Collaboration Among College and University Systems

The National Association of System Heads (NASH) is the association of the chief executive officers of America’s 52 public university systems. All of the systems include multiple four-year institutions, and several also include two-year institutions. Together, public university systems educate approximately three-quarters of the nation’s students in public, four-year higher education and a significant proportion of students seeking two-year degrees. How these systems are organized—that is, multiple institutions operating with a single system governing board and chief executive—makes them particularly well-positioned to tackle issues critical to the future of their states.

Unlike most other national education organizations, NASH functions more nearly as a “network” among the 52 CEOs who come together both in informal settings and through collaboration on a few highly focused, voluntary initiatives. NASH is staffed by a staff director and, for the cross-system initiatives, mobilizes expertise within participating systems and partners with other organizations with relevant expertise.

In recent years, cross-system collaboration has focused on increasing student access and success in college, especially for low-income students and students of color.

Access to Success Initiative (A2S)

The Access to Success Initiative (A2S) is a voluntary effort among NASH systems committed to setting clear goals to close the historic gaps in college access and success between students of different racial and economic backgrounds. Launched in 2007, this voluntary effort, conducted with the support of The Education Trust, brings together participating system leadership teams to learn from one another and outside experts on critical action steps, including setting goals, building public support and momentum for meeting the goals, identifying and mounting powerful action strategies, and publicly reporting progress on a common set of metrics.

The goal of the initiative is to cut in half by 2015 the gaps that separate low-income and minority students from their peers, both in terms of access to postsecondary education and in terms of successful completion. Twenty-four systems have agreed to participate in the initiative by publicly reporting baseline and progress data on common metrics and to share their collective resources and expertise through working groups. Collectively, A2S systems enroll more than three million students—almost 40 percent of undergraduates attending public four-year colleges and universities and 20 percent of those attending all public two-year and four-year colleges.

This initiative is about system change, not about more programs. Each of the systems bears the costs of implementing its own change strategies. However, outside resources are critical to allow the participating systems to gain access to experts in the field and to share with and learn from one another in ways that make success more likely. Two foundations Lumina Foundation for Education and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have provided grants to support the cross-system collaboration.

For more A2S information

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Systemwide Professional Science Master’s Degree Programs (PSM)

In spring 2009, NASH launched an initiative to support systems interested in systemwide development of professional master’s degree programs (PSM). With the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the NASH-PSM initiative is directed by two national leaders in the movement to develop and expand such programs, Donald Langenberg, chair of the CGS Committee on PSM and former NASH president, and Sheila Tobias, PSM field organizer and consultant.

The PSM program leads to a non-thesis master’s degree. Its purpose is to prepare science and mathematics students for career paths other than in teaching or as principal investigators in scientific research. The PSM has proved to be attractive to STEM majors not heading for Ph.D., medical, or teaching careers and to some of the nation’s most innovative high-tech employers.

Many, and perhaps most, PSM programs are based on an interdisciplinary core. This reflects the fact that STEM industries do not mirror the strict disciplinary organization of a typical university. Having said that, the four most common areas of current PSM programs are biology/biotechnology; computational molecular biology/bioinformatics; environmental sciences; and mathematics/statistics. New programs are emerging in forensic chemistry, GIS, clinical trials management, and nanotechnology.

The first university PSM programs were originated in the mid-1990s, with initial funding from the Alfred P. Sloan and Keck foundations. There are now over 150 PSM programs on over 80 campuses nationwide and indications are that the number of programs will roughly double in the next several years. Some estimates suggest a number eventually may reach 1,000 nationally. Early systemwide adopters include the California State University, State University of New York, the University of Illinois, and University of Massachusetts systems.

A NASH-PSM Web site (www.nash-psm.org) has been created by the project directors to assist systems. On this site, project directors Langenberg and Tobias provide a PSM history and overview, links to existing systemwide PSM adoptions, and answers to system heads’ queries about the costs and benefits of mounting entirely new PSM programs or converting existing STEM master’s degrees with a “professional” option. The site also includes links to other organizations that support creation of PSM programs and updates on recent developments.

For more PSM information

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Course Redesign: The Math Success Project

In 2005, seven NASH systems took the lead in a “Math Success Project,” which focused on examining patterns of student participation and success in the introductory sequence of undergraduate mathematics courses (developmental, college algebra, pre-calculus, and calculus). The Math Success Project’s analyses for distilling well-known problems into campus-level information that can form the basis of improvement plans, exposure to leaders in systems and campuses who already have begun promising improvement efforts, and a group context for inquiry and future planning all contributed to that project’s success and are being incorporated in current work of the Access to Success Initiative. Most notable is the work of systems in partnership with the National Center on Academic Transformation on redesigning the delivery of instruction in key high-enrollment entry-level courses with a history of low student success.

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NASH/Education Trust State P-16 Initiative

The first of the recent cross-system initiatives launched in 1994 is the State P-16 Initiative in partnership with The Education Trust, a leading national education advocacy group, and Achieve, a partnership of business and K-12 leaders.

The State P-16 Initiative provides support for state higher education, P-12, and civic leaders to develop coordinated improvement efforts, pre-kindergarten through college. The core commitment of the state P-16 partnerships is to prepare all high school graduates for postsecondary education and training. Although each partnership works within the context of its particular state’s needs and history, the cross-system work focuses on three key shared strategic agendas: (1) to align expectations for high school graduation and readiness for college with those of the high-performance workplace, (2) to ensure that teachers are prepared to help all students meet high standards, and (3) to improve college access and success.

NASH has been working on the issue of P-16 alignment for 15 years. Its first publication on the subject was issued in 1997 and helped spur the work on alignment of expectations for high school graduates with college readiness. Through its annual summer institutes for CEOs and P-16 leadership teams, NASH has provided a regular venue for higher education and K-12 leaders to come together to work on joint improvement efforts.