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Policymakers and the public are increasingly concerned about the payoff students and taxpayers receive from government subsidies for postsecondary education. This concern has led advocates and policymakers to call for stronger quality assurance policies for colleges and universities. Past efforts to enact quality assurance policies have focused on minimum graduation rates or student loan repayment progress. More recent proposals focus instead on earnings. Data collection capabilities can now show what graduates earn after completing a credential from a particular institution, creating opportunities to link quality assurance rules directly to the wages gained from a credential. This report examines how earnings change in the initial years after graduates complete postsecondary credentials. The analysis uses new data from the College Scorecard showing earnings up to five years after students complete their educational programs. It focuses on fields with low initial earnings that are likely to fail earnings-based quality assurance policies tests and fields where students go on to achieve high earnings outside the policy's measurement window. [Additional support for this report was provided by the Career Schools Private Education Network.]

Community colleges, known for their open access and inclusion, have seen consistent enrollment declines for several years. At Outward Flats Community College, the research setting in this study, student enrollment has consistently declined and a widening admission yield gap between students of color and white students occurred. The researcher utilized an explanatory sequential mixed methods design to first collect quantitative through a survey prior to collecting qualitative data through semi-structured interviews. The researcher sought to explain students' enrollment decisions and explore the extent to which these decisions vary by race. Quantitative results indicated that students' decisions to attend the research setting were influenced by cost, campus location, academic programs, availability of financial aid, and campus size. Using One-Way ANOVAs, the researcher found statistically significant differences between African American/Black and White students. Compared to White students, African American/Black students were more influenced by college reputation, social activities, faculty expertise, educational facilities, guidance counselors, college advertising, and college published materials. Implications for practice include diversifying institutional marketing and communication strategies and framing the institution's view of students as customers.

Recent higher education accountability policies and proposals have often linked programs' or institutions' federal aid access to students' postcompletion earnings. But proposals differ regarding when to measure earnings. Policymakers may want to know how fast earnings typically grow and when in an individual's career earnings growth rates change. To inform policies that measure earnings after students complete a credential, this brief examines average earnings trajectories for the first 5 years after graduation using program-level earnings data in the College Scorecard and for 25 years in the American Community Survey (ACS). Findings suggest that the effects of an accountability policy that measures earnings after graduation can be sensitive to which year is chosen, particularly for bachelor's and professional degrees.

Leveraging rich data on the universe of Texas high school graduates, we estimate how the relationship between geographic access to public two- and four-year postsecondary institutions and postsecondary outcomes varies across race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status. We find that students are sensitive to the distance they must travel to access public colleges and universities, but there are heterogeneous effects across students -- particularly with regard to distance to public two-year colleges (i.e., community colleges). White, Asian, and higher-income students who live in a community college desert (i.e., at least 30 minutes driving time from the nearest public two-year college) substitute towards four-year colleges and are more likely to complete bachelor's degrees. Meanwhile, Black, Hispanic, and lower-income students respond to living in a community college desert by forgoing college enrollment altogether, reducing the likelihood that they earn associate's and reducing the likelihood that they ultimately transfer to four-year colleges and earn bachelor's degrees. These relationships persist up to eight years following high school graduation, resulting in substantial long-term gaps in overall degree attainment by race-ethnicity and income in areas with limited postsecondary access.

Over the past decade, there has been a significant increase in the number of U.S. institutions offering STEM-eligible degree programs in economics. This paper documents the trends in STEM-degree offerings across degree levels and examines the share of foreign students and other characteristics of institutions that offer STEM-eligible programs. Using a difference-in-differences design, this paper finds that departments with a proportion of foreign students above the sample median are 6 and 9 percentage points more likely to offer a STEM-eligible degree program at the bachelor's and master's levels, respectively, after the STEM designation in 2013. Additionally, the Tobit regression results suggest that early adopters of STEM-eligible programs are associated with a higher share of foreign students, private institutions and doctoral and research institutions.

This report describes results from the Long-Term Impact of Early College High Schools Study--funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) (#R305A210017)--which aimed to explore the long-term impacts of early college (EC) high schools on students' academic outcomes (e.g., college enrollment, degree attainment) and workforce, financial, and later life outcomes after schooling. In this report--the second follow-up report on our initial EC impact study--we focus specifically on key questions about workforce, financial, and other life outcomes: What were the impacts of ECs on workforce, financial, and other life outcomes in the 12th to 14th years after expected high school graduation? Did the impacts of ECs vary by participant characteristics? This report describes findings which build on a previous EC impact study, which was a multisite student-level randomized controlled trial with randomization based on admission lotteries. The analyses in this report focus on individuals who originally participated in 17 admission lotteries conducted by seven ECs for three cohorts of students, and examined outcomes after formal schooling. Key takeaways include the following: (1) Participants who were admitted to an EC, regardless of whether they attended the EC, did not experience a significant effect on any of the workforce, financial, and other life outcomes measured with survey data 12 to 14 years after expected high school graduation; and (2) EC impacts on workforce, financial, and other life outcomes measured 12 to 14 years after expected high school graduation did not differ significantly by individuals' race/ethnicity, low-income status, or prior achievement. While our initial impact study and first follow-up study found that attending an EC had effects on secondary and postsecondary enrollment, and completion for participants with different background characteristics, we found that attending an EC had no impact on any of the workforce, financial, and other life outcomes that we analyzed 12 to 14 years after participants' expected high school graduation. Future studies could consider examining workforce, financial, and other life outcomes in years before the 12th to 14th year after expected high school graduation using administrative data sources (e.g., IRS or unemployment insurance records). Further research may also examine if other factors, such as EC students' college major or labor market opportunities, influence the impact of ECs on longer-term outcomes.

"Scaling Completion" highlights Complete College America (CCA)'s work in 2023 to: (1) Lead the field to improve college completion rates, particularly for historically underserved students; (2) Engage and bring together leaders to eliminate institutional performance gaps; and (3) Build capacity to create and implement data-informed transformative policies and practices. The report also takes a look at their growing impact since their founding in 2009, including increases in the number of degrees and certificates conferred, the numbers of students served, and graduation rates at two- and four-year institutions.

Earlier this year, Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) introduced the College Cost Reduction Act (CCRA), a bill to reform higher education grant and loan programs and to establish new accountability rules for colleges. A key part of the bill would replace the myriad income-driven repayment (IDR) plans for federal student loans, including the Biden administration's Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, with a new repayment plan. The bill features income-based payments, a cap on total payments, and monthly subsidies that waive unpaid interest and reduce principal balances for certain borrowers. In this brief, the authors compare the CCRA plan with the Biden administration's SAVE plan, the most generous IDR plan. The authors also compare the CCRA plan with another version of IDR, the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) plan.

Although more Latinos are entering the STEM workforce, they continue to be underrepresented in high-salary STEM occupations. To ensure America's future, institutions and STEM employers must both play an active role in preparing, selecting, and sourcing Latino talent for a global economy. Excelencia's research demonstrates that select institutions are investing in the recruitment, development, and completion of Latino talent and STEM employers have opportunities to strengthen their workforce. To bridge this gap, Excelencia has analyzed national datasets to connect STEM employers with institutions that are graduating and preparing Latinos for the workforce. This brief identifies the top institutions graduating Latinos (2019-20) in STEM from certificates to the doctorate level. These top 25 institutions are meeting the nation's economic needs by intentionally serving Latino students and producing Latino talent. This brief also highlights institutions and their intentional efforts to support post-completion success by providing educational credentials needed to support the current and future STEM workforce.

The nation is facing a shortage of educators prepared to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. Latinos are the nation's fastest growing population but are underrepresented in higher-skilled occupations in the classroom and overrepresented in supportive roles with lower wages. This shows the need for employers and institutions to create pathways into the field of education as Latinos see the value to educate others and the community. To ensure America's future, institutions and employers in education must both play an active role in preparing, selecting, and sourcing Latino talent for a global economy. To bridge this gap, "Excelencia" has analyzed national datasets to connect employers in education with institutions that are graduating and preparing Latinos for the workforce. This brief identifies the top institutions graduating Latinos (2019-20) from certificates to the doctoral level in education. These top 25 institutions are meeting the nation's economic needs by intentionally serving Latino students and producing Latino talent. This brief also highlights institutions and their intentional efforts to support post-completion success by providing education credentials needed to support the current and future education workforce.

The 2023-2024 AASA Superintendent Salary & Benefits Study marks the twelfth consecutive edition of this report. The 2023-2024 version employed a slightly revised and updated survey instrument. The survey tracked the demographics, salary, benefits, and other elements of the employment agreements of school superintendents throughout the country. This year's study results are based on 2,706 complete responses -- the highest response rate since inception of the study in 1999. The survey was distributed online and relied on superintendents responding to 66 items with the understanding that the report of findings would contain no personally identifiable information. Therefore, readers must consider the data descriptive and not necessarily representative of all superintendents. The study is intended to provide superintendents with actionable information needed to negotiate and manage their compensation and benefits.

In the United States, education-to-career pathways are undergoing a rapid evolution Shortages of skilled workers in many industries have prompted renewed attention to strengthening existing education-to-career pathways, as well as innovating new ones. At the same time, the notion that bachelor's degree programs should serve as the default pathway for all students has come into question. Employers and students increasingly prioritize skill development over degree attainment, and the skyrocketing cost of college has motivated many students to seek alternate pathways. As a result, there has been a sharp rise in efforts to fortify education-to-career pathways through investment and innovation in postsecondary career and technical education (CTE)--an umbrella term for programs that blend education with workforce preparation to equip postsecondary students with technical knowledge and often at least one industry-recognized credential, such as a certification, license, or degree. Postsecondary CTE programs prepare students to meet workforce needs and achieve personal career success. This report explores the state of sub-degree credentialing programs in the United States, highlighting effective practices and pitfalls of these programs. It then provides a case study of the Industry Corps model, exploring best practices related to access, student support, and career preparation, describing the ways in which Industry Corps addresses common challenges faced in traditional sub-degree credentialing programs. The report concludes with lessons learned from Wentworth's pilot of Industry Corps, offering important takeaways for higher education institutions seeking to develop or improve innovative credentialing programs.

Non-degree credentials awarded by higher education programs for students with intellectual disability are a relatively new type of postsecondary education credential. While the requirements of associate, bachelor's or master's degrees are widely understood, many people are not as familiar with the educational pathway leading toward these non-degree credentials and may underestimate their value. This report presents the following six important facts about these nondegree credentials that can help employers and others understand the value of this type of credential: (1) Comprehensive transition and postsecondary (CTP) programs are a specific type of postsecondary program that include academics, career development, personal skill development, and work experiences; (2) Non-degree credentials are not new and have a track record of being valuable; (3) Higher education programs for students with intellectual disability offer a robust and comprehensive course of study leading to the credential; (4) Graduates have a wide variety of experiences that support success in employment; (5) Graduates are ready for continued learning and professional development; and (6) Graduates are likely to be more independent and self-reliant.

This report provides a look at the Fall 2023 term enrollment in categories such as student load, location and demographics of the community college student population. The content and format of this report have been developed through a collaborative effort between the Wyoming Community College Commission (WCCC), the Executive Council, and the Data Governance/Institutional Research Council members representing the seven community colleges. Effective with the Summer 2016 reporting term, data were extracted from the Central Station Instance (CSI) using one report rather than consolidating individual customized reports from all seven colleges.

Veterans who received technical training in the military may be well suited to pursue degrees in STEM. The Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship provides up to $30,000 to assist veterans with continuing qualifying STEM programs after they exhaust their Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. The Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017 includes a provision for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to provide an interim and final assessment of the Rogers STEM scholarship program. This final assessment: (1) reports the number of veterans that pursued and obtained STEM degrees using the Rogers STEM scholarship; and (2) evaluates how consistently VA processes Rogers STEM scholarship applications. GAO analyzed VA administrative data from August 2019 to June 2023, the most recently available data at the time of GAO's analysis. GAO also held four discussion groups with VA staff who process scholarship applications and reviewed relevant VA documents.

This report looks at the provision of A level subjects in England in 2021. Provision in a subject is defined as the number or percentage of schools with at least one student taking the subject. This report was produced using publicly available data from the Department for Education's (DfE) "Find and compare schools in England" service and the dataset consisted of Key Stage 5 (KS5) entry numbers for all subjects provided in each school and college in England. Provision of other qualifications (e.g., Pre-U, International Baccalaureate, Cambridge Technicals, BTECs, etc.) was not investigated. The level of provision is presented by the following school classifications: school type, school attainment, school deprivation level, school sex composition, and school size.

This study leverages national data and a quasi-experimental design to examine the influence of enrolling in an exclusively online degree program on students' likelihood of completing their degree. We find that enrolling in an exclusively online degree program had a negative influence on students' likelihood of completing their bachelor's degree or any degree when compared to their otherwise-similar peers who enrolled in at least some face-to-face courses. The negative relationship between exclusively online enrollment and students' likelihood of bachelor's degree completion was relatively consistent among White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, low-income, and military students. Findings focused solely on those students enrolled in exclusively online degree programs revealed that the negative influence of exclusively online enrollment was exacerbated when the student attended a for-profit four-year institution.

Students in 11th or 12th grade will make important decisions about their post--high school plans, if they have not already done so. Some will plan to enter the workforce right after high school. Others will make decisions about pursuing an education goal. Will that goal be a nondegree credential or an academic degree? For those considering an academic degree, is it still worthwhile to earn a bachelor's degree, or is an associate's degree a better value? Students might find these decisions challenging for societal and economic reasons, including concerns about the value of a college degree and, for many students, the expense of a college education. This study was intended to gather 11th- and 12th-grade students' opinions of their education plans (e.g., their level of confidence in being able to complete their education goals), their opinions on postsecondary education and the value of a bachelor's degree, and information on their primary sources of encouragement (e.g., parents, teachers) for attending college and the factors important to their choice of a college major.

This annual report looks closely at how Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students are progressing on the path to and through high school and college. In particular, the report examines three key milestones--high school graduation, college enrollment, and college completion--and tracks how rates on these milestones have changed across time. These rates are then used to calculate an updated Post-secondary Attainment Index (PAI) which represents the proportion of current CPS ninth-graders who would complete any degree or certificate from a two-year or four-year college within 10 years, if current rates of attainment were to hold constant over the next decade. The 2021 PAI is calculated using the most recent available data: 2021 high school graduation rates, college enrollment rates for 2021 high school graduates, and rates of college completion for 2014 high school graduates.

In 2015, the Minnesota Legislature passed statute 135A.012 Higher Education Goal, which enacted a goal that 70% of Minnesota adults (ages 25-44) will have attained a postsecondary certificate or degree by 2025. In recognition of existing gaps in attainment, the law also sets 30% and 50% educational attainment benchmarks for all races and ethnicities as interim goals. Current estimates show that 63.0% of Minnesotans aged 25-44 years completed a postsecondary credential. This percentage has steadily increased compared to 2015 estimates (57.5%). In order to reach the 70.0% educational attainment goal set by the Legislature, however, Minnesota still needs an additional 104,420 persons age 25-44 to complete a postsecondary credential by 2025. This yearly report provides an update on where Minnesota is at in their state postsecondary educational attainment goal. [For the 2022 report, see ED625506.]

Stakeholders and advocates in Indiana are committed to advancing strategies that improve ECE services, including workforce preparation and development, to ensure that early educators can meet the complex needs of young children. Critical to these efforts is the establishment of a well-coordinated, comprehensive professional preparation and development system that can train and support a diverse generation of pre-service educators, while also strengthening the skills of the existing ECE workforce. This study looks at how Indiana early childhood higher education programs have changed since 2015. The report describes the early childhood degree programs offered in Indiana, focusing on variations in program content, age group focus, and student field-based learning.

This report describes a study of healthcare training programs that CCRC conducted to understand the current role that community colleges play in training healthcare workers, including public health workers. In an analysis of 2019-20 data from the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the authors examine the range and types of healthcare programs offered by postsecondary institutions and the number and characteristics of students who graduate from these programs. Findings from the study provide policymakers and community college leaders a better understanding of the role community colleges currently play and their potential to take on greater responsibility in training healthcare workers.

Baltimore City Public Schools includes approximately 30 high schools, and the characteristics of each school's graduates vary systematically according to schools' admissions policies, curricular areas of focus, and resource availability, which depend on school size, management type, and leaders' priorities. This report summarizes trends in college-related outcomes among City Schools graduates over a ten-year timespan, from 2011 to 2020. The data presented centers on core activities in accessing college, from applying for admission and financial aid, to college enrollment and, ultimately, degree completion. The authors acknowledge that pursuing postsecondary education is but one path to independent adulthood. Many young adults wish to engage in other types of training and preparation that are not represented in this report, such as apprenticeships, on-the-job training, and military service. However, research concludes that individuals with at least some college education have higher lifetime earnings (Kim & Tamborini, 2019), better health outcomes (Kaplan et al., 2017), and greater civic engagement (Campbell, 2009). Moreover, higher education attainment in the aggregate yields benefits for the local economy (Koropeckyj et al., 2017) and greater well-being for the community (Baum et al., 2013). The authors thus offer the data in this report as one means of monitoring opportunity for Baltimore youth and Baltimore City as a whole.

Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) conducted original research on an often-overlooked group of students--parents with children--as they struggle to make ends meet while pursuing academic degrees and certificates. Student parents often face enormous financial barriers to academic success. They report high financial insecurity including issues with food, housing and other basic needs. For students with children, borrowing for postsecondary education may mean accumulating debt without improved labor market outcomes or the financial ability to pay off loans. This is because the financial barriers and logistical challenges, such as inadequate access to reliable child care, student parents face may result in leaving college early without a credential, which has implications for future earnings.

Nearly all states in the United States (45) currently have a postsecondary attainment goal to improve the average education levels of their residents and develop a highly-educated workforce. During a time of accelerated COVID-19 related postsecondary enrollment declines, the question as to how states will meet these goals could be particularly pertinent. While the National Student Clearinghouse's latest enrollment report provides encouragement that these unusually large declines are stabilizing, it is still uncertain when and how higher education will be able to rebound. Re-engaging with the Some College, No Credential (SCNC) population--the former students who stopped out without earning a credential--has been a priority for the many states with these established attainment goals. To succeed in bringing them back into higher education, state and institutional leaders need accurate and timely information about the current SCNC population, their progress, and outcomes upon re-enrollment, which is the focus of this annual progress reporting of SCNC students. This year's report suggests that there is an increasingly missed opportunity for states and institutions to re-engage with SCNC students even as the SCNC population is growing. Between July 2020 and July 2021, the U.S. has added 1.4 million more SCNC students; the SCNC population is now 40.4 million, up 3.6 percent from 39.0 million a year earlier. However, during the latest academic year 2021/22, fewer SCNC students re-enrolled, completed a credential, or persevered to a second year of re-enrollment than they did the previous year. [For the third report in this series, see ED599535.]

The "2023 Nebraska Higher Education Progress Report" is the latest edition of the annual progress report designed to provide the Nebraska Legislature with comparative statistics to monitor and evaluate progress toward achieving three key priorities for Nebraska's postsecondary education system. They are: (1) Increase the number of students who enter postsecondary education in Nebraska; (2) Increase the percentage of students who persist and successfully complete a degree; and (3) Reduce, eliminate, and then reverse the net out-migration of Nebraskans with high levels of educational attainment. This report is a comparative analysis that measures and evaluates performance in respect to each priority. [For the "2022 Nebraska Higher Education Progress Report," see ED619079.]

We examine the potential to expand and diversify the production of university STEM degrees by shifting the margin of initial enrollment between community colleges and 4-year universities. Our analysis is based on statewide administrative microdata from the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development covering enrollees in all public postsecondary institutions statewide. We find that the potential for shifting the enrollment margin to expand degree production in STEM fields is modest, even at an upper bound, because most community college students are not academically prepared for bachelor's degree programs in STEM fields. We also find that shifting the enrollment margin is unlikely to improve racial/ethnic diversity among university STEM degree recipients. This is because community college students at the enrollment margin are less diverse than their peers who enter universities directly.

Starting with the high school graduating Class of 2009, Success Boston has provided transition coaching to Boston Public Schools (BPS) high school graduates, many of whom are from groups traditionally underrepresented in college. In the first few years of Success Boston Coaching (SBC), the program served approximately 300 students per year. In 2015, under a "scale-up" effort supported in part by a Social Innovation Fund grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service, SBC expanded from serving several hundred Boston young adults in each high school graduating class to about 1,000 students per cohort. Beginning with the 2015 cohort, Success Boston also accorded more significant and intentional focus on the coaching of students at two-year colleges as well as on supporting students who are young men of color. The study examines how SBC was implemented, and what effects, if any, SBC has had on students' postsecondary success and completion. This longitudinal study follows five cohorts of students who initially enrolled in college each fall, from 2013 through 2017, immediately after graduating from high school. It looks at whether students who received SBC were more successful in the short-term and long-term in college than a group of similar peers who did not receive SBC. This report examines the effects of SBC on postsecondary completion for the five cohorts combined: the pre-scale-up cohorts (2013 and 2014) and the post-scale-up cohorts (2015, 2016, and 2017). In addition, to complement the 2021 report's focus on the pre-scale-up cohorts' completion, and because it is a common practice to examine how a program's effects change after the program is scaled up, this report also examines SBC's effects on the three post-scale-up cohorts' completion. Finally, as an exploratory analysis, the report also examines how SBC affects students' completion of different types of credentials, such as bachelor's degrees and associate degrees.