News & Views posts.
One of the first things I learned after joining Lumina Foundation in 2003 was just how steep a learning curve I faced in understanding the educational crisis.
Short on time and money, adult learners increasingly are seeking credentials that lead directly to better jobs or promotions. In fact, research shows that two-thirds of adult learners considering further education prefer career-focused options over degrees.
New numbers for Black Americans eager to improve their lives with college degrees are alarming: Only 34 percent hold degrees, and half “stop out” of or left four-year colleges within six years. Worse yet, their college enrollment numbers are steeply declining, down another 30,000 this past fall.
The new data are clear: More Americans are learning and training beyond high school to pave powerful paths to well-paid jobs. But progress amid challenges is slow, leaving too many adults without college degrees or other credentials to struggle in their careers and lives.
Lumina Foundation today released an updated A Stronger Nation, the foundation’s online tool for tracking the share of working-age adults with degrees or other credentials of value. The national post-high school education rate among adults 25 to 64 years old reached 53.7 percent in 2021, an increase of nearly 2 percentage points since 2019 when the percentage was 51.9.
Lumina Foundation has long advocated for the goal of more of Americans earning college degrees or other high-quality credentials. In this episode of Work in Progress, Courtney Brown, vice president of strategic impact and planning for Lumina Foundation, joins me with an update on the nation’s progress toward that goal.
In 2008, when Lumina Foundation committed to at least 60 percent of U.S. adults earning college degrees and other credentials by 2025, we did something that set us apart from most national funders.
There’s good news and bad in a new report on college student success rates. While many U.S. colleges are improving graduation rates for full-time students, we continue to see achievement gaps for Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic students, students 25 and older, and part-time students.
Problem solving and communication are among the ‘durable skills’ in huge demand as the global labor shortage grows.
Nearly two-thirds of Black students who attend college in California begin their postsecondary journey at a community college. But it’s clear they’re not getting the support they need—more than 60 percent leave school without a degree or certificate and without transferring to a university.