We report how adults are performing in learning in each of the 50 states, by state and in a number of comparisons and rankings. The measures include high school graduation rates among adults, GED attainment among employed workers, and college degree attainment among employed workers. Those three measures and seven others are compared across the fifty states and five best-performing nations.

 

 

West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Nevada. In West Virginia, 77 percent of all working age adults have not completed an associate's degree or higher, followed by the other four at 76.5%, 76.5%, 74.7% and Nevada at 73.6%. Other characteristics of those states include markedly high percentages of people living in families whose combined incomes are less than a living wage. The pockets of poverty are surprisingly large. Even in Massachusetts, the best performing state, 55,6 percent of working adults do not have an associate's degree or higher.   

Is this a state problem or a higher education industry problem?

Both. It's a failure of the higher education industry to address the learning needs of adults. Meeting those needs also means offering student support services that are not being provided. It's also a state problem when there are state policies in place that hinder adults’ pursuit of education. For example, there are 17 states that provide no need-based aid to part-time students.  Another 18 states devote less than 10 percent of their need-based aid to part-time students. 

Is there another higher education industry barrier? 

Our research shows that about 40 percent of colleges are still unwilling to recognize and award credit for learning that has taken place outside the classroom. Add widespread credit transfer complications, and accessing higher education turns out to be a difficult hurdle for most adults. 

In what states might the problem be most easily addressed? 

 

I can name fives states who have adult learning on their radars are capable of breakthroughs.  Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Kentucky.   

In Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Center attracts students from Midwestern colleges and universities for an intern semester.  It's a model program of long-standing that blends work and learning very well.  Employer participation is widespread and enthusiastic, offering full-time positions to more than 60 percent of interns. In Oakland, California, Berkeley Biotech Partners is a science/technology internship that spans 11th grade through community college. They're on their way to sponsoring and completing 1,000 successful internships with the cooperation of companies like Kaiser Permanente, Bayer Health Care, and Genentech.  They've had remarkable success with minorities and first-generation college students.

What did those employers recognize in order to continue those collaborations?

Their hiring practices must change and smart employers know it.  They've relied in the past on hiring talent in the open market. Now they are realizing that they have to invest in building talent, both in their present workforce and in their new hires coming from college and high school.   Internships fill the bill perfectly. 

How easily might those employers see themselves as stakeholders in a person's higher education? 

I think some already see themselves as such.  I suspect that they are the employers who offer the smartest tuition assistance benefits for employees and the most interesting internships for potential new hires.

 

Publisher's Note:  If you enjoyed this interview, be sure to read "The Ravi Series" in the November issue of The Greentree Gazette magazine.