Seeking Your Input on our Higher Education Equity Dashboard

TCASN is committed to addressing barriers for underrepresented students, including students of color, low-income, first-generation college-goers, and undocumented students, in accessing and completing college. With funding from Conexión Américas and the Tennessee Educational Equity Coalition, TCASN is working to increase the number of Tennesseans completing postsecondary education by creating an online dashboard that looks at Tennessee's higher education system through an equity lens. 

According to a report from Complete Tennessee, we know that disparities for African-American and low-income students continue to exist. Including a 12 percent decrease in college enrollment and lower fall to fall retention rates at community colleges for African American students. Additionally, graduation rates for low-income students (as measured by Pell Grants) are consistently lower across Tennessee (except at TCATs.) 

TCASN hopes that this project will further the ability of educators and policy makers to identify and shine spotlights on equity gaps in order to lead to the refinement of state and institutional policies to address gaps and improve student outcomes. Additionally, this public dashboard will equip advocates to use data to make a greater impact on their advocacy strategies.  Our dashboard will identify equity gaps, specifically looking at how students of color and low-income students are accessing and succeeding in postsecondary institutions in Tennessee. 

We are asking our partners to help us identify what data we can gather that would make this tool useful not only to policy makers but to educators, students, and families as well. Please take a few minutes to complete the form below to share your ideas and insights for this dashboard. We want to know what information would be helpful to you and those in your communities and plan to incorporate your feedback in this project.