In December, the University of Arizona’s veterans center moved into a new space of 3,800 square feet. Nicholls, the assistant dean, shows a visitor the computer lab, a lounge and a quiet area where students unwind. He talks about the “vets-tutoring-vets” program and a résumé-writing course. He points toward a display of military patches and nameplates. “In the military, your job defines who you are,” he explains.
People are struggling right now to find jobs, pay bills, and care for family. Located within those struggles is the need to upskill or reskill to be equipped for available jobs and better opportunities. Community-based organizations (CBOs) provide a critical means of support. They create new pathways to education and employment and help fill gaps for career guidance and navigation for institutions with limited capacity. They are helping meet adult learners’ needs, especially now when they are most urgent.
If you tell an audience these days that the way to solve big national problems is to reorganize the federal government, you’re liable to get laughed offstage. And I can understand why. Not only is faith in the federal government at near-historic lows, but the record of some past efforts at federal reorganization does not necessarily inspire confidence…
The U.S. is making slow, but steady progress in the number of Americans who hold high-quality credentials beyond high school diplomas. New data on nationwide postsecondary attainment released today by Lumina Foundation in its latest A Stronger Nation report indicates that 40.4 percent of working-age Americans (ages 25-64) held high-quality two- or four-year degrees in 2014, the latest U.S. Census Bureau (American Community Survey) figures available, up slightly from 40.0 percent in 2013.
Lumina President and CEO Jamie Merisotis articulates Lumina's vision for the fundamental redesign needed in higher education to get from a system focused on institutions and based on time, to one focused on students and based on learning, at an annual symposium of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities.
Entrepreneur Helen Adeosun is a scholar and a striver, but she’s spent plenty of time in the trenches. Along with degrees from Notre Dame and Harvard, Adeosun boasts a wealth of work experience—as a babysitter, a nanny, a teacher, a social worker, and a home-health aide. All of that learning served her well as the co-founder and CEO of CareAcademy, a Massachusetts-based firm that produces instructional modules that home caregivers use on mobile phones or tablet computers. Adeosun, the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, launched CareAcademy in 2013. It now has more than 200 home-health companies as clients.
Something is rotten in the world of men. Across America, boys are now significantly less likely than girls to earn a high school diploma (a gap of 6 percentage points), go to college (14 points), or enroll in grad school (nearly 20 points).
The Bard Prison Initiative started small – just a handful students at a small New York college who fought back against cuts in federal funding for prisoners taking college courses. Today, BPI is a widely recognized success. The program is offered in six medium- and maximum-security institutions across New York state, enrolling more than 300 students in a high-quality liberal arts program and helping hundreds of ex-offenders adjust to life on the outside.
Oral arguments before the Supreme Court at the end of this month will provide a dramatic setting for the national debate over the fairness of race-conscious admissions in higher education.
In a town marked by partisan gridlock, criminal justice reform conversations in Washington have surprisingly moved beyond those frequent stalemates. Yes, challenges and disagreements endure, but access to higher education for people in prison has gained new levels of attention and support. The boost in momentum has catapulted issues like restoring Pell grant access into policy conversations in a way that it arguably hasn’t been before.