News and views in higher education attainment from Lumina Foundation

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Today's Credentials

Why Counting Degrees Matters

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.

Courtney BrownFeb. 1, 2023

An American flag doing its thing—that is, waving in the breeze.

Research and Evaluation

Lumina set a bold goal for a better-educated country 15 years ago. It worked.

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.

Jamie Merisotis Jan. 31, 2023

A Stronger Nation icon shows states in citric colors. They're square.

Today's Credentials

More Adults Earning College Degrees, New Federal Data Show

Lumina Foundation releases 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…

Jan. 31, 2023

Featured Podcast

Communications

Understanding Public Narratives About Workforce and Higher Education

Dakota PawlickiOct. 27, 2022

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

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

Research and Evaluation

Here’s what schools should do about lack of faith in college education and its high cost

Are colleges stuck in the past and no longer beneficial for those seeking a good living? According to a recent survey, yes. Institutions of higher education must focus on outcomes, parental concerns.

Jamie MerisotisJuly 17, 2022

Research and Evaluation

College is worth it, but stress and finances hold students back

The numbers are staggering. Enrollment in colleges and universities fell by 938,000 students over the past two years. This enrollment plunge was largely due to people who decided college wasn’t worth it. Right?

Courtney BrownApril 20, 2022

Research and Evaluation

Stress weighs heavily on those who remain in college, a new Gallup-Lumina study finds

Within the past six months, three-fourths of students in bachelor’s programs and two-thirds of adults seeking associate degrees who have considered taking a break from college cited emotional stress, according to a new Gallup-Lumina report.

April 20, 2022

Research and Evaluation

We can reverse the enrollment plunge to avoid the ‘permanent gap’ in U.S. education

A drastic decline in the number of people going to college in the past two years threatens America’s economic health and is worsening the nation’s racial divide in educational achievement, experts on a Lumina webinar told us.

Courtney BrownApril 15, 2022

Research and Evaluation

Millions are signing up for job training, but are the courses worth it?

Noncredit workforce programs are on the front lines of serving our nation’s need for new skills. But these programs vary widely—raising the question of how to ensure positive results for 5 million students who enroll in these courses every year to build better careers and lives.

Frank Swanzy Essien, Jr.Feb. 22, 2022

Research and Evaluation

Report: Adults, Black students completing college at higher rates than ever before

There is welcome news in a report issued this week from the National Student Clearinghouse. The six-year college completion rate for first-time students attending college full- or part-time and earning bachelor’s and associate degrees is up to 62.2 percent, a 1.2-point increase over the previous (2014) cohort of entering students.

Courtney BrownFeb. 4, 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

Research and Evaluation

Six states lead the way in higher-ed completion—with the help of these students

Lumina Foundation’s refreshed Stronger Nation online tool shows progress–and continuing gaps–across the country when it comes to the post-high school education needed for success today. This is one of series of dives into the material by Lumina’s vice president of impact and planning.

Courtney BrownSept. 7, 2021

Research and Evaluation

Stronger Nation: Progress toward a more talented, equitable nation

Our searchable data tool just got a “facelift.” It now offers fresh insights on where we’re making the most progress with post-high school education and training – and where we’re falling short.

Courtney BrownAug. 18, 2021

Research and Evaluation

Stop ‘brain waste’ by putting college-educated immigrants to work

When a foreign-trained physician is forced to drive a cab to make ends meet, it’s called “brain waste.” A new report by the Migration Policy Institute found high numbers of underemployed college-educated immigrants in the U.S. – with devastating costs to those workers and our nation.

Courtney BrownJune 9, 2021