Postsecondary Resources

Overview

Postsecondary Resources

For faculty and leaders at colleges and universities, resources on protecting and supporting students, continuing education online and managing other challenges resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

Webinar
Considerations for a Post-Pandemic Higher Education

Considerations for a Post-Pandemic Higher Education
Emerge Stronger Webinar Series

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This opening session of the series provided an overview of the systemic challenges colleges and universities already faced that have become more pronounced because of the pandemic. During this session, participants learned about emerging trends in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and case studies of transformative approaches that address near-term challenges and long-term sustainability

Blog post Megan Boren, Program Specialist, SREB

COVID-19 Effects on the Teacher Workforce

In April, my mom called me with the news that my high school chemistry teacher, Mr. Metcalfe, who was rounding out his 42nd year of teaching, had died from COVID-19. I knew him from class, of course, but I also went to school with his son for 13 years and his family attended my grandparent’s church.

He was respected, loved and honored for his excellent teaching. His funeral was an all-day parade of cars through the high school parking lot, where community members waved and shouted condolences to his family. My mom said the cars stretched down the street for miles.

Webinar
Image of Nicole Lynn Lewis

One In Five:
The Student Parent Experience and its Impact on College Success

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One in five college students today is a parent, and yet they remain a largely invisible population. The vast majority of institutions do not track parenting status and therefore do not know how many student parents they have at any given time. Postsecondary success for these students is critical and far-reaching: when a student parent earns their degree, it has ripple effects that span two generations, impacting the parent’s employment opportunities and lifetime earnings potential, along with their child’s chances for achieving academic and career success.

News SREB News Release

Higher Education Recovery Task Force Launches

A new Higher Education Recovery Task Force will convene higher education leaders from the 16 Southern Regional Education Board states to address the challenges facing colleges, universities and students during the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery.

Webinar
Image of Abigail Seldin

The New SwiftStudent Tool
Help for Guiding Students Through Financial Aid Appeals

SwiftStudent logo

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The sudden onset and rapid spread of the coronavirus has caused many sudden changes to student and family finances. At the same time, students may not have the same level access to counselors and advisers that they did prior to social distancing. Yet research shows that students and their families know very little about their right to appeal financial aid awards as well as the process for doing so.

Webinar

The Students Are Not All Right
Using the Science of Social Listening to Understand and Meet Students' Needs

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The global COVID-19 pandemic hit campuses across the country in the blink of an eye. In rapid succession, campuses closed, courses moved online, and our lives—personally and professionally—were permanently altered.

Blog post David Raney, SREB Chief Editor

Belonging From a Distance
Protecting the mental health of America’s “loneliest generation”

Things are tough for college students right now. The COVID-19 crisis, which has disrupted life everywhere, is “quite possibly the single most disruptive event in American higher education in at least a half century,” according to the Atlantic, one that has “left students scrambling to wrangle flights home and pack up their dorm room.”

Resources

Guidance and Information for Institutions

COVID-19 Supplies – Cooperative Purchasing Contracts

Midwestern Higher Education Compact offers a list of cooperative purchasing contracts available to higher education (public and private not-for-profit), K-12 districts and schools, cities, counties and local subdivisions, andstate government.

McKinsey & Company’s Coronavirus: How should US higher education plan for an uncertain future?

 

Federal Guidance and Action

U.S. Department of Education has compiled a list of resources from federal departments and agencies for higher education institutions.

Centers for Disease Control offers the most up-to-date information on COVID-19, including Resources for Institutes of Higher Education 

Guidance for interruptions of study related to Coronavirus (COVID-19) from the Federal Student Aid office. 

 

Testing

ETS is temporarily offering an at home option for the GRE General Test and TOEFL iBT in selected areas where students are unable to go to test centers. 

Accreditation

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges has a list of SACS colleges that have submitted Temporary Emergency Relocation of Instruction related to the Coronavirus outbreak.

From the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, quick links to programmatic accreditors and changes to their policies.

COVID-19 resources for institutions and accreditors from the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

Planning for Closures and Continued Learning

How University of Kentucky College of Education students are completing field experiences/student teaching 

Beyond the Food Pantry – The Hope Center has created this guide to help colleges support students during this crisis.

Emergency Meals-to-You -A national effort coordinated by the Baylor University Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to distribute food boxes to students in rural counties while schools are closed.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a number of free resources, including:

Teacher Preparation

State Policy Flexibilities in Response to COVID-19: Avoid Failing the Next Cohort of New Teachers - An SREB brief provides policy recommendations to ensure this year’s graduating teacher candidates are able to enter the workforce for the next school year.

American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education’s COVID-19 resource page 

Student-Teachers In Limbo During School Shutdowns. Here’s How States Can Help from Education Week

What Happens to Student-Teachers When Schools and Colleges Close Due to Coronavirus? from Education Week

Shifting the Clinical Experience Using Virtual Formats - tips and advice from U.S. Prep.

 

Resources From Other Regional Higher Education Compacts 

New England Board of Higher Education

Midwestern Higher Education Compact

Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education

Resources from State Agencies

State Council for Higher Education of Virginia

News SREB News Release
Do not miss the opportunity to learn and grow from this.

Keep Next Year’s Teachers on Track
Immediate and longer-term policy actions for student-teachers

With colleges and schools closed for COVID-19, state leaders will need to act quickly to keep 60,000 teacher-candidates on track to graduate and enter the workforce in Southern states next year. SREB convened college of education and K-12 leaders from five states to discuss barriers and share ideas, and a new brief recommends short-term policy changes.