The Hidden Financial Aid Hurdle Derailing College Students
At 19, Elizabeth Clews knew attending community college while balancing a full-time job and caring for a newborn would be hard. But she wanted to give it a shot. After a few months, the single mom, who had just exited the foster care system, realized she wasn’t doing well enough to pass her classes at…
Read More‘Modernizing Postsecondary Policy to Better Support Adult Learners’: A Special Report
Inside Higher Ed published a new special report, “Modernizing Postsecondary Policy to Better Support Adult Learners,” with insight provided by HLA’s Julie Peller, executive director, and Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield, managing director of policy and research. This free, print-on-demand report explores how current federal and state policies can impede working learners, veterans, student parents and other…
Read MoreHigher Learning Advocates Launches ‘40 Million Reasons’ Campaign to Raise Awareness Around the 40+ Million Americans with Some College, No Credential
WASHINGTON – The population of Americans with some college and no credentials (SCNC) experienced another surge in 2021, rising to 40.4 million – almost 1 in 6 – according to a recent report from the National Student Clearinghouse. The report is released as Higher Learning Advocates (HLA) launches a new campaign to highlight audience demographics…
Read MoreCompletion with Quality and Value: Why Credit for Prior Learning Stands out as a College Completion Fund Strategy
While the fate of the Build Back Better Act is currently unclear, there are parts of the proposed legislation that could survive in some form. One important part of the proposal is the College Completion Fund, a fund that could provide as much as $550 million for scaling evidence-based programs to improve retention and completion…
Read MoreMaking College Work for Working People
The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the vital role that working people play in our nation and economy. Working people prepare hospital equipment and treat patients; they manufacture and distribute essential goods; they keep the internet and other critical utilities operating. While scores of working people have kept our country running during the pandemic, millions of others…
Read MoreNew Players are Emerging to Serve Returning Adult Learners—Federal Policy Needs to Reflect That.
2021 should be an eventful year for federal policy conversations related to postsecondary access and completion. However, much of the national discussion has centered on removing barriers to traditional higher education. Such approaches rarely account for the needs of the adult learners that are now the majority on college campuses or those learners of all…
Read MoreA Second Chance at Higher Education
Growing up in a low socioeconomic area in Phoenix, Arizona, surrounded by gangs, violence, and drugs, I never thought that college was a place for me. Instead, as a teen, I envisioned myself selling drugs, robbing people, and spending most of my days in prison. So when I was 20 years old and was sentenced…
Read MoreRethinking PLA: The Urgency of Counting Prior Learning
As the country works toward economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are at least 10 million unemployed Americans, many of whom are looking to higher education as a pathway to their next career step. Now more than ever, adult learners are keenly aware of the return of investment they receive from…
Read MoreBuilding a Packet for Success
Back to school shopping should be an exciting time for many children and parents. Yet, for families that have to decide between a pack of binders or a pack of diapers for the week, it can be an extremely stressful time. COVID-19 has changed the landscape of what back to school shopping looks like. Forget…
Read MoreQ&A with President Lyle Roelofs of Berea College
Berea College, the first interracial and coeducational college in the South, focuses on learning, labor and service. The College admits only academically promising students with limited financial resources, primarily from Kentucky and Appalachia, although students come from 40 states and 70 countries. Every Berea student receives a Tuition Promise Scholarship, which means no Berea student…
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