All signs indicate that high school graduation rates will continue to drop due to low birth rates, leading to a potential higher education meltdown that is likely to affect all academic institutions, big and small, in the years after 2024. Higher education is facing a new and potentially grave obstacle. For several decades, there have been plenty…

This paper is the first in Pioneer Institute's UMass at a Crossroads series. In the opening study, the authors focus on UMass' significant growth in two areas, academic competitiveness and student enrollment, compared to other New England state universities, MA private universities, national private universities and national public universities.…

This mixed methods study was designed to determine the type and quality of pre-college career guidance experiences of college freshmen and the impact of those experiences on student performance and retention. This study was limited to first time freshmen at a small private university in Tennessee. The population was 46% male and 54% female from 6…

The methods of evaluating teacher preparation programs are becoming increasingly more reliant on student test data. These test data driven formats, however, are not appropriate for small colleges. Small colleges are currently left off the Tennessee Report Card on the Effectiveness of Teacher Training Programs because the colleges did not produce…

Evidence suggests that college preparation programs successfully support students through college preparation and application process. However, most research into college preparation programs does not attend to students' collegiate experiences once they leave college preparation programs. This dissertation explored the long-term influence of Small…

While "early college" programs designed for high-school-age students are beginning to proliferate nationwide, a small New England school has been successfully educating teens for nearly four decades. In this article, the author features Simon's Rock, a small liberal arts college located in the Great Barrington, Massachusetts, that has…