tag: Adult learners
Blog Post
April 17, 2025
How Is Kentucky Supporting Adult Learner Engagement?
A New Brief Shares Lessons Learned
Across the nation, there are 36.8 million individuals under the age of 65 with some college and no credential. Approximately 557,000 of these learners have stopped out from Kentucky colleges and universities. Re-enrolling adult learners with some college, no credential is a growing priority across the US and in Kentucky. Credential completion helps individuals get high paying jobs, brings in new tuition revenue for institutions, and helps regions develop a workforce needed for a healthy economy. Individuals and…
Issue Brief
April 17, 2025
Supporting Adult Learner Engagement in Kentucky
Addressing Administrative Holds, Past Due Balances, and Targeted Supports
Ithaka S+R and Kentucky CPE worked together to understand how administrative holds and unpaid balances affect institutions and adults with come credit, no credential. This reportsummarizes our key findings and offers potential solutions for institutions and states across the country, using examples from Kentucky. Part one covers administrative holds, part two focuses on past due balances, and part three discusses how institutions can adjust to the changing landscape of administrative holds.
Blog Post
February 5, 2025
Adult Learner Community of Practice Launched
Over 50 Institutions Across Pennsylvania Participating
In December 2024, Ithaka S+R, in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, launched the Adult Learner Re-Engagement Community of Practice. Already, institutions across Pennsylvania are demonstrating their commitment to developing innovative solutions for re-enrolling adult learners. A total of 93 representatives from 51 institutions, including public and private colleges, occupational training providers, community colleges, and universities, have joined this year-long engagement. The group encompasses a wide variety of offices and roles, from academic affairs and admissions to adult…
Past Event
February 5, 2025
Institutional Debt, Administrative Holds, and Student Enrollment
In this session at the 2025 Transfer Convening at UNC-Charlotte, the Adult Learner Re-Engagement team, Ithaka S+R’s Liz Looker and Jonathan Barefield, will present findings from research in North Carolina. We partnered with the UNC System Office and individual institutions to conduct mixed methods research on institutional debt and administrative holds for stopped out students in the state. Specifically, we found that the vast majority of stopped out students owe less than $2,000, and that existing hold policies have disproportionately…
Blog Post
January 14, 2025
Supporting Adult Learners and Boosting Degree Completion in Tennessee
Announcing a New Project
Ithaka S+R is excited to announce a collaboration with the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) to better understand the challenges faced by Tennesseans with some college but no credential who have been prevented from continuing their education due to administrative holds and past due balances, often called stranded credits. TBR governs the College System of Tennessee, the state’s public community and technical colleges. As a leader in state strategies to promote…
Past Event
December 4, 2024
State-Based Solutions for Addressing Institutional Debt
SHEEO Communities of Practice
At the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) Communities of Practice: Supporting Student Loan Borrowers event in Washington DC, Brittany Pearce will join SHEEO Associate Vice President Dustin Weeden and Ohio Department of Higher Education Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Success Christopher Kacir to discuss state-based solutions for addressing institutional debt. The session will take place on December 4 at 12:45pm ET. See the event agenda to learn more.
Blog Post
November 12, 2024
Improving Re-Enrollment for Adult Learners with Some College, No Degree
Announcing a New Project with the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education
As states and postsecondary institutions work to achieve critical degree attainment and workforce development goals, establishing policies and practices to effectively support adult learners who have some college but no degree is crucial. Through the statewide “Some College, No Degree” initiative, the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE) is working to increase adult learner re-enrollment and degree completion in the state. Beginning fall 2024, the New Jersey OSHE and Ithaka S+R are working together to…
Blog Post
November 1, 2024
Pennsylvania Adult Learner Re-Engagement Community of Practice
New Project Announcement and Call to Participate
Higher education institutions currently face the unique challenge of maintaining enrollment in the face of demographic cliffs and changing attitudes towards the value of higher education. One area where institutions may see growth is in re-engaging their own pool of stopped out students who are now adult learners with some college credits and no credential (SCNC). The recent regulation limiting transcript withholding by the US Department of Education creates an opportunity for institutions to identify clear pathways for their stopped…
Blog Post
October 28, 2024
Turning Debt into Credentials
The Ohio College Comeback Compact Continues to Benefit Adult Learners, Institutions, and Northeast Ohio
After a successful pilot year and transition to full program implementation, the Ohio College Comeback Compact continues to show growth and positive student outcomes for adults with some college but no credential who departed postsecondary education with past due balances. With continued generous support from Lumina Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation, Ithaka S+R is pleased to continue partnering with the eight public colleges and universities in Northeast Ohio for the third year of the Compact.
Blog Post
October 10, 2024
Assessing Administrative Holds and Institutional Debts for Stopped Out Students
A New Project to Support Adult Learner Re-engagement in North Carolina
North Carolina is expanding higher education engagement efforts to adult learners. The University of North Carolina System has dedicated substantial resources to improve infrastructure and program delivery to enroll adult learners and re-engage those who have previously stopped out in their educational journeys. To support this ongoing work of reaching degree attainment and workforce development goals, Ithaka S+R is collaborating with the University of North Carolina (UNC) system office to analyze the scope of administrative holds for unpaid balances, which…
Past Event
October 17, 2024
Re-Enrolling Adult Learners with Administrative Holds and Past Due Balances
When students with some college, no credential (SCNC) are unable to re-enroll at their former institutions, institutions lose out on potential enrollments and students lose out on continuing their education. A number of administrative and financial barriers stand in the way of reenrollment, including transcript holds, registration holds, past due balances, and other related issues. To help address these barriers within Kentucky, the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) partnered with Ithaka S+R to identify a set of actionable recommendations related…
Blog Post
September 4, 2024
Improving Holistic Credit Mobility to Help Adult Learners Succeed
A New RFP from Ithaka S+R and Complete College America
Today’s postsecondary students accumulate credits from various sources of learning, and most attend multiple institutions on their path to earning a credential. This presents challenges for the states, systems, and institutions as they work to support these students on their educational journeys. To help the higher education community find solutions, Ithaka S+R and Complete College America are launching a coalition of institutions committed to advancing comprehensive methods of credit transfer. We call this approach holistic credit mobility. …
Blog Post
August 21, 2024
Increasing Adult and Latino Adult Student Success
New Report from Ithaka S+R and CAEL on the Latino and Adult Student Success Academy
Latino student enrollment at postsecondary institutions has increased significantly over the past few decades. Between 1980 and 2020, the number of Latino students enrolled at a degree-granting institution in the United States grew from 470,000, representing just four percent of students enrolled in a postsecondary institution, to 3.7 million students, representing 20 percent. Despite this tremendous growth, Latinos are less likely to be enrolled in college or have a bachelor’s degree than Asian, White, and Black Americans. However,…
Past Event
June 12, 2024
Adult Re-Engagement with FAFSA and Higher Education
As the population of adults with some college but no credential (SCNC) continues to increase, institutions are turning their attention toward reengaging and reenrolling this key segment of the market. Expanding access for adult learners is vital to meeting enrollment goals and also key to meeting workforce needs and equipping adult learners with SCNC with the skills and credentials necessary for the most in-demand and rewarding jobs. While some challenges to returning are well-known—family obligations, work requirements, stranded credits—sometimes, a…
Blog Post
April 25, 2024
Removing Barriers to Re-Enrollment for Adult Learners
Announcing A New Technical Assistance Project in Kentucky
In collaboration with the Kentucky Council for Postsecondary Education (CPE), Ithaka S+R is providing research and consulting to identify barriers to re-enrolling adult learners who have stopped out and assess intervention opportunities to improve adult learner re-enrollment in Kentucky. This project builds on Ithaka S+R’s prior research, implementation, and evaluation efforts to address stranded credits—credits that students have earned but cannot access because of administrative holds placed by the college or university they previously attended as collateral…
Past Event
May 1, 2024
Adult Learner Re-Engagement in Pennsylvania
Informational Webinar with PDE and Ithaka S+R
On Wednesday May 1 at 11:00am-12:00pm ET, join the Pennsylvania Department of Education and Ithaka S+R for a webinar providing practical information on how higher education institutions in Pennsylvania can better support adult learners. By working with students to resolve past due balances and administrative holds, institutions are able to enroll students who were previously blocked from returning to college. Register to attend by Friday, April 19 to learn about strategies to engage, enroll, and support adult…
Past Event
November 8, 2023
Four Perspectives on Re-Enrolling Adult Learners and Supporting Them Through Completion
In this session at the CAEL Conference on November 8 at 1:40-2:30pm ET in Key Ballroom 1, panelists will discuss the challenges they see and their approaches to supporting adults to complete their postsecondary education. Ithaka S+R’s Liz Looker will speak on stranded credits and Ithaka S+R’s projects to support adult learners seeking to complete their credentials, including the Ohio College Comeback Compact. Other panelists include Steve Ast, Mike Krause, and Dr. Mark Sorrells. Learn more about the…
Past Event
February 24, 2021
How to Help Americans Get Back to Work
Martin Kurzweil speaks during Strada Public Viewpoint research webinar
Join Martin Kurzweil and the Strada Center for Education Consumer Insights at 2 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 24 for a Public Viewpoint webinar on “How To Help Americans Get Back to Work.” The webinar will discuss recent findings and implications for skills-based hiring, upskilling, and employer-provided education. For more information, please follow this link.
Blog Post
June 9, 2016
Optimizing for the Adult Learner
Roughly 70 percent of today’s college students are “nontraditional students,” meaning that they are over the age of 24, commute to campus, work part or full-time, are financially independent, or have children. Some enter college with only a GED, while others are reentry students with previously earned credits from multiple institutions. Many of these students are low-income, the first in their families to attend college, or come from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. Despite this new majority, most institutions…
Case Study
June 9, 2016
Serving the Adult Student at University of Maryland University College
Conventional conceptualizations of the “typical” college student as an eighteen-year old, full-time, residential student poorly match reality. Roughly 70 percent of today’s college students are “nontraditional students,” meaning that they are over the age of 24, commute to campus, work part or full-time, are financially independent, or have children. Some enter college with only a GED, while others are reentry students with an assemblage of credits from various institutions. Many of these students are low-income, the first in their families…