The Great Admissions Redesign
Lumina Foundation is seeking to work with states, higher education systems, and groups of colleges and universities ready to transform how potential students apply, enroll, and access their institutions.
Featured Resources
Some highlights of Lumina's work
We're sharing tools and takeaways from our efforts to create a better-educated nation.
A Stronger Nation
We're tracking America's progress toward the nation's 60% attainment goal.
Community College Challenge
The Million Dollar Community College Challenge team is shining a spotlight on the great work of community colleges around the country.
REACH Collaborative
We're supporting community colleges in six states to create short-term credential-to-degree pathways for adults who are Black, Latino, Hispanic, and Native American.
Changing the Narrative on Student Borrowers of Color
A collection of essays from student loan experts sets the record straight on borrowing among students of color.
Community Grants
Our community grants portfolio supports local organizations in our hometown of Indianapolis and around central Indiana.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Hear stories about how HBCU's help students thrive.
Tuition Reimbursement
Meet a few of the workers and employers participating in tuition reimbursement programs.
Lumina Impact Ventures
Lumina Impact Ventures is the Foundation's impact investing arm partnering with mission-aligned social enterprises.
Local Talent Handbook
A guide for local leaders to build talent pool in their communities.
I Want That Job!
A series from WorkingNation on promising career paths for early career workers
History of Federal Student Aid
A film series documenting the policy and the political origins of federal financial aid programs
Beyond Financial Aid
How colleges can strengthen students’ financial stability, leading to higher completion rates
State Strategy Labs
Lumina supports state leaders’ efforts to increase education levels by offering nonpartisan research, data, peer advice, and technical support.
Degree Qualification Profile
A learning-centered framework for what college graduates should know and be able to do to earn the associate, bachelor’s or master’s degree.
Flexible, Holistic Approaches
Jan. 27, 2025
Suppose postsecondary spaces, campuses, curricula, and classrooms (hybrid, virtual, or traditional) are deeply held as bastions of opportunity, growth, and pipelines to economic growth in and for our communities. In that case, we must examine the message of the late bell hooks. How do we facilitate welcome? How have we established ourselves as a place…
Knocking at the College Door
Dec. 10, 2024
Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates has been an important resource for policymakers, decision-makers, researchers, and planners in education and workforce development since the first edition was produced in 1979. The 11th edition includes this comprehensive report and interactive data visualizations.
Strong Relationships
Dec. 5, 2024
Culturally Sustaining Processes involve a range of practices that acknowledge the different lived experiences of marginalized populations. Historically underrepresented populations may include low-income students, first-generation students, adult learners, students of color, and women in STEM, with students often having intersecting identities that include more than one category of marginalization.
Empowering Environments
Dec. 4, 2024
In the wake of multiple pandemics (including COVID-19 and racial injustice), community college leaders have increasingly sought to be forward-leaning on issues of equity, reflecting a significant step forward in advancing social justice. However, prominent and frequently used frames and approaches, like anti-racist frameworks, may ultimately fall short of producing the type of leadership necessary…
Communicating about Lumina Foundation
Dec. 2, 2024
Lumina Foundation believes communication has the power to amplify its work by building awareness and deepening understanding of our strategies. The foundation’s communications team wants to aid our partners in sharing lessons from projects.
Is College Worth It?
Nov. 28, 2024
The Pell Institute has released its latest report, Is College Worth It?: Black, Latinx, and Indigenous Student Voices on the Value of Postsecondary Credentials.
Moments of Insight: Practices for Creating Real Opportunity for Adult Learners of Color
Nov. 13, 2024
You don’t know the courage it took for your adult students to get into that room, or just to show up virtually, to that classroom. So, try to meet them where they are. See the obstacles that they’ve already overcome. See their goals as strengths. You can turn those strengths from life into strengths in…
Insights from Adult Learners of Color
Nov. 5, 2024
These are pathways which reflect explicit race conscious policies, programs, and practices that actively address racial inequities to ensure student access and success and engage at an individual, system, and structural level to interrogate and ameliorate inequitable experiences and outcomes.
Collaborating to Serve Adult Learners of Color
Oct. 9, 2024
This brief explores how partnerships and collaboration, on and off university campuses, can motivate cultural, structural, and programmatic change to better serve adult learners of color. It draws insights from a study of the Partnerships for Adult Learner Success (PALS) initiative and includes staff members’ and students’ perspectives and experiences at the eight urban-serving universities…
Factors Affecting First-Year Students’ College Choices
Sept. 30, 2024
This brief shares student perspectives on making application decisions, financing college, and choosing to attend their particular institution, helping leaders to understand students’ enrollment decisions and address challenges to postsecondary access.
Great Admissions Redesign—2024 Convening Summary
Sept. 25, 2024
Helping more Americans earn bachelor’s degrees that position them for further learning and successful careers is essential to a thriving society. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting testing policies and historic legal rulings have significantly disrupted college admissions and enrollment over the past several years. While Americans overwhelmingly understand and value the importance of a college…
Listening to Learners
Sept. 24, 2024
Listening to Learners 2024 links student perspectives on learning and support to institution-level practices and technologies. Connecting institutional and student perspectives enables stakeholders and partners to explore their impact on student success, access and equity, and overall institutional satisfaction.
Education Needs to Improve Communications and Support around the Free Application for Federal Student Aid
Sept. 24, 2024
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is the entry ramp to federal grants and loans that many students depend on to afford college. Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act in 2020 in part to make it easier to apply for federal aid. However, the rollout of the new FAFSA has suffered from numerous challenges…
How Community Colleges Can Help Scale US Apprenticeships
Sept. 23, 2024
Growing registered apprenticeship programs to levels seen in other countries will require significant effort and investment. However, community colleges seem well-positioned as a rare bit of low-hanging fruit: institutions that might act as an accelerator of apprenticeship.
Practices to Increase Employer Adoption of Inclusive Apprenticeship
Sept. 19, 2024
The U.S. Department of Labor hopes to expand registered apprenticeships to new industries and occupations where apprenticeship is not widely used, including healthcare and information technology, as well as to populations typically underrepresented in apprenticeships.
A Supplemental Wealth-Based Pell Grant
Sept. 18, 2024
In a new collaborative report with TICAS, researchers from the Higher Education, Race, and the Economy (HERE) Lab at the University of California, Merced offer a policy solution to wealth inequality: a supplemental Wealth-Based Pell Grant to help eliminate racial disparities in student loan borrowing and make debt-free college a reality for many more students.
The Growing Impact of Student Loan Debt on Older Adults
Sept. 18, 2024
In the past two decades, the number of adults age 60 or older with student loan debt has grown six-fold, and the amount of debt they carry has multiplied nearly 20 times.
Critical Connections
Sept. 17, 2024
Historically Black Colleges and Universities have been doing more with less for more than 150 years. Despite chronic underfunding, these institutions are engines of economic mobility for historically excluded students. When all variables are held constant, the graduation rate of Black students is 11 percentage points higher at HBCUs than at other colleges and universities.
Making Every Rung of the Credential Ladder Count
Sept. 16, 2024
Policymakers and educators have promoted vocational certificate programs at community colleges as an effective way to meet labor market demands and help individuals leave low-wage work.
Why Do Students Choose to Recommend Some Professors
Sept. 12, 2024
This study utilizes data from the ACUE Student Survey, which comprehensively captures information about students’ learning experiences and perceptions of their instructors. Through the analyses of both quantitative ratings and qualitative open-ended responses, this study aims to identify the key factors that shape students’ likelihood of recommending their instructors.