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.
This Policy Snapshot explores need-based financial aid programs across the country and highlights state program examples, grant and scholarship expenditure amounts, and recent legislative activity.
This working paper from the Community College Research Center examines the effects of receiving a modest Pell Grant on financial aid packages, labor supply while in school, and academic outcomes for community college students.
A report from rpkGROUP proposes that competency-based education has the potential to produce significant cost savings for colleges and students alike, while also offering students faster pathways to demonstrate content mastery. At the same time, the report emphasizes that the advantages of CBE require “patient capital,” as the time to reach the point where annual revenues at least equal operating expenses may take five years or more.
Financial aid influences both college enrollments and completions, but this working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows its impact may continue for years. Scholarships recipients are more likely to earn a graduate degree, own a home and live in higher-income neighborhoods, less likely to have adverse credit outcomes, and are more likely to be in better financial health than similar students who did not receive scholarships, according to the paper.
Data can be an effective tool in changing the culture of a postsecondary institution to one that produces improved student outcomes, states a new report from The Education Trust. The study highlights four colleges and universities that have successfully used data to address and remove obstacles to student success.
When the idea of tying appropriations for the public universities in Texas to performance funding first emerged, there was one exception to the opposition from the higher-education establishment: the state’s technical colleges. The 50-year-old Texas State Technical College System jumped at the opportunity to prove its worth to lawmakers and the public.
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.
This study suggests that a risk-based approach is a better way for states to authorize postsecondary institutions – what requirements exist for postsecondary schools regarding inputs and consumer protections, and how long authorization takes.
This report traces the history of higher education's time-based unit of measurement – the credit hour – and argues persuasively for a new approach.