It’s been two years since spring break 2020 where many of us left our campuses and were not able to return. Two years of ups and downs with living and teaching through a global pandemic. Let’s take a moment and reflect on how these two years have affected us and how we might take these lessons learned to move into a new future.

According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey in October 2020, men accounted for 71% of the decline in enrollment numbers compared with five years ago. While enrollment overall has been dropping, the loss of males has occurred at a higher rate than females. It appears that is simply due to fewer men applying for college. Leaving many to wonder, where are men going?

It can be challenging to get to know your individual students at the college level as you do not see them frequently and likely have no prior connection. Building positive, personal relationships with your college students takes time and effort, but putting in that little extra work is well worth the results.

It’s no secret that higher education has an equity gap problem. But this isn’t a new issue or one caused by COVID-19. This has been an ongoing concern for far too long. Let’s take a look at what educational equity is, how it’s affecting our education system, and how implementing effective developmental math redesigns can aid in eliminating equity gaps.

When students are engaged in project-based learning, the classroom becomes an active community.. Students are using mathematics practices, talking, and working together to solve problems and complete complex tasks. Students often think of PBL as fun, unaware of the intense learning that’s taking place. It’s necessary to purposely assess this learning during PBL instead of using traditional testing. By doing so, evidence can be evaluated by rubrics through PBL.

In a recent article in the Chronicle for Higher Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education president Brian Rosenberg challenges higher education to create real change while addressing the current crisis. His suggestion is, to begin with, the goal.

Higher education already had problems before Covid-19. The inconsistent and inequitable solutions colleges and universities were implementing to improve retention, persistence, and completion are insufficient. Remote learning only made the problems more apparent. Here’s what we’re doing to change that.