, atthe four-year institutions, waive tuition. Students must begin their studiesat a community college and then transfer to a state university or UMasscampus. They must attend full-time, maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 andcomplete their bachelor’s degree in less than four and a half years.

“This program was designed to decrease the cost of a college degree andaccelerate on-time completion for students across the Commonwealth,creating more opportunities and helping more people get into theworkforce with the skills they need,” said Governor Charlie Baker.

“The Commonwealth Commitment will make it even easier forstudents to go to school full-time and begin their careers withless debt, and we are pleased that our higher education officialshave worked collaboratively to make this program a reality.”The two-year pilot program will launch in fall 2016 with students ableto choose from 14 MassTransfer Pathways degree programs; ten moreprograms will be added in fall 2017. See page 38 for more informationabout the new Pathways.

The Commonwealth CommitmentHIGHER ED LEADERS SIGN HISTORIC PACT

Eligible Majors

23Vision Project Progress: Campus & System Highlights




It’s a winning strategy thatreduces college costs while alsolowering remediation rates:dual enrollment programs that allowstudents to take college classes whilestill in high school.

The Commonwealth DualEnrollment Partnership (CDEP)provides funds to campuses that helpreduce the cost of college coursework.In addition to providing a meaningfuland challenging early college experi-ence, research suggests dual enroll-ment opportunities are associatedwith higher college enrollment andgraduation rates.

Massachusetts has set a goal of in-creasing dual enrollment from 2,000to 3,400 students, with a renewedfocus on recruiting underrepresentedstudents. CDEP funding increasedfrom $750,000 in FY15 to $1 millionin FY16.

Meanwhile, campuses are ramping uptheir own dual enrollment and earlycollege programs, some using privatefunds to supplement public resources.

North Shore CommunityCollege has launched

CommUniverCity at Lynn, an “urbaneducation-workforce development

collaboration” that takes a birth-to-career approach to developing educa-tional pathways into higher educationand employment. Working with theLynn Public Schools and communitypartners, and with funding from

Dual Enrollment Partnerships Open DoorsRENEWED FOCUS ON UNDERREPRESENTED STUDENTS

the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston,NSCC rolled out an Early College IT

Academic Pathway to allow low-in-come, rst-generation college studentsto progress from high school to NSCCand then on to Salem State to earna bachelor’s degree in informationtechnology. Guided academic path-ways in business and early childhoodeducation are planned for next year.The initiative builds on North Shore’sexisting dual enrollment program atLynn High, where fully 100 percent

of students who enrolled in a collegecourse in 2015 completed and passedit. Ninety-ve percent of those stu-dents are currently enrolled in theirrst year of college.

Holyoke Community College hasnearly doubled the number of dual en-rollment students it serves in the pasttwo years, based on new relationshipsit has formed with Chicopee Compre-hensive High School and Paulo FreireSocial Justice Charter School. TheCollege also boasts the nation’s #1Gateway to College program for highschool dropouts, with the highestgraduation rates of any Gatewayprogram in the U.S. Since fall 2010,171 students have earned their high

school diplomas by taking collegeclasses at HCC.

Massasoit Community Collegefaculty are teaching dual enrollmentcourses at seven area high schools,up from three schools in 2011. Thenumber of students taking classes has

An Alternative Path to College. Holyoke Community College's rigorous Gateway to Coprogram uses the dual enrollment model to offer at-risk students and recent high school dropoto complete a high school diploma from their home district while also accruing an average of




expanded from 81 to 275. PeterJohnston, Massasoit’s early collegepartnerships director, recalls a staffperson at one local high schooltelling him that many electives hadbeen eliminated due to budget cuts.

“The administrator was distraughtover the potential negative impact tostudents,” Johnston says. “He asked,‘Can Massasoit help ll thatgap?’ So we’re now offering statistics,psychology and sociology for his

students.” Massasoit’s broader goal,according to Johnston, is to helparea high school students gain devel-opmental skills for college successout of the way in 9th or 10th grade sothey are ready to begin credit-bearingcollege courses in the 11th grade.

At that point students may take dual

enrollment classes, so that theycan begin their higher educationexperience earlier.

Massachusetts Maritime Academyhas creatively exported its dualenrollment program from its Bournecampus to the John D. O’BryantSchool of Math & Science in Roxbury.Once each week an Academy facultymember travels to O’Bryant to teacha dual enrollment class in coastalnavigation, which also includes twoeld trips to the Academy. In just itssecond semester, enrollment has dou-bled and 98 percent of participatingstudents have received college credit.The Academy and the high schoolhave expanded their partnership toinclude scholarships to the Academy’ssummer academic camps.

Dual enrollment resultsin Massachusetts:

Low-income students whotook a dual enrollmentcourse were almost 16%more likely than their peerswho had never taken adual enrollment course toenroll in college.

Dual enrollment studentswho enrolled in community

college were 50% lesslikely to require remedial(developmental) classescompared to their peerswho had not taken a dualenrollment course.

From the Sea to the City. Students at the John D. O'Bryant Schoolin Roxbury broaden their horizons with a college course in coastal navigationbrought to their doorstep by Massachusetts Maritime Academy.





The results are in, and the two-year-old STEM Starter Academy (SSA)

program at all 15 Massachusetts community colleges has shownsuccess in its efforts to recruit, retain and graduate more students with science,technology, engineering and math degrees.

The grant-funded SSA program championed by House Speaker Robert DeLeogives high school students exposure to college-level STEM courses and careertracks. During free summer sessions, students can conquer remedial mathcoursework, take part in science and engineering challenges such as buildingdigital cameras or genetics labs, and visit industry partners to learn aboutdifferent STEM careers.

“We created our own oil spills, and then had to be engineers andtry to nd a way to solve them,” said Erin Holdgate, who attendedMassasoit Community College ’s STEM Starter Academy before entering thecollege in 2014. Graduating this spring, Holgate plans to transfer to a four-yearuniversity and pursue a career in medicine.

At Quinsigamond Community College, coordinator Darcy Carlson reportsthat 23 of the 29 students who took part in the summer program then enrolledQCC and are on track to complete their rst year in college. More than halfthe group have chosen STEM majors. “Some of them are asking me, ‘Are youdoing it again this year? Can I help?’” Carlson says. “My goal is to double thenumber of program participants in summer 2016, budget permitting.”

Among the ndings of arecent UMass DonahueInstitute evaluation ofthe STEM StarterAcademy program:

Seventy percent of degreesand certicates completedby SSA participants were in

STEM elds. Statewide, only45% of community collegecredentials are awarded inSTEM elds.

SSA students enrolled asfull-time students at a rate13 percentage pointshigher than the generalcommunity college studentpopulation. This bodeswell for future degreecompletion, becausefull-time students are morelikely to earn credentialsthan part-time students.

In summer 2015, 40% ofSSA students completeddevelopmental (remedial)coursework; of that number,75% went on to enroll in acredit-bearing, college-levelmath class in fall 2015.

“Statewide, only 20% ofcommunity college studentswho complete developmen-tal math coursework go onto complete a college-levelmath course within two years,”UMDI researchers noted.

“So the high rate of college-level math enrollment is apromising indicator.”

Full Scale. TheSTEM Starter Academmodel was developedcollaboratively andimplemented byall 15 communitycolleges, includingQuinsigamond (top)and Greeneld (botto

STEM Starter Academy Students Finish BigPROGRAM EVALUATION S HOWS PR OMISING RESULTS




FOR MANY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS,college and career can seem like distantdestinations in an uncertain future. This

is particularly true for students without parentsor mentors who have already traveled the path;these students are often unaware of the oppor-tunities in front of them, and they doubt theirown ability to succeed. A promising approach tochanging this dynamic is early college.

Early colleges are more than just dual enrollment,whereby a high school student—typically some-one who is already on track to higher educa-tion—takes a college-level course for both highschool and college credit. Rightly conceived, early

colleges are collaborations between high schoolsand colleges to create structured pathways fora diverse set of students, including studentswho may not have previously been on a collegetrack, to follow throughout high school and intocollege. Early colleges set expectations up-frontfor post-secondary education, while providingsupports and experiences to build condenceand ensure success. According to a 2015 studyby the Rennie Center, “only 14 percent of earlycollege participants needed remedial work intheir rst year of college, compared to 23 percentof students nationally.” Also, a 2013 study by the

American Institutes of Research found that earlycollege students were signicantly more likely toearn a college degree than comparison students(25% vs. 5%).

Typically, early colleges adopt a particular aca-demic theme, in order to provide programmaticcoherence and facilitate alignment with collegecurriculum and standards. Increasingly, thishas meant a focus on STEM. Equally important,early colleges seek to establish connections be-

tween academic subjects and the world of work,in order to better engage students through thehands-on application of their classroom learningand to prepare them for real job opportunities intheir communities. Making early college a careerpathway requires a deep and sustained partner-ship with local employers, who can help designcurriculum, provide mentorship for students,and offer workplace learning experiences.

A high priority of the Board of HigherEducation, the Board of Elementary andSecondary Education, and the STEM AdvisoryCouncil is to expand the number of studentswho are enrolled in early college programs,specically those that support career pathwaysin STEM elds.

We are fortunate that Massachusetts already hasseveral high-performing early college models tolearn from, along with non-prot organizationsand foundations that are national leaders in theeld. In addition, we have a number of existingprograms and resources that are already address-ing pieces of the puzzle. For example, by betterintegrating Connecting Activities, Dual Enroll-ment, and STEM Starter Academies, we canleverage public and private dollars to create newearly college programs and take this initiative tolarger scale across the Commonwealth.

Early college alone is hardly the answer to thechallenges of college access and completion,nor is it a silver bullet to prepare students tobe career-ready and to be active and engagedcitizens. Nevertheless, our administration iscommitted to advancing early college programsas part of an effective and scalable strategy forensuring more students are prepared to succeedin higher education and the workplace.

Expanding Access to Early CollegeBY JIM PEYSER

VIEWPOINT

Jim Peyserissecretary of educationfor the Commonwealthof Massachusetts.

By better integratingConnecting Activities,

Dual Enrollment, andSTEM Starter Academies,we can leverage publicand private dollarsto create new earlycollege programs andtake this initiativeto larger scale acrossthe Commonwealth.




Employers Putting “Skin in the

Game” of Workforce DevelopmentFOUR C’S MOD EL LEADS TO PAID INTERNSHIPS, TU ITION BENEFITS

Like most community colleges, Cape Cod Community College had ahistory of working closely with local employers to align workforce

training with hiring needs. But Tammi Jacobson had a different vision whenshe became director of the College’s workforce education ofce. She wantedemployers to have “skin in the game,” to collaborate with the Four C’s to movestudents out of training programs, into paid internships and eventually, jobsthat would offer tuition assistance programs to help students further theireducation and training.

Rather than serve as an employment agency, Jacobsen wanted local companiesto have, in essence, an ownership stake in the business of educating the localtalent pool. “I wanted them to feel part of the education and training process,”

Jacobsen says. “I said to myself, ‘We’re going to train the students, and theyare going to hire the students.” To put the new model into practice, Jacobsenrebranded the workforce education division into an on-campus organizationcalled the Center for Corporate and Professional Education.

Enter Charles “Chuck” Robinson (left), asemi-retired insurance executive andone-time student at the Four C’s, whowas increasingly concerned aboutnding job candidates for positions athis own agency and at other agenciesacross the Cape. He worked with

Jacobsen to bring ten agencies to thetable, forging a partnership that led tothe creation of curriculum for entry-level customer service positions. With asmany as half of the state’s 80,000insurance employees retiring in the nextdecade, Robinson sees the program asan employer’s lifeline. “The stars lined

up on this; I’m hoping we can do itevery summer,” Robinson says. “I had reached out to several othercolleges, but Cape Cod was the most responsive.”Twenty students signed up for three weeks of classroom instruction, starting in June 2016. Paid internships, complete with individual mentors provided by thecompanies, will follow. Robinson fully expects that many if not most of the in-terns will be hired for permanent positions. An added bonus: at least half of theagencies will offer tuition reimbursement to allow the students to continue theirstudents at the Four C’s while working. The only downside of the program isspace availability: the college only has enough computer stations and workspaceto accommodate 20 students at a time.


MassachusettsCollege ApplicationCelebration OutcomesStudents Reached

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2015201420132012

Applications Submitted

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

2015201420132012

On-the-Spot Acceptances

0

200400

600

800

1,000

1,200

2015201420132012

Scholarship DollarsAwarded

$0.0m$0.5m$1.0m$1.5m$2.0m$2.5m$3.0m$3.5m

2015201420132012




Faculty TackleTextbook CostsBRISTOL CC PROF SPURSFREE RESOURCE INITIATIVE

In 2014, Bristol CommunityCollege Math DepartmentChairman Dan Avedikian

(pictured above) ditched his textbookin favor of free and easily accessibleresources. He saved each student anestimated $250 by creating coursecontent in the form of lecture notesand a series of YouTube videoswhere he demonstrates how to solve

each problem.He wasn’t alone. Using a grant fromthe Vision Project PerformanceIncentive Fund , Bristol launched theOpen Educational Resources (OER)initiative to incentivize faculty toreplace textbooks and “go for free”materials in the classroom.

“This project has widened access toquality education,” afrms Avedikian.

“The high price of textbooks can bea barrier for some qualied studentsthat are already struggling to comeup with the money needed for tuitionand fees.”

BCC began to see results after justone year. By the close of 2015, coursesthat utilized OERs generated a totalsavings of over $33,000 for studentsand decreased DWFI rates (studentsreceiving D’s, W’s, F’s or Incompletes)by 16 percent.

GEAR UP and Sign Up for CollegeACCESS GROUP HE LPS THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS APPLY

GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awarenessand Readiness for UndergraduatePrograms) is the Department ofHigher Education’s largest collegeaccess program, providing 7,000students in seven low-income districts

with tutoring services, mentoring,nancial aid counseling, educationaland college eld trips, collegereadiness workshops and more.

A 2015 study with WorcesterPublic Schools found thatgraduating seniors who participatedin the federally funded GEAR UPMassachusetts program werenearly four times more likelyto enroll in college than studentswho did not participate in acollege access program.

It's Party Time! Two high school seniors in Worcester celebrate theiron-the-spot acceptances with Kirshner Donis, associate director of admissions atWorcester State University.

GEAR UP is now expanding itsreach statewide through theMassachusetts College ApplicationCelebration (MCAC), the goal ofwhich is to provide every graduatingsenior the opportunity to apply to

college during the school day withhelp from guidance counselors,college admissions representativesand volunteers. In 2015, GEAR UPexpanded MCAC’s reach to 20 highschools across the state— a 79%increase in students servedfrom 2014.

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TRANSFORMING EDUCATIONAND THE WAY WE THINK ABOUTa meaningful high school experience has

never been more important to Massachusettseducators. Engaging students, making thoseimportant connections between academicinstruction and practical applications, andbuilding relationships with communityand business leaders are the top three prioritiesin my work everyday.

With more than 59,000 students (45% female,55% male) currently enrolled in Career/Voca-tional Technical Education (CVTE) programs inMassachusetts schools, it is imperative that we

work together to change the age-old perceptionof vocational-technical education. Long gone arethe days when all voc-tech students could aspireto the middle class on blue-collar wages; today,such opportunities are much more limited. With70 percent of Massachusetts jobs requiring somepost-secondary education, our students mustbe prepared for college success. Recent CVTEFollow-Up Survey Results indicate Massachu-setts vocational-technical students are enroll-ing in advanced educational programs afterhigh school at a rate comparable to their peersgraduating from traditional, comprehensivehigh schools. In fact, an average of 55 percent ofsurvey respondents reported being enrolled in acollege or university one year after high schoolgraduation.

So many of today’s vocational-technical pro-grams demand at least a bachelor’s degree in or-der to be competitive. If our goal is to effectivelyprepare students to enter competitive elds suchas STEM, healthcare, and engineering, we mustalso prepare them for college success. This prepa-

ration must include embedding rigorous course-work into vocational-technical programs at everyturn. For years, students in the very popularHealth Occupations programs at MontachusettRegional Vocational Technical School (MontyTech) have been provided with the opportunityto earn a number of industry-recognized creden-

tials, including: CPR, First Aid, and EKG Tech-nician credentials, as well as Medical Assistantcertication and Nurse Assistant certication.Now, however, these students are also earningeight college credits and an Emergency MedicalTechnical (EMT) certication, because of a newlyestablished high school-to-college partnership.This opportunity would not be possible withoutthe support of our community college partner,Mount Wachusett Community College. Simi-larly, our Engineering students are nding greatsuccess in the school’s Project Lead The Way(PLTW) coursework. Eighty-two percent of thestudents who sat for nal PLTW exams last year

earned procient or advanced scores, qualifyingthem for college credits at 63 colleges anduniversities across the country.

To close the skills gap, and effectively prepare ev-ery student for necessary post-secondary course-work, our college partners have a very importantrole. Expanding access to early college programs,promoting dual enrollment opportunities, and

College Readiness for All StudentsBY SHEILA HARRITY

VIEWPOINT

Sheila Harrityissuperintendent of theMontachusett RegionalVocational TechnicalSchool District and

vice chair of theMassachusetts Board ofHigher Education.

Expanding accessto early college

programs, promotingdual enrollmentopportunities, anddeveloping robustarticulation agreementswill not only save ourcollege-bound studentstime and money, theseprograms will reduceredundancy and keepstudents engaged.




Collaboration for College Success. Through a new partnership with Mount WachusettCommunity College, Monty Tech’s Health Occupations students have access to a dual enrollment programthat offers eight college credits and an EMT certication.

developing robust articulation agreements willnot only save our college-bound students timeand money, but these programs will reduceredundancy and keep students engaged. Wemust strive to reduce barriers to college. Provid-

ing opportunities to sit for college placementexams early and often will increase the students’chances of by-passing those developmentallevel courses that are often the deciding factorbetween staying in college or dropping out.Embedding developmental level coursework intothe high school curriculum will ensure our stu-dents are graduating ready to enroll in college-

level coursework. Further, piloting programs thatallow students to enroll without sitting forcollege placement exams may result in increasedstudent retention and higher achievementlevels—a concept unimaginable under the

constraints of the existing Accuplacer congura-tion. Preparing students for college is one thing;retaining them is yet another. It is our job toexpand partnerships like the one we have withMount Wachusett and, together, ensure ourstudents complete the degree and certicateprograms that are necessary for entry-levelcareers in high-skill, high-wage elds.




Closing Achievement &Opportunity Gaps

100 Males Pilot Programs LaunchCAMPUSES & COMMUNITIES BUILD STUDENT SUPPO RT TEAMS

100 Males in FraminghamWhen Framingham High School sophomore Onasis Penareceived a written invitation to join the new 100 Malesto College program for male students of color, heimmediately put the letter in the recycling bin. While mosteducators are painfully aware of the odds facing studentslike Onasis, he was nonchalant. “I wasn’t really interested inthe letter. I wasn’t going to think about it,” he recalls. “I’mlike a C, D student.”His mother and school counselors intervened, but Onasis’lukewarm response points to why Framingham StateUniversity and MassBay Community College joined forceswith two local high schools to help seed the Department ofHigher Education’s 100 Males to College program in theircommunity. The program, now operating in Framinghamand Springeld with additional pilots being considered byother cities, targets male students who are at the greatestrisk of never earning a college degree. The initiative lever-ages campus and community resources to create a “Broth-

erhood for Success” through a positive youth developmentmodel that embraces culture, identity and community.

At a recent program kickoff at Framingham State,Onasis had lots of company from peers who, like him,couldn’t visualize college as a part of their future. Skilledfacilitators encouraged the young men in roundtablediscussion groups to think about their personal “brand”in comparison to established commercial brands such asNike and Apple.

“We want them to connect their personal brand

to excellence,” said Sean L. Huddleston, chief diversityand inclusion ofcer for Framingham State. “We wantthese young men to see themselves as game changers. The very fact that these young men are enrolling in and gradu-ating from college at much lower rates than every otherpopulation makes this a critical program for us to have.”

100 Males to College provides students with “success coach-es,” full day and overnight visits to local campuses, a freedual enrollment course, ongoing in-school support, nan-cial aid literacy and college and career planning seminars.

Onasis, who began his 100 Males journey with little senseof direction, is already dreaming of a college major in eitherengineering (“I’m pretty good at math”) or culinary arts.

CLOSING ACHIEVEMENT GAPS“BIG THREE”




100 Males in Springeld100 Males to College students in Springeld have theoption of taking their rst college classes—and most willbe the rst in their family to do so. Of the 44 young menwho enrolled in three specially designed dual enrollmentcourses at Springeld Technical Community College(STCC) last fall, 33 earned a grade of C or above, includingten who earned A’s. Five students failed their courses, andone withdrew early.

The grades don’t tell the whole story, however. “I’moptimistic because this is their rst crack atsomething college-level,” says Arlene Rodriguez, vicepresident for academic affairs at STCC. “These courses arenot watered down.”

“They learn how college courses differ from high schoolcourses in regard to content, organization and studentresponsibilities,” notes STCC Professor Josh Carreiro. “Inaddition to teaching the course material, I also spend time

helping the students acclimate to a college environment.” And Carreiro is encouraged by a pattern developing amongthe young men: on their own, they’ve begun to show up oncampus well before the start of class in order to hang outwith him in the faculty lounge.

“By helping them succeed in the course, I believe thestudents—especially those on the fence about attendingcollege—will develop a condence that they can managecollege-level work.”

On May 16, 2016,the Springeld 100 Malesprogram held a ceremonyrecognizing its rstcohort of participants:

119 Young Men

1 Sophomore59 Juniors59 Seniors

29% Participated inDual Enrollment Courses

100% of SeniorsGraduating High School

95% of SeniorsGoing to College

5% of SeniorsEnrolling in Military

324 College/UniversityApplications Submitted

Bound for Greatness. A 100 Males participant in Framingham listens to a mentor at Framingham’s launch event in February 2016,

and Springeld participants gear up for an overnight retreat at Westeld State University in July 2015.




Cohort-Based Support Models Spell SuccessAFFINITY GR OUPS HELP CONNECT, RETAIN MALE STUDENTS

Massasoit and Quinsigamond Community Colleges and Salem State University are three of the public campusesnow using support groups to help male students of colorbuild their own communities.

At Massasoit, the new Ubuntu (roughly translated as“Humanity” or “Community” in Zulu) Scholars program

fosters a sense of campus community through peer supportand male mentorship. At a recent meeting of the group,student Peter Louissaint explained to visitors that hearingabout the struggles of his peers had motivated him to workharder in school. His grade point average at Massasoit hasshot up from a 2.1 to a 3.4.

“I’ve had to learn the hard way that you can’t dothings alone in life,” Louissaint says of his Ubuntu ex-perience. “Rather than be a lone wolf, you have to see thereare other people in the room who can help you.”

A community mentor, Brockton Superior Court JudgeRichard Chin, nodded approvingly. The rst in his familyto go to college, Judge Chin now brings court ofcers tocampus to meet the Ubuntu Scholars, “to see young menwho are not in handcuffs.”

“For years, I’ve been doing criminal cases, and all I see areyoung men killing each other. Becoming involved with thisprogram has been rewarding and refreshing.”

Quinsigamond’s Brothers and Keepers male mentoringinitiative is credited with helping to improve retentionand graduation rates among male students. Of the 23

participants who attended a total of 17 programs andworkshops held last year, 20 students either graduated orreturned to QCC this year to continue their studies.

At Salem State, members of the Brotherhood for Successmeet regularly to give each other academic and socialsupport—and get free haircuts. On a semester basis, fourlocal barbers come to campus and set up shop in a roomset aside for them, effectively turning it into a functioningbarbershop. Members of the Brotherhood come in not onlyto have their hair cut but, more importantly, to talk withthe barbers, who serve as defacto mentors.

“Members are telling us that their participation in theBrotherhood is the reason they are staying at Salem State,”says director of diversity and multicultural affairsRebecca Comage. “They say the group gives them a sense ofbelonging. That sense of community and building sharedexperiences are among the many key factors, as we all know,that drive college retention.”


The Salem State Brotherhood is cited asone of several reasons for improvements atSSU from fall 2011 to fall 2014:

+20 percentage points in rst-year retention ratesfor African American male students

+10.4 percentage points in rst-year retentionrates for Latino male students

BuildingCommunity.The Ubuntu Scholarswith Jeff Joseph(right), Massasoit’sdirector of minoritymentorship programsand rst-yearexperience.




“Excelencia in Education”FAMILY STYLE VIBE ATTRACTS NE CC STUDENTS

Latino/a students using theSSC vs. Latino/a studentsnot using the SSC:

11.3% highercourse completion rate

19% higher retention rate

A Full House.Math tutor Carlos Rivera (right) is available to a room packedwith students utilizing the Student Success Center services.

Northern Essex CommunityCollege’s Student SuccessCenter (SSC) has received

national recognition for its workhelping Latino/a students succeed incollege. The four-year old Center,established using a Vision ProjectPerformance Incentive Fund grant,won a 2015 Excelencia in Education

Award for demonstrating through dataand evidence that it had improvedthe performance of Latino/a students,one of only 20 college programsnationwide to receive such recognition.

Twenty-three percent of NECC’s2,576 current Latino/a students haveused the Success Center’s resources:tutoring, counseling, and careerexploration. “It’s very family-oriented;all the ladies who work there are likeyour moms,” said Carlos Rivera, a

NECC student who received academicsupport at the Center and is now amath tutor himself.

“But it’s not only about tutoring,”adds Rivera. “You tell them whatyou want to do and theyimmediately start workingfor you. I told them I want tobe a neurosurgeon and they tookme to Dartmouth and to Harvardto see the medical schools.”

Small CampusShrinking Big GapsDIVERSIT Y DRIVE AT MCLThe smallest of the nine stateuniversities, MassachusettsCollege of Liberal Arts (MCLA)has used intentional recruitmentstrategies to boost the percentagesof African American and Latino/astudents at its Berkshire campus.Enrollment gaps have declined,while the graduation rate gaps aresignicantly smaller at MCLAthan for the state universitysegment as a whole.

The college credits its success topartnerships with community-based organizations, outreach todiverse communities, and supportof students as they transition tocollege life.

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ADMISSION TO MASSACHUSETTS’FLAGSHIP CAMPUS HASBECOME MORE COMPETITIVE

than ever before. The average GPA for enteringfreshmen at UMass Amherst now stands at 3.83,a sign of the University’s growing attraction forstudents and families and a source of great pridefor alumni and other supporters. As admissionstandards have tightened, staff, faculty, and stu-

dents from all areas of campus have voiced con-cerns about diversity. How does UMass Amherstcompare to its peer institutions in this regard?Does the student body reect the demographicsof the state?

According to the most current US Census data,10.8% of Massachusetts residents are Hispanic/Latino, 8.3% of Massachusetts residents areBlack/African American, .5% are Native Ameri-can/Alaska Native, and .1% are Hawaiian/PacicIslander. At the University, 6% of undergraduates

are Hispanic/Latino, 4% of undergraduates areBlack/African American, and less than 2% areeither Native American/Alaska Native or Hawai-ian/Pacic Islander. At rst pass, these compari-sons may cause alarm: much of the frustration voiced on campus concerning “compositionaldiversity” has centered on these data. After dig-ging deeper, however, it has become clear thatthe data are only part of the story.

In the fall of 2014, Chancellor Kumble Sub-baswamy organized constituents from across

campus to help create the Diversity StrategicPlan. A Steering Committee shed light on manymisconceptions about the data, noting that ourapplications were increasing across all ethnic andsocio-economic groups and that we were on parwith our peer institutions in terms of numbers.Over the previous ten years, our applications hadgrown by 184%, from 20,207 in 2005 to 37,183in 2014.

“During this period, while total applicationsgrew by 184%, applications from Latino, Afri-can American Indian/Alaska Native and NativeHawaiian/Pacic Islander students grew by aremarkable 335%,” the authors of the DiversityStrategic Plan wrote. Additionally, in a chartcomparing UMass Amherst to our peer institu-tions, the data indicated that “…nearly all publicuniversities have representations (of students

of color) below that of their states—in manycases, substantially below. In fact, only three ofthese institutions have enrollments that equalor exceed those of their states, and all three areschools in states with very low (underrepresent-ed) populations and that enroll a large numberof out-of-state students.”

The Diversity Strategic Plan acknowledged thatwhile the University’s rapid growth was goodnews, it could not abandon additional effortsto both expand the recruitment and to yield

(convert to deposits) the students of color wewere attracting. And so, we’ve begun shiftingour focus and emphasizing the use of a holisticreview process to consider our applicants. Bybroadening the scope of attributes used in mak-ing a decision about an applicants’ candidacy,we empower our applicants and our team ofadmissions counselors. Applicants are no longerreduced to a test score or a grade point average.

Admissions counselors become agents of advo-cacy with an expertise that goes beyond number-crunching. By applying a qualitative method toeach application we review, we are diversifyingour campus community in measures beyond themerely compositional.

What qualitative methods add to a review pro-cess is the opportunity for the applicant to tellus exactly why we should believe in them, theirstory, and their potential. We know that forthe entering class of fall 2015, 20% came fromlow-income (Pell-eligible) homes, and that 24%

Diversity at the Flagship CampusBY LEYKIA BRILL

VIEWPOINT

Leykia Brillisassistant provostfor diversity at theUniversity ofMassachusetts Amherst.





were the rst in their families to go to or gradu-ate from college. These students are no lessattractive to us because they come from fewerresources. In fact, we want students who havedemonstrated an ability to navigate communi-ties, schools, and situations that are far fromperfect because we know these students to be re-silient. They can handle the stressors of academiclife while simultaneously juggling responsibili-ties at home and in the world—skills essential tosuccess in college and beyond.

One of the biggest criticisms any institutionfaces when employing a holistic applicationreview process is the idea that it will unequivo-cally lead to the “watering down” of the admitted

student pool. The assumption is that we’d haveto lower our grade point averages and standard-ized testing credentials to admit more studentsof color. These accusations are far from true, asdemonstrated by our ever-rising average GPA

for admitted students. Moreover, we have madestrides in the composition of our classes. In the2016 admissions cycle, over 10% of the studentsadmitted to the Commonwealth Honors Col-lege (CHC) are underrepresented minorities, upfrom 8% on the 2015 cycle. First generation tocollege students were also up from 13% of theCHC admits to 15%. In numbers, this means weadmitted just under 200 more students fromunderrepresented and rst generation to col-lege backgrounds this year than last—all madepossible by the use of qualitative methods, or theholistic review process.Why is any of this important? Beyond the factthat students across our nation are crying outto see themselves reected in both the studentand faculty bodies of their institutions of highereducation, colleges and universities have a civicduty to educate global citizens. The value oflearning in a diverse community links directly tothis obligation and, in fact, benets all students.Diversity is about much more than race or eth-nicity for UMass Amherst. Diversity is about the

opportunity to be in a classroom, a dining hall, aresidence hall, or a playing eld that brings withit people from various geographical locations,religious afliations, political parties, socio-economic statuses, and gender (non)identities.For us, pursuit of a diverse community imploresus to provide our students with a chance to opentheir minds to a world of difference.

Diversity is aboutmuch more than race orethnicity for UMass

Amherst. Diversity isabout the opportunityto be in a classroom,a dining hall, a residencehall, or a playing eldthat brings with it peoplefrom various geographicallocations, religious

affiliations, political parties,socio-economic statuses,and gender (non)identities.




Blazing New Transfer Pathways,Discipline by DisciplineUMASS, STATE U, COMMUNITY COLLEGE FACULTY ENGAGED

Raising CollegeCompletion Rates

COLLEGE COMPLETION“BIG THREE”

In a highly decentralized system ofpublic higher education like the one inMassachusetts, it’s rare to nd biologyor political science professors fromUMass, state universities, and commu-nity colleges gathering for any reason—let alone to assess curricula or weighwhich courses are comparable enoughto transfer. Yet this is exactly whathappened when educators sat downin a series of cross-sector meetings,

discipline by discipline, bargainingand cajoling their way to agreementon a new, seamless system of transferpathways set to debut in fall 2016.

“These conversations onlyworked because we gotfaculty together from acrossthe system, people who hadnever talked to each otherbefore,” said Commissioner Santiago

recalls, adding with a chuckle, “Welocked the doors and said, ‘No one’sleaving until we get this done.’”

And they did it: Supported by the Vision Project Performance IncentiveFund, faculty from six differentdisciplines developed new 60-creditcourse maps called MassTransferPathways that lay out the rst twoyears of a four-year baccalaureatedegree, making it possible for

students to transfer to a state univer-sity or UMass campus without losingany credits or having to take extraclasses. Ten more disciplines have beenagreed to, and their maps are in the -nal stages of development. In order toforge the agreements, some campusesneeded to alter the content of classesto align with other institutions.

“It was, frankly, invigorating to meetwith my history colleagues fromaround the state,” said Chris Laney,Berkshire Community Collegeprofessor and MassTransfer segmentalleader for history. “The meetingswere genial and productive, and Ibelieve the results will greatly improvethe transfer process for students.”

Students will be able to view thepathways on an interactive websitebeing developed by the Departmentof Higher Education. The onlinesystem will show students a coursemap for their rst four semesters,including general education, majorand elective classes. The transfer path-ways are the foundation of the newCommonwealth Commitment to

Access, Affordability and Comple-tion program recently signed by thepresidents of all public colleges anduniversities (see page 23).

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Groundbreaking Discussions. At ameeting convened by the DHE at Fitchburg May 2016, math faculty from across the systgathered for an unprecedented, day-long discBy the end of the meeting, faculty had denecommon set of “foundational courses” that astudent can complete at any campus to fulllthe freshman and sophomore requirements obachelor’s degree in mathematics.

The new MassTransfer Pathways:

History* Liberal Arts+

Mathematics +

Political Science* Psychology* Sociology +

STEM Natural/Physical Sciences +

* Effective fall 2016+ Effective fall 2017

Biology* Business +

Chemistry* Communications &

Media Studies +

Computer Science +

Criminal Justice +

Early ChildhoodEducation +

Economics* English +





Breaking Remedial Math BarriersNEW THINKING ON DEV ELOPMENTAL MATH NEEDS

In 2016 the Board of Higher Educationextended a systemwide pilot that seeks tooverhaul developmental math barriers to college

completion. Twenty campuses now use high schoolGPA instead of or in addition to Accuplacer testing toassess whether students are ready for college-level math.Preliminary results at community colleges and UMasscampuses show that, between students who were placedin college-level math by Accuplacer versus GPA, coursecompletion rates were nearly equivalent. At the state

universities, students who were placed according tohigh school GPA fared better: 91 percent completed acollege-level math course, compared to 84 percent ofstudents placed by Accuplacer results.

For those students who place into developmental math,two of the most successful approaches being utilized bycampuses—here in Massachusetts, and nationwide—are theso-called corequisite remediation model and the creationof alternative math pathways that align with students’majors. Students enroll directly into college-level coursesand receive academic support alongside their regular

classes. A spring 2016 report by Complete CollegeAmerica found the corequisite model, when com-bined with the use of new pathways, is doublingand tripling gateway college course success ratesin half the time or better.Here in Massachusetts, Westeld State University hasbeen a leader in using the corequisite approach since 2005.Students are assigned to 100-level math classes basedon their major; Westeld added a supplemental instructionprogram for students who failed the Accuplacer test,and requires those students to meet an extra hour perweek in extended time sections. Today, there are nostand-alone prerequisite developmental classes offeredat Westeld State.

The changes are yielding promising results. A study con-ducted last year for students who failed the Accuplacer testand enrolled in Mathematics for Business and Social Sci-ences found that only six percent of those in extended timesections had withdrawn and only three percent had failed,compared to 33 and 11 percent of students placed intoregular classes without extended time support.

Continuity is Key. In 2009, Fitchburg StateUniversity began requiring that students enroll incollege-level math in their freshman year rather thandelaying it, leading to a 22 percentage point increasein gateway math completion rates. The Vision ProjectPerformance Incentive Fund (VP-PIF) has beensupporting the sharing of such proven practicesbetween campuses.

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An Early Start onMath RemediationMWCC IN LOCAL HIGH SCHOOLSMount Wachusett Community College ’sMath Modeling program helps students avoidthe nancial and psychological toll of having totake noncredit developmental classes in college.Instead, The Mount brings remediation directlyto seniors at its feeder high schools. Since itbegan in 2013 with 105 students, the programhas nearly quadrupled in size and continuesto expand.

College faculty and local school math teacherscollaborated jointly in developing MWCC’sfour-credit Foundations of Mathematics coursecurriculum. From its beginnings at LeominsterHigh School and the Leominster Center forTechnical Education Innovation, the programhas grown to include ve additional high schoolsin North Central Massachusetts. This academicyear 388 students participated; two additionalhigh schools will join during the 2016–17academic year.

Other Campus Results with New Approaches toDevelopmental Math:

In 2014, Bristol Community College began placingall students with a 2.7 or higher high school GPAdirectly into college-level courses. An additional 114students were able to take credit-bearing coursesunder the new placement method; 87 percent ofstudents passed the class compared to the 58 percentof students who passed the class under the oldAccuplacer placement method.

At Bunker Hill Community College, nearly 50 mathfaculty members have worked together to successfullycompress developmental courses into fewer semestersand link developmental and college-level courses innew Accelerated Pathways. The pathways shortenedthe number of developmental education courses fromthree to two for the nearly 90 percent of studentswho are non-STEM majors. After the new pathwayswere implemented, successful course completion indevelopmental math rose from 57 percent in fall 2012to 66 percent in fall 2014.

Fitchburg State University has implemented a seriesof changes, beginning with a 2009 requirement that allfreshman enroll in a college-level mathematics courseduring their rst year. Since the policy took effect in2009, the number of students completing a rst-yeargateway math course has climbed from 35 to 57percent, a 22 percentage point increase. Additionally,FSU has aligned students’ gateway math courses withtheir majors, and launched an extensive restructuringof developmental math.

These efforts were complemented last fall with theoffering of a co-requisite program in Applied Statistics,one of the most popular college-level mathematicsclasses offered on campus. Students meet for supple-mental instruction one additional hour per week toreview course content and receive tutoring. Initial datashow a 12.4 percent increase in the number of studentspassing the college-level math course.

Preemptive Move. Mount Wachusett Community Colhas brought developmental education into its feeder high address remedial needs before students even enter college

MWCC’s Foundations inMathematics Outcomes:

70% of students complete the coursewith a grade of C or better and are readyfor college-level math.

MWCC developmental math enrollmentrate dropped from 27% in fall 2013 to16% in fall 2015.




J UST BECAUSE EMPLOYERS CANrequire a bachelor’s degree or higher fora particular job does not mean they have

to. Northern Essex Community College ’spartnership with Charm Sciences —a Lawrence,Mass. company that develops and manufacturesbiochemical diagnostic test kits for the food andbeverage industries—offers a perfect example ofwhat can happen when an employer is able to

hire an associate degree-holder for a job that maypreviously have required a bachelor’s degree.

Around 2007, the company was assessing itsentry-level lab analyst positions, which, up untilthen, had required a bachelor’s degree. To meetgrowing hiring needs, Charm Sciences decidedto split the duties of some of its lab analysts andcreate a new category called “lab technician”—which would require an associate degree.

To help Charm Sciences and other life sciencecompanies ll such positions, science facultyat Northern Essex developed a new LaboratoryScience Program (LSP), a hands-on programwhich included an internship. The programlaunched in 2009, and its close alignmentwith industry needs was quickly recognized:In December 2010, the LSP received “GoldEndorsement” by the Massachusetts LifeScience Education Consortium. The employer-driven consortium awards gold only to programswhose curriculum includes all competenciesas mandated by the industry members.

This model has worked well for Charm Sciences,which places students in externships and hashired three graduates for permanent jobs. Cur-rently, ten of its approximately 40 entry-levellaboratory positions are open to associate degreegraduates as quality control, quality assurance,and production technicians.

More recently, Northern Essex was contactedby one of its alums, Terry Stubbs, the presidentand CEO of ActivMed Practices and Research,Inc. This fast-growing medical-clinical researchcompany has successfully completed nearly 650research trials. Rapidly evolving regulations andtechnology, however, are swiftly changing the jobrequirements for trial technicians.

Although physicians, nurses, and scientists—allwith advanced degrees, steep salaries, and oftenshort tenures in entry-level positions—areinvolved at every stage of their work, dailyprotocols can be managed by an emerging newrole: the associate degree level clinical researchcoordinator (CRC).

The challenge? Right now, these coordinatorsdon’t exist—and neither do degree programs totrain them.

So NECC is working with ActivMed, the Alliance

for Clinical Research and Safety (ACRES) andother local employers to develop the rst certi-cate in the Northeast dedicated to training clini-cal research coordinators as part of our Associatein Science General Studies Health Specializationdegree program.

While Charm Sciences and ActivMed have dis-covered the benets of hiring associate degreegraduates, many companies continue to seekbachelor’s degree graduates for nearly all of theirpositions. By restoring the associate degree’s value, we can begin to address the skills gap andbuild a stronger, more efcient and effective lad-der of educational and career opportunity acrossNew England.

Updated and reprinted with permission of the authors.

The Associate Degree: RevaluedBY NOEMI CUSTODIA LORA, LANE A. GLENN & DAVID R. LEGG

VIEWPOINT

David R. Leggisvice president ofquality assurance atCharm Sciences.

Lane A. Glennis president ofNorthern EssexCommunity College.

Noemi Custodia-Lorais assistantdean of liberal arts

and sciences atNorthern EssexCommunity College.





Success Coachesfor At-Risk StudentsWORCESTER STATEPILOT SHOWS PROMISE

Worcester State University is the rstpublic institution in Massachusettsto recruit faculty and staff “successcoaches” to improve student retention.Twenty-nine faculty and staff fromacross campus divisions, bargainingunits, and job classications werechosen to communicate with studentswho showed two or three indicatorsof non-cognitive retention risk underWorcester’s predictive model.

Success coaches offer early semestercheck-ins with students. They reviewthe results of the student’s non-cog-nitive risk survey results, go over any

“early alert” ags on academic per-formance, make referrals to supportofces, and assist students in buildingconnections with Worcester State.

Preliminary results from the rstsemester show that of 137 studentsassigned a coach, 116 persisted to thespring semester.

“This modest success, combined

with students’ extremely positivecomments about their coaches andan institutional commitment toaddressing students’ non-cognitiverisk factors, will ensure that this pilotcontinues at Worcester State,” saidRyan Forsythe, vice president forenrollment management at WorcesterState. “Scaling this will be a challengethat we look forward to addressing!”

National Recognition forLow-Income Grad RatesMCLA WINS US DOE PLAUDITSMassachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) has earned thedistinction of being the only public four-year college in New Englandto “outperform (its) peer institutions in enrolling and graduating PellGrant recipients,” according to the U.S. Department of Education.

For the rst time this year, the Department is scoring colleges on thenumber of low-income students they enroll and the number theysee through to graduation day, amid rising concerns that too manyof these students never earn college credentials. Forty-ve percentof MCLA’s students are Pell-eligible, which means their families earnless than $40,000 a year. Typically, colleges and universities report asubstantial gap between the number of low-income students whoenroll and the number who actually graduate, but at MCLA thesix-year graduation rate for Pell-eligible students is only four pointsbelow the rate for all students.

“It’s quite remarkable that a small liberal arts college inthe Berkshires has succeeded in achieving what so many

other colleges and universities are attempting to do, whichis to give low-income students access to earning a college degree,”said MCLA President James F. Birge. “While our professors provide vitalacademic support and encouragement, our admissions and nancialaid employees dedicate themselves to ensuring that our students—some of whom may not otherwise have had an opportunity to attendan institution of higher education—maintain the means to persistand earn their bachelor's degree. I’m very proud of the results we’reseeing; it’s an honor to be recognized by the U.S. Department ofHigher Education for our work.”

A Singular Achievement. MCLA is the only public four-year college in New England tooutperform peer institutions in attracting and graduating Pell Grant recipients. Forty-ve percentof MCLA’s student body is Pell-eligible, and those students’ graduation rates are only slightlylower than the overall graduation rate.




STUDENT LEARNING

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U t ah

O r e g o n

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Ke n t uc k y

I nd ia na

MassachusettsConnecticutRhode Island

Building on work that rst began in Massachusetts as partof the Vision Project, nine states have reported successin developing a shared, statistically valid assessment modelthat can be used to highlight and compare what collegestudents actually learn.

In 2015, the Multi-State Collaborative to AdvanceLearning Outcomes Assessment (MSC) invited facultyfrom 59 two-year and four-year institutions inMassachusetts, Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota,Missouri, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Utah to score morethan 7,000 samples of authentic student work. They used anew web-based platform that allowed them to upload andassess each assignment using the Association of AmericanColleges and Universities ’ VALUE (Valid Assessment ofLearning in Undergraduate Education) rubrics to measurequantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and writtencommunications. The goal of the pilot was to see whetherthe VALUE rubrics could provide an adequate measureof student learning across institutions and state lines.

Getting faculty to participate in such an assessment projectwas considered a breakthrough of sorts, given longstandingresistance to standardized testing at the post-secondarylevel. Without a new assessment model, proponents argued,

campuses might eventually face state-imposed, high-stakesexit exams, a by-product of rising concern about the valueof higher education.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that, acrossthe nine states, scores for critical thinking were lowerthan those for quantitative reasoning and writtencommunication. Scores for written communication andquantitative reasoning showed students strugglingwith use of sources and evidence, and having difcultyanalyzing data. The results of the pilot gave facultydetailed feedback that could be used to reshape bothinstruction and assignments.

Christopher K. Cratsley, director of assessment atFitchburg State University, told The Chronicle that FSU’sown assessment efforts utilizing the VALUE rubricsrevealed opportunities to improve assignments designed toassess quantitative reasoning. “We’ve seen that someassignments are sometimes not as good atsoliciting these skills as other assignments,”he observed. “That helps us think about how we create abalance in the instruction we give.”

Multi-State Collaborative to

Advance Learning Outcomes Assessment

Assessing and Improving Learning.Faculty in the nine MSC states are receiving dfeedback on student learning outcomes in critthinking, quantitative reasoning, and writtencommunication, enabling them to identify anrework assignments that are not proving effec




Faculty Embrace Assessmentin Contract NegotiationsMassachusetts’ work to create a systematic approach to the assessment ofstudent learning stands in contrast to past experience of other states, wherehigh-stakes exit exams have been imposed by legislatures or governors anxiousto quantify the “return” on investments in higher education.

Through the Vision Project and the Multi-State Collaborative it spawned,faculty across all three segments of the Massachusetts system—and nationally,across nine states—have been full participants in efforts to create a new

approach to assessment, one that would not only track outcomes to measureROI but also provide detailed feedback to improve instruction.

In recognition of faculty’s signature role in assessment, the MassachusettsCommunity College Council (MCCC) recently agreed to new contractprovisions that, for the rst time, recognize the importance of assessmentwhile acknowledging both the inherent risks and additional responsibilitiesit will require of faculty. The contract, overwhelmingly ratied in March 2016,stipulates that faculty must include a list of student learning outcomes as apart of the syllabus for every course they teach. It also makes clear that theywill not be evaluated on the basis of students’ learning outcomes and afrmsthat “the development, implementation, and assessment of Student Learning

Outcomes (SLOs) require the systematic involvement of faculty and appropriateunit professional staff.”

“Our Massachusetts community college faculty have beennational leaders in developing tools to assess student learningin the classroom,” said Lane Glenn, president of Northern EssexCommunity College and a participant in the negotiations. “We’ve foundthat learning outcomes assessment tools lead to improved teaching andlearning and also are a very effective way to demonstrate college accountabilityto accrediting agencies, legislators and the public. Every college will helpsupport faculty in this essential work.”

Another Step Forward. Joe LeBlanc,president of the MCCC union and facultymember at Northern Essex Community College,tweets about the ratied contract that, forthe rst time, includes provisions for learningoutcomes assessment.




Spotlight on StudentsThe DHE’s annual 29 Who Shine awards call attention tothe pivotal role that higher education plays in producinga well-educated citizenry and workforce for the Common-wealth. Each year, the Governor recognizes 29 outstandinggraduates, one from each public campus, who have demon-strated a commitment to serving others.

Among the 2016 honorees:

Sondos Alnamos from Bunker HillCommunity College grew up nearDamascus, Syria. She was visitingthe U.S. when war broke out in her

homeland, claiming the lives ofmany loved ones and changing herchoice of a career. Sondos earneda BHCC degree in biomedical engi-neering with the goal of one daydesigning articial organs and limbsfor victims of conict.

Travon Godette served as a Training Active Bystanders (TAB) Delegateand chair of the Cross-CulturalSymposium at Westeld StateUniversity. An NCAA national trackchampion, he passes along his loveof sports by volunteering with theWesteld Boys and Girls Club andthe Special Olympics.

As student member on the Universityof Massachusetts Board of Trustees,UMass Dartmouth ’s Jacob Miller initiated the rst Student Trustee

Advocacy Program, bringing togetherstudent leaders to meet with statelegislators and advocate for highereducation funding. While servingas a legislative intern for SenatorMark Montigny, Jacob worked onhealth care legislation that made iteasier for students to remain withless expensive plans under the state'sHealth Connector. The legislationsaves students an average of $2,000per year.

Gaining Empathy andPerspective ThroughService LearningMassachusetts Maritime Academy ’s emergencymanagement (EM) program has built civiclearning and public service into a program thatis designed to teach students how to prepare for,respond to, and recover from disasters.

“It’s important for students within the(Emergency Management) major to geta feel for the community they are goingto deal with and gain a sense of empathyand a sense of perspective,” says TomLennon, EM program chair. “So we build theprogram around that mindset.”

It starts with the freshman year experientiallearning partnership with Habitat for Humanity,includes at least one public service co-op, andends with designing and running real emergency

response exercises through the EM CapstoneProject. Through these programs, EM studentswork with organizations locally and all overthe world to learn about different culturesand communities.

For the last six years, the EM program hascoordinated a co-op in Île-à-Vache, Haiti(pictured above) in partnership with the U.S.Embassy and various Haiti-based NGOs.

Among many projects, students have workedwith local government to develop portable

water solutions for the island, and coordinateda shipment of 15,000 adult diapers for anorphanage with severely handicapped children.

Locally, the EM program works with theBarnstable County Regional EmergencyManagement Planning Committee toidentify vulnerabilities within communities inSoutheastern Massachusetts, and to then developa structured EM exercise to test local, state andfederal resources ability to respond to the event.

PREPARING CITIZENS




Statewide Civic Learning PolicyWhen the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education an-nounced the Vision Project in 2010, it aimed for the state’spublic colleges and universities “to produce the best-edu-cated citizenry and workforce in the nation.” Faculty andadministrators pointed out that the goals focused moreon education for careers than on education for citizen-ship. The Board agreed, and in 2014, the Board’s new Policyon Civic Learningprovided a concrete denition of CivicLearning. Public campuses were called upon to make civiclearning an “expected outcome” for all undergraduates, therst system of public higher education in the nation to takesuch an action.

Effective civic learning is more than just an “add-on” tothe Big Three Degree Plan outlined in these pages. Asstudents participate in civic learning—and especially incivic engagement beyond the classroom, or servicelearning—the knowledge and skills they develop cantransfer to their work throughout the curriculum, and theexperiences they undergo often increase their commitmentto continue to graduation.

Many campuses have been doing this work for years withmany of their students. At Holyoke Community College, for example, for each of the last 20 semesters three facultymembers have designed and then taught new servicelearning courses: culinary arts students prepare mealsfor community events, nutrition students work witha food pantry, and engineering students teach youngpeople in an after-school program how to build robots.Lisa Mahon, professor of English and service learningfaculty coordinator at Holyoke, says: “Many of thecommunity-based learning projects helpstudents gain awareness of community issuesthey might otherwise not know about andhelp them think more critically about the role they playin the community around them.”

Together, the campuses and the DHE are advancing thecivic learning agenda in the following ways:

To gain a wider sense of the effects that civic learninghas on overall student success outcomes, this spring thecommunity colleges and state universities are identify-ing courses that have a substantial focus on civic learn-ing—on the knowledge, intellectual skills, and appliedcompetencies or practical skills that students need tobe informed and effective participants in civic and dem-ocratic life, and on the social and political values thatunderlie democratic structures and practices. The goalis for campuses to be able to include outcomes relatedto these designated courses in the data they report to

the DHE after the 2016–2017 academic year. (Note: TheUniversity of Massachusetts, which continues to enjoythe Carnegie designation for community engagement,is not participating in this process.)

The DHE is also working with national assessmentexperts and civic learning experts to build three toolsthat campuses and individual faculty can use toassess the levels of civic learning that their studentscan demonstrate through their work: one for CivicKnowledge, one for Civic Skills, and one for Civic Values.Each big concept is broken into a half dozen criteria,

and each criterion has descriptions for student perfor-mance at four levels from introductory to capstone.

A “Pathways to Civic Engagement” conference for facultyand staff is planned for later this month, co-sponsoredby DHE and Salem State University . Meanwhile, theBoards of Higher Education and Elementary & Second-ary Education are developing a shared framework forcivic learning to prepare K–16 students to be informedand effective participants in civic and democratic life.

Students in service learning courses... At Mount Wachusett and Bristol CommunityColleges between 2011 and 2016 showed asemester-to-semester retention rate more than20% higher than students not in those courses.

At North Shore Community College, amonga degree-seeking cohort from 2011, had agraduation rate in 2012–2014 that was double(34% vs. 17%) that for students not participating.

Service Improves Learning. Holyoke Community College has blongtime proponent of weaving service learning into academic progrsuch as its engineering course that includes teaching robotics to childafter-school program.




RESEARCH

UMass Increases Patents, Licensing IncomeThe University of Massachusetts system was awarded arecord 65 U.S. patents in FY2015 and earned $34 millionin licensing income. This is an increase of $3 million fromFY2014, when the most recent rankings for highest incomederived from academic research put UMass 14th nationallyand 6th among all public universities.

The patents granted in FY2015 came from research in adiverse eld of academic disciplines ranging from the lifesciences to agriculture to plastics engineering.

“The quest to create and transmit knowledge is at the coreof our mission as a research university—and research andinnovation also plays a critical role for our state and will de-termine our fortunes as we compete in the global economy,”said President Marty Meehan.

Campus Research Highlights

UMass Amherst engineering professorAura Ganz has designed an electronicindoor navigation system, or “seeing-eye directory,” for the blind and visu-ally impaired called PERCEPT thatemploys a smartphone app to detectNFC (near-eld communication)tagged landmarks. The project wasfunded in part by the MassachusettsBay Transit Authority (MBTA) andpiloted at Arlington Station in Bostonin 2015.

Analysis of “wet” materials likebiological tissues is often chemicallymessy. Robyn Hannigan, dean ofthe School for the Environment atUMass Boston, is commercializinga transfer device she developed thatallows for cryogenic (extreme cold)sampling of materials by laser ablationand delivery of these cold particles toa mass analyzer, allowing for accuratemeasurements in samples thatformerly required time and theconsumption of chemicals to prepare.

UMass Dartmouth biochemistryprofessor Catherine Neto ’s latestresearch has found that feedingcranberry extracts to mice with coloncancer resulted in diminished sizeand number of tumors. As part ofthe UMass President’s Science andTechnology Initiative grant, UMassDartmouth established the CranberryHealth Research Center, whereDr. Neto (pictured above) is workingto isolate individual components ofthe cranberry that are responsible forits anti-cancer properties.

“As the only Massachusettsresearch campus south of

Boston, UMass Dartmouthplays a critical role in attracting,developing and retaininginnovation economy talentfor the region,” said Anthony R.Sapienza, president of New Bedford’sJoseph Abboud Apparel Corp.

“College of Engineering students andfaculty work with us to improve ourmanufacturing processes.”

UMass Lowellcomputer scienceprofessor Holly Yanco is developing abetter way for rst responders tocommunicate with each other andwork with robots in the eld.Robots create a 3-D map as theymove through the site, able togo into disaster zones that are toodangerous for humans. Firstresponders and the robots will betted with Google Glass, soinformation is quickly and easilyshared on the ground withoutthe need for a command center or

“middle man.”

Two groups of researchers at UMassMedical School have identied genesthat disable HIV-1, suggesting apromising new strategy for ghtingthe virus that causes AIDS. New drugsdeveloped by the scientists are shownto reduce the infectivity of HIV-1 virions by more than 100 percent.




UMASS HAS A THREE FOLDMISSION OF EDUCATION,RESEARCH AND PUBLIC SERVICE,

and the manner in which it has been able toadvance that mission should be a source of greatpride for the citizens of the Commonwealth.

The research taking place on each of ourcampuses has the potential to cure diseaseand cleanse the environment. It providesan exciting learning environment for today’sstudents and tomorrow’s scientic stars.Research fuels the innovation economy, andin so doing creates the economic environmentthat keeps bright minds in the Commonwealth

and attracts others to come. It is why UMassranked 57th in Thomson Reutersinaugural ratingof “The World’s Most Innovative Universities.”

With our ve campuses spread throughout thestate, UMass research sparks innovation and eco-nomic development in and around our campusesin Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell andWorcester. Each campus has research specialtiesthat enhance and benet the region and positionthe Commonwealth for future success.

Like many research universities—public andprivate—UMass has been forced to confront achallenging environment in recent years causedby the federal government’s decision to pullback on funding for university research since therecession of 2008 wreaked havoc on public-sectorbudgets at all levels.

Concerns about the outlook at the federal levelprompted UMass to energetically look to otherpartners for the funding needed to fuel its bur-geoning research enterprise. The good news isthat state government and local industry—bothrecognizing the quality of UMass R&D andits economic-development importance—havestepped in to pick up the slack.

In its recent report, UMass documented a $26million research-expenditure increase, withspending rising from $603 million in FY2014 to$629 million in FY2015. Of particular note is theUMass Medical School’s contribution of over$250 million.

Most of the $26 million increase—$19 million—was funded by grants we received from theMassachusetts Life Sciences Center, the bulk ofwhich was earmarked for the Instituteof Applied Life Sciences at the University ofMassachusetts Amherst.

We received an additional $6.5 million fromindustry partners, including $3 million fromRaytheon for the University of MassachusettsLowell to create a research institute that willconnect the next generation of innovators withestablished aerospace and defense experts.

This diversied funding base has served us wellduring these recent years and will hold us ingood stead in the years ahead, particularly if re-search re-emerges as a priority at the federal level.

In pointing to the importance of seeking out—and nding—other funding partners, I donot mean to undermine the signicance offederal research funding, as federal agenciescontinue to provide a signicant portion ofthe funding for UMass research. And, there isample reason to believe that the clouds maybe parting and the long-term forecast may begetting much better given Congress’s recentdecision to increase funding for the NationalInstitutes for Health by a sizable $2 billion,the largest increase in more than a decade.

My hope is that this action launches us into anew era of bipartisan support for research atthe federal level and that research universitiesacross the nation will receive the fundingthey need to conduct the work that saves andimproves lives and fuels the economy at thelocal, state and national level.

Investing in the creation of knowledgetruly is the investment that always paysdividends. As president, I am more thanproud when I see the research portfolios thathave developed on each of our campuses andlook at the far-reaching impact that UMassresearch has now and will have in the future.

Changing Landscape for ResearchBY MARTY MEEHAN

VIEWPOINT

Marty Meehanis president ofthe Universityof Massachusetts.




PHOTO CREDITS

All headshots courtesy of their subjects.

Cover photo: David Fried, Westeld State University

Page 2: (center) Kevin Harkins Photography / Middlesex Community College

Page 5: (top) Michelle Woodward, Department of Higher Education;(bottom) Janice O’Connor, Mount Wachusett Community College

Page 9: (top) KulbakoPhoto.com / Massachusetts College of Art & Design;(bottom) North Shore Community College

Page 12 & 14: UMass Amherst

Page 13: (top) UMass Boston; (bottom) Salem State University

Page 16: Tory Germann Photography / UMass Lowell

Page 22: MetroWest College Planning Center

Page 23: Middlesex Community College

Page 24: Holyoke Community College

Page 25: Massachusetts Maritime Academy

Page 26: (top) Quinsigamond Community College;(bottom) Greeneld Community College

Page 28: Center for Corporate and Professional Education, Cape Cod Community College

Page 29: (left) GEAR UP Massachusetts, Department of Higher Education;(right) Bristol Community College

Page 31: Janice O’Connor, Mount Wachusett Community College

Page 33: (both) Michelle Woodward, Department of Higher Education

Page 34: Massasoit Community College

Page 35: (left) Mike Dean Photos / Northern Essex Community College;(right) Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Page 37: UMass Amherst

Page 39: (all) Matt Bruun, Fitchburg State University

Page 40: Fitchburg State University

Page 41: Mount Wachusett Community College

Page 43: (left) Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts;(right) Worcester State University

Page 46: (three at left) KulbakoPhoto.com / Department of Higher Education;(right) Massachusetts Maritime Academy

Page 47: Holyoke Community College

Page 48: UMass Dartmouth




How does the Massachusetts system of public higher educationcompare against other state systems in the U.S.? This sectionpresents the data used to track progress in the key outcome areas ofthe Vision Project. In line with the goal of national leadership,

Massachusetts’ standing is compared to leading states and the nationalaverage where available. The data is presented in a series of dashboards;trend data is incorporated where available to show whetherMassachusetts is improving in performance, remaining at, orworsening in performance on key metrics.

How to Read the DashboardsBar Graphs. Where available, national comparisons are displayed alongwith Massachusetts’ performance in the central bar graphs.

MA Trend Data. Where available, analysis of trend data on Massachusetts’performance, comparing three-year rolling averages, is displayed to theright of the bar graphs.

Comparison Groups. Pages 60–61 present all available data on achievement rates and gapsbetween Massachusetts’ African American and Latino/a students and White students.

Data Source Acronyms. A glossary of these acronyms is on page 63.

Other resources, including supplemental metrics, index of leading states, andtechnical appendix are available at www.mass.edu/vpreport

DATADashboards

= Massachusetts= Leading State(s) = National Average

= Improving Performance = Flat Performance = Worsening Performance

= African American or Latino/a = White = Size of Gap

51Data Dashboards



UMASS% of Recent High SchoolGraduates Enrolling inRemedial Courses 2 2015

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

% of Recent High SchoolGraduates Enrolling inRemedial Courses 2 2015

STATE UNIVERSITIES% of Recent High SchoolGraduates Enrolling inRemedial Courses 2 2015

% of HS Seniors ScoringProcient in Math 1 2013

% of HS Seniors ScoringProcient in Reading 1 2013

4-Year Trend

MA5-YearTrend

MA1-YearChange

MA

48%

30%

58%

43% 50%36%

34%

34%24%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

Any 0%

Math 0%

English 0%

Any 0%

Math 0%

English 0%

Any 0%

Math 0%

English 0%

18%

6%

23%

2%

0%

2%

100%0%

100%0%

100%0%

College Enrollment Rates ofRecent High SchoolGraduates 3 Fall 201 4

College Enrollment Rates of18- to 24-Year-Olds 4 2011 -201 3 ( Three-year average)

MA6or 8-Yr.Trend

MA1or 2-Yr.Change

(2-Year)

(1-Year)

(8-Year)

(6-Year)

78%75%66%

71%67%56%

100%0%

College Readiness RatesWith national comparisons and trends where available

College Enrollment RatesWith national comparisons and trends where available

College Participation

On these metrics,higher numbers indicate better performance.


On these metrics,lower numbers indicate better performance.

52 THE DE GREE GAP 2016 Vision Project Annual Report



0-40

0-40

0-40

% of HS Seniors ScoringProcient in Math 1 2013

% of HS Seniors ScoringProcient in Reading 1 2013

Parental Education Gap

Latino/White Gap

African-American/White Gap

Parental Education Gap

Latino/White Gap


4-Year TrendMA

-28 -7-25

-23 -12-21

-29 -17-26

0-40

0-40

0-40

-31 -13

-31

-27 -12-23

-29 -18-27

College Enrollment Rates of18- to 24-Year Olds 4 2011–13

Latino/White Gap


MA5-Year Trend

0-40

0-40

-5

-5-10

-21 -7-11

Gaps in College Readiness Rates (in percentage points)

With national comparisons

Gaps in College Enrollment Rates (in percentage points)With national comparisons

Cohorts and Sources • 1 Cohort: Public high school seniors scoring procient or higher in 2013. Source: 12th Grade Natiment of Education Progress (NAEP), USDOE/NCES •2 Cohort: First-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who are recent Massachushigh school graduates and who enrolled in fall 2015. Trend data spans 2010–2015. Source: MDHE •3 Cohort: Recent high school graduates(graduated within previous year). “Enrolled” refers to enrollment as rst-time, degree-seeking student in fall 2014 at public otion, in state or out of state. Trend data spans 2008–2014. Source: USDOE/IPEDS, WICHE •4 Cohort: 18- to 24-year-olds holding high schooldiploma or GED and not holding a bachelor's degree in 2010–2012. “Enrolled” refers to enrollment in postsecondary educatiprivate institutions. Source: US Census Bureau, 2010–12 American Community Survey


On these metrics,smaller numbers indicate better performance.


Bar Graphs

MA Trend Data


53Data Dashboards



STATE UNIVERSITIESSix-Year Graduation Rate ofFirst-Time Freshmen 2 2014

COMMUNITY COLLEGESSix-Year Success Rate 1

2014 for MA, 2009 for comparisons

UMASSSix-Year Graduation Rate ofFirst-Time Freshmen 2 2014

N/A

N/A

STATE UNIVERSITIESSix-Year Graduation Rate ofStudents Who Transfer In 3 2014

UMASSSix-Year Graduation Rate ofStudents Who Transfer In 3 2014

MA

5-Year

Trend

MA

1-Year

Change

47% 58%42%100%0%

57% 62%49%100%0%

62% 68%60%100%0%

66%100%0%

64%100%0%

Graduation and Student Success RatesWith national comparisons and trends

College Completion





Cohorts and Sources • 1 Cohort for MA: First-time, degree-seeking students entering in fall 2008; measure examines thesuccess by September 2014. Cohort for national comparisons: First-time, degree-seeking students entering in fall 2003; meatheir rate of success by September 2009. More recent national data is not available. Source: MDHE, NSC, Jobs for the Futurecognizes the complex mission of community colleges by including both full- and part-time students and capturing studentyears of initial enrollment, earn an associate’s degree or certicate, transfer to a four-year institution, or are still enrolled witearned. Data is only available for nine states; because of the small comparison group, national leadership is equated with thethe top state, rather than the top ve states. •2 Cohort: First-time, full-time, degree-seeking students entering in fall 2008; measurtheir rate of graduation within six years of initial enrollment by 2014. Trend data compares three-year averages for students 2002–2008 and graduating by fall 2008–2014 respectively. Gap analysis is based on three-year average for students enteringand graduating by fall 2012–2014 respectively. Source: USDOE/IPEDS •3 Cohort: Transfer students entering in fall 2008; measure examitheir rate of graduation by 2014. Source: MDHE. •4 Cohort: First-time, full-time, degree-seeking students entering in fall 2009–2011examines their rate of graduation within three years of initial enrollment by 2012–2014 respectively. Trend data compares thfor students entering fall 2005–2011 and graduating by 2008–2014 respectively. Source: USDOE/IPEDS

Latino/White Gap


COMMUNITY COLLEGESThree-Year Graduation Rate 4

2012–14 (Three-year average)

Latino/White Gap


STATE UNIVERSITIESSix-Year Graduation Rate 2


Latino/White Gap


UMASSSix-Year Graduation Rate 2


5-YearTrend

1-YearChange

MA MA

0-40

0-40

0-40

0-40

0-40

-9 -6-12

-9 0-6

-11 -1

-11

-12

-13

-4

-13-12

-21

-11 -5-18

-40

Gaps in Graduation Rates (in percentage points)

With national comparisons and trends



Bar Graphs

MA Trend Data


55Data Dashboards



Workforce AlignmentTrends and Projections in Degrees AwardedMassachusetts compared with 60% by 2010–2020 Goal

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

20202019201820172016201520142013201220112010

Associate Graduates

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Associate Degrees Awarded in All Fields

A c t u a l

A c t u a l

A c t u a l

A c t u a l

A c t u a l

A c t u a l

Projected need

Predicted growth based oncurrent degree production andfuture enrollment projections

How to read these charts: These projections began with calculations of the number of college graduates thatMassachusetts would need each year, beginning in 2010, to meet the goal of 60% ofresidents holding a college degree by 2020.

To better align this goal with Massachusetts’ specic workforce needs, this total numberof graduates was broken out by degree type—associate’s, bachelor’s, and graduate—using projections from Georgetown’s Center for Education and the Workforce.

Because this report focuses on Massachusetts’ public campuses, degree totals werethen broken out by public and private share using the current split in Massachusettsfor each degree type. Only the public share is shown here; the charts do not show

the projected need for or growth in private college graduates.




0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

20202019201820172016201520142013201220112010

Baccalaureate Graduates

STATE UNIVERSITIES

Bachelor’s Degrees Awarded in All Fields

A c t u a l

A c t u a l

A c t u a l

A c t u a l

A c t u a l

A c t u a l


UMASS

Bachelor’s Degrees Awarded in All Fields

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

20202019201820172016201520142013201220112010

A c t u a l

A c t u a l

A c t u a l

A c t u a l

A c t u a l

A c t u a l

Predicted growth based oncurrent degree production andfuture enrollment projections

Predicted growth based on

current degree production andfuture enrollment projections

Projected need

Projected need

Source for all Trends and Projections in Degrees Awarded graphs • MDHE with data from WICHE, NCHEMS,Georgetown Center for Education and the Workforce, USDOE/IPEDS.

57Data Dashboards



Trends in Degrees Awarded in High-Need Fields

How to read these charts:High-Need Fields: While graduates of Massachusetts’ public campuses are employed in a wide rangeof elds, the three elds included in this metric—Health Care; STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering &Mathematics); and Business & Finance—show both a high level of projected growth and a high numberof future vacancies. For example, Health Care, STEM and Business & Finance represent 38 percent of jobs in 2020 projected to require a bachelor degree.

Graph Components: The blue sections of the stacked bar graphs show the number of degrees awardedin each high-need eld in the given year; the gray sections show the remaining number of degreesawarded in other elds that year. The spaces between each stacked bar show the annual percent changein degrees awarded in each category, both numerically and with a heat map representation. Shades ofgreen indicate growth, with deeper shades of green indicating stronger growth. Shades of red indicatedecline, with deeper shades of red indicating sharper declines.

Workforce Alignment (cont'd)

Health Care STEM All Other Fields

% Change2010–2011

% Change2011–2012

% Change2012–2013

% Change2013–2014

% Change2014–2015

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

201520142013201220112010

Associate Graduates

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Associate Degrees Awarded in High-Need Fields

+1%0%

-4%+9% -2%

+7% +10% +5% +4% +4%

+27%+5%

+10% -6%

+5%




Source for all Trends in Degrees Awarded in High-Need Fields graphs • MDHE.

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

18,000

20,000

22,000

201520142013201220112010


TATE UNI VER SITIE S & U MAS S

achelor’s Degrees Awarded in High-Need Fields

+16%

+2%

+11%

+9%+7%

+5% +4%+4%

+2% +2%

+6%

+16%

+9%+7%

+8%

+2%+2%

+3% +2%-2%

Health Care STEM Business & Finance All Other Fields

% Change2010–2011

% Change2011–2012

% Change2012–2013

% Change2013–2014

% Change2014–2015

59Data Dashboards



African American/White Gaps & Latino/White Gaps— All available Massachusetts data

African American/White Gaps in College Participation

African American/White Gaps in College Completion

N/AN/A N/A

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Six-YearSuccess Rate 2014

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Three-YearGraduation Rate 2012–14

STATE UNIVERS ITIES

Six-YearGraduation Rate 2012–14

UMASS


MA5-Year Trend

MA1-Year Chang

44%

-5

49%100%0%

10%

-9

19%100%0%

45%

-11

56%100%0%

49%

-13

62%100%0%

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

% of Recent High SchoolGraduates Enrolling inRemedial Courses 2015

STATE UNIVERS ITIES


UMASS


College Enrollment Ratesof Recent Public HighSchool Graduates 1 2014

MA5-Year Trend

MA1-Year Chang

75%

+24

51%100%Any 0%

65%

+22

43%100%Math 0%

45%

+23

22%100%English 0%

38%

+17

21%100%Any 0%

31%

+15

16% 100%Math 0%

8%

+3

5%100%English 0%

7%

+6

1%100%Any 0%

5%

+4

1%100%Math 0%

3%

+3

0%100%English 0%

65%

-8

73% 100%0%

Closing Achievement Gaps




1 Cohort: Massachusetts public high school students graduating in 2013. The measure is the percent enrolling in college in the immeafter high school graduation. Trend analysis is based on 2006–2013 graduating classes. Source: MDHE, MDESE, NSC.

= African American or Latino/a = White = Size of GapComparison Group Icons

MA Trend Data


Latino/White Gaps in College Participation

Latino/White Gaps in College Completion

N/AN/A N/A

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Six-YearSuccess Rate 2014

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Three-YearGraduation Rate 2012–14

STATE UNIVERS ITIES


UMASS


MA5-Year Trend

MA1-Year Change

41%

-8

49%100%0%

10%

-9

19%100%0%

45%

-11

56%100%0%

51%

-11

62%100%0%

COMMUNITY COLLEGES


STATE UNIVE RSITIES


UMASS


College Enrollment Ratesof Recent Public HighSchool Graduates 1 2014

MA5-Year Trend

MA1-Year Change

70%

+19

51%100%Any 0%

56%

+13

43%100%Math 0%

42%

+20

22%100%English 0%

28%

+7

21%100%Any 0%

22%

+6

16% 100%Math 0%

6%

+1

5%100%English 0%

53%

-20

73% 100%0%

100%Any 0%

3%

+2

1%100%Math 0%

3%

+2

1%

0%

0%100%English 0%

61Data Dashboards



Research and Economic Development DataWith trends

20102009 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

$0

$100M

$200M

$300M

$400M

$500M

$600M

$700M

UMASSTrend in Research and Development Expenditures 1 2009–15

2008–102007–09 2009–11 2010–12 2011–13 2012–14 2013–15

$0

$10M

$20M

$30M

$40M

$50M

$60M

UMASSTrend in Licensing Income 2 2007–15 (Three-year averages)

Sources • 1 UMass President’s O ce / National Science Foundation. •2 UMass President’s Office / Association of UniversityTechnology Managers

Research7




DATA SOURCE ACRONYM GLOSSARY

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ATWWW.MASS.EDU/VPREPORT

Georgetown CEW Georgetown University Center onEducation and the Workforce

HEGIS Higher Education GeneralInformation Survey (USDOE)

IPEDSIntegrated PostsecondaryEducation Data System (USDOE)

MDESE Massachusetts Department of Elementaryand Secondary Education

MDHE Massachusetts Department of Higher Education

NCES National Center for Education Statistics (USDOE)

NCHEMS National Center for Higher EducationManagement Systems

NSCNational Student Clearinghouse

NSF National Science Foundation

USDOE United States Department of Education

WICHE Western Interstate Commission for

Higher Education

Data Tables for all graphs in this report

Index of Leading States for each metric

Supplemental Metrics

Technical Appendix

63Data Dashboards



State GovernmentGovernorCharlie Baker

Secretary of EducationJim Peyser

Massachusetts Board of Higher EducationChris Gabrieli, ChairmanSheila Harrity, Vice ChairJim Peyser, Ex OfficioNancy Hoffman

Tom HopcroftDonald R. IrvingRobert E. JohnsonJ.D. LaRockDani MonroeFernando M. ReimersHenry Thomas IIIPaul F. TonerOwen Wiggins

Philanthropic Supporters ofthe Vision Project

This report was released withthe generous assistance of

The Boston Foundation

Other Philanthropic Supporters

Balfour FoundationCouncil of Chief State School Officers

Davis Educational Foundation

Gates Foundation

Hewlett Foundation

Lumina Foundation

National Governors Association

Nellie Mae Education Foundation

The Massachusetts Department of Higher Educationacknowledges with gratitude the encouragement,support and counsel of leaders of state government,including members of the Great and General Court,as well as the assistance of the philanthropic community.




Berkshire Community College Ellen Kennedy, President

Bristol Community College John J. Sbrega, President

Bunker Hill Community College Pam Eddinger, President

Cape Cod Community College John L. Cox, President

Greeneld Community College Robert L. Pura, President

Holyoke Community College William F. Messner, President

Massasoit Community College Charles Wall, President

MassBay Community College Lynn Hunter, Interim President

Middlesex Community College James C. Mabry, President

Mt. Wachusett Community College Daniel M. Asquino, President North Shore Community College Patricia Gentile, President

Northern Essex Community College Lane Glenn, President

Quinsigamond Community College Gail Carberry, President

Roxbury Community College Valerie Roberson, President

Springeld TechnicalCommunity College Ira Rubenzahl, President

Bridgewater State University Frederick W. Clark, President

Fitchburg State University Richard S. Lapidus, President

Framingham State University F. Javier Cevallos, President

Massachusetts College ofArt & Design David P. Nelson, President

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Jaimie F. Birge, President

Massachusetts Maritime Academy Francis X. McDonald, President

Salem State University Patricia Meservey, President

Westeld State University Ramon S. Torrecilha, President

Worcester State University Barry Maloney, President

Massachusetts Public Higher Education

University of MassachusettsMarty Meehan, President

UMass AmherstKumble R. Subbaswamy,Chancellor

UMass BostonJ. Keith Motley, Chancellor

UMass DartmouthPeyton R. Helm,Interim Chancellor

UMass LowellJacquie Moloney, Chancellor

UMass Medical School

Michael F. Collins, Chancellor

Massachusetts Department of Higher EducationCarlos E. Santiago, Commissioner



One Ashburton Place, Room 1401Boston, MA 02108www.mass.edu/vpreport

Documents

2016 the Degree Gap - Vision Project Annual Report