- CCRC appeals loss of several federal grants
- New admin hires at ED
CCRC appeals loss of several federal grants
The Community College Research Center (CCRC) is appealing the Trump administration’s recent nixing of a handful of federal grants for projects that ranged from an in-depth look at the Federal Work-Study program and a statewide short-term job training program, to a national research network that is examining how to boost enrollments and address students’ academic needs post Covid.
The U.S. Education Department (ED) recently canceled five CCRC projects: One contract with a Regional Education Laboratory on February 13 and four grants from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) on March 7.
In a blog post on Tuesday, CCRC director Thomas Brock — who served as commissioner of the National Center for Education Research at IES from 2013 to 2018 — outlined how the grants got pulled and why the federal funding is important. He noted that the cancellations are entangled in the Trump administration’s effort to cancel $400 million in federal grants that were awarded to Columbia University.
CCRC is based at the university’s Teachers College, but it is administratively and financially separate, Brock said. He noted the center depends entirely on grants and contracts from government and philanthropy. The Teachers College last week submitted an administrative appeal to ED to restore CCRC’s grant funding.
“We are relying on foundation-funded projects to get us through this period, but the permanent loss of IES funding would leave a hole that no foundation could fill,” Brock wrote.
The affected grant projects, which were more than halfway completed, include:
- The Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges Network, which is working with community colleges and college systems to identify and evaluate programs and policies designed to reverse enrollment declines and support students’ academic progress and workforce training. ($3 million)
- The first rigorous federal study of the effectiveness of the Federal Work-Study program. ($2.8 million)
- A study of Virginia’s Get A Skill, Get A Job, Get Ahead program, a scholarship program for middle- and low-income students in workforce programs serving a handful of high-demand fields. ($3 million)
- The Postsecondary Education Applied Research Fellowship program, which trains doctoral students to conduct research on postsecondary, adult, and career and technical education. ($3.5 million)
- A practice guide that offers strategies to help postsecondary instructors, instructional designers and administrators select and implement technologies that support student learning. ($1.4 million)
“The terminations ignored the interests of participating states and colleges and left research goals unfulfilled,” Brock said. “The terminations did nothing to address perceived problems at Columbia, nor did they challenge ‘woke’ ideology, as our projects were nonideological to begin with. Like all our work, they were designed to help the country’s nearly 1,000 community colleges to better serve their students.”
New admin hires at ED
The U.S. Education Department (ED) on Tuesday announced it has hired additional top-level staffers, from senior advisors and counsel, to deputy assistant secretaries. Of particular interest for community colleges is the appointment of Michael Brickman as a senior advisor.
Brickman previously served at ED, focusing on policies related to accreditation, distance and competency-based education, and employer-education partnerships, according to a department release. He also led various interagency efforts, including replacing college degree requirements in federal hiring with a focus on skills and competencies.
Most recently, Brickman was at the Cicero Institute, where he led its state-focused education and workforce reforms, and concurrently at the American Enterprise Institute, working on federal education and workforce policy, according to ED. He also advised companies, nonprofits and investors on these topics.
In addition, Brickman has served in state government and the private sector, including leading education policy for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, where he focused on school choice and the creation of the first public, competency-based college credentials, according to ED.
