News and views in higher education attainment from Lumina Foundation

Featured Story

Adult Pathways

Colleges buck enrollment trends by increasing their supports for students

More than 40 million people in this country have attended college but stopped before completing a degree, and I can understand why.

Jamie MerisotisMay 29, 2023

Female college students talk with their male friend after the graduation ceremony.

Research and Evaluation

How do we bounce back from the enrollment plunge? Four colleges show the way.

A new National Student Clearinghouse report says 40.4 million Americans have some college but no degree, up from 39 million a year ago.

Courtney Brown May 24, 2023

Happy volunteers lifting wooden frame together at park stock photo

Today's Credentials

Think carefully before deciding to delay the path to or through college

Taking a break between high school and college, or in the middle of your studies, is tempting. After all, the learning process can be hard, and exhausting. But the times we are in call for caution when it comes to any delays in education.

Jamie Merisotis May 15, 2023

Featured Podcast

Student Supports

Addressing Mental Health on College Campuses

Dakota PawlickiMarch 29, 2023

Wendy Sedlak

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Wendy Sedlak

Wendy oversees the strategic direction and implementation of Lumina's research and data portfolio. This includes establishing and synthesizing the evidence and data necessary to advise Lumina’s strategic direction, documenting effective practices to inform Lumina and the field, and measuring progress and success against key metrics

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Research and Evaluation

Proven strategies help some college students, but not all. We have to fix that.

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.

Wendy SedlakJan. 26, 2023

Adult Pathways

Reaching the ‘transfer gate’ spells college success

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.

Wendy SedlakNov. 21, 2022

Research and Evaluation

“Invisible” catalysts get lasting results for adult students

Catalysts for change often work quietly, but their results speak loud and clear. At education organizations, they’re the people who build strong relationships across stakeholders, support and empower others to design and drive the work, and embrace a “student first” orientation to center students’ needs and aspirations over institutions’.

Wendy SedlakNov. 3, 2022

Competency-Based Learning

All learning counts: Creating new paths to college credit

Today’s students learn skills at work, in life, and many other ways outside of colleges and universities. But too often, skills and knowledge learned outside of traditional classrooms aren’t counted towards a credential or degree or recognized in the job market.

Wendy SedlakJune 8, 2022

Talent Development

These four proven approaches help college students of color succeed

Talent Hubs in Ohio, Missouri, and California are using fresh insights to address educational injustices and increase learning opportunities for all.

Wendy SedlakMarch 7, 2022

Research and Evaluation

Less talk, more action: ‘Talent Hubs’ offer equity solutions

Students across the U.S. are rightfully demanding that colleges and universities go beyond listening to seriously address decades of racial inequity. As one Missouri student leader put it: “(My school) is making some change, but I won’t really give them a win until I start to see institutional change.”

Wendy Sedlak, Dakota PawlickiJan. 19, 2022

Research and Evaluation

These new information tools offer big help to college students and job-seekers

New technology designed with a human touch is helping people make sense of their higher-ed and job-search choices. Amid college enrollment declines and increasing labor demands during the pandemic recovery, programs are popping up across the nation to help students, workers, and job-seekers navigate their choices and find better ways to learn, earn, and contribute…

Wendy SedlakDec. 7, 2021

Research and Evaluation

Alabama and Indiana are helping many more people get education for good jobs—Here’s how

In a time when millions of people need new skills to fill open jobs across the country, we’re learning more about how educators, employers, and government agencies can work together to help them—and help solve the nation’s critical labor shortage.

Wendy SedlakNov. 4, 2021

Today's Credentials

‘Credentials as you go’ can help college students – especially adults and people of color

If we are to reach the goal of ensuring that 60 percent of Americans have college degrees or workforce-ready credentials by 2025, this much is clear: As a nation, we must focus on adult students, especially people of color.

Wendy SedlakMay 18, 2021

Research and Evaluation

How to reach adult students? For starters, talk to them like adults

How can colleges and universities reach and engage adult learners, who are quickly becoming a larger part of their student populations? The answer is: much differently than they did traditional students.

Wendy SedlakMay 12, 2021

Research and Evaluation

Prior Learning Assessment: Give higher-ed credit where credit is due

Giving college students credit for what they’ve learned in life and on the job – known as prior learning assessment – can save them up to $10,000 in tuition and a year of study, new data show. That helps students complete their degrees more quickly and at less cost, at a time when millions of…

Wendy SedlakJan. 26, 2021

Research and Evaluation

Prior learning credits help students cross the finish line to earn degrees

College students lucky enough to know about it are embracing the growing movement toward prior learning assessment, and many say credits earned in this way helped them complete a degree or program they otherwise would not have.

Wendy SedlakJuly 29, 2020

Adult Pathways

Why adults quit college and how to bring them back

From our freshman through senior years of college, my roommate worked tirelessly at Applebee’s Bar and Grill so she could afford to attend school. It’s not easy to balance work and school, but she figured it out.

Wendy SedlakDec. 17, 2019

Affordability

New report, old story: To succeed in college, money matters

College students of limited means receive much less support from Pell Grants today than in the past and have a much lower chance of graduating within six years, a new report shows.

Katherine Wheatle, Wendy SedlakJune 12, 2019