According to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, over the next 15 years, the high school graduating class is expected to shrink by nearly half a million students nationwide, representing a 13% decline. These trends are more pronounced among students of color, first-generation students, and students from low-income and rural backgrounds. In addition, higher education is facing growing questions about its value—compounded by shifting test policies, historic legal rulings, and volatility in federal funding that have further complicated the admissions landscape.
As a way to address these challenges in higher education access and admissions, Lumina Foundation launched The Great Admissions Redesign (GAR) implementation and planning grants. GAR aims to “fundamentally simplify how students access college”—addressing a fragmented admissions process that has required students to navigate complex application processes, take standardized entrance exams, and apply for financial aid, among other obstacles. GAR has two funded cohorts (2024 and 2026) of grants to help create more seamless, student-centered admissions experiences.
As the research partner in this project, Research for Action (RFA) has led a study on the national landscape of admissions redesign and conducted an evaluation of three implementation grants. Drawing from these learnings, RFA has collaborated with Lumina to design an online resource, Postsecondary Admissions Redesign: A Toolkit for Policymakers and Practitioners. The toolkit offers a suite of practical resources, organized in three sections:
- National Landscape of Admissions Redesign. Visitors can access a typology of different admissions redesigns adopted across the U.S., and a clickable map that allows for in-depth exploration of state and postsecondary system redesigns.
- Lessons and Literature. Visitors can access lessons for the field, drawn from the literature, interviews with experts, policymakers and practitioners, and RFA’s review of the three admissions redesign implementation grants launched in 2024; an overview of evidence and promising practices in admission redesign; and critical decision points and guiding questions about the adoption and implementation of admissions redesign.
- Learnings from the GAR Implementation Grants. Visitors can access logic models, in-depth reports on implementation strategies and early student outcomes for each grant recipient, and a summary of learnings across the three implementation grants.
“The toolkit offers state policymakers and higher education practitioners a robust hub of useful and relevant resources that can help inform admissions redesign initiatives, especially at a time of significant challenges,” said Mark Duffy, Senior Research Associate at RFA. “The toolkit is also a clear example of RFA’s focus on providing actionable knowledge to those who are in the best position to create change.”
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Research for Action was launched in 1992, with roots in addressing education issues in the Philadelphia region. Over the past 30 years, RFA has applied actionable knowledge from a national portfolio of research and evaluation projects, across the pre-Kindergarten through postsecondary continuum, to help transform educational systems throughout the United States.
RFA has partnered with educators, system leaders, policymakers, advocates, philanthropy, media, communities, students, and families—drawing from our expertise on topics such as early childhood education, K-12 education and juvenile justice, postsecondary education and workforce, and out-of-school time.