In 2023, the U.S. Department of Education announced the "Raise the Bar: Lead the World" initiative to use decades of research and professional experience to transform public education and advance education equity. There are three focus areas: (1) Achieve Academic Excellence; (2) Boldly Improve Learning Conditions; and (3) Create Pathways…

A master plan in higher education is developed to address the academic and workforce needs of a particular state. The master plan helps serve as the roadmap for implementation of proposed strategies to reach state goals in education and degree attainment. In Tennessee, Drive to 55 is a state-wide effort to increase the number of Tennesseans with a…

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States, forced the fall semester closure of Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. In the aftermath of this unprecedented storm, the Tulane leadership set forth a plan for renewal to secure the survival, recovery, and sustainability of the institution,…

As a response to the concerns associated with the allocation of state resources to institutions of higher education, several states have developed budget formulas to derive estimates of the institutional financial requirements. Formulas, however, were developed during a period of rapid growth, and might be unresponsive to institutional needs…

Policy changes in state higher education since the early 1980s are described. For each innovation, the problem and impetus for change are described, as well as the results. Contact persons and some publications are identified. While two states addressed both quality and flexibility in fiscal reform, 13 states had incremental reforms addressing…