A Stronger Nation
We're tracking America's progress toward the nation's 60% attainment goal.
Featured Resources
Some highlights of Lumina's work
We're sharing tools and takeaways from our efforts to create a better-educated nation.
REACH Collaborative
REACH supports community colleges in six states to embed high-quality non-degree credentials in associate degree programs.
Changing the Narrative on Student Borrowers of Color
A collection of essays from student loan experts sets the record straight on borrowing among students of color.
Community Grants
Our community grants portfolio supports local organizations in our hometown of Indianapolis and around central Indiana.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Hear stories about how HBCU's help students thrive.
Tuition Reimbursement
Meet a few of the workers and employers participating in tuition reimbursement programs.
Lumina Impact Ventures
Lumina Impact Ventures is the Foundation's impact investing arm partnering with mission-aligned social enterprises.
Local Talent Handbook
A guide for local leaders to build talent pool in their communities.
I Want That Job!
A series from WorkingNation on promising career paths for early-career workers
History of Federal Student Aid
A film series documenting the policy and the political origins of federal financial aid programs
Beyond Financial Aid
How colleges can strengthen students’ financial stability, leading to higher completion rates
State Strategy Labs
Lumina supports state leaders’ efforts to increase education levels by offering nonpartisan research, data, peer advice, and technical support.
Degree Qualification Profile
A learning-centered framework for what college graduates should know and be able to do to earn the associate, bachelor’s or master’s degree.
Bridging German and U.S. Apprenticeship Models
Aug. 13, 2021
Apprenticeship is an important workforce development strategy in Germany and is growing in prominence in the United States. Intermediaries, or organizations that facilitate the successful implementation of apprenticeship with employers and apprentices, help ensure a successful and high-quality experience in both countries’ systems. This brief from the Urban Institute compares the German and US apprenticeship…
State of the Field
July 1, 2021
This report presents findings from the 2020 National Survey of Postsecondary Competency-Based Education. The 2020 survey is the third in a series done by the American Institutes for Research. Our goal is to understand the national landscape of postsecondary competency-based education (CBE) and give stakeholders an assessment of the field to inform their actions. Key…
Make It Count
March 11, 2020
This issue brief serves as a primer on past and current developments in prior learning assessments (PLA), including how the strategy can help students bridge workforce and academic competencies, and how it can be incorporated into strategies for workforce development. In the first section, we introduce past and current developments in PLAs. In the second,…
Standardized Components for a Competency-Based Educational Record
Sept. 2, 2019
Higher education today may be under more scrutiny than ever before. As a greater share of the United State and Canadian population attend post-secondary education, holding a credential or having some higher education experience is no longer rare nor necessarily indicative of qualification as it was 50 years ago. Additionally, as costs have outpaced family…
Learning Frameworks: Tools for Building a Better Educational Experience
June 19, 2019
Learning frameworks are tools that specify learning outcomes and/or competencies that define, classify, and recognize educational, learner, and industry expectations of knowledge, skills, and abilities at increasing levels of complexity and difficulty. They are not standards, and they are not limited to academia, but they do allow for alignment, translation, and mapping of learning through…
Moving From the Legacy Student Hour Toward a Comprehensive Measure of Student Learning
May 30, 2019
This publication examines current challenges with the articulation of learning and argues that a new means of articulating learning is necessary. Specifically, drawbacks and inefficiencies developed to accommodate the credit hour measure of student learning are examined. As an alternative, a new competency-based measure of learning is proposed.
The Learner Revolution: How Colleges Can Thrive in a New Skills and Competencies Marketplace
March 14, 2019
This paper incorporates insights from five years of the Education Design Lab’s work with a goal of helping institutional leaders learn from the experiences of their peers. It is designed to support “intrapreneurs” who embrace a mindset shift as the relationship changes between buyers and sellers of postsecondary learning.
State of the Field: 2018 National Survey of Competency-Based Education
Jan. 23, 2019
More colleges and universities view competency-based education (CBE) programs as a model to serve nontraditional students and improve workforce readiness, according to this report from the American Institutes for Research.
Developing an Open, Public-Private Data Infrastructure for the Talent Marketplace
Oct. 29, 2018
This report summarizes and brings to a close phase one of the T3 Network. The report is divided into two parts. Part I focuses on the T3 Network’s vision, guiding principles, and profiles the work groups. Part II highlights the T3 Network’s recommendations, organized as a list of pilot projects that together provide the foundation…
Next-Generation CBE
June 1, 2018
A series of reports from Jobs for the Future examines how competency-based education (CBE) can be adapted to meet the needs of underprepared adult learners and help them earn college credentials to advance in today’s workforce.
How Competency-Based Education May Help Reduce Our Nation’s Toughest Inequities
Nov. 8, 2017
This paper considers how CBE can be used to educate, equip, and empower learners who struggle in postsecondary learning programs because of who they are and where they live. Recommended starting points—places and programs—are provided throughout the paper to highlight where and how CBE providers can prioritize equity.
Focus Magazine Summer 2017: Real-life learning
Sept. 1, 2017
Summer 2017 issue of Focus shines a light on postsecondary institutions that are going all-in on designing programs that are fully competency-based from the ground up. The stories in this issue shows how powerful such an approach can be, especially for students from varied backgrounds and with a wide array of learning needs.
Quality Principles and Standards for Competency-Based Education Programs
May 2, 2017
These principles and standards were developed in response to a growing need for definitions of quality as it relates to competency-based education. They can provide guideposts and assurances to policymakers and accreditors tasked with regulating this vibrant, and still emerging, field of practice.
Competency as a Currency
March 23, 2017
The Right Signals (TRS) Initiative demonstrates a new credentialing model that recognizes multiple quality credentials to send “the right signals” to employers, students, and colleges about the meaning of these credentials. This report provides an early set of findings from the 20 colleges using a new tool called the beta Credential Framework.
Open Educational Resources (OER) and the Evolving Higher Education Landscape
Sept. 9, 2016
Open Educational Resources in higher education have the potential to triple in use as the primary courseware over the next five years, from 4 percent to 12 percent, according to this white paper by Cengage Learning. The study says the use of OER for supplemental learning materials may nearly quadruple in size, from 5 percent…
Expanding Competency-Based Education for All Learners
Feb. 3, 2016
A new brief from Jobs for the Future explores the potential of competency-based education to meet the needs of underprepared adult learners who might benefit from a faster route to college completion.
The CBE Ecosystem Framework
Dec. 23, 2015
This report from Public Agenda offers insight of what competency-based education looks like from the perspectives of learners, higher education professionals, policymakers, and others.
The Student Experience
June 29, 2015
Rising tuition prices and finite public budgets have spawned a lively policy debate about innovation in higher education. In particular, competency-based models have garnered a lot of attention from policymakers, reformers, and funders.
The Carnegie Unit
Jan. 29, 2015
A new report from the Carnegie Foundation examines both the history and effectiveness of the time-based Carnegie Unit, also known as the "credit hour." The report says that while the unit is an important “opportunity-to-learn standard,” the Foundation also supports the testing of new standards, assessments, and accountability models to increase transparency and flexibility in…
Cracking the Credit Hour
Sept. 4, 2012
This report traces the history of higher education's time-based unit of measurement – the credit hour – and argues persuasively for a new approach.