Center For The Study Of Higher Education Tabs Caffrey
To Help Enhance Awareness Of Its International Role
December 6, 2000
University Park, Pa. — For three decades, the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Penn State has been a stalwart among research organizations, helping to produce hundreds of highly skilled graduates while pursuing a fundamental mission of improving the basic elements of education: teaching, learning, and achieving.

Today, the center is in the midst of a facelift that aims to strengthen its state and national role as an educational think-tank and enhance the public perception of its purpose.

An interdisciplinary research organization based in the College of Education and partnered with the higher education graduate program, the center engages researchers and policy leaders in examining the challenging issues that confront higher education. The scope of the center’s research, scholarship, and outreach activities embraces campus, state, national, and international levels.

"The changing world of higher education technology, policy, and practice requires creative and flexible responses from our team at the center," said James Fredericks Volkwein, director, professor, and senior scientist at the center. "The complexities of education policy problems — current and anticipated, nationally and internationally — require teams of multi-disciplinary scholars and researchers with diverse perspectives and skills."

A key addition to the team who will help spearhead its progressive attitude is Helen Caffrey.

Caffrey, who played a pivotal role as coordinator of last July’s successful National Governors’ Association meeting in State College, was appointed as the center’s new director of external relations, effective November 15.

Caffrey served in the University’s office of governmental affairs as director of commonwealth relations since 1993, and gained a working knowledge of the center as its advisory board chair over the past two and a half years. Her primary focus in this new role will be to raise awareness of the center and its scholarly work.

"I’m very eager in this new challenge to help advance the capacities of the center and the University in the world of research as it applies to decision-making at various levels — whether it’s institutional, systematic, or public policy," said Caffrey.

Prior to coming to Penn State, Caffrey worked for 17 years in the Pennsylvania Senate as executive director of the Senate Education Committee. She has also served on the State Board of Education for more than six years.

"One of the things I have a personal interest in is making sure there’s an alignment between the academic standards that states are putting in place for their K-12 systems, and making sure that at least the last standard is aligned with the expectations of colleges and universities," she said. "You don’t want to have a sudden disconnect in that continuim."

Along with a new face, a change of scenery also lies ahead for the center. This spring, it will relocate from its current borough location on South Allen Street to a new campus suite in Rackley Building.

"I’m hoping that the synergy of both being in the College of Education and located on campus will improve the dialogue between the center and the University, and will enrich what both of us do," added Caffrey. "There’s an awful lot of expertise in the faculty that can be drawn on to enrich some of the proposals we could put out and the research that we’d undertake."

The center consists of six appointed researchers and additional faculty members who join the staff for certain projects based upon their research and expertise.

Current projects include assessing the effectiveness of distance learning, enhancing undergraduate engineering programs, examining the impact of faculty practices and institutional policy on student learning, and a study of issues facing disadvantaged students and their pathways to success in the completion of higher education. The group also comprises a well-known assessment institute that helps organizations build and implement quality assessment practices.

Contact: Tysen Kendig, Department of Public Information, (814) 865-7517 or .