Opportunity America received a grant from Lumina Foundation to conduct a national research study of community colleges' credit and noncredit occupational education programs and their relationships with employers. Opportunity America contracted with Wilder Research to manage data collection and analysis for the study. The purpose of this study was…

Investing in community college workforce training is a central part of the Biden administration's agenda for improving the lives of American families. Now more than ever, as the nation's economy enters a post-pandemic period of significant organizational and technological change, community colleges are well-situated to help millions of low-income…

The Certification Data Exchange Project (CDEP) was launched in 2012 to provide a model for sharing industry-recognized credential attainment data. Increasingly, employers and education leaders are recognizing the value of industry credentials to verify the knowledge, skills and abilities that students bring to the workforce. As states take steps…

This report examines the structural divide between for-credit and noncredit postsecondary education and the problems it presents for people seeking better jobs with higher pay. It highlights innovative ways that some community colleges are trying to bridge the gap nationally--creating more seamless pathways between credit and noncredit…

As the nation's largest provider of postsecondary education, community colleges are instrumental to workforce development, but measuring student outcomes is challenging after students have left for the workplace. Many states use existing administrative data such as unemployment insurance records to calculate employment outcomes at minimal marginal…

In this article, Bob Woods reports that "Big data" is all the rage on college campuses, and it makes sense that administrators would use what they know to boost student outcomes. Woods points out that community colleges around the country are using the data: (1) to guide the systematic expansion of its curriculum, providing targeted…

The gap that separates so many workers from the prospect of good-paying, stable jobs demands urgent action by states--even as the unrelenting fast pace of economic change makes a sound response all the more difficult and as the "rules of the game" continue to evolve. This is especially true in the Science, Technology, Engineering and…

The gap that separates so many workers from the prospect of good-paying, stable jobs demands urgent action by states--even as the unrelenting fast pace of economic change makes a sound response all the more difficult and as the "rules of the game" continue to evolve. This is especially true in the Science, Technology, Engineering and…

In 2011, the Louisiana Board of Regents (BoR), through the development and implementation of the Master Plan, advanced its vision for the future of postsecondary education by adopting the following three broad goals: (1) Increase the educational attainment of the State's adult population to the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) States'…

Institutions--even entire sectors of the education system--too often operate independently of each other, maintaining discrete student-record systems. This makes it difficult to trace a student's progress through higher education and into the workforce--and that disconnection hampers efforts to improve the system. Only by systematically collecting…

Article VIII of Louisiana's Constitution authorizes the Board of Regents (BoR) to develop a master plan for higher education in Louisiana. This Master Plan provides a broad vision for the State's higher education system and acknowledges its interdependence with the economy and its many contributions towards better lives for Louisiana's citizenry.…

Article VIII, §5 D (4) of Louisiana's Constitution requires the Board of Regents (BoR) to "formulate and make timely revision of a master plan for postsecondary education…" On August 24, 2011, the BoR adopted the "Master Plan for Public Postsecondary Education in Louisiana: 2011" outlining the long-term goals for the State's…