ERIC Number: ED673396
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Jun
Pages: 21
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Some College, No Credential: A 2025 Snapshot for the Nation and the States. Sixth in the Series "Some College, No Credential"
J. Cohen; J. Causey; B. Randolph; M. Holsapple; D. Shapiro
National Student Clearinghouse
Today, nearly 43.1 million people are stopped out of college without a credential. Of these, 37.6 million are working age adults under age 65. As states look to increase the skills of their labor forces and institutions confront changing demographic realities, re-engaging with these "Some College, No Credential" (SCNC) individuals has never been more crucial. In this year's report--the sixth in the series on SCNC individuals and their re-engagement with postsecondary education--the authors provide a brief update on changes to the SCNC population between the start of the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years. This report also provides updates on outcomes for SCNC learners, including re-enrollment, perseverance, and first credential earning in the 2023-24 academic year. The authors then turn to important learnings across the last three years of reporting on this population. This includes consistent patterns in the structure of the SCNC population and their re-engagement with higher education, as well as insights gained across the last three years. The reporting reveals both persistent growth in the SCNC population and promising avenues for states and institutions to re-engage SCNC individuals. Both the overall SCNC population, and the working-age SCNC population (those under age 65), have increased in each of the three years. All fifty states and the District of Columbia have larger SCNC populations today than they did at the start of the 2021-22 academic year. Moreover, demographic disparities in SCNC re-engagement and outcomes have persisted even as students saw gains in key metrics such as perseverance and credential earning in 2023-24. The authors have also focused attention on two important subpopulations--Potential Completers and Recent Stopouts--who reengage with higher education at higher rates. Potential Completers have already completed two academic years of fulltime equivalent enrollment in the last decade. Recent Stopouts were last enrolled four to five academic terms prior to the start of an academic year. In addition, the authors have highlighted a third group of SCNC students: those who earn credentials without having to re-enroll. This year, the report highlights how this set of students reflect--in part--positive advances toward awarding credentials to SCNC students for academic progress they have already completed.
Descriptors: Educational Attainment, College Students, Stopouts, Credentials, Reentry Students, Academic Persistence, College Enrollment
National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Available from: National Student Clearinghouse. 2300 Dulles Station Boulevard Suite 300, Herndon, VA 20171. e-mail: service@studentclearinghouse.org; Web site: http://www.studentclearinghouse.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Lumina Foundation
Authoring Institution: National Student Clearinghouse Research Center
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A