Competence-based education (CBE) is increasingly popular because of the flexibility it provides for students seeking a postsecondary credential. While CBE programs have terms of study like traditional higher education programs, students become proficient at competencies at their own pace. Because learning can occur outside the classroom, students can earn degrees at a distance, and fit school around their schedules. Flexibility in time and place and a focus on demonstrated learning make CBE an ideal way to promote access for students traditionally underserved by higher education – often first-generation working adults who seek a credential but cannot fit traditional approaches into their lives – and potentially reduce costs and time to degree.
A recent report from Pew Charitable Trusts provides a state-by-state analysis of the dramatic changes in state and federal funding streams for higher education. Case in point: From 2000 through 2012, spending from federal sources per full-time-equivalent student increased by 32 percent, while state spending dropped by 37 percent, the report says.
Part 3 of 6: Chronicles the history of the program from its bipartisan legislative origins through its various selected subsequent iterations. This 14-minute film documents several key changes to the Pell Grant program including efforts to broaden and limit student eligibility, ebbs and flows in funding, increases in the maximum award levels, and the creation of supplemental programs for Pell recipients.
A working paper from the Community College Research Center identifies and analyzes the “deliberative structures” used by colleges and universities to respond to performance funding demands and the factors that aid or hinder in their success. The paper uses data from telephone interviews with more than 200 college personnel at nine community colleges and nine public universities in three states: Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee.
A new report from the Community College Research Center examines how states developing performance funding systems can support public colleges and universities so that these institutions have the capacity to identify and analyze barriers to student completion.
Competency-based education, in which credit is provided on the basis of student learning rather than credit or clock hours, has the potential to "streamline the path to a college degree for a significant number of students," says a new working paper from the American Enterprise Institute. The paper offers insight on the definitions, scale, and finances of CBE.
State funding for public higher education institutions has declined by 12 percent from 2003 to 2012, while tuition costs increased, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. The effect of this trend is leaving more students and families unable to afford college, the report says.
A policy brief on state-funded lottery scholarships concludes that using lottery revenues to fund educational programs may create more challenges than resolutions. According to the report’s authors at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, lottery proceeds “rarely match projections” and because would-be scholarship students often must apply for Pell grants before getting state aid, states wind up disproportionately spending lottery funds on wealthier students.
Critics of higher education have a point: Average inflation-adjusted tuition has gone down, but remains too high. Degrees pay off, but too many grads struggle finding good jobs.
We often hear that a bachelor’s degree pays off, literally, long-term, but is that always true? And how do short-term credentials like certificates and training badges really compare?