College Completion

Article describes effort by Gates Foundation and HCM Strategists to use student financial aid to provide incentives to help students attain a high-value credential. (Inside Higher Ed, 08/07/12)

KCTCS Learn on Demand program offers 3-5 week-long modules and full 15-week courses, which include modules. Modules build toward complete courses for accredited, affordable degrees, certificates, and diplomas.Working adults are the target audience.

Kentucky's Learn on Demand program reaches out to working adults with competency-based, self-paced online courses. (Inside Higher Ed 08/06/12)

Provides a primer on competency-based education in postsecondary education; introduces four elements of disruptive innovation theory and how they could apply to education initiatives; and offers recommendations for policymakers on how to facilitate disruptive innovation to transform higher education. (Center for American Progress, June 2012)

Analyzes earnings by field of study, sex, race/ethnicity, and program length; looks at the demographic characteristics of certificate holders; and analyzes the institutions that most commonly award certificates and the states where certificates are most prevalent and provide the highest earnings returns. (Georgetown University Center on Education, June 2012)

The paper finds that excess credits accounted for about 12% of all college-level credits earned by students who completed a degree, with substantial variation in different programs. Discusses possible reasons contributing to excess credits and offers ways to assess the extent and nature of excess credits for their students. (Community College Research Center, April 2012)

Summarizes preliminary results from performance-based scholarship programs in Ohio, New York, and New Mexico, in addition to the original results in Louisiana. The results show modest but positive effects on markers of academic progress, including increases in credits earned. (MDRC, May 2012)

Describe four mechanisms that allow students to convert or exchange their college credits and prior learning assessment for academic credit. These include: articulation agreements; prior learning assessments; services to support transfer and prior learning; competency-based programs. Offers recommendations for policymakers.

Includes fact sheets detailing the current status of college completion among Latinos in each state. Each fact sheet includes state-level data on the population, representation among K-12 students, educational attainment of adults, multiple measures of equity gaps in degree attainment, and examples of promising practices for improving Latino college completion. (Excelencia in Education, April 2012)

Examines issues related to and makes recommendations to increase degree and credential attainment by Virginia's working-age adults (age 25-64), and to tailor programs to more effectively serve these non-traditional students. (State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, April 2012). Also see Report Summary. http://www.schev.edu/Reportstats/ALBookletFinal.pdf?from

Measures progress toward Lumina Foundation's goal to increase the percentage of Americans with high-quality degrees and credentials to 60% by the year 2025. Includes completion rates for individual states and for the 100 largest metropolitan areas. Suggests steps to reach the 2025 goal. (Lumina Foundation for Education, March 2012)

Finds that students who enrolled in a student success course in the first semester were more likely to earn college-level credits and were more likely to persist to the second year. Also finds that students referred to remedial education were more likely to earn college-level credits if they enrolled in a student success course in their first term. (Community College Research Center, February 2012)

Analyzes students' transfer behaviors to better understand their postsecondary pathways. Among the study's findings: One third of all students transferred at least once within five years; the majority of transfers occurred in students' second year; part- and full-time students had similar transfer rates over five years; and over one quarter of all transfers crossed state lines. (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, February 2012)

Urges policymakers to focus the mission of community colleges in three core areas: basic skills education, career technical education and preparation for transfer to four-year universities. The Commission called for shifting adult basic education from the state education department to the community college system, and for giving more authority to the chancellor to oversee the campuses. (Little Hoover Commission, February 2012) Link to executive summary: http://www.lhc.ca.gov/studies/210/Executive%20Summary.pdf

A series of reports on educational attainment; fields of bachelor's degrees; and the relationship between attainment, fields of study, and occupation and earnings. (U.S. Census Bureau, February 2012)

Report found that an increasing number of students who borrowed to finance their college are dropping out. Those who dropped out were far more likely to default on their loans, had higher unemployment rates and made less money than those who graduated. The trends were more pronounced in the for-profit sector. (Education Sector, February 2012)

Presents the next step taken by the Cross-State Data Work Group: a comparative analysis of a comprehensive set of intermediate milestones and final measures of success that practitioners and policymakers can use to rethink and remake their approaches to increasing student achievement.(Jobs for the Future, February 2012)

Explores 13 promising practices for strengthening community college student engagement and success. The practices include assessment and placement, support services, remedial education, academic alert and intervention, and others. (Center for Community College Student Engagement, February 2012 )

Highlights the challenges nontraditional students face to completing college credentials, best practices from states and colleges, and ideas of how the federal government could help, particularly by improving data collection and financial aid. (Advisory Committee on Student Financial Aid Assistance, February 2012)

Outlines recent policy changes in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas that relevant to the completion agenda, political environment, and governance to show progress in the Completion by Design initiative. (Jobs for the Future, January 2012)