Lumina Creates Task Force to Address Inequity Issues at Post-Secondary Institutions
The Lumina Foundation, a national college access organization, has created a task force to highlight the need for a national response to ensure quality post-secondary programs for all students. Lumina’s Quality Credentials Task Force, consisting of 22 education, policy and workforce leaders, met three times over the course of a year to develop and define a clearer definition of quality credentials. “It was a bit of an experiment,” said Debra Humphreys, vice president of strategic impact at Lumina. “Could we create a framework that would encompass all of those different questions and all of those different factors into one model?” (Diverse: Issues In Higher Education)
Choosing Employers Over College for More Education
Roughly half of American adults without a college degree (46 percent) said they need additional education to advance in their careers, according to new survey data from the Strada Education Network and Gallup. Employers were the first-choice providers for this group, with 33 percent saying they are most likely to participate in additional education and training from employers. Community colleges were next (23 percent), followed by trade schools or programs (21 percent), and traditional four-year colleges (17 percent). Slightly more than half of the respondents (53 percent) without a degree said they were likely to enroll in courses or training within the next five years. The survey found that 44 percent of respondents without degrees said they were likely to enroll in courses or training from a work-based setting, compared to 38 percent from a traditional educational institution and 15 percent from an online academic provider.
Why Colleges Are Struggling to Graduate More Teachers
The teacher shortage is growing in the U.S., but it’s an uphill battle for many colleges looking to create more candidates. More institutions are starting boutique programs, taking the time to build relationships with high school and even middle school students to expand the pipeline of future teachers. Although the individual programs may be successful, their collective impact has been small so far. Meanwhile, the teacher deficit is growing. Since about 2012, the number of teachers needed in K-12 public schools has outpaced the number of available candidates. That gap has grown to a shortage of more than 110,000 teachers projected for the 2017-18 school year, compared to 20,000 in 2012–13. And with relatively few students from racial and ethnic minority groups considering teaching, the limited supply of newcomers can have broad-ranging implications. (Education Dive)
Racial Equity and Workforce Development
Only 15 percent of Latino adults have earned at least an associate degree, compared to 27 percent of black adults who were born in the U.S. and 45 percent of U.S.-born white adults, according to the National Skills Coalition. Amid that backdrop, the nonprofit group last week published a “road map for racial equity” in workforce development. The report features nine policy solutions, including to adopt racial equity goals in postsecondary education and workforce development plans; to allow incarcerated people to access Pell Grants for college programs; to invest more in apprenticeships; and to invest in support services such as childcare, food and transportation assistance for students who are enrolled in education and training programs. (Inside Higher Ed)
Solid Foundations: Four State Policy Approaches for Supporting College-Connected Apprenticeships
Existing state policies to support the costs of apprentices’ classroom training at colleges are a patchwork. Some states have implemented effective subsidies to support credit-bearing apprenticeship offerings without any cost to the apprentice; other policies are well-intentioned but counterproductive. Across the country, though, many states already have the policy groundwork to support college classes for apprentices, even with rather modest investments. In this brief, I explore the advantages and drawbacks of four current approaches to funding the classroom component of apprenticeship and provide recommendations for policymakers looking to support college-connected apprenticeships in their state.
