New funding approach appears to be working in Indiana. Lumina CEO Jamie Merisotis and Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Teresa Lubbers review outcomes-based funding research from Philadelphia-based Research for Action.
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.
Higher education, depending who you talk to, is a generator and transmitter of knowledge, a provider of opportunity and social mobility, a trainer of skilled workers for employers, a driver of economic development or any or all of the above. But alongside its lofty goals, it is also a big, complex $600 billion business that provides paychecks to four million people.
To support quantitative research into the effectiveness of outcomes-based funding in 14 states and isolate the effects of such funding in a single state pursuing a student success agenda.
Kevin Corcoran leads Lumina Foundation's strategic communications team. Before assuming this role in late 2016, he spent eight years overseeing design and policy work that promoted development of new higher education business and finance models. His areas of expertise include competency-based learning, state authorization of online degree programs, and outcomes-based funding.
To support Research for Action’s efforts to share findings of a mixed-methods research study into the effectiveness of outcomes-based funding.
To support Research for Action's efforts to share findings of a mixed-methods research study into the effectiveness of outcomes-based funding.