Intersect With Earl December 2024

by Earl Buford on Dec 04, 2024

Research continues to explore the disconnect between college expectations and outcomes. The good news is that competency-based approaches, short-term credentials, and traditional degrees add up to real solutions, not a zero-sum result. Also in this edition, we cover two announcements that came out of our 50th annual conference.

CPL Provider Network, new community of practice: It was a pleasure to see record attendance for our 50th annual conference last month in New Orleans. Among the many highlights was the official launch of the Credit for Prior Learning Provider Network. The network provides adult learners with a free, one-stop connection to postsecondary institutions where their prior learning experiences can be recognized. Inclusion on the list is free to CAEL members and available for a fee to non-members. We also announced our newest community of practice, dedicated to military-connected learners. Also free to CAEL members, it brings together training providers, postsecondary institutions, employers, workforce organizations, chambers of commerce, and community-based organizations to share best practices, network, and collaborate on ways to better support veteran learners, workers, and their families. If you’re interested in joining, please complete this interest form.

Stopouts stop believing: A StraighterLine survey of former college students provides the latest evidence about the growing scrutiny of higher education. The results show that prior to embarking on their college pathways, 84% of former students thought a degree necessary for career goals. But after leaving college, that percentage dropped to 34%.

Multiple mindsets of Comebackers: Fortunately, institutions can use research to meet adult learners where they are and provide insight on how to transform stopouts into Comebackers. CAEL’s Dr. Gloria Mwase and Becky Klein-Collins recently coauthored a white paper in partnership with Stanford University and Strada Education Foundation that examines how adult learners view the college degree with "multiple mindsets" that go beyond the financial/career reasons for pursuing college. The lessons provide data-driven insights for postsecondary education providers, employers, and other organizations serving adult learners and workers.

Best of both worlds: Disappointment in traditional postsecondary education pathways has drawn attention to skills-based hiring alternatives. But this shouldn’t be an either-or debate. It should be a both/and dialogue. I recently had the opportunity to make this argument in Diverse: Issues In Higher Education. I also hope you’ll read about our new registered apprenticeship pathway with the Machinists Institute and Renton Technical College. By allowing learners to simultaneously complete an apprenticeship and degree – at no cost to them and while earning a wage – the partnership delivers immediate career impact as well as an academic degree that positions them for continued success along future education and employment pathways. The concurrent apprenticeship-degree model brings a novel solution to critical education and workforce challenges, including labor and enrollment shortages, misalignment between academic programs and workforce needs, and inequitable economic mobility.

Grant opportunity: The Department of Education recently released its Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP)RFP. This discretionary grant program is designed to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education. GEAR UP provides six- or seven-year grants to states and partnerships to provide services at high-poverty middle and high schools. GEAR UP grantees serve an entire cohort of students beginning no later than the seventh grade and follow the cohort through high school. GEAR UP funds, which can be as high as $5M, are also used to provide college scholarships to low-income students. Eligible applicants include partnerships consisting of (a) at least one degree-granting IHE and (b) at least one LEA. Applications are due Feb 03, 2025. If you’re curious about how CAEL might partner on your application, including assisting with crosswalking and articulating CTE and youth apprenticeship programs for college credit, please contact MelissaKaye Sheokski.

CAEL member mention: Congratulations to Northern Michigan University, which is receiving funding from the Michigan Center for Adult College Success to support its focus on adult learners and competency-based approaches. As an NMU associate provost puts it: “If they want any sort of higher education, it doesn’t have to be on the credit side, and it doesn’t have to be a full degree all at once. It can be in smaller chunks. We want to provide pathways so that people can see a pathway from where they are currently to where they want to go in life.”