In 2021, California made major new investments to advance its commitment to early childhood education through universal preschool. One important investment was extending state funding for transitional kindergarten (TK), previously just for older 4-year-olds, to all 4-year-olds by 2025-26. To ensure the quality of new preschool investments,…

"Investigating the Impacts of College Closures on Student Outcomes" is the first of three planned novel reports, co-authored by SHEEO and the NSC Research Center, seeking to quantify the impacts of college closures on students' subsequent postsecondary enrollment and completion outcomes and to identify the policy levers states may have…

Increasingly, colleges and universities are being compared and evaluated based on the outcomes that their students experience. While both self-evaluation and accountability are valuable, one should be careful that the right outcomes are measured. Using data from 21 community colleges, we find that traditional measures often ignore key positive…

Higher education is enduring a transition across the world. This transition leads to the introduction of technology into the education system and provides opportunities to pursue a degree through online participation. According to Bramble and Panda, globalization plays a vital role in recognizing the necessity of providing online learning…

A plethora of micro-credentialing research and pilots are underway across Canada and around the world led by academic researchers, government, and industry. The intensity is creating a perfect storm of opportunity that is reframing assessment practices. Exploring their utility for admission and transfer into higher education, the focus of this…

Early Childhood Education (ECE) programs are an important investment in Ohio's youngest learners. Ohio has worked to increase the availability of high-quality early learning programs for preschool children by providing the Early Childhood Education grants. Funded programs deliver high-quality, comprehensive learning environments focused on healthy…

Economists, policymakers and other experts spend a great deal of time talking about the "future of work," but in many ways, the future is already here. Profound changes are already affecting our workforce and economy, including globalization, automation, and artificial intelligence. We need to adapt to these changes by adequately…

The quality of care children receive from birth to kindergarten sets them on a trajectory for successful entry to school. Children who receive high-quality care, which is provided by qualified early educators with demonstrated mastery of the essential early learning core competencies, enter school ready to learn. Shortages of credentialed early…

We determined that significant differences existed between assessment scores of at-risk children taught by assistant teachers with different levels of education using standardized assessments (Teaching Strategies GOLD [TSG] and Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening [PALS]). A 1-way MANOVA indicated that assistant teachers' level of education…

States face transformational disruptions in education and work that have further widened skill and equity gaps. Area technical centers (ATCs) are under-utilized public educational institutions that are powerful tools in expanding equitable pathways for learners to gain postsecondary credentials that lead to meaningful careers while helping states…

Career pathways aligned with regional labor markets are foundational structures put in place to ensure that youth are best positioned for economic advancement. While it is not difficult to describe an aligned pathway (also called a program of study) at a high level, actually designing a pathway with all of the required details is challenging. The…

New America analyzed the national landscape of educator micro-credentials (MCs) to determine how to best harness their potential to more successfully attract, develop, and retain great teachers. We find MCs to be a promising alternative to more traditional (and largely ineffective), compliance-focused teacher professional development, as well as…

Higher Education Institutions (HEI) are facing a potential challenge at questioning the means and method as to how education is delivered and learning is credited. The leading agent for this change is online learning and transfer of credit for potential employment. The aim of this paper is to look into these questions by raising the questions…

This article demonstrates that foreign-born adults in Europe tend to participate less in adult education activities compared to native-born adults living in the same country. However, this is mainly explained through the job-related nature of nonformal education. Foreign-born adults tend to participate more in formal adult education than…

The research question of this study was: How do the lack of cultural capital and the demand for academic credentials dictate educational opportunities and the enrollment of vulnerable student populations at for-profit schools? This study examined the enrollment of students, especially those of lower-socioeconomic status in for-profit schools. The…