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James Dean Ward successfully defends dissertation

Congratulations to Pullias research assistant James Dean Ward (above, center), who successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation on June 11, 2018! Titled “Exploring Heterogeneous Effects of Performance-Based Funding: Implications for Equity and Policy,” Ward’s dissertation studies the rising popularity in recent years of performance-based funding policies, which tie state funding for public colleges to performance goals, such as the rate at which […]

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How Colleges Change: Understanding, Leading, and Enacting Change

Pullias co-director Adrianna Kezar offers new insights for university leaders and change agents. Available July 31, 2018.  The only constant is change, as Heraclitus famously said. Yet fostering and implementing change remains a major challenge for university leaders. How can we make meaningful changes at an institution of higher education? What theories of change should be considered? And on a […]

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William G. Tierney in the Los Angeles Times: As Max Nikias pushed USC to prominence, checks and balances were missing

This op-ed, authored by Pullias Center co-director William G. Tierney, was originally published in The Los Angeles Times on May 28, 2018. Scandal has hit the University of Southern California like a hurricane, a perfect academic storm. Such tempests are on the rise in higher education, and universities need to reckon with the conditions that are causing them. Similar forces damaged Penn […]

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Theresa E. Hernandez in The Huffington Post: Abolish standardized testing for college admissions

This op-ed, authored by Theresa E. Hernandez, a research assistant at the Pullias Center, was originally published in The Huffington Post on May 22, 2018. A new study from the National Association for College Admission Counseling provides evidence that test-optional policies ― a variety of policies that allow students not to submit scores on standardized tests like the SAT or GRE […]

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How to give non-tenure-track faculty the support they need

Two new studies address the challenges faced by growing numbers of contingent faculty. They go by many titles. Adjunct professor, postdoctoral fellow, assistant lecturer, part-time instructor, researcher — The list goes on. All these titles make it difficult to gather comprehensive data about faculty, which in turn makes it difficult to see, let alone address, the challenges many of these […]

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How to gamify the college application process

Pullias researcher Zoë B. Corwin explains how tech tools can help bridge the college access gap. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. In fact, try it a few times through a role-playing game first -- so that when it comes time to take action in real life, you've already learned from your mistakes and know how to [...]
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Congratulations to new USC Rossier graduates from the Pullias Center

Congratulations to the four members of the USC Pullias Center of Higher Education who participated in the USC Rossier graduation ceremonies last weekend! Three Pullias research assistants — Elizabeth Holcombe, Antar A. Tichavakunda, and James Dean Ward — were among the the 334 students honored in the doctoral hooding ceremony on May 11. Tichavakunda was the recipient of the USC […]

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Two Pullias research assistants awarded dissertation fellowships

Congratulations to Pullias research assistants Elizabeth Park and W. Edward Chi, recipients of dissertation fellowships for the 2018-19 school year! Elizabeth Park was awarded the Haynes Lindley Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, given by the Haynes Foundation to support dissertation projects that address economic, social, policy or political problems of the Los Angeles area. She will use the grant funds to pursue […]

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Julie Posselt in Inside Higher Ed: Graduate programs need to rethink use of standardized admissions tests

This op-ed — authored by Julie Posselt, Pullias Center researcher and assistant professor of higher education at University of Southern California, and Casey W. Miller, associate dean for research and faculty affairs at the Rochester Institute of Technology — was originally published in Inside Higher Ed on May 7, 2018. This week several admissions experts, through the National Association for College Admission […]

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