In an effort to provide timely and relevant information on college access and success, the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) launched a new website Tuesday that serves a repository for some of the latest research in the field.
The website is called PolicyDirect, and its backers at the Lumina Foundation for Education say the scholar-reviewed reports on the site will ultimately lead to more informed decision-making in the realm of higher education.
“We think it’s going to be a real asset to help us reach the national attainment goal that’s essential to our work at the foundation and critical to the nation’s future,” said Jamie Merisotis, president of the Lumina Foundation and a co-founder of IHEP.
Merisotis was referring to the Obama administration’s goal to return the United States to its former status as the most college-educated nation in the world by 2020—a goal that mirrors the Lumina Foundation’s Goal 2025, which is to ensure that 60 percent of Americans have a postsecondary credential or degree with labor market value by 2025.
“We need policymakers, researchers and practitioners to work together to help students succeed,” Merisotis said. “We think that PolicyDirect is a terrific tool to facilitate that collaborative work because it provides the one element that’s indispensable to good decision-making, and that’s good information.”
“We know there’s no silver bullet to get to that 60 percent level,” Merisotis continued. “That’s why good research is so critical and that’s why we think PolicyDirect has such great potential by providing timely and trusted information in an accessible and clear way.
“It can, as its name implies, direct us toward a discussion that improves both policy and practice.”
