News Archive

As U.S. policymakers push to create more manufacturing jobs, here’s a disconcerting fact: Most adults who earn manufacturing degrees in Ohio don’t end up working in the industry there. In fact, some leave manufacturing and Ohio altogether.

AI is today's version of the Prometheus story—or it could be without proper safeguards focused on individual rights and responsibilities.

Despite the flame-throwing heat in today’s public discourse, it’s actually possible to find agreement—to weigh two conflicting ideas at once. As F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, that is the test of a first-rate intelligence.

Over the last two years, Lumina has supported the REACH Collaborative, which stands for Racial Equity for Adult Credentials in Higher Education and works with community colleges to help adult students of color attain associate degrees and other credentials.

Higher education is getting at least three things right as colleges and universities pivot to confront some of the greatest challenges in the nation’s history.

If you think about a college’s brand as their reputation—how people experience the college, their perceptions—and what they say about a college, then we know that brand perception matters a great deal in education.

Community colleges across the country need to be creative in how they attract and enroll adult learners in their communities. For small colleges in particular, it’s critical that their touchpoints reach their students where they are, and for 97 percent of the population (according to Pew Research), that’s on their cell phones.

Searches for higher ed-related queries on Google increased on mobile devices last year while decreasing on all other device types.

Next up, we're traveling to Wilmington, NC to visit Cape Fear Community College, the fifth-largest community college in North Carolina, where education and community intersect. What can we learn from this dynamic coastal college? Come along as we meet engaging faculty and talented students and explore a variety of programs that make for an inspiring and exciting college experience.

At Lumina Foundation, we understand the power of a brand. It’s something we think about daily. Are we staying true to our mission? Are we creating experiences with our grantees that are inclusive and designed for success? When people visit our website, walk through our office doors, or interact with our staff, do they have an experience that is memorable, inclusive, and representative of all that we stand for?

Noncredit courses are increasingly popular, with nearly half of all community college students enrolled in these quick, low-cost programs designed to sharpen skills. But are students – hoping for fast career gains – spending their time and money wisely?

The road to higher educational attainment runs through every Hispanic household in America. With a population of 63.7 million, Hispanics are the country’s largest minority group, and today one in every five students in higher ed is Hispanic.

As we talk about the enormous value of education beyond high school to families and the nation, we need to be sure we’re listening, too—something we don’t always do so well.

The U.S. government is making massive investments to update America’s infrastructure so we can meet some of the biggest challenges of this century: addressing climate change, improving economic competitiveness, and safeguarding our supply chain.

Every Fall, school buses are once again a part of our morning commutes. Less obvious are the parents joining in the back-to-school rite of passage alongside their children.

More Hispanic students are seeking educational opportunities after high school, with a notable upswing over the past decade in the percentage of Hispanics earning degrees. But the pandemic brought unfortunate setbacks to Hispanic enrollment, and a new study also reveals other alarming hurdles many Hispanic students face on their educational journeys.

No one disputes the need for more—and better—news coverage that helps us make sense of an increasingly complex world. We need local angles on national news, better statehouse reporting, and more explainers and in-depth coverage of local communities.

These are odd days for American higher education. More and more Americans doubt the value of going beyond high school. From 2016 to 2022, the proportion of young Americans choosing to continue their education after graduating from high school dropped significantly—from 70 percent to 62 percent.

There are many reasons why only half of American adults have an education credential beyond high school, and we’re starting to see one of the biggest: Communication. Too often, we simply talk past each other. Take these points, for example: A bachelor’s degree is worth $2.8 million, on average, over a lifetime. Someone with a […]

coalition of 22 donors announced Press Forward, a national initiative to strengthen communities and democracy by supporting local news and information with an infusion of more than a half-billion dollars over the next five years.

INDIANAPOLIS—Bachelor’s programs are losing students at shocking rates. Test-optional policies have become the norm. And more recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against considering race as a factor in college admissions. To transform how potential students get into college, Lumina Foundation is launching The Great Admissions Redesign, a challenge to find and support the best ideas on how to simplify the admissions process.

State restrictions risk undermining efforts to create a more racially equitable workforce, Kermit Kaleba and Kysha Wright Frazier write.

Our latest national poll on the value of higher education doesn’t beat around the bush. At a time when many Americans wonder if a college degree is worth it, the poll bluntly asks: What is education really for? Overwhelmingly, people responded that their education has helped lead to greater well-being.

U.S. adults with a post-high school education have better health and well-being, are more likely to have jobs that align with their natural talents and interests, and increased civic engagement

We’re always stronger together—and that includes the effort to fix our system of education and job training.

There is a staffing crisis in healthcare - a crisis that is so bad, that some are calling it a national emergency. To meet today’s and tomorrow’s labor demand, leaders need to provide clear and supported career pathways to adults already in the workforce. In this episode, Dr. Jill Buban of EdAssist joins us to talk about their work developing new career pathways, and describes what it takes to make a talent-focused partnership work. Dory Manner of Yale New Haven Health and Gerard Camacho of Atrium Advocate Health discuss the important steps healthcare employers need to take to attract, develop, and retain talent in critical areas.

When Great Falls College Montana State University applied for The Million Dollar Community College Challenge, college officials expressed a strong desire to strengthen brand identity and engage the community.

My whole life I’ve been curious about exoskeletons. As a child, I dreamed about building one for humans. Well, while Sarcos beat me to the punch with its wearable robotics, it hasn’t quashed my fascination with how humans and technology form a symbiotic relationship.

Next up, we're traveling to the U.S. territory of Guam to visit Guam Community College, which is steeped in history and culture, and all in on workforce programming. There’s never been a stronger sense of community in college. Guam Community College might be far from the mainland United States, but its faculty and staff are working tirelessly to improve opportunities close to home.

The bedrock for brand strategy is a well-defined brand positioning statement, which follows a WHO-WHAT-HOW framework. A brand positioning statement is aspirational, authentic, forward-facing, grounded in truth, and easily digestible. It is an internal-facing statement that articulates a community college's core promise to learners and expresses the competitive difference and value it provides. It is the foundation on which all marketing plans should be built.