Announcing ATI’s Academic Equity Community of Practice

By Elizabeth Banes, Emily Schwartz, Elizabeth Davidson Pisacreta, Mark Joy and Justin Beauchamp

October 21, 2020

Academic Equity

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Recent months have highlighted long-standing inequities within our nation’s postsecondary education system. The barriers facing historically underserved student populations are not limited to the admissions and enrollment process, but extend throughout the academic experience. For the members of the American Talent Initiative (ATI), an alliance of high-graduation-rate colleges and universities committed to expanding access and opportunity for low- and middle-income students, combating inequities that exist throughout the student lifecycle is essential to fulfilling our collective goals. Today, we are excited to announce that 35 ATI members have joined ATI’s newest community of practice focusing on academic equity, a continuation and expansion of many engagement points with members on this topic.

This community of practice builds on the efforts of senior leaders at Georgetown University and the University of Texas at Austin, who, in June 2019 co-hosted a meeting, The Summer Institute on Equity in the Academic Experience, with the American Talent Initiative (ATI). This three-day meeting brought teams from 18 ATI members together to work on specific projects that advanced academic equity on their campuses through focused discussions on innovations in academic policies, curricula, and/or pedagogies. The institute’s structure provided ample time for team-based work as well as the opportunity to collaborate with other institutions and expert guests.

Members in attendance focused on projects that demonstrated the myriad structural barriers that contribute to academic inequities on college campuses, and the priorities and approaches to dismantling those barriers. For example, Georgetown’s team designed an institutional equity audit of policies, processes, and campus units to address systemic inequities in students’ academic experiences. UT Austin’s team aimed to deepen students’ sense of belonging and well-being in order to improve the student experience. The University of California-Santa Cruz advanced its plans for Project REAL (Redesigning for Equity and Advancing Learning), an initiative that works directly with self-selected instructors and their teaching teams (e.g. graduate student teaching assistants, and undergraduate learning assistants) to redesign key courses in the undergraduate curriculum, beginning with STEM gateway courses and expanding to other fields.

While we were unable to host a second Institute this summer due to the pandemic, ATI members have continued to signal the importance of a focus on academic equity, and, in light of national events, these conversations feel more urgent than ever.

In the coming months, members of this community of practice will engage in a series of activities, including topic-focused webinars, presentations from national experts, and working groups with peers, culminating in a second Summer Institute in 2021. As students who have been historically underserved across the country experience new and complex challenges around access to resources, wraparound services, adequate learning environments, and financial support, we hope that this community of practice will help institutions address both longstanding and new academic equity concerns in the months and years to come.

Thirty-five ATI members, listed below, have joined the community to date. If you are interested in learning more, please reach out to Elizabeth Banes at Elizabeth.Banes@ithaka.org.

ATI Academic Equity Community of Practice Member Institutions:

University of Texas at Austin
Georgetown University
Emory University
The Ohio State University
Lebanon Valley College
University of Dayton
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of California-Santa Cruz
James Madison University
Muhlenberg College
Princeton University
Pomona College
Rutgers-New Brunswick
University of Iowa
Baylor University
Vassar College
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
University of Richmond
University of Washington-Seattle Campus
Washington University in St. Louis
Middlebury College
Colgate University
Hamilton College
University of Pittsburgh
College of the Holy Cross
University of Pennsylvania
Allegheny College
Hope College
Barnard College
Williams College
Duke University
Claremont McKenna College
Stanford University

Categories: Academic Equity
Tags: Academic Equity, Member Profiles

Authors

Elizabeth Banes

Elizabeth Banes is an analyst at Ithaka S+R on the Educational Transformation team. Prior to joining Ithaka S+R, Elizabeth worked as an investment analyst at Princeton University Investment Company, the office responsible for managing Princeton University’s endowment. Elizabeth holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Princeton University.
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Emily Schwartz

Emily Schwartz is a program manager at Ithaka S+R with the Educational Transformation team. Her work focuses on researching innovations in higher education and increasing college access and successful outcomes for low-income students, particularly through the American Talent Initiative. Prior to joining Ithaka S+R, Emily worked for the Strategic Education Research Partnership, supporting a variety of projects and research studies in K-12 education. During her time as a graduate student in Washington, D.C., Emily also worked for the education office of the Senate HELP committee and for D.C. public schools. She holds a bachelor’s in government from the College of William and Mary and a master’s in public policy from Georgetown University.
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Elizabeth Davidson Pisacreta

Elizabeth Davidson Pisacreta (Liz) is the associate director for policy and research at Ithaka S+R, where she focuses on increasing college access and success for low-income students and evaluating the implementation of evidence-based strategies to improve student learning outcomes. Liz is a member of the Educational Transformation team. Liz earned a PhD in economics and education at Columbia University where her dissertation focused on the impacts of federal accountability policy on school restructuring and closure. Liz is also the co-founder and Secretary of the Board of ScriptEd, an educational non-profit that provides more than 600 low-income students in 30 NYC high schools with coding instruction and paid internship opportunities in prominent NYC tech firms. Previously, Liz served as the deputy chief strategic officer in the Division of Talent, Labor and Innovation at the New York City Department of Education, where she oversaw policy, communications, and implementation of NYC’s teacher evaluation and development system for more than 75,000 teachers and 1.1 million students. Liz also has experience consulting with various educational organizations on data strategy and analysis, and teacher and school evaluation design and implementation. Liz began her professional career teaching high school math in Philadelphia’s public schools. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Georgia, a master’s degree in urban education from the University of Pennsylvania, and a doctorate in economics and education from Columbia University.
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Mark Joy

Mark is a Senior Research & Programs Associate for the Red House at Georgetown University. His work focuses on researching innovation and equity in higher education, managing the Equity in the Academic Experience program, and investigating the structural variations of Georgetown’s undergraduate degree. Mark graduated from New York University with his bachelor of arts in politics and received his master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University. He enjoys playing basketball, running, singing in Georgetown’s annual Let Freedom Ring! Choir, and cooking. Mark was born and raised in Pepperell, MA, and currently resides in Virginia.
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Justin Beauchamp

Justin Beauchamp is serving as an intern with Ithaka S+R’s Educational Transformation team, working on the American Talent Initiative and other related projects. They are currently a PhD student in the sociology program at the CUNY Graduate Center, having just completed their first year of coursework, with a broad interest in the role of higher education in the public good. Prior to their graduate program, Justin worked professionally in higher education, mostly in student affairs positions. Most of their work generally focused on transition, retention, and student success initiatives, along with responsibilities in student government, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and student leadership development. Justin has a master’s degree in college student personnel from Bowling Green State University and a bachelor’s degree in social identity development from the University of Connecticut.
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