Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Institutes

Institutes on Equity and Critical Policy Analysis

L-R: Donna Harris, Assistant Professor, University of Rochester and Ana Martinez-Aleman, Professor, Boston College

The ASHE Institutes on Equity and Critical Policy Analysis were established to familiarize young scholars and policy analysts with the principles and applications of critical policy research methods and analysis to embed equity in higher education policymaking.

During the two years of the project, the Institutes involved nearly 100 higher education faculty and scholars as well as policy analysts, doctoral and postdoctoral students, and others. Institute participants have joined an emerging community of equity-minded scholars committed to identifying and changing educational policies and practices that result in racial-ethnic inequities in postsecondary outcomes.

Through relationships developed at the institutes, CUE and the National College Access Network (NCAN) formed a new partnership to pilot the Equity Scorecard™ at two Boston high schools. Similarly, officials from the Illinois Community College Board adopted elements of participatory action research and incorporated equity into their data practices for a state initiative to improve graduation and employment prospects for students in career pathway programs.

A special issue of the Review of Higher Education will be published soon with articles authored by junior scholars who participated in the institutes.

We wish to thank our partners for their involvement:

• Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California Los Angeles
• The Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance (IHELG) at the University of Houston Law Center
• Teachers College at Columbia University
• The Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia
• The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE)
• The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP)
• The Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE)

The Institutes were made possible by generous funding from the Ford Foundation.

People Making a Difference

Dr. Tia Brown McNair
Senior Director for Student Success
American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U)

Equity-mindedness means being color-conscious as opposed to color-blind. And it means noticing and questioning patterns of educational outcomes that reveal seemingly unexplainable differences for minority students in terms of histories of exclusion and discrimination.

Learn more about Dr. Tia Brown McNair, a 2009 & 2010 Fellow at the ASHE Institutes on Equity and Critical Policy Analysis