Technology Implementation for Higher Education in Prison: A Playbook for DOC Education Leaders
Ithaka S+R designed a playbook to help correctional education leaders center student learning as they navigate the education technology landscape. The guide, created with support from Ascendium Education Group and in dialogue with several correctional education leaders, provides decision-making tools and frameworks to assist leaders as they consider how to implement new education technology in prisons.
The playbook includes:
- A framework to help correctional leaders clarify goals and objectives for implementing education technology
- A downloadable set of tools and interactive exercises to guide strategy and strategically plan decision making
- Considerations about the benefits and drawbacks of using different technologies for education
- Ranges of technical specifications to help leaders compare devices
Our aim with the playbook is to provide strategies and approaches that will make it easier to incorporate new education technology to improve educational outcomes, educational equity, and student educational experiences. While the playbook was designed with correctional leaders in mind, we hope it will be of broader value to the higher education in prison field.
Course and Instructor Evaluations for Prison Education Programs
While end-of-course surveys are standard in most colleges and universities, they’re often designed for traditional students and overlook the unique needs of incarcerated students and the educators who serve them. This guide bridges that gap, offering evaluation questions tailored to the prison education context. Developed with input from students enrolled in prison education programs, it’s a tool to help ensure course evaluations are both meaningful and relevant.
This guide was developed in collaboration between the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network and Doug Walcerz, the Provost and Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs at Lee College.
Seeking Student Voices for Peer Support in Higher Education for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Individuals
We are seeking the voices of students who have experience with peer support programs in higher education, whether during or after incarceration. Their insight is essential in helping us build a toolkit that will strengthen and support peer programs addressing the unique challenges faced by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals striving for educational attainment. If you know any students who fit this criteria, please encourage them to take 5–10 minutes to complete a critical survey that will directly impact the future of students in Higher Education in Prison (HEP) programs.
Why Does This Matter?
Peer support is more than just mentorship—it’s a lifeline for many who have faced significant challenges. In the context of higher education for those during and after prison, peer support often takes the form of near-peer relationships, where individuals who have faced similar struggles in education offer guidance, resources, and inspiration to others. Your experiences can help us ensure that these programs are designed in a way that truly meets the needs of those who rely on them.
Compensation
• Limited Gift Card Availability: By completing the survey, you become eligible for a gift card for your time and insights. The number of gift cards is limited and there is an emphasis on getting participation from currently and formerly incarcerated students (any compensation for currently incarcerated students will have to go to their loved one).
• Paid Interview Opportunity: All survey participants will have the opportunity to participate in a follow-up interview (45 minutes or less) and will be compensated for their time.
If you have any questions or need more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@thecommunitynow.us.
Thank you for your time and your commitment to shaping a better future for students during and after prison.
Sincerely,
Kyra Scrimgeour, Membership and Communications Manager
Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network
APPR & CEPP Participatory Pretrial Training Seminar
Advancing Pretrial Policy & Research:
The Center for Effective Public Policy and partners are holding a Participatory Pretrial Training Session on the collective wisdom and evidence-based pretrial reform efforts published in CEPP's Gender Justice Pretrial Toolkit. This initiative was composed in collaboration with USM Opportunity Scholars with input from my currently and formerly incarcerated MCC Sisters Linda Small, Darlene George, and yours truly as CEPP Gender Justice Policy Advisors.
With funding from Apple's Racial and Equity Justice Initiative, we conducted listening sessions with directly impacted women and lent our own experiential expertise to inform a training curriculum for criminal-legal pretrial professionals and community stakeholders that will help foster a more inclusive and just pretrial process for women and gender nonconforming individuals.
If you are interested in radical, revolutionary, and common sense solutions that empower the voices of those with lived experience to improve our social and legal systems, come join us for our Participatory Pretrial Training Session by using the link below to register!
Report: Exploring the Landscape of College and Community Reentry Partnerships
On September 30, 2024, Ithaka S+R released a new research report exploring how colleges and community organizations partner to provide reentry services.
The following text was posted on the Ithaka S+R blog to announce publication.
When revised federal Pell Grant regulations went into effect in July of 2023, one of the provisions stipulated that college in prison programs would be obliged to document how they provide reentry services or what organization(s) they partner with to do so. Ithaka S+R’s new report, Exploring the Landscape of College and Community Reentry Partnerships, examines how colleges and community organizations can best partner to deliver effective services for reintegrating students. This report represents the first findings from a multi-year project made possible with funding from ECMC Foundation.
Because there is a large body of scholarship on reentry needs and services, and it can be overwhelming to find a point of entry, we’ve designed this report to help professionals working in colleges, universities, and postsecondary education in prison programs begin to navigate the space. The report provides key takeaways from existing research and highlights from case studies of how postsecondary institutions serve their reintegrating and formerly incarcerated students.
The report also briefly highlights some of the ways that reentry programming and student basic-needs programming overlap—an issue that will be important to consider in future research. Moreover, colleges and universities that serve, or plan to serve, substantial populations of nontraditional students would do well to consider whether their programs are designed, and staff are trained, to reach and serve students impacted by the criminal legal system.
Below we offer key findings. See the full report to explore case studies of the New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons initiative, the Emerson Prison Initiative, the Washington University in St. Louis Prison Education Project, and the College Gateway Program at Red Rocks Community College.
Key Findings
- The field of providers serving the needs of returning citizens is at once large and disaggregated.
- Contextual factors such as education and employment; family and social support networks; state, local, and charitable service and program offerings; and college support services all influence individual reintegration needs and priorities.
- Reintegration needs, therefore, must be individually assessed and prioritized for each student on a case-by-case basis.
- Colleges employ a variety of partnership structures and service coordination strategies to ensure that reintegrating students have their needs met. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, it is clear that cross-departmental and cross-organizational collaboration—both within and beyond the university—communication, and coordination are important to aid successful transition to college on the outside.
Revised Instructions for Applying to Be a Prison Education Program
On September 30, 2024, the Department of Education significantly revised its instructions that allow schools to apply to be official Prison Education Programs. The announcement details the new instructions and provides some process clarifications. You can find more information at the NASFAA PEP WebCenter, located at nasfaa.org/pep. The link to information about starting a Prison Education Program, including the announcement, can be found at https://www.nasfaa.org/starting_pep.
We are assessing the impacts of this. If a program wants to discuss their particular situation with NASFAA, you can reach us at pep@nasfaa.org.
FICGN Is Accepting New Institutions for Higher Education in Prison (HEP) Orientations Next Year!
We are excited to announce that the interest form and onboarding process for the Higher Education in Prison (HEP) Orientation program is now open!
This professional development opportunity is designed to enhance the skills of faculty, staff, and stakeholders working in prison education programs. Participants will engage in interactive modules, group discussions, and hands-on activities aimed at building strong learning communities within carceral spaces. Participants will have the chance to collaborate with student body representatives inside facilities to build learning communities and create pathways for more inclusive and effective education environments.
Interested?
Visit our website for full details and to submit your interest form. For any questions, feel free to reach out at info@ficgn.org.
Webinar: Finding and Welcoming PEP Students: Continuing the Conversation
Date: Thursday, September 19, 2024
Start time: 12:30 p.m. ET
Duration: 90 minutes
Price: Free to all
Registration link: https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/4698694/91D05DA347F67CA71F98DF536D9CCA27
Description:
At the NASFAA Breaking Barriers: Bridging Worlds in Prison Education and Student Advising convening in June 2024, the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) led a panel discussion exploring questions and practices in recruiting and admissions in higher education programs for students who are incarcerated. This webinar continues that conversation. People who are incarcerated have limited access and agency when trying to learn about options and make responsible decisions about their educational pathways. Often, correctional system policies create restrictive barriers and define limits for recruitment and admissions that need to be considered. Colleges and universities doing prison education have to find compromises that accommodate environmental constraints while still ensuring compliance with institutional policies.
Finding and Welcoming PEP Students: Continuing the Conversation
Webinar: Academic Advising in Prison Education Programs: Strategies for Successful Implementation
Date: Friday, September 13, 2024
Start time: 2:30 p.m. ET
Duration: 90 minutes
Price: Free to all
Presenters: Sheila Meiman, Dr. Paula Pitcher, and Dr. Wendy Troxel
Registration link: https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/4698549/1521A938619C03D5EA7F863C93F07BF0
Description: This session, sponsored by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA), is designed for anyone involved in supporting students who are incarcerated, such as advisors who anticipate working directly with these students; campus advisors who are in institutions involved with prison education; faculty; and prison education program coordinators. The presenters, representing Achieving The Dream and NACADA, partner organizations of the Advising Success Network, will share strategies for successful implementation of advising strategies tailored to the unique needs of inside scholars. Attendees will gain practical knowledge and tools to enhance their advising practices, ensuring they effectively support students in navigating educational opportunities and overcoming barriers within the carceral environment. Participants will leave with actionable strategies and a deeper understanding of how to create a supportive and impactful advising environment.
Note: This is the second in a series of webinars addressing student academic advising with students who are incarcerated. We encourage registrants to view the first webinar, Academic Advising in Prison Education Programs: Opening the Conversation.
JOB OPPORTUNITY - Research Director, Jobs for the Future's Center for Justice & Economic Advancement
Jobs for the Future recently launched a search for a Director, Research. This NEW role will join a dynamic Research, Evaluation & Analytics team and be fully integrated into the Center for Justice & Economic Advancement. The inaugural Director will bring research expertise related to the criminal legal system, reentry, and economic advancement for people with a history of arrest, conviction, or incarceration. In collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, the Director will lead the development of the Center's research agenda and aligned activities including evaluating our impact/initiatives, conducting original research, and engaging field-building research opportunities across our talent development, employer change and policy & systems change impact areas.
Here is the link to the job description on JFF’s website and below are a few details of the ideal candidate profile:
- Experience with the criminal legal system and/or professional experience leading research and evaluation efforts related to economic advancement for people with records, through both qualitative and quantitative methods
- An analytical researcher, skilled at developing, piloting, recruiting for, and fielding surveys and interview protocols for research and evaluation
- A strategic leader, eager to collaborate with colleagues and help build pathways through research fellowships and other partnership opportunities to amplify the perspectives of people with a history of a record, conviction, or incarceration
How to Sow the Seeds of Postsecondary Success in Prison
"While there are unquestionably good and decent people at every level of corrections, just as there are people who resist change based on their oppressive mindsets, there are many people whose actions are only as good as the system will allow them to be."
Check out this article by Will Anderson, who is currently incarcerated in Minnesota Correctional Facility-Faribault, as they offer postsecondary leaders advice about overcoming challenges they may face when launching college programs in corrections facilities.
LINK TO ARTICLE: https://info.jff.org/normalizingeducation/how-to-sow-the-seeds-of-postsecondary-success-in-prison
PROPOSALS DUE 8/23/2024 BY 5:00pmEDT for Identifying and Scaling Programmatic Technical Assistance Resources in Higher Education in Prison -- REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
Our mission at the American Institutes for Research® (AIR®) is to generate and use rigorous evidence that contributes to a better, more equitable world. In partnership with Ascendium, we are embarking on an initiative that promises to benefit the field of Higher Education in Prison through the release of open resources and opportunities for shared learning.
We have issued a Request for Proposals that invites Higher Education in Prison (HEP) programs to submit a proposal that addresses high-leverage technical assistance needs in the field. Selected grantees will engage in a dynamic community of practice that focuses on refining, scaling, and disseminating resources to the broader HEP field.
What Grantees/Recipients Will Deliver
Cohort grantees will:
• Generate Evidence -- Grantees will demonstrate the effectiveness of their resources within their unique contexts, contributing to fieldwide knowledge.
• Refine and Disseminate -- Resources will be refined for applicability in other contexts and will be shared with the broader field.
For more information on the application process, to access the RFP as well as the webinar recording and FAQ document, please click here.
Please also reach out to us at HEPResourceCohort@air.org if you have any questions.
Best regards,The AIR Project Team:
Ellen Cushing, Heather Erwin, & Christina Yancy
Students in Correctional Education: Developmental Education’s Forgotten Population
The Office of Correctional Education was created through an Act of Congress in 1991 to oversee and coordinate prison education programs as a way to reduce recidivism (Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act, 1990). However, correctional education completion rates are extremely low. Therefore, we used secondary data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies survey to show that students in prison would benefit from developmental and student supports. Survey data represented 1,319 prisoners and 8,670 from the household population. We used descriptive analysis, chi-square tests, and Welch’s t-tests to analyze survey data. We concluded that those in the prison sample had a greater potential need for student support programs than the household sample and would benefit from increased developmental and student supports.
Full article available as an attachment.
Introducing the Ascendium-AIR Initiative: Identifying and Scaling Programmatic Technical Assistance Resources in Higher Education in Prison (Request for Proposals)
Our mission at the American Institutes for Research® (AIR®) is to generate and use rigorous evidence that contributes to a better, more equitable world. In partnership with Ascendium, we are embarking on an initiative that promises to benefit the field of higher education in prison through the release of open resources and opportunities for shared learning.
We have issued a Request for Proposals that invites Higher Education in Prison (HEP) programs to submit a proposal that addresses high-leverage technical assistance needs in the field. Selected grantees will engage in a dynamic community of practice that focuses on refining, scaling, and disseminating resources to the broader HEP field.
What Grantees/Recipients Will Deliver
Cohort grantees will:
• Generate Evidence – Grantees will demonstrate the effectiveness of their resources within their unique contexts, contributing to fieldwide knowledge.
• Refine and Disseminate – Resources will be refined for applicability in other contexts and will be shared with the broader field.
Please Join Us!
We invite HEP program practitioners who are passionate about education equity to submit a proposal and be a part of our transformative journey. Your support is key. Together, we can unlock potential, foster equitable pathways, and create a brighter future for each learner.
The RFP is attached here. Please reach out to HEPResourceCohort@air.org with any questions. Stay tuned for updates, webinars, and opportunities to engage with us. For more information on the application process, click here.
Best regards,
The AIR Project Team:
Ellen Cushing, Heather Erwin, & Christina Yancy
Needed Specialists for a Challenging Task: Formerly Incarcerated Leaders' Essential Role in Postsecondary Programs in Prison
This research paper examines the development and administration of Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison, an in-prison college program run and staffed primarily by its own formerly incarcerated graduates. This paper also explores the impact of lived experience on managing and teaching in the program, as well as strategies for academic partners looking to best support interventions led by those who are closest to the problem and, in turn, closest to the solution.
Fall 2023 SUNY HEP Newsletter
The annual newsletter from the State University of New York's Office of Higher Education in Prison (SUNY HEP) details SUNY HEP programs and degrees, and includes an interview with Chancellor John King Jr., graduation highlights, and alumni and faculty highlights.
Perspectives on Higher Education in Prison
This series of essays from the State University of New York (SUNY) showcases the stories of SUNY students and others connected to higher education in prison—stories that inspire, challenge, and enrich their communities. By sharing these lived experiences, SUNY aims to illuminate the broader significance of prison education programs and garner the support needed to expand SUNY's exceptional offerings, ensuring equitable access to higher education for all incarcerated individuals.
Participation and Outcomes in SUNY College in Prison Programs
This research report offers findings to guide discussions with program administrators, faculty, and formerly incarcerated students on how to improve student access, curriculum choice, retention, and completion. To see how SUNY programs serve people in New York prisons and after they leave incarceration, SUNY’s Office of Higher Education in Prison (SUNY HEP) created a longitudinal data system that links regularly collected student data from the SUNY Institutional Research Information System (SIRIS) and the National Student Clearinghouse with individual-level corrections data from DOCCS. This report, the third in a series (Gais et al., 2019; Gais, Grace, and Wilner, 2021), draws on these data to analyze incarcerated student enrollment, diversity, course subject areas, retention, and completion.
Measuring Reentry Success Beyond Recidivism
This resource brief explores the limitations of recidivism as a measure of reentry success and why other outcomes should be measured. It identifies alternative outcome measures and data sources that reentry programs can use to gauge program effectiveness and participant progress in areas relevant to their respective programs. It also discusses the importance of engaging people with direct reentry experience—either as program participants or staff—in defining meaningful outcome measures.
The Limits of Recidivism: Measuring Success After Prison
This book finds that the current measures of success for individuals released from prison are inadequate. The use of recidivism rates to evaluate post-release success ignores significant research on how and why individuals cease to commit crimes, as well as the important role of structural factors in shaping post-release outcomes. This book highlights the unique and essential insights held by those who have experienced incarceration and proposes that the development and implementation of new measures of post-release success would significantly benefit from active engagement with individuals with this lived experience.
