The Colorado Re-Engaged (CORE) initiative, created under House Bill 21-1330, allows a four-year institution of higher education (IHE) to award an associate degree to former students who meet eligibility requirements -- including having already earned at least 70 credit hours before stopping-out of a bachelor's program. Under HB21-1330, each…

Teaching-focused professional development (PD) programs offered at institutions of higher education (IHEs) are uniquely positioned to be levers of change that improve the quality of undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in ways that broaden participation in STEM education, workforce development, and…

Place-based education is pedagogy rooted in local landscapes, community experts, and embodied communication. This essay explores the authors' initial findings from a two-year pilot project that connects students from the University of New Mexico and students from Colorado College in a multisite field experience connected to the Rio Grande…

Program evaluation frameworks that assess organizations as complex adaptive systems can open our eyes to new approaches and understandings. The proposed iterative and adaptive developmental program evaluation framework interrelates developmental evaluation principles with adaptive action approaches. We explain and demonstrate the framework with a…

This report presents findings from an evaluation of the Air Tutors math program during the 2023-24 school year in two school districts: District A in Colorado and District B in Texas. It examines student participation rates and the program's impact on math achievement as measured by both state standardized summative assessments and district-level…

This article shares the results from a quasi-experimental mixed-methods study of a promising transition-focused professional development approach. The 12-week team-based intervention resulted in positive outcomes among intervention group participants' knowledge and capacities. The intervention group exhibited statistically significant changes in…

One of the central issues in ecology is the underrepresentation of individuals from diverse backgrounds. This underrepresentation starts at the undergraduate level and continues into graduate programs, contributing to a need for more diversity in the discipline. We hypothesize that the interplay of students' identities and contextual factors…

Interpersonal violence (IPV) recognition is vital to patient-centered care. Previous educational efforts have incorporated IPV into undergraduate medical education in the form of standardized patient encounters and IPV screening and awareness, but no semester-long elective that offers an intersectional approach to trauma-informed care and…

Containing costs for students in higher education is a significant priority for the Colorado Department of Higher Education and the state of Colorado. Open educational resources (OER) are educational materials licensed to be freely shared and available at no cost to students. The Department champions OER as a strategic means of meeting the demand…