Expanding the Role of the Four-year Institution for Seamless Success in Career Pathways: Advance CTE has published a brief that discusses the challenges facing postsecondary administrators in their efforts to ensure that learners seamlessly transition across two-and four-year institutions while also highlighting strategies at the state and local levels to overcome these challenges. Researchers discovered that approximately 80% of community college learners have the desire to transfer to a four-year college but only 33% of these earners end up completing a transfer.
Strategies and recommendations for policymakers and administrators are described below:
- Implement a regulated and uniform course numbering system to provide learners a clear understanding of courses that match between and across institutions.
- Ensure statewide guaranteed transfers of associate degrees to allow learners with this credential to receive all their credits and junior standing upon transferring.
- Collect and report disaggregated data to support four-year institutions in making more informed decisions.
- Incorporate learner voices into decision-making processes to better understand unique challenges and support student academic success.
One of the states highlighted in the report is Colorado, which is one of eight states across the nation that has all four of the ideal policies -- reverse transfer, common course numbering, transferrable core courses and guaranteed transfer -- named in the report. However, the state did not stop there in its efforts to support learners with initiatives such as the Bridge to Bachelor’s Degree Program saving students an average of $10,000 in expenses.
Adult Education Performance Reports: The U.S. Department of Education has released 2022-23 data for the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA). National AEFLA program year (PY) 2022-23 key metrics and insights are shared below:
- PY 2022-23 saw over 1.1 million enrollees for an annual increase of 22%, representing the largest consecutive growth of all WIOA core programs combined.
- Over 290,000 new youth participants ages 16-24 enrolled in PY 2022-23, which is twice the number participating in WIOA Title I Youth Programs.
- Enrollment for groups such as migrant/seasonal workers, low-income individuals, and youth experiencing homelessness or who have left home all increased in comparison to PY 2021-22 levels, with enrollment in corrections education growing by 16%.
- National performance went up across the board, with the largest rise coming from the Median Earnings during the Second Quarter after Exit indicator at a 9.1% increase.
How Rural Community College-Industry Partnerships Help Communities Thrive: A recently published National Skills Coalition report highlights the benefits that rural community college-industry partnerships bring to learners, employers and the economic prosperity of rural communities.
The report explores the diversity of rural communities, sharing that agriculture and mining make up less than 10% of rural jobs across the nation, with service and manufacturing jobs and small businesses playing major roles in the rural workforce. In addition, clean energy jobs represent a larger proportion of jobs available in rural areas than in urban centers and are growing at a faster rate.
Researchers interviewed 10 community college administrators and 13 issue-area experts across the nation who highlighted successful cases such as Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, which has eliminated silos between credit and noncredit programs and reorganized itself into eight schools organized by industry sector.
Key factors for success and scalable solutions include the following:
- Bridge siloes across systems and industries to prioritize student experiences and adapt to employer needs.
- Design industry partnership programs that help underrepresented learners build the skills and competencies required for good jobs and that lead to quality credentials.
- Invest in direct student financial aid to support learner access to postsecondary pathways and careers with local employers.
- Engage postsecondary administrators, teachers, industry, parents and students directly in the implementation process to allow them to share their nuanced understanding of potential solutions to the issues facing rural institutions.
Comments