Nearly half of students who enter college do not graduate. The majority of efforts to increase college completion have focused on supporting students before or soon after they enter college, yet many students drop out after making significant progress towards … Continued
In close partnership with the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), and the Ascendium Education Group, we are developing a job recommendation algorithm and an accompanying intrusive career advising intervention to support community college graduates in identifying and applying for degree-relevant jobs which would provide stable employment and commensurate compensation. As we approach the later stages of algorithm development and the beginning stages of the accompanying intervention design, we want to share our progress, challenges, and learnings in this process so far.
Millions of Americans have lost employment during the COVID-19 crisis. Returning to college to obtain additional training and credentials may be important for many adults who seek new employment as the country moves towards economic recovery.
UVA Today features Ben Castleman, Kelli Bird, and Katharine Meyer’s recent work on the labor market returns of working adults returning to college to obtain additional training or credentials. Read full article here.
Growing experimental evidence demonstrates that low-touch informational, nudge, and virtual advising interventions are ineffective at improving postsecondary educational outcomes for economically-disadvantaged students at scale. Intensive in-person college advising programs are a considerably higher-touch and more resource intensive strategy; some programs … Continued
With rapid technological transformations to the labor market along with COVID-19 related economic disruptions, many working adults return to college to obtain additional training or credentials. Using a comparative individual fixed effects strategy and an administrative panel dataset of enrollment … Continued
Thirty-six million Americans have earned college credits but don’t have a degree to show for it. Put another way, over 20 percent of working-age adults started college but never finished. This number continues to grow—more than 6.5 million people joined this group over the last five years alone.
Less than half of adults in the United States have a postsecondary degree (an associate degree or higher). This trend creates significant consequences for people’s long-term economic security and well-being; college graduates are less likely to be underemployed and are more likely to have higher earnings than people without degrees. And as the unemployment rate continues to rise due to COVID-19, those without college degrees are likely to disproportionately suffer.
As our state partners grapple with various COVID-related challenges, our faculty, staff, and students are bringing data science and nudge strategies to bear to support student success and to address critical workforce needs. Click here to view our May newsletter … Continued
A college degree remains a reliable pathway to greater economic success, yet socioeconomic gaps in college completion continue to widen.