Before jumping into our regular roundup of research and data resources relevant to CTE, ACTE would like to share our concern about the recent U.S. Department of Education cancellation of research contracts as well as the reduction in force that appears to essentially eliminate all functions at the Institute of Education Sciences and National Center for Education Statistics, halting critical research and data collection. Read more in our joint statement with Advance CTE.
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Credentials of Value: The Lumina Foundation recently launched a new national goal they aim to achieve: By 2040, 75% of adults in America will have a credential of value that leads to economic prosperity. Lumina defines a credential of value as a post-high school credential that leads to a career paying 15% more than the national median salary for a high school graduate. 
As part of this new goal, Lumina published a data dashboard monitoring the progress of the nation and states in reaching the 75% threshold. As of 2023, 44.1% of adults aged 25-64 in the workforce have a credential of value, including bachelor’s degrees (18%), graduate degrees (13.2%), short-term credentials (7.7%) and associate degrees (5.2%). States and territories have varying percentages of adults with a credential of value, ranging from 22.5% in Puerto Rico’s to 70.4% in Washington, DC.
The findings, which can be disaggregated by age as well as by race/ethnicity, highlight the benefits of adults earning a post-high school credential while also underscoring disparities.
Transfer Enrollment and Pathways: The National Student Clearinghouse recently released data on transfer enrollment for the fall 2024 semester:
- Returning transfer students made up the majority of transfer enrollment (52%), driven by higher growth rates among those transferring after temporarily exiting postsecondary education.
- Although community college enrollment is still below pre-pandemic levels, this sector has gained the most transfer enrollment since fall 2020 (+13.5%).
- Students from two-year schools with a high vocational focus made up a larger share of two-to-four-year transfers in fall 2024 than the year prior (+6.5%).
- Two-thirds of transfer students changed their major.
- Increasing numbers of students transferred into business and health majors compared to fall 2023 (+5.8% and +12.6%, respectively).
- Black (+8.3%) and Hispanic (+4.4%) students saw the largest increase in transfers since fall 2023; white students were the only racial/ethnic group with decreasing transfer rates (-1.3%).
Beyond Transfer: Insights from a Survey of American Adults: Public Agenda has released the results of a survey they conducted to better understand Americans’ experiences with transferring postsecondary credits between schools and their perceptions of obstacles toward earning a degree. The survey was completed by 3,077 adult Americans across the country.
The survey yielded several important findings:
- A quarter of respondents who attempted to transfer credits report that they were able to transfer only a few or none of their credits.
- Thirty-seven percent of respondents reported the credit transfer process to be difficult.
- Twenty percent of respondents had to retake a course they had already completed.
- A higher percentage of white respondents compared to Black or Latino respondents say they successfully transferred all or most of their credits, and more white respondents found the transfer process easy than students from other racial/ethnic groups.
Mapping a Path from High School to Success: A report by Education Strategy Group examines various nursing, cybersecurity and mechatronics pathways to identify trends and best practices.
Across all three pathways, researchers found that most maps included clear outcomes and stackable credentials. The pathway maps also rely heavily on local contexts, such as taking transportation into consideration. Messaging varied from easily understandable maps to complex maps that were confusing. Finally, the researchers noted potential implications for accessibility as some maps impose GPA restrictions, age cut-offs and other requirements that may hinder a student’s access to a pathway.
The researchers also shared findings and recommendations by pathway:
- Nursing: Most course maps follow very similar course sequences even while considering local contexts, meaning that programs may be able to build off other programs’ maps.
- Cybersecurity: Researchers found that the maps were often narrowly focused on obtaining credentials in cybersecurity, not branching out into how cybersecurity can be paired with other IT-related career paths.
- Mechatronics: Maps should explain in plain language what mechatronics is, how it differs from past manufacturing jobs, and what careers it can lead to today.