Reflections on Connecting Research and Practice in College Access and Success Programs

The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education of the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) and the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) is pleased to announce a compilation of essays from the perspectives of both researchers and practitioners entitled — Reflections on Connecting Research and Practice in College Access and Success Programs. In 2014, ASHE received a grant from the William T. Grant Foundation to support its initiative to improve research-and-practice connection. The ASHE-Pell collaboration gathered university-based researchers and College Access professionals to focus on the theme of how researchers and practitioner professionals can best work together to inform one another and promote better outcomes for students.

New models of evaluations are emerging such as participatory, collaborative, action, empowerment, and systems analysis all of which recognize the inherent links between the research and practice. There is increasing recognition of the need for research-practice collaboration for more informed practice. Reflections on Connecting Research and Practice in College Access and Success Programs provides essays that:

1. Reflect on the lessons learned from the history of the research-practice relationship in TRIO programs
2. Include results of the collaboration’s exploratory landscape survey on the use of research and evaluation among TRIO programs
3. Explore both the challenges and positive trust-building experiences through case studies of researcher-practitioner collaborations
4. Review initiatives for program improvement
5. Review initiatives for data use in college access programs, including a review content of entries in the What Works Clearing House.