Lumina Foundation is working to increase the share of adults in the U.S. labor force with college degrees or other credentials of value leading to economic prosperity.
GoFundMe, the largest crowdfunding site, has experienced a significant increase in fundraisers for tuition and related expenses over the past year. Experts warn, however, that it's a temporary fix to a systemic affordability issue.
On their fundraising pages, students cite numerous reasons for turning to crowdfunding to support their education. For some, car accidents, job loss, family deaths, or medical bills have left them unable to afford tuition. Administrative issues with federal aid or scholarships they were expecting have left others in the lurch. Others say they simply can’t afford the cost of tuition even with the aid their institution has granted them.
A sweeping new effort to boost college completion has wound up becoming a wrestling match between the nation’s two largest systems of public higher education.
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has now signed a two-bill package of legislation setting parameters for the state’s community colleges to offer more bachelor’s degrees. The laws come after a decade of feuding between the California Community Colleges system, which has pushed to expand its baccalaureate programs, and the California State University system, which has often objected to the degrees, arguing they are duplicative of its existing offerings. But in another twist, the community colleges, which originally championed the bills, ended up opposing much of the final version after a series of concessions to Cal State campuses.
Night classes make it possible for Vanium Vilchez to learn English. The 34-year-old usually works at Norms, a diner-style restaurant chain in the San Fernando Valley, during the day before his 6 p.m. English as a second language class at Los Angeles Valley College, which lasts nearly two-and-a-half hours. By the time he gets home at 8:30 p.m., he barely has time to make dinner and get ready for bed by 10 p.m., so he can be up for work by 6 a.m. the next day.
For some community college students in Los Angeles, taking classes at night is their only option. Some have daytime jobs. Others must care for family members during the day. There are also the unlucky few who couldn’t secure a spot in afternoon or morning classes. Whatever the reason, attending college after dark comes with a host of challenges besides staying awake for lectures.
College students worried about landing a good job after graduation often assume the safest strategy is obvious: Get good grades. Score a prestigious internship. Join the right clubs. But a sweeping new report from Cornell University suggests they may be focusing on the wrong things.
After a year spent examining the future of higher education and engaging with more than 6,000 students, faculty, staff, alumni, government officials and outside advisors, Cornell’s Committee on the Future of the American University identified a striking disconnect between what students think they need to succeed and what employers say they value. The best return may come from the classes and experiences that push them out of their comfort zones, the report says.
For years, education, workforce, and economic development leaders have been trying to come up with a shared language between the supply and the demand sides of the labor market. As head of adult learning and training for the Alabama Community College System and a former U.S. Department of Education official, Nick Moore offers a unique perspective on this data challenge. He has seen and worked within it from both the federal policy level and the ground floor of state implementation.
In this interview, Moore discusses the possibilities of credential transparency, the risks of its absence, and the policy and state-level efforts needed to normalize structured, open data.
When ChatGPT burst onto the scene four years ago, some professors warned that students might use artificial intelligence to cheat. Now many educators’ fears are far more profound: AI, it seems, is hurting their students’ ability to learn and think for themselves.
The technology is too new and changing too fast for definitive long-term data on its impact. But early evidence from some studies suggests that, when used without guardrails, large language models can damage students’ skill attainment. And some faculty members say they’re seeing troubling signs in the classroom: students who turn in polished essays but can’t answer questions about their ideas, students who fumble when trying to explain their code, and students who have trouble with basic math skills.
