As we head into the holidays, I’ve been thinking about this year and what we accomplished, what we learned, and most importantly, the people who made it all possible. When I look back, I’m reminded just how proud I am of the work we do and the impact it creates for institutions and the students they serve.
It’s easy to focus on the numbers — enrollments up, goals met, projects launched. And those metrics certainly matter. They reflect the hard work of our team and the trust of our partners. But behind every dashboard, there’s something far more meaningful.
This fall, a student accepted to the University of Scranton wrote to our enrollment specialists: “Thank you for all the care that goes into this process. I truly appreciate the time, attention, and effort you and the admissions team put into reviewing my application… receiving my acceptance means so much to me.”
Messages like this hit home. Because this is what we’re helping build: pathways for students who are ready to learn, grow, and change their lives. And everything we do — every data integration, every marketing campaign, every phone call, every technology issue resolved — is in service of that outcome.
In 2025, we helped more students find those pathways.
Institutions we support saw steady, year-over-year enrollment growth across every major term. At the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), new student enrollments grew by more than 5% over the previous year — a meaningful lift for an institution focused on driving innovation and access.
Places like Montclair State University and the MGH Institute of Health Professions didn’t just hit targets, they surpassed them (in some cases by more than 20%). At George Washington University, summer enrollments surged 81%; a testament to the power of coordinated outreach and student-centered strategy.
Every success was the result of deep collaboration, thoughtful execution, and shared belief in what’s possible. Our creative team helped Babson College capture the story of its graduate programs in ways that resonate with students. Our tech teams kept critical systems running smoothly and securely. Our enrollment specialists showed up each day with empathy, clarity, and care.
Behind the scenes, our IT Managed Services team played a vital role in making outcomes possible. The things they accomplished this year — stabilizing systems at Utica, launching a new guest wireless experience at Dominican University, modernizing infrastructure at Missouri Baptist University, and integrating critical platforms for Joyce University, to name a few — translated directly into stronger security, reduced costs, and smoother experiences for students and staff alike.
A standout initiative at Agnes Scott College introduced career-aligned digital credentials through Canvas, giving students a new way to showcase their skills to employers while deepening engagement with academic pathways. These efforts may be less visible, but their impact is undeniable.
None of this happens without our people. The Collegis team continues to lead with grit, heart, and a relentless focus on results. Their work is complex, often behind the scenes, and always in pursuit of something bigger than themselves.
That collective effort continues to build something meaningful:
Stronger institutions. More resilient systems. Smarter strategies. And above all, more opportunities for students to thrive.
So as we all begin to wind down for the holidays, I hope this season offers us all a chance to pause, recharge, and take pride in the progress made and the impact created.
—Kim
Kim Fahey is President and CEO of Collegis Education, where she leads strategy, operations, and growth to help higher education institutions leverage data, technology, and talent to achieve measurable outcomes. Since joining Collegis in 2014, Kim has played a pivotal role in scaling the company and evolving it into a premier higher ed solutions provider. A transformative leader with deep experience in technology and operations, she is passionate about driving innovation, building high-performing teams, and delivering exceptional results for Collegis partners.
Nearly seven years ago, in February 2019, UCU published Staying Power, an investigation into the professional experiences of 20 Black woman professors in UK higher education, authored by Nicola Rollock. At the time, the total number of UK Black women professors numbered only 25.
Against the backdrop of an often highly hierarchical higher education academic culture that assumes capacity for high workloads, and with numerous unwritten codes of conduct, many of Rollock’s respondents documented instances of bullying, racial stereotyping, low-level aggressive behaviour and the constant tacit expectation to prove themselves, leading to feelings of stress, anxiety, exhaustion and burnout. But despite these experiences, they had navigated a career path to professorship, adopting strategies to advance their careers, while absorbing setbacks and blockages strewn in their paths.
In the intervening years, the conversation about race, equity and higher education intensified. Later in 2019 recent graduates Chelsea Kwakye and Ore Ogunbiyi published Taking up space, which documented their experiences as Black students at the University of Cambridge. In October of that year the Equality and Human Rights Commission published the findings of a national investigation into racial harassment in universities.
The UK higher education sector was pursuing action on race awarding gaps, and developing the Race Equality Charter to embed anti-racist practice in institutions. Students’ unions campaigned for ethnic and cultural diversity in the curriculum, and for bursaries and additional support to open up pathways for Black students into research careers. Senior appointments were made to spearhead equality, diversity and inclusion, and commitments to change were published. In 2020, Rollock curated Phenomenal women: portraits of Black female professors, a landmark photography exhibition at London Southbank Centre which then went on to be displayed at the University of Cambridge.
The conversation reached a peak in the wake of the global outcry following the murder of George Floyd in the US in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic and during the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests. And while it was understood that work on anti-racism was often slow, and under-resourced, there was a sense at the time that some in the sector were prepared both to confront its history and adjust its practice and culture in the present.
Looking around today, the picture seems much more muted. There’s been political backlash against the Black Lives Matter movement, and against the notion of institutional and structural racism more generally. “Woke” is more frequently heard as a term of criticism rather than approbation. And though 97 institutions have signed up to the Race Equality Charter and work on awarding gaps has been integrated into access and participation policy, the sense of urgency in the national anti-racism agenda has ebbed.
What lies beneath the cycle
For Nicola Rollock, who now divides her time between a professorship in social policy and race at Kings College London, and consultancy and public speaking, this cycle is nothing new. Earlier in her career she was commissioned by the Runnymede Trust to investigate the extent to which the recommendations of the Macpherson inquiry (which followed the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the failure of the Metropolitan Police to bring his killers to justice) had been implemented in the decade following its publication.
Some of the recommendations were relatively straightforward: senior investigating officers (SIOs) should be appointed when there is a murder investigation – tick. Families should be assigned a family liaison officer, when they have experienced a murder – tick,” she says. “But the recommendations pertaining to race – disparities in stop and search, the recruitment, retention and progression of Black and minority ethnic officers – the data had barely moved over the ten year period between 1999 and 2008–9. I was stunned. At the time, I couldn’t understand how that was possible.
Rollock’s subsequent work has sought to explain why, despite periodic bouts of collective will to action on racism, it persists – and to lay bare the structures and behaviours that allow it to persist even as the white majority claims to be committed to eradicating it. In 2023 she published The Racial Code – a genre-busting tour de force that forensically unpacks the various ways that organisations and individuals perform racial justice in ways that continually fail to achieve a meaningful impact, told through the medium of short stories and vignettes that offer insight into what it feels like to experience racism.
One story in particular, set in a university committee meeting, at which a Black academic is finally awarded a long-awaited (and inadequate) promotion, and responds in the only way she feels is open to her, offers a particularly forceful insight into the frustration felt by Black women in academia at what can feel like being simultaneously undervalued and expected to be grateful to be there at all. Recurring motifs throughout the book, such as the Count Me In! diversity awards – embraced with enthusiasm by white characters and viewed with deep scepticism by Black ones – demonstrate the ways that while racism may manifest subtle differences across different contexts and industries, it thrives everywhere in shallow and performative efforts to tackle it.
For Rollock, the choice of fiction as a medium is a deliberate effort to change hearts as well as minds. Though each of the propositions offered in her stories are grounded in evidence; they are, indeed, the opposite of fictional, the story format affords much greater opportunity for fostering empathetic understanding:
Many of us know the data, we know the headlines, but we don’t know about the people behind the headlines: what is it like to be part of a group that is under-represented? How does it feel to be overlooked for promotion despite possessing the right qualifications and experience? I don’t think we truly understand what it is to fight, to strategise, to manage disappointment predicated on the colour of one’s skin. For me, storytelling is a way of providing that connection. It is a way of giving life to feelings.
For white readers, The Racial Code offers a glimmer of insight into the experience of marginalisation. And for Black readers, it offers a language and a way of understanding and giving coherence to experiences of racism.
Where we are now
Here, Nicola Rollock offers her often sobering reflections on the last six years in response to my prompts – sharing her observations of the same patterns of injustice she has been analysing throughout her career.
Debbie McVitty: Since 2019–20 we’ve seen a lot of focus on EDI in universities and on racial justice specifically – a number of senior appointments, public commitments, working groups and initiatives. And then, the political backlash, the anti-woke agenda, the attacks on “DEI” – how do you make sense of the period we’ve been through? Has there been “progress”? How should we understand the nature of that progress, if so? And what do we need to be wary of?
Nicola Rollock: I have long been interested in why change happens at certain moments: what are the factors that enable change and what is the context in which it is most likely to occur. This is largely influenced by my work on the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry when, as a young researcher, I believed that we were at a historic turning point when it came to racial justice only to see, in 2009, political commitment subsequently and deliberately wane.
In 2020, when George Floyd was murdered, I was simultaneously disturbed by what had happened and attentive to people’s reaction. Many white people described themselves as having “woken up” to the traumas of racism as a result of his death. Books on race and racism rapidly sold out and I couldn’t help but wonder, where on earth have you been, that you’re only waking up now? I – and others who work on these issues – have been sat in meetings with you, in board rooms, universities, in Parliament, have marched on the streets repeatedly making a case for our dignity, for respect, for equity – and it is only now that you decide that you are waking up?
What happened around Floyd deeply occupied my mind. For a long time, I played with the idea of a film set in a dystopian future where Black communities agree to deliberately sacrifice the life of a Black man or woman every five years to be murdered by a white person in the most horrific of circumstances. The ordeal would be recorded and shared to ensure broad reach and the fact of the crime would have to be unequivocal to ensure that white minds were convinced by the stark racist brutality of what had occurred.
The aim of the sacrifice? To keep the fact of racism alive in the minds of those who, by and large, have the most power to implement the type of change that racially minoritised groups demand.This dynamic is in itself, of course, perverse: the idea of begging for change that history indicates is unlikely to come in the form that we want. The approach then must be not to beg for change but to enable or force it in some other, more agentic way that centres our humanity, our dignity and wellbeing.
Moving back to reality, I would argue that there has been a complacency on the part of liberal whites about the prevalence and permanence of racism and how it operates which is why so many were shocked and awakened when Floyd was murdered. This complacency is also endemic within politics. Politicians on the left of the spectrum have not shown sufficient competence or leadership around racial justice and have failed to be proactive in fostering equity and good relations between communities. Those on the right continue to draw on superficial markers to indicate racial progress, such as pointing to the ethnic mix of the Cabinet, or permitting flimsy and dangerous comments about racism or racially minoritised communities to persist.
Both sets of positions keep us, as a society, racially illiterate and naive and bickering amongst ourselves while the radical right builds momentum with a comparatively strong narrative. We are now in a position where those on the left and the right of the political spectrum are acting in response to the radical right. These are dark times.
Universities themselves are, of course, subject to political pressure and regulation but even taking account of this, I would argue that the lens or understanding of racial justice within the sector is fundamentally flawed. Too often, universities achieve awards or recognition for equity-related initiatives which are then (mis)used as part of their PR branding even while their racially minoritised staff continue to suffer. Or artificial targets are established as aspirational benchmarks for change.
This is most evident in the discussions surrounding the representation of Black female professors. In the years following my research, I have observed a fixation with increasing the number of these academics while ignoring their actual representation. So for example, in 2019–20 the academic year in which Floyd was murdered, there were 40 Black female professors in total (i.e. UK and non-UK nationals) within UK universities. They made up just 2 per cent of the Black female academic population. Compared with other reported ethnic groups, Black female academics were the least likely of all female academics to be professors as a proportion of their population.
Fast forward to the 2022–23 figures which were published in 2024, the most recent year available at the time of this interview. They show that the number of Black female professors increased to 55 but when we look at their representation only 1.8 per cent of Black female scholars were professors – a decrease from 2019–20. And, in both academic years, Black female professors made up the smallest percentage of the female professoriate overall (0.6 percent in 2019-20 and 0.8 percent in 2022-23). In other words, the representation of Black female professors as a group remains relatively static in the context of changes to the broader professoriate. Numbers alone won’t show us this and, in fact, perpetuate a false narrative of progress. It indicates that current interventions to increase the representation of Black female professors are not working – or, at best, are maintaining the status quo – and we are overlooking the levers that really impact change.
Universities themselves are responsible for this “artificial progress” narrative via their press releases which too many of us are quick to consume as fact. For example, a university will announce the first Black professor of, say, Racially Marginalised Writing and we fall over ourselves in jubilation ignoring the fact that the university and the academic choose the professorial title (it is arbitrary) and, that there is a Black academic at the university down the road who is Professor of Global Majority Writing covering exactly the same themes as their newly appointed peer.
The same can be said of press releases about appointments of the “youngest” professor within an institution or nationally. We never ask, the youngest of how many or, how do you know, given that official statistics do not show race by age group. Look closely and you may well find that there are no more than say five Black professors at the institution and most were appointed in the last couple of years. Is being the youngest of five a radical enough basis for celebrating advancement? I would suggest not.
Debbie McVitty: Staying power – like The Racial Code – was powerful in its capturing and articulation of the everyday frustrations and the burdens of being marginalised, but with the clear link to structural and organisational systems that enable those problematic interpersonal relationships and to some extent seem to allow or endorse their hiding in plain sight. How helpful is the concept of “lived experience” as data to prompt institutional change, or in what conditions is it most useful?
Nicola Rollock: I am fundamentally uncomfortable with the phrase “lived experience.” In the context of race, the term forces underserved groups to pronounce their status – as if for inspection to satisfy the whims of others when the fact is it is those others who are not being sufficiently attentive to inequity. We end up compensating for their failures. My concern with regard to race is that lived experience becomes the benchmark for intervention and standards: it is seen as sufficient that an initiative about race includes or is led by some Black people irrespective of their subject specialism or expertise. The fact that racial justice is a subject specialism is ignored. When we foreground lived experience over subject specialism, the objective is not real change, it is tokenism. I would like to see the subject of racial justice treated with the same degree of rigour and seriousness as we treat, say science or mathematics.
Debbie McVitty: Another really critical theme across both Staying Power and The Racial Code is agency – the coping tactics and strategies Black women (and men) use to function in what they can often experience as a hostile, toxic cultural environment, whether that’s seeking out allies, being highly strategic and dogged about promotion processes, developing their own analytical framework to help them make sense of their experience, and so on. Covid in particular drove a conversation about work-life balance, wellbeing and compassionate leadership – do you think Black women in academia have been in a position to benefit from any of that? Have the go-to coping strategies changed as a result?
Nicola Rollock: Universities are not places which foreground well-being. Lunchtime yoga sessions or tips about how to improve work-life balance tend to be rendered meaningless in a context where concerns about financial stability, student numbers, political unrest and national and international performance tables take precedence. So many of us have filled in forms aimed at capturing how we spend our time as academics while being aware that they are performative: they do not reflect the breadth of the activities that really take up our time.
I find that Black scholars are often contacted to save failed relationships between white supervisors and Black doctoral students or to offer mentorship and support to Black students and junior colleagues. Then there are reference requests from Black scholars from across the globe who you want to support in the spirit of fighting the system and giving back. And this can be on top of the organisational challenges that you yourself are facing. None of this is documented anywhere. We don’t receive time off in lieu or financial bonuses for this work. It often sits casually under the often uninterrogated banner of “service.” In short, if anyone is interested in work-life balance, they should avoid academia.
Debbie McVitty: One of the things we have unfortunately learned from the past six years is that engagement with racial justice does tend to ebb and flow and is subject to political winds and whims. What can be done to keep institutional leadership focused on these issues and keep working on building more just institutions? How can racial justice work become more sustainable?
Nicola Rollock: Public and political commitment to EDI or what we might think of more broadly as equity, tends to move in waves and as a reaction to external pressures or pinch points. This is concerning for several reasons not least because it ignores the data and evidence about the persistence of inequity whether by social class, gender, disability.
Commitment to advancing racial justice varies depending on one’s racial identity and understanding of the issues. Institutions will only engage with it seriously if they are compelled to do so and if there are consequences for not doing so. We saw this with the awarding gap.
I would also say, perhaps controversially, that we racially minoritised groups need to more readily accept the history and characteristics of racial injustice. For example, if a white senior leader says they refuse to accept institutional racism, my view is that we should not spend our energy trying to convince them otherwise. We only deplete ourselves and waste time. Instead, look for pinch points or strategic points of intervention which might also work to that senior leader’s interests.
We must also establish accurate and more stringent goals as our ambitions for racial progress and not allow our desperation for change to lessen our standards. For example, I have spent a considerable amount of time recently working in policing. Whenever something goes wrong around race, there are those who demand the Commissioner’s resignation. Why? Do we really think the next person to be appointed is going to offer a miracle transformation on race? And what influence do we really have on the appointment’s process? I am not opposed to calling for anyone’s resignation but it has to be done as part of a carefully thought through, strategic plan as opposed to being an act of frustration. I am aware however that acts of frustration are better meat for newspaper headlines over my efforts to foreground strategy and radical change.
There is a further point that your question does not speak to which is the need for self-affirmation and self-care. I think we need to be better at working out what we want for ourselves that is not contingent on our arguing with white stakeholders and which holds on to and foregrounds our dignity, well-being and humanity. This is something I wish I had understood before I entered the workplace and specialised in social policy and race. As much as I love research, it would have probably led to my making different career choices.
One key way in which I believe this work can be sustained is by paying closer attention to our “Elders” – those academics, activists and campaigners who have already fought battles and had arguments from which we should learn and build upon. I would like to see greater integration and connection with what we plan to do today and tomorrow informed by what happened yesterday.
This is part two of a two-part series on the 50th anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. For part one, click here.
Special education staff turnover is a constant challenge at Godwin Heights Public Schools in Michigan.
Sometimes a special education role will turn vacant just a month or six weeks after the district hired someone because they start and leave so quickly, says Derek Cooley, the district’s special education director.
“We used to have staff that would spend their whole careers in special education” at Godwin Heights, Cooley says. “We just don’t see that anymore.”
People often enter the special education field because they have family members with disabilities, or they come from a family of public educators, says Cooley. Throughout his own hiring history and over 20-year education career, he’s noticed this pattern, he says.
But what keeps special educators in schools “isn’t just passion,” Cooley says. “It’s also having strong mentoring and coaching, a manageable workload, and practical supports like tuition reimbursement that make the job sustainable and rewarding.”
Godwin Heights Public Schools is not alone in the struggle to recruit and retain special education staff. In fact, this field is typically cited as one of the top staffing problem areas among districts nationwide. During the 2024-25 school year, 45 states reported teacher shortages in special education, according to the Learning Policy Institute.
45
The number of states that reported teacher shortages in special education during the 2024-25 school year.
Source: Learning Policy Institute
These shortages can also lead to costly litigation between districts and families for missed special education services. To fill special educator vacancies, schools often rely on teachers not certified in special education or hire outside contractors to fill these roles.
These widespread shortages — which researchers and special education experts say were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic — continue to be a sticking point as the education community celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The historic legislation, signed into law on Nov. 29, 1975, guaranteed students with disabilities the right to a free and appropriate public education nationwide. Until then, there was no federal requirement that schools must educate students with disabilities.
But five decades later, special education experts and advocates say much work remains to ensure that all students with disabilities indeed have access to a high-quality education.
Since the 1990s, special education has been the top staffing shortage area in U.S. schools, said Bellwether Education Partners in a 2019 data analysis.
Meanwhile, the number of students with disabilities ages 3-21 served by IDEA has surged by nearly 20% since 2000-01, to 7.5 million students in the 2022-23 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Derek Cooley is special education director at Godwin Heights Public Schools in Wyoming, Mich.
Permission granted by Derek Cooley
While all students are falling behind academically since the pandemic, as measured by the Nation’s Report Card and other data collections, students with disabilities are performing even worse than their general education peers. A majority — 72% — of 4th graders with disabilities scored below basic in reading, and 53% scored below basic in math on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress. That’s compared to the 34% of 4th grade students without disabilities who scored below basic in reading, and the 19% who scored below basic in math.
Research and special education experts agree that special educator turnover and student outcomes are inextricably tied. A study released in May by the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, for instance, found that in Washington state, high turnover among special educators is “especially detrimental to students with disabilities” and their academic performance.
“I think we’re far from the vision” and commitments of IDEA, says Heather Peske, president of the nonprofit National Council on Teacher Quality. As the latest scores from the Nation’s Report Card reveal, “there is the need for access to effective teachers, and so states and districts really need to focus on the opportunities available to them to increase both the quantity and the quality of special ed teachers,” Peske says.
But hope remains alive — and is actively fueling efforts by researchers and state education leaders to implement innovative strategies to address the widespread, decades-long struggle to staff special education.
When we fail to fully staff our classrooms, we fail to deliver on the promise of a free and appropriate public education for students with disabilities.
Abby Cypher
Executive director of the Michigan Association of Administrators of Special Education
In late September, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a report acknowledging that the special education teacher shortage is more than a staffing problem — it’s also a civil rights issue.
“I 100% agree with that,” says Abby Cypher, executive director of the Michigan Association of Administrators of Special Education. “When we fail to fully staff our classrooms, we fail to deliver on the promise of a free and appropriate public education for students with disabilities.”
Viewing the special education shortage as a civil rights issue is what keeps pushing Cypher to improve special educator recruitment and retention in Michigan. And it also reminds her that this is a problem that needs urgent solutions.
In recent years, Cypher says, the Michigan association has implemented new strategies to tackle the shortages as recommended by a state Legislature task force known as OPTIMISE, or Opening the Pipeline of Talent into Michigan’s Special Education. While the work is only just beginning, early results are promising, she said.
Special educators commonly leave the profession for a myriad of reasons, including low pay, poor working conditions, large workloads and heavy paperwork, as well as lack of school leadership support and professional development, according to special education experts.
With IDEA’s 50th anniversary upon us, K-12 Dive spoke with special education leaders and researchers about promising innovations to tackle special education teacher shortages and best practices for implementing the ideas at state and local levels.
Special educator shortages persist as a top staffing issue
The percentage of surveyed public schools that anticipated a need to fill certain teaching positions by subject areas before the start of the next school year.
Targeted compensation
Eighteen states differentiate compensation for special education teachers by paying them more than general education teachers. But Hawaii is the only one that offers over $5,000 in additional annual pay — the amount that research suggests could make a meaningful impact, according to a September NCTQ report.
The Hawaii Department of Education found in an October study that its $10,000 differential pay for special education teachers boosted teacher retention. But lower amounts had no impact on recruitment or retention in that state, the department said. The state’s average annual salary for all teachers is $78,124.
Increasing compensation or creating student loan forgiveness opportunities for special educators could boost both recruitment and retention, says Laurie VanderPloeg, associate executive director for professional affairs at the Council for Exceptional Children. “People are going to stay if they feel that they are being compensated for their workload and the time and the effort that they’re putting in.”
One way districts could cover higher salaries for special educators would be to stop paying teachers more across the board for having a master’s degree, Peske says. “We found that 90% of large school districts across the U.S. pay teachers more for having a master’s degree, and nearly one-third of states require districts to pay for these master’s degrees despite the evidence that master’s degree premiums are bad policy for almost everyone.”
In NCTQ’s own research, the nonprofit has found that master’s degrees for teachers do not correlate with effectiveness in the classroom, Peske said.
If we don’t have a strong climate and culture within the building, if we don’t have the administrative support, if we don’t have other areas to incentivize staff … they’re not going to stay.
Laurie VanderPloeg
Associate executive director for professional affairs at the Council for Exceptional Children
Meanwhile in Michigan, several educator unions have been able to negotiate higher wages for paraprofessionals who complete training developed by MAASE, Cypher says.
But VanderPloeg emphasizes that higher compensation is just “one piece of the puzzle.”
“If we don’t have a strong climate and culture within the building, if we don’t have the administrative support, if we don’t have other areas to incentivize staff … they’re not going to stay,” says VanderPloeg, who served as director of the federal Office of Special Education Programs during the first Trump administration.
Tammy French, autism special education teacher at Bishop Elementary School in Rochester, Minn., goes over a new educational tool with autism paraprofessional Marion Fosdick after class on March 14, 2019.
Ken Klotzbach/The Rochester Post-Bulletin via AP
Training and professional development
In Michigan, Cypher says schools face a lot of turnover among paraprofessionals who often say in exit interviews that they left because they had neither the skills nor access to the training they needed to be successful. Paraprofessionals don’t need teaching licenses, and they typically are paid significantly less than full-time licensed teachers. These staffers perform various roles, such as assisting teachers in their classrooms through tutoring, helping to manage student behaviors or organizing instructional materials.
To address the paraprofessional turnover challenge and hopefully improve paraeducator retention, Cypher says that MAASE developed paraeducator standards with CEC. Since March, the Michigan association has trained nearly 5,000 paraeducators through this new professional development program, she says.
Special education administrators in schools don’t always have the capacity to provide high-quality professional development for their paraprofessionals, Cypher says. The new training empowers those administrators, including instructing them separately on how to effectively and consistently train staff across their districts.
But targeted training needs to go beyond paraprofessionals and special education administrators.
Prospective special education teachers, during their clinical training, should work with mentor teachers who are certified in special education, Peske says. This strategy has been proven to boost a new teacher’s efficacy in the classroom later on, she adds.
School principals also need more training in special education, according to industry experts and leaders. That is especially true given that special education teachers often cite a lack of support from their building administrators as a factor for leaving, says Natasha Veale, a special education leadership consultant.
States should require principal preparation programs to include more content and instruction on special education, Veale says.
And districts should provide principals with professional and personal development opportunities to help foster relationships with their special education teachers, she says.
Veale expresses optimism about the future of special education staffing given the increasing conversations at education conferences she’s seen about integrating a deeper understanding of special education issues more into school leadership.
Michigan is looking to tackle the leadership challenge through a new 18-month program called Developing Inclusive Leaders. This initiative, also from the Michigan Association of Administrators of Special Education, trains principals and building administrators on special education law, inclusive practices and collaboration with educators, families and communities.
A year into the program, Cypher said the association is already starting to see meaningful gains in school leaders’ knowledge of and confidence with overseeing school inclusion practices.
Developing pipelines
In recent years, grow-your-own programs have gained steam as an innovative approach for recruiting and retaining teachers across all instructional areas.
While these programs vary by district and state, they typically focus on bringing high school students into the education field or moving paraprofessionals into fully professional positions. Such initiatives can offer college tuition assistance to prospective teachers as they gain classroom experience working alongside veteran teachers — with the ultimate goal of earning a teaching degree or certification.
Illinois alone has 15,000 paraprofessionals with a bachelor’s degree, says Daniel Maggin, associate dean of research and professor in special education at the University of Illinois Chicago. If the state trained all those paraprofessionals as special education teachers, he said, its special educator shortage would be solved and there would even be a surplus.
That’s because paraprofessionals represent the group with the most accessible and fastest on-ramp for getting a special education license and endorsement, Maggin says.
Those professionals are local and they’re right there, and they’re familiar with students in the area, and it just makes more sense to capitalize on that population.
Natasha Veale
Special education leadership consultant
While that gives Maggin hope about addressing Illinois’ special education teacher shortage, he says it’s still unclear how the state could train that many people — and where the money would come from to do so. Such an effort would require district, state and federal support, he says.
Veale says most paraprofessionals have a strong desire to teach in special education full time, so grow-your-own programs for these staffers can be “a great way” to help alleviate the shortage.
“Those professionals are local and they’re right there, and they’re familiar with students in the area, and it just makes more sense to capitalize on that population,” Veale says.
Districts and states are indeed using the model to build up the special educator pipeline.
In 2024, Arizona launched two grow-your-own programs for special educators. One program offers tuition reimbursement to school districts for general education teachers who want to move into special education. Another Arizona program provides tuition reimbursement to school districts helping paraprofessionals earn a teaching certificate in the field.
And two years before that, North Dakota invested in an online grow-your-own program that trains paraprofessionals in rural areas to become licensed full-time special education teachers.
A group of high school students from Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District in Michigan participate in a paraprofessional boot camp together in April 2025.
Permission granted by Michigan Association of Administrators of Special Education
In Michigan, grow-your-own programs often focus on training paraprofessionals for full-time and licensed teaching roles, according to Cypher. But without a pipeline to backfill their roles, that can lead to a deficit in paraprofessionals, she says.
To address that gap, Cypher says, the Michigan Association of Administrators of Special Education worked with the state education department to help high schoolers participate in a similar grow-your-own program, known as a paraprofessional boot camp, that started in March 2025.
The boot camp is offered as a career and technical education course where high school students train and work in elementary schools for several hours in a day. Then after graduating high school, they can immediately step into a paraprofessional role.
This new initiative not only helps fill paraprofessional positions but could lead to more interest in full-time special educator roles, Cypher says. “Once students have access to those standards on being a paraeducator, it might entice them to consider going into teaching as well.”
News Graphics Developer Julia Himmel contributed data and graphics support to this story.
Our panel of experts shares how healthcare careers offer purpose, growth, and meaningful daily impact.
Priya Parthasarathy, D.P.M.
President, Maryland Podiatric Medical Association; Partner, US Foot & Ankle Specialists; National Spokesperson, American Podiatric Medical Association
What makes a career in healthcare such a meaningful and rewarding path for today’s professionals?
In podiatry, you get to literally help people move forward. There’s something so powerful about that. We take patients who are in pain or afraid they’ll lose their independence and give them back mobility and confidence. You see the difference right away. I love that our field blends medicine, surgery, and long-term patient relationships. Every day, I get to use my skills to make someone’s life better, and I walk away each day knowing I truly made an impact.
As healthcare needs evolve and demand grows, why is it so important that we inspire more students and young professionals to pursue careers in this field?
Foot and ankle health is connected to everything — mobility, diabetes, overall wellness — but it’s often underrepresented. I love showing students how diverse and dynamic this field is. You can perform surgery, focus on sports medicine, wound care, pediatrics, or public health. The possibilities are endless, and the need is growing. There’s so much opportunity to innovate, lead, and really shape the future of healthcare.
How does working in healthcare allow you to make a tangible impact on people’s lives while continuing to grow and learn professionally?
What I love about podiatry is that you get to see progress in real time. Someone comes in limping or unable to wear shoes comfortably, and weeks later, they’re walking pain-free or running again. That’s the immediate impact. The field never stops evolving, whether it’s regenerative medicine, new technology, or surgical innovation, so there’s always something new to learn. It keeps me motivated and constantly growing.
What advice would you give to someone considering a future in healthcare about finding purpose and fulfillment in this work?
Find your “why,” and hold on to it. The path isn’t always easy. There are long days and tough cases, but when you see a patient light up because they can walk without pain, it reminds you why you started. In podiatry, fulfillment comes from those everyday wins. Stay curious, lead with empathy, and don’t forget that what we do truly changes lives, one step at a time.
Raymond K. Brown-Riley, B.S.N., RNC-NIC, NPT, NNIC
NICU Assistant Director of Nursing and NICU Transport Coordinator, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital
What makes a career in healthcare such a meaningful and rewarding path for today’s professionals?
A career in healthcare is especially meaningful because every day offers a chance to protect dignity, relieve suffering, and support recovery. During my time at Purdue’s School of Nursing, I learned to utilize evidence-based strategies, empathy, and teamwork. These are all skills I rely on as the assistant director of nursing in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at MedStar Georgetown today. Whether stabilizing a fragile, premature baby or supporting a worried family, the work is deeply human and very impactful. The reward — seeing progress and knowing our actions create safer beginnings and healthier futures — is priceless.
As healthcare needs evolve and demand grows, why is it so important that we inspire more students and young professionals to pursue careers in this field?
As the population ages, the need for prepared and compassionate nurses and healthcare providers keeps growing. Inspiring students to choose healthcare is not only about staffing; it is about building systems that are safer, more equitable, and innovative. Purdue taught me that evidence-based science and research, coupled with patient and family-centered care, is the formula for success. When more bright minds join nursing and allied fields, we are able to accelerate breakthroughs, improve access, and strengthen the health of communities. Developing new nurses and professionals today improves outcomes for communities tomorrow. It’s imperative that we continue to produce new graduates who have the tools to handle the challenges before them, the knowledge to avoid the mistakes of the past, and the wisdom to know the difference.
How does working in healthcare allow you to make a tangible impact on people’s lives while continuing to grow and learn professionally?
Healthcare offers a unique opportunity to provide an immediate impact while also having an opportunity for lifelong development. In the NICU and through our neonatal transport program, I see how timely decisions, clear communication, and skilled interventions can change the course of a family’s life every day. The field also requires that you’re committed to being a life-long learner, utilizing new guidelines, technologies, and quality improvement methods. My Purdue foundation in evidence-based practice and quality improvement prepared me to continually seek out growth opportunities, mentor others, and turn research into practice changes that make a real difference. Professional development is not just a responsible career practice; it’s a moral obligation to contribute to the advancement of the profession.
What advice would you give to someone considering a future in healthcare about finding purpose and fulfillment in this work?
I would tell anyone considering a future in healthcare to reflect on where their passions lie. The healthcare industry is broad and diverse, so it’s important to hone in on what fulfills you personally. Start by shadowing clinicians and asking questions about workload, emotional demands, scheduling, and opportunities for advancement. In a nursing program like Purdue’s, there is a strong emphasis on clinical excellence, interprofessional collaboration, and self-reflection. I was encouraged to expect more of myself and my future employer. It’s important to find a program that teaches not only clinical competence but also strategies to manage stress and grow professionally so your career is sustainable. Find mentors who challenge you and a specialty that matches your strengths and passions. It’s cliché, but true, that when you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.
Around the world, Queer rights are being challenged, attacked and denied. Governments are cutting budgets for important health and other programmes.
But in parts of Africa, there are distinct signs of progress. Organizations that serve and advocate for Queer communities in Eastern Africa now see hope for the future. That’s the case even in Uganda where “aggravated homosexuality” has carried the death penalty since 2023.
“It is still a very hard environment but we are doing much better than a lot of people think,” said Brian Aliganyira, founder and executive director of the Ark Wellness Hub, an organization based in Kampala, Uganda, that helps LGBT community members who have difficulty accessing health services in public hospitals due to both anti-Queer laws and ongoing community stigma and discrimination.
“We are doing better in terms of fighting back and supporting communities, not necessarily better in terms of protection, rights and freedoms,” Aliganyira said.
In Kenya, homosexual acts are illegal. Rodney Otieno, who is the co-founder and policy director for the Queer & Allied Chamber of Commerce Africa of Nairobi (QACC), described the creation of a “Queer ecosystem” that mobilises resources, builds social enterprises, creates sustainable economic pathways for people of the Queer community and attracts impact investments – using money for good causes even as it generates wealth. The QACC now boasts over 3,000 members in Kenya, plus others across Africa.
Language and discrimination
Otieno and the four other East African community leaders interviewed for this article generally prefer to use the more fluid term “Queer” rather than “LGBTQ” or any of its many variations.
Kevin Ngabo, a Queer activist and social justice advocate, said that local languages often lack positive or even neutral words to describe queer identities — only stigmatizing ones.
“‘Queer’ gives us an umbrella that feels both flexible and affirming, allowing people to belong without being boxed in by rigid categories,” Ngabo said. “It’s a way of saying: I am different and that difference is valid.”,
Ngabo was born and raised in Rwanda before moving to Nairobi, Kenya late last year.
In Rwanda, there are no anti-discrimination laws but the government does not recognize same-sex marriages.
Pride in one’s identity
A Queer rights activist in Kigali, who asked not to be identified, said that young people are feeling more comfortable with their identities. “GenZers are taking up more space as their authentic selves,” the activist said. “They are even getting more understanding and affection from their families. It is not ‘weird’ anymore. This will become the norm.”
The Kigali activist has recently been involved in both a Pride Party and a Queer film festival, which attracted over 600 paying participants from around the region.
Queer community leaders point out different elements of both recent progress and hopes for sustainable success in the future beyond the constant imperative to keep community members safe and to try to get discriminatory laws repealed.
“We need to continue to work together, make good use of our limited resources, be clear about what we are doing, raise awareness and be diplomatic when dealing with the authorities” says another anonymous Queer activist and feminist in Rwanda.
Ngabo in Nairobi believes that Queer people across the region need to develop a strong sense of community and be “stubborn when they are told they can’t do something, and take space and stand up for what they believe in.”
Finding allies to your cause
Aliganyira in Kampala agrees that people should not run away from their ongoing challenges with safety, respect and equal opportunity and instead continue to show courage, resilience and perseverance to defend their current rights and expand them in future.
A Queer activist in Rwanda stressed the need to work with allies and others to create more education and training to promote awareness, understanding and empathy.
Ngabo shared some advice: “Start small and start where you are,” he said. “Speak up when you hear harmful stereotypes. Make space for people to share their stories without fear. Support Queer-led groups, attend events, or even just show up for your friends when they need someone safe to lean on.”
Allyship isn’t always grand, he said. “It’s often in the quiet, consistent choices to affirm someone’s humanity,” he said.
Queer community leaders say they are generally optimistic about the future.
“In five to 10 years’ time, the narrative will change completely,” said Otieno in Nairobi.
Changing people’s perceptions
Young queer activists are being empowered and learning how to take on leadership roles in government and in other decision-making spaces, said one Rwandan activist.
Another Rwandan activist envisions a future where same sex couples will be able to get married, adopt kids and access medical services freely.
“Things will improve if we are smart,” the activist said. “I hope we will see more safe spaces, more affirming healthcare (especially in mental health), more economic inclusion, and more media and policy-making representation. In the end though, dignity is more important than law changes.”
Ngabo in Nairobi agrees: “We want respect,” he said. “We want to feel safe. We don’t want equality. We want equal opportunities. We want to thrive.”
Real progress means being able to live authentically without having to conform, he said. “Stronger protections under the law, safe spaces to gather, visibility in public life, and most importantly, Queer people leading the narrative about our own lives,” Ngabo said. “These are what a brighter future looks like to me.”
Even in Uganda, Aliganyira believes things can still change for the better.
Uganda was once considered the safest place for Queer people in East Africa before the 1990s, he said.
“Uganda can undo what it has done and get beyond fear and uncertainty,” he said. “It’s up to everyone to come together and overcome division.”
Questions to consider:
1. Why do LGBTQIA+ community members in East Africa prefer to call themselves “Queer”?
2. What are the key elements of a brighter future for the East African Queer communities?
3. What can you do yourself to stand up for human rights as an ally or a member of a Queer community where you live?
The new “Tracking Transfer” report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows little improvement in transfer rates for first-time college students. But it also sheds light on factors that could contribute to better outcomes.
The latest report, part of a series, examined transfer data for students who entered community college in 2017 and for former community college students enrolled at four-year institutions that academic year.
It found that only 31.6 percent of first-time students who started community college in 2017 transferred within six years. And slightly fewer than half of those who transferred, 49.7 percent, earned a bachelor’s degree, consistent with outcomes for the previous cohort.
But some types of students had better outcomes than others. For example, students who came to community college with some dual-enrollment credits had higher transfer and bachelor’s degree completion rates, 46.9 percent and 60.1 percent, respectively.
Bachelor’s degree completion rates were also highest for transfer students at public four-year institutions compared to other types of institutions. Nearly three-quarters of students who transferred from community colleges to public four-year institutions in the 2017–18 academic year earned a bachelor’s degree within six years. The report also found that most transfer students from community colleges, 75.2 percent, attend public four-year colleges and universities.
Retention rates among these students were also fairly high. Among students who transferred, 82 percent returned to their four-year institutions the following year. The retention rate was even higher for students who earned a certificate or an associate degree before they transferred, 86.8 percent, which was nearly 10 percentage points higher those who didn’t earn a credential before transferring.
The promise of higher education as a pathway to opportunity has never been more important, or more precarious.
While overall university participation has reached record levels, this headline figure masks a troubling reality: where you’re born in England increasingly determines whether you’ll ever set foot on a university campus. And even once students do get their foot in the door, they might not have the support system in place – financially as well as academically – to succeed and thrive.
It is in this context that the UPP Foundation has today published the concluding paper in its widening participation inquiry. Mission Critical: six recommendations for the widening participation agenda is our attempt to fill in the gaps that the government left in its opportunity mission around widening participation, and to provide targets and mechanisms by which it can achieve success in this area.
Doing “getting in” right
For years, the biggest single aim of widening participation work has been “getting in” – ensuring that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are supported to attend university, most often by undertaking a bachelor’s degree as a residential student. The aim of growing participation has come under political scrutiny in recent years and is no longer an accepted mission across the political spectrum.
But as our inquiry’s earlier papers highlight, there remains significant gaps in participation. Although more young people are going to university than ever before, there are stark disparities in the rates at which young people from different parts of the country attend university. If we believe, as I do, that talent is not simply concentrated in London and the South East, then by implication if opportunity is spread out more evenly, participation in higher education needs to grow.
That’s why our first recommendation is a “triple lock” widening participation target. This includes a gap of no more than ten percentage points between the highest and lowest regional HE participation rates; plus a 50 per cent floor for progression to HE at 18-19 across all regions; and a target for 70 per cent of the whole English population to have studied at level 4 or above by the age of 25, as advocated by Universities UK. Meeting these targets will ensure that “getting in” really is for everyone.
Onwards and upwards
But this is not enough in isolation. The people we spoke to in Doncaster and Nottingham made it clear that “getting on” and “getting out” are equally important parts of the widening participation struggle – with the cost of learning a major barrier to full participation in university life.
With that in mind, we’re calling for the restoration of maintenance loans to 2021 real-terms levels by the end of the decade, as well as additional maintenance grants for those eligible for free school meals in the last six years.
We also want universities that are currently spending millions of pounds on bursaries and hardship funds to put that money towards outreach in the most challenging cold spots, as well as ensuring that the wider student experiences that undergrads cherish are available to all. That’s why it makes sense for a proportion of the proceeds from the proposed international student fee levy, if introduced, to be ring fenced to support an expanded access and participation plan regime, prioritising disadvantaged students from cold spot backgrounds.
Revitalisation
Finally, widening participation needs to address the short-term mindset that grips young people both before and during their time at university.
Young people are more mindful of their finances than ever before, with many opting out of university in favour of a job in places where graduate careers are scarce and those who do choose to attend keeping one eye on their present and future earnings even before they’ve graduated.
If we are to revitalise the widening participation agenda, we have to bring employability to the fore, both by reconfiguring the Office for Students’ B3 metric on positive student outcomes and by bringing employers into the design and outputs of university study. There are already fantastic examples of this working in practice across the sector, such as at London South Bank’s energy advice centre and Bristol University’s career- and community-oriented dental school. It’s time for the sector to pick up these ideas and run with them.
The young person in Doncaster with the same grades and aspirations as their counterpart in Surrey faces not just different odds of getting to university, but different expectations about what’s possible. When we fail to address these disparities, we’re not just perpetuating inequality, we’re actively weakening the economic foundations that the whole country depends on.
What our new report offers is a chance to refocus the widening participation agenda around a series of ambitious but achievable targets. Getting in, getting on and getting out are all crucial parts of the higher education cycle, especially for those who otherwise wouldn’t attend. If the government want to take their widening participation priorities seriously, all three aspects need to take their place in the sun.
The recent decision to cancel $400 million in AmeriCorps grants is nothing short of a crisis. With over 1,000 programs affected and 32,000 AmeriCorps and Senior Corps members pulled from their posts, this move will leave communities across the country without critical services.
The cuts will dismantle disaster recovery efforts, disrupt educational support for vulnerable students and undermine a powerful workforce development strategy that provides AmeriCorps members with in-demand skills across sectors including education.
AmeriCorps provides a service-to-workforce pipeline that gives young Americans and returning veterans hands-on training in high-demand industries, such as education, public safety, disaster response and health care. Its nominal front-end investment in human capital fosters economic mobility, enabling those who engage in a national service experience to successfully transition to gainful employment.
As leaders of Teach For America and City Year, two organizations that are part of the AmeriCorps national service network and whose members receive education stipends that go toward certification costs, student loans or future education pursuits, we are alarmed by how this crisis threatens the future of the education and workforce pipelines that power our nation’s progress, and it is deeply personal. We both started our careers as corps members in the programs we now lead.
Aneesh began his journey as a Teach For America corps member teaching high school English in Minnesota. Jim’s path began with City Year, serving at a Head Start program in Boston. We know firsthand that AmeriCorps programs are transformative and empower young people to drive meaningful change — for themselves and their communities.
At Teach For America, AmeriCorps grants are essential to recruiting thousands of new teachers every year to effectively lead high-need classrooms across the country. These teachers, who have a consistent and significant positive impact on students’ learning, rely on the AmeriCorps education awards they earn through their two years of service to pay for their own education and professional development, including new teacher certification fees, costs that in some communities exceed $20,000.
Termination of these grants threatens the pipeline of an estimated 2,500 new teachers preparing to enter classrooms over the summer. At a time when rural and urban communities alike are facing critical teacher shortages, cutting AmeriCorps support risks leaving students without the educators they need and deserve.
City Year, similarly, relies on AmeriCorps to recruit more than 2,200 young adults annually to serve as student success coaches in K-12 schools across 21 states, 29 cities and 60 school districts.
These AmeriCorps members serving as City Year student success coaches provide tutoring and mentoring that support students’ academic progress and interpersonal skill development and growth; they partner closely with teachers to boost student achievement, improve attendance and help keep kids on track to graduate. Research shows that schools partnering with City Year are two times more likely to improve their scores on English assessments, and two to three times more likely to improve their scores on math assessments.
Corps members gain critical workforce skills such as leadership, problem-solving and creative thinking, which align directly with the top skills employers seek; the value of their experience has been reaffirmed through third-party research conducted with our alumni. The City Year experience prepares corps members for success in varied careers, with many going into education.
AmeriCorps-funded programs like Breakthrough Collaborative and Jumpstart further strengthen this national service-to-workforce pathway, expanding the number of trained tutors and teacher trainees while also preparing corps members for careers that make a difference in all of our lives.
Those programs’ trained educators ensure all students gain access to excellent educational opportunities that put them on the path to learn, lead and thrive in communities across the country. And the leaders of both organizations, like us, are AmeriCorps alumni, proof of the lasting effect of national service.
Collectively, our four organizations have hundreds of thousands of alumni whose work as AmeriCorps members has impacted millions of children while shaping their own lives’ work, just as it did ours. Our alumni continue to lead classrooms, schools, districts, communities and organizations in neighborhoods across the country.
The termination of AmeriCorps grants is a direct blow to educators, schools and students. And, at a time when Gen Z is seeking work that aligns with their values and desire for impact, AmeriCorps is an essential on-ramp to public service and civic leadership that benefits not just individuals but entire communities and our country at large.
For every dollar invested in AmeriCorps, $17 in economic value is generated, proving that national service is not only efficient but also a powerhouse for economic growth. Rather than draining resources, AmeriCorps drives real, measurable results that benefit individual communities and the national economy.
Moreover, two-thirds of AmeriCorps funding is distributed by governor-appointed state service commissions to community- and faith-based organizations that leverage that funding to meet local needs. By working directly with state and local partners, AmeriCorps provides a more effective solution than top-down government intervention.
On behalf of the more than 6,500 current AmeriCorps members serving with Teach For America and City Year, and the tens of thousands of alumni who have gone on to become educators, civic leaders and changemakers, we call on Congress to protect AmeriCorps and vital national service opportunities.
Investing in AmeriCorps is an investment in America’s future, empowering communities, strengthening families and revitalizing economies. Let’s preserve the fabric of our national service infrastructure and ensure that the next generation of leaders, educators and community advocates who want to serve our nation have the ability to do so.
Aneesh Sohoni is Teach For America’s new CEO. Previously, he was CEO of One Million Degrees and executive director of Teach For America Greater Chicago-Northwest Indiana. He is a proud alum of Teach For America.
Jim Balfanz, a recognized leader and innovator in the field of education and national service, is CEO and a proud alum of City Year.
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
The last year has been one of significant strides for RNL. We embarked on a journey to enhance our existing tools, aiming to provide our partners with even more powerful and effective solutions. This commitment has driven us to develop a suite of AI-powered tools designed to strengthen your connections with students and donors.
A focus on data-driven decisions and user-friendly solutions
Our primary goal was to create AI tools that are not only secure but also user-friendly and insightful. We aimed to provide you with a comprehensive view of your data, empowering you to make informed decisions and develop winning strategies. We understand the importance of ease of use, ensuring that our tools are accessible to everyone, regardless of their technical expertise.
Key achievements: RNL Insights, Compass, and RNL Answers
RNL Insights: This AI-powered data management platform revolutionizes how you work with your data. By integrating data from various sources, including your enrollment CRM, financial aid modeling tool, and marketing analytics, Insights provides a unified view for informed decision-making. Its intuitive conversational interface allows you to ask questions and receive immediate answers, uncovering valuable insights you might have otherwise missed.
RNL Compass: Our AI-powered digital assistant, Compass, streamlines communication and enhances efficiency. By automating responses to common student and parent inquiries, Compass frees up your admissions team to focus on more strategic tasks. Integrated with your CRM, Compass provides personalized answers, ensuring each interaction is tailored to the individual’s needs.
RNL Answers: This AI copilot leverages your institution’s private data to provide valuable insights and support. Whether it’s crafting compelling marketing messages, assisting traveling admissions officers, or building robust knowledge bases for new team members, RNL Answers offers a secure and reliable AI-powered solution.
Beyond technology: Empowering partners with AI expertise
We recognize the importance of responsible AI adoption. To this end, we have introduced AI Governance and Education Consulting Services. These services provide guidance on integrating AI into your institution, including:
AI Education: Training leadership teams, faculty, and staff on the fundamentals of AI.
AI Governance Frameworks: Assisting in the development of frameworks that ensure ethical and responsible AI usage.
Collaboration and continuous improvement
To ensure our solutions remain aligned with your evolving needs, we have established the Leadership AI Council and the Product Advisory Council. These groups, comprised of our valued partners, provide valuable feedback and insights, shaping the future of our AI-powered solutions.
Looking ahead: A future of innovation
We have also began migrating some of the outbound communication tools our agents use to deliver your omnichannel outreach services to our new all-in-one platform—RNL Reach. While as a partner, your involvement in transitioning to RNL Reach is very minimal, but you will feel the benefit of the solution because your agents will be able to be more efficient in how they execute your campaigns and provide stronger analytics and reporting. This is the first step to making the new solutions and services we have planned in 2025 possible!
In 2025, we are committed to building upon the strong foundation we’ve established this year. We will leverage our expertise in consulting, data analysis, and AI to develop innovative solutions that address your unique challenges and help you achieve your goals.
A note of gratitude
We extend our sincere gratitude to all our partners for their trust and collaboration. We are honored to work alongside you and contribute to your success. We look forward to a continued partnership in the years to come.
Discover RNL Edge, the AI solution for higher education
RNL Edge is a comprehensive suite of higher education AI solutions that will help you engage constituents, optimize operations, and analyze data instantly—all in a highly secure environment that keeps your institutional data safe. With limitless uses for enrollment and fundraising, RNL Edge is truly the AI solution built for the entire campus.
