Late last year, the Martin Center debuted a major new resource for readers seeking state-by-state higher-education analysis and policy coverage. The project is a small part of the Martin Center’s growing focus on state policy outside of North Carolina.
Our Analysis by State landing page is a centralized, interactive hub that lets users explore Martin Center research, commentary, and policy analysis sorted by state. Users can click on a map to immediately access relevant articles, reports, and reform coverage. Readers will find hundreds of articles about (almost) every state in the nation.
By organizing analysis geographically, the Martin Center helps build a reform network that spans state lines. This new tool spotlights the reform efforts that matter most—those taking place at the state level. It will help create engaged citizens by providing localized policy insights from on-the-ground experts. This local knowledge can help inform discussion and drive policy change in the states.
This feature strengthens reform efforts by giving reformers, policymakers, journalists, and trustees clear visibility into what other states are doing. Our Analysis by State page makes policy diffusion easier, allows stakeholders to compare reform strategies, highlights best practices and cautionary tales, and encourages the replication of successful models. By organizing analysis geographically, the Martin Center helps build a reform network that spans state lines.
Using this tool, readers will find coverage of legislative initiatives, analysis of promising (and not-so-promising) state higher-education reforms, and commentary tailored to each state’s unique policy environment. Martin Center op-eds, research, blueprints, and press releases about each state will all be included.
As always, our coverage includes a wide variety of higher-education topics, from university governance and transparency to general education and academic quality. A few examples of our work across the states include:
- Blueprint for Reform: Indiana by the Martin Center’s staff;
- “A Triumph for Civic Renewal at America’s 250th: A Texas Program Aims to Improve Civic Literacy in Underserved Communities” by Richard A. Johnson III and Thomas K. Lindsay;
- “Who Will Control the Virginia Military Institute? Two Pending Bills in the Commonwealth Would Place Democrats in Charge of the Senior Military College” by Bob Morris, Col. USA (Ret.);
- “Wyoming’s Higher-Ed Funding Choice: The Cowboy State Needs to Expand Opportunity, Not Give UW a Blank Check” by Jovan Tripkovic.
We believe that many of our readers will benefit from this new tool, including state legislators and policy staff, university trustees and system officials, journalists covering higher education, donors and reform advocates who are interested in replicable policy solutions, and citizens seeking accountability in their public institutions.
We invite all of our readers to try out this new feature. Explore your state’s page, share resources with colleagues, and let us know if something worth covering is happening in your state capital. The Martin Center remains committed to equipping state leaders with research-driven solutions; this tool will help serve that purpose.
Higher-education reform is not theoretical; it is happening now in state capitals across the country. Our new Analysis by State tool helps keep citizens and stakeholders informed and engaged in that process.
Jenna A. Robinson is president of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal.
Martin Center content may be reproduced with permission. Please write to republish@jamesgmartin.center. All republished articles should include our reporter’s byline and must prominently name the Martin Center as the original publisher.
Author
Jenna A. Robinson
