Giving Compass is teaming up with SolutionsU, a platform that connects you to stories about responses to the world’s challenges. SolutionsU is a project of the Solutions Journalism Network: a nonprofit organization that seeks to rebalance the news, providing readers with critical reporting on society's problems and stories that explain how individuals, institutions, and communities are responding.

Want to learn more about solutions journalism? Giving Compass interviewed David Bornstein, co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network, who helped break it down for us.

This week, we are featuring a collection of solution journalism stories from their searchable database, focusing on higher education.

Historically, high schools have funneled students into either a college preparation or a career and technical education (CTE) path. But Tara Garcia Mathewson for the Hechinger Report observes a changing tide in education — "school districts have shifted from preparing students for colleges or careers, to preparing students for colleges and careers." Vocational education has now claimed a space within the walls of traditional comprehensive high schools — and it appears to be there to stay. Some schools, like Tesla in Washington state, are even combining the two formats into the same lesson plan.

What is perhaps most notable is that the changes are happening across the income spectrum. CTE, or vocational coursework, has traditionally targeted students who don't plan to pursue post-secondary coursework. The Chattanooga Free Press explains that it was "often was seen as the ugly stepsister — the path for students who weren't smart enough for a liberal arts education preparing them for college." In the past, minority and low-income students were purposefully tracked into vocational programs.

How you can make an impact in this area:

Help students prepare and thrive. According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, many low-income students who attend two- or four-year colleges fail to move on successfully to non-credit bearing developmental courses after enrollment. Transition courses for high school seniors, coaching and mentorship programs, and dual enrollment could all help reverse this trend. And we cannot forget to support students who struggle with the stressors of college. Active Minds is one organization looking to change the conversation around mental health on campus.

Support data-driven initiatives. Right now, the knowledge about student outcomes in higher education is incomplete, since most of the data is self-reported by universities themselves and contains little information about part-time students or transfers. We need to count everyone, while still protecting people’s privacy. The Christensen Institute argues for a student-level data system. This will help inform which interventions are needed in the field.

Don’t look at only the top of the pyramid. As recently as 2015, the top 120 schools in the U.S. received almost 75 percent of all endowments. But Malcolm Gladwell recently argued that smaller institutions that show effectiveness may need more funding — and that dollars funneled there can have more impact. We also must recognize that innovation in higher ed is happening beyond the traditional institutions, and there are plenty of high impact opportunities in workforce development and vocational training.

Read the full collection about higher ed by Emma Zehner at SolutionsU.