American Council on Education

ACE mobilizes the higher education community to shape effective public policy and foster innovative, high-quality practice. As the major coordinating body for the nation’s colleges and universities, our strength lies in our diverse membership of more than 1,700 colleges and universities, related associations, and other organizations in America and abroad. ACE is the only major higher education association to represent all types of U.S. accredited, degree-granting institutions: two-year and four-year, public and private. Our members educate two out of every three students in all accredited, degree-granting U.S. institutions.

In 2018, ACE released a three-year strategic framework that posits three overarching commitments: 1) affirm and strengthen public trust in postsecondary education; 2) champion equity, access, and completion; and 3) enrich the capacity of institutions and leaders to innovate and adapt. To meet these commitments, ACE provides high-quality professional learning programs through a suite of blended in-person convenings and a digital learning platform, ACE Engage, aimed at transforming institutions and diversifying the pipeline to higher education leadership. Cutting-edge research and member insights on key higher education issues inform these offerings and help mobilize the community to enhance institutional practice. Research and insights focus on three critical components of higher education’s value proposition for the twenty-first century: equity-minded leadership, institutional transformation, and student success.

ACE works to ensure student success by quality assuring apprenticeships, military courses, corporate training and other forms of education obtained outside of the classroom for college credit to ease time to completion. The Council’s forthcoming Learner Success Lab will guide institutions through a strategic planning process to maximize student persistence and completion and ensure that learners acquire the skills necessary for success in today's workforce. Through this and other efforts, ACE is developing leaders’ ability to implement policies and practices to shape culture and support mechanisms to close equity gaps, counter negative campus and departmental climates, address ineffective pedagogies, and adapt to a new higher education/postsecondary credentialing ecosystem.

Importantly, ACE’s government relations and public policy team is consistently at the center of policy debates concerning higher education, including key issues such as federal student financial aid, research funding, immigration, and judicial challenges to the ability of institutions to consider race and ethnicity as part of a holistic admissions process. More recently, the government relations and public affairs team helped lead the higher education community’s COVID-19-related advocacy efforts before Congress and the executive branch. ACE is the most visible and widely quoted higher education association on these issues.

ACE’s work to improve student outcomes and close equity gaps, including gaps by race and income, is manifested through several key areas. The Council produces and commissions original research to inform institutional policies and practices on student success; advocates for key federal policies to improve student access and success, including policies related to financial aid and other supports; and undertakes practice-based work to strengthen student mobility through flexible completion pathways and institutional transformation.

The Council’s professional learning programs aim to transform professional learning across higher education and to equip current and emerging leaders with the tools and resources to successfully lead their institutions. ACE Engage®, a robust, peer-to-peer online professional learning platform, fosters community, builds knowledge, catalyzes learning, and enables action. The platform is complemented by transformation labs, regional summits, and forums that bring together small groups of senior higher education leaders to facilitate deep conversations and devise solutions for pressing issues on campuses.

ACE is also at the forefront of public policy and works with Congress on policies that maximize federal support for all students, with particular attention to low-income and historically underserved communities. Recent advocacy efforts have focused on increasing access to and funding for federal Pell Grants, TRIO programs for low-income and first-generation students, public service loan forgiveness, and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and Federal Work Study opportunities, to name a few. ACE has helped lead higher education advocacy efforts for Congress to pass bipartisan legislation protecting Dreamers, undocumented individuals brought to this country as children, and recently worked with other partners to launch a new website, Rememberthedreamers.org, ahead of an expected Supreme Court decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy.

Former college president and top federal policymaker Ted Mitchell became president of ACE on September 1, 2017. Mitchell has a wide array of experience and accomplishments from across the higher education sector, as well as a long-standing focus on helping more students gain access to a postsecondary education and complete their degrees. His background includes service as president of Occidental College, a private liberal arts college; senior administrator at a state university; and trustee of a major research institution.

ACE’s work is also led by professional and administrative staff who are experts in many areas of higher education, come from diverse backgrounds, and have a wide range of experience. Their leadership is guiding ACE and American higher education in to the future. The Council’s core areas of expertise include public policy; diversity, equity and inclusion; student success; adult learners; credit for prior learning; and internationalization.

In recent years, ACE has successfully completed a number of major bodies of work to advance our strategic commitments, including the following efforts:
1) With funding from the Department of Education, ACE is leading an ambitious initiative to explore the use of blockchain in education. The Education Blockchain Initiative is designed to help identify and evaluate ways that blockchain technology can improve the flow of data among educational institutions and employers while empowering individuals to translate educational outcomes into economic opportunity. This effort will include a competitive challenge to fund pilot programs later this year.

2) ACE is designing a Learner Success Lab to help colleges and universities align learning and workforce opportunities to improve student success. A $1.5 million grant from Strada Education Network will allow the Council to research, develop, and pilot a Lab that will provide opportunities for postsecondary institutions to strategize and implement effective policies and practices that help students meet the demands of today’s workforce.

3) In February 2019, the Council released Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education: A Status Report. This seminal report explores the evolving state of race and ethnicity in the higher education landscape and shows that while the number of students of color on our nation’s college and university campuses continues to rise, gaps in access, attainment, and debt levels remain. A second report will be released in 2020.

Importantly, the Council also responds to emergent issues impacting the sector, such as taking steps to mitigate the financial implications, student success obstacles, and other repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education. ACE conducted ongoing analyses of issues such as shifting classes online and the need for grants that fund food, housing, technology, and other supports for students. In response, ACE’s public policy team advocated for more than $50 billion in emergency relief for students and institutions, among other measures. In addition, ACE Engage, the Council’s online digital learning platform, is serving as a central repository and virtual exchange for best practices, tools, and resources for sector leaders.

Over the coming years, ACE will continue its role as the leading coordinating and convening body for higher education through public policy, research, and practice efforts.