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Ted MitchellUnder SecretaryOffice of the Under Secretary
FY 14-15: Agency Priority Goal
Increase College Degree Attainment in America
Priority Goal
Goal Overview
GOAL OVERVIEW
Dramatically boosting completion rates for postsecondary certificates and degrees is essential for the United States to successfully compete in a global economy. The President set a goal in 2009 that, by 2020, the U.S. will have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. Meeting this goal will require millions of additional Americans to earn a postsecondary degree by the end of this decade—a 50 percent increase nationwide. New initiatives from the President’s College Value and Affordability Agenda are being implemented to help increase the college attainment rate, and the Department has proposed several new programs which, if funded, will significantly accelerate progress toward the goal. Starting from a baseline college degree attainment rate of 44.0 percent in 2012, we set annual targets projecting the annual increase to grow progressively each year above the four-year historical average of 0.7 percentage points: 0.7, 0.9, 1.2, 1.6, 2.1, 2.8, 3.2, and 3.5. (The curve reflects the results of the intensified efforts, which have a future impact given the length of postsecondary programs.) Since the data for any given year are reported in the following year, the growth will lead to 60% of all Americans having an associate’s degree or higher (as reported in 2021, reflecting 2020 data; note that certificates are not included since the U.S. does not currently have a way to measure attainment of certificates in the population). The 45.6% rate in 2015 represents two years of growth from the baseline.
The President’s focus on educational attainment of American between the ages of 25-34 allows us to assess progress in preparing the next generation of U.S. workers and to benchmark for international comparisons. Nonetheless, college completion for all ages is important, including unemployed, under-skilled and older workers, veterans and other underrepresented student categories.
KEY BARRIERS AND CHALLENGES
Success will depend in large part on the extent to which states reinvest in higher education and on whether both states and institutions (a) implement policies and programs to increase college access and success, (b) reduce costs and time to completion, (c) support accelerated learning opportunities, including dual enrollment, (d) develop and adopt effective and innovative practices that improve student outcomes, and (e) promote seamless transitions from secondary to postsecondary education and among higher education institutions. The Department will use its available resources and programs, administrative action, bully pulpit, technical assistance, and ability to convene stakeholders to drive collaboration and best practices, but has limited leverage to influence state policies and institutional practices without new programs that are specifically structured toward this goal.
EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS
States, Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs), Students and their Families, Businesses, Philanthropy, Not-for-profit Organizations, and other Federal Departments and Agencies.
Strategies
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
To increase educational attainment rates, the Department will implement the President’s College Value and Affordability Agenda, outlined in his speech on August 22, 2013. One central strategy is the promotion of innovation (such as in course redesign and student services, accelerating time to degree by fostering dual enrollment, and competency-based education), facilitated by a reduction in federal regulatory requirements that may constrain innovation. A second major strategy is to foster wiser investment in college education, and hold institutions and students accountable for completion, through competition and renewed transparency efforts to provide students and families with information to select colleges that meet their goals and needs and that provide the best value.
The Department will continue to spotlight model state programs, such as performance-based funding, and draw on them to shape Federal policy. Furthermore, the Department is shifting to an evidence-based approach for institutional grants. The President’s proposal for free community college, announced in January 2015, would make college more affordable and would prepare graduates with the necessary skills to support successful careers. Federal funding would be allocated through a formula that relies on both enrollment and outcomes, such as program completion. In addition, schools must adopt promising and evidence-based institutional reforms and innovative practices to improve student outcomes. Another program proposed by the President, the American Technical Training Fund, would help more community colleges and other postsecondary institutions develop and scale high-quality training programs aligned with the needs of employers in high-demand industries. The Administration expects these strategies will boost completion rates and, by extension, educational attainment.
Progress Update
Throughout fiscal years 2014 and 2015, the Department implemented several strategies to promote innovation and completion in postsecondary education. These efforts supported the Department in meeting this APG target with an actual educational attainment rate of 45.7 percent of adults ages 25-34 having an associated degree or higher. In FY 2014, the Department awarded the first round of grants in the First in the World program, which aims to promote evidence-based strategies and practices for college access and completion, focusing on low-income students. The Department collaborated with the Department of Labor in the fourth round of Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grants to community colleges and consortia, which were awarded in September 2014; the program provides capacity-building grants to drive innovation and the development of model training programs at America’s community colleges and universities. The Department initiated several projects as well that continued into FY 2015 and are discussed below, including the development of the expanded College Scorecard, Gainful Employment regulations, and new Experimental Sites in the areas of competency-based learning, Federal Work Study, and prior learning assessments.
In FY 2015, the Department implemented the following actions:
Focusing on Completion through Grant Competitions
- Awarded grants for the FY 2015 First in the World grant competition. While the FY 2014 competition was focused on development grants, the 2015 competition included a tier for validation grants using practices based on research that meets the Department’s Moderate evidence of effectiveness standard. Funded projects include a partnership of 10 community colleges to implement proactive and individualized student support services, informed by an early alert and advising system based in predictive analytics; incorporating new teaching and learning strategies into the curriculum and student experience at a Historically Black College; and creating seamless transfer of lower-division general education requirements across participating institutions based on demonstration of student learning outcomes regardless of courses or credits completed. The Department is developing priorities for a FY 2016 competition should the program continue to be funded by Congress.
- Incorporated a competitive preference priority to increase postsecondary access, affordability and completion into the Predominantly Black Institutions grant competition.
- Incorporated two competitive preference priorities in the Hispanic-Serving Institutions grant competition: one to support tutoring, counseling, and student service programs designed to improve academic success, including innovative and customized instruction courses (which may include remedial education and English language instruction) designed to help retain students and move the students rapidly into core courses and through program completion; and one to develop and implement high-quality online or hybrid credit-bearing learning opportunities that reduce the cost of higher education, reduce time to degree completion, or allow students to progress at their own pace.
- Awarded $18 million in new awards under the Strengthening Institutions Program to help eligible IHEs become self-sufficient and expand their capacity to serve low-income students by providing funds to improve and strengthen the academic quality, institutional management, and fiscal stability of eligible institutions. The 2015 competition gave competitive preference to applicants proposing evidence-based strategies.
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Enabling Better Decision-Making and Student Outcomes through Consumer Information
- Unveiled the expanded College Scorecard, a comparison tool that provides a wealth of customizable data—including many important metrics that have not been published before—so students and families can make informed comparisons and choices based on the criteria most important to them. Better informed decisions will increase the likelihood that a student will complete his or her educational program. The Department also made the data behind the Scorecard publically available in order to jumpstart efforts across the country to develop meaningful metrics for accountability. The Department has already started planning for enhancements to the Scorecard for FY 2016, beginning with a Technical Review Panel comprising higher education experts on December 2-3, 2015.
- Published final regulations on Gainful Employment and began implementing the regulations, which took effect July 1, 2015. The regulations aim both to inform students about completion, debt, and earnings for certain types of occupation-oriented programs, and remove access to Title IV federal student aid funds for programs that do not meet certain standards.
- Launched the Reach Higher Career App Challenge in collaboration with the Office of the First Lady in October 2015. This competition is designed to promote the development of mobile app solutions that will help students navigate education and career pathways, including career and technical education (CTE).
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Fostering Innovation and Completion through Convenings
- Developed communities of practice among minority serving community colleges. Lead institutions have been identified, recruited and trained. Two communities of practice have launched. The Department convened these communities of practice and others on November 16-17, 2015 for the “Student Success at Minority Serving Institutions conference,” along with federal agencies, private funders, and researchers. The purpose of the communities of practice and the convening is to improve student success at these institutions.
- Co-hosted with the White House a College Opportunity Summit on December 4, 2015 focusing on completion and affordability, as well as partnerships between K-12 and higher education that promote educational quality and seamless transitions from high school to college. Almost three hundred commitments were announced at the summit to improve college opportunities for young people in communities across the country through college readiness partnerships, leveling the playing field in college advising, improving STEM learning and degree completion for underrepresented students, and helping more students complete their degrees.
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Supporting Completion with FY 2016 Budget Proposals
- Proposed a new College Opportunity and Graduation Bonus Program, which would provide $7 billion in mandatory budget authority over 10 years to support colleges that successfully enroll and graduate a significant number of low- and moderate-income students on time and encourage all institutions to improve their performance.
- Proposed a new CTE Innovation program, the American Technical Training Fund, which would support the development and implementation of new models and practices at the local level as well as systemic reform of state policies and practices.
- Proposed America’s College Promise, which would provide students with two years of free community college and would require key reforms to ensure that more students successfully graduate with at least a two-year degree.
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Improving Research and Information on Successful Practices
- Published an RFA notice in April 2015 announcing a competition to establish a Research Network on Scalable Practices to Support College Completion. The Department’s Institute of Education Sciences intends to award the grant during the first quarter of FY 2016.
- Announced new Experimental Sites initiatives in the areas of competency-based education, Federal Work Study, and prior learning assessments. Projects have been approved for the Federal Work Study experiment. It is taking longer than anticipated to process amended Program Participation Agreements for the institutions that applied for the competency-based education and prior learning assessment experiments; the Department now expects that those experiments will be approved in FY 2016.
- Launched a National Activities Project to study the subject of Career & Technical Education (CTE) stackable certificates. The purpose of this activity is to build the capacity of regional consortia of community colleges or state community and technical college systems to improve CTE credential attainment rates at community colleges through a framework of stackable certificates. The framework includes a progression of credentials—entry-level, intermediate, and advanced—each targeted to learners at a specific point along the education continuum. As students raise their skill levels by earning a certificate, they will earn an increasing number of college credits in their technical field and make progress toward an associate’s degree and beyond. During the project’s first year, the Department will gather information and convene knowledgeable stakeholders. During the second year, the Department will provide technical assistance to the field.
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Strengthening Completion for Non-Traditional Populations
- Published Notices of Proposed Rulemaking in April 2015 to implement the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). WIOA reforms adult education training and services, including in the areas of English language acquisition and vocational rehabilitation for individuals with disabilities. The Department’s intends to publish the final rules implementing WIOA in early spring 2016.
- Launched a National Activities Project to align adult education with developmental education (curriculum, counseling, etc.) by documenting and disseminating best practices; this two-year project will culminate in the dissemination of information to adult education providers during the last six months of 2017.
- Collaborated with the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services, and with the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, to develop the Performance Partnership Pilot for Disconnected Youth competition. Nine pilots were announced in October 2015 to test the hypothesis that additional flexibility for states, localities, and tribes, in the form of blending funds and obtaining waivers of certain programmatic requirements, can help overcome some of the significant hurdles that States, localities, and tribes may face in improving outcomes for disconnected youth. A Notice of Proposed Priorities for the FY 2016 competition was published in October as well.
- Launched a Second Chance Pell Grant pilot through the Experimental Sites program. Research indicates that correctional education programs for prisoners reduce recidivism rates. The goal of this limited pilot program is to increase access to high-quality educational opportunities and help incarcerated individuals successfully transition out of prison and back into the classroom or the workforce.
- Incorporated metrics to increase STEM graduation rates, particularly among under represented student populations and communities, in the work plan of the Federal Coordination in STEM Education Undergraduate Interagency Work Group, which consists of approximately 12 federal agencies/departments.
- Convened with the White House a group of 50 leading higher education experts for a discussion of innovation in higher education. Participants spent the day considering opportunities for innovation on which the federal government and others could take action expediently, and were led through a design-thinking workshop about how online learning tools can catalyze improvements in postsecondary education.
Next Steps
No Data Available
Contributing Programs & Other Factors
CONTRIBUTING PROGRAMS
Major Discretionary Programs Supporting Goal 1 (http://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2015plan/2013-2015-apr-app-plan-...):
- Adult basic and literacy education State grants
- Federal TRIO programs
- First in the World
For additional programs see Appendix C of the Department’s FY2013 Annual Performance Report and FY2015 Annual Performance Plan (http://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2015plan/2013-2015-apr-app-plan-...).
Expand All
Strategic Goals
Strategic Goal:
Postsecondary Education, Career and Technical Education, and Adult Education
Statement:
Increase college access, affordability, quality, and completion by improving postsecondary education and lifelong learning opportunities for youths and adults.
Strategic Objectives
Statement:
Close the opportunity gap by improving the affordability of and access to college and/or workforce training, especially for underrepresented and/or underprepared populations (e.g., low-income and first-generation students, English learners, individuals with disabilities, adults without high school diplomas, etc.).
Description:
Statement:
Foster institutional value to ensure that postsecondary education credentials represent effective preparation for students to succeed in the workforce and participate in civic life.
Description:
Statement:
Increase degree and certificate completion and job placement in high-need and high-skill areas, particularly among underrepresented and/or underprepared populations.
Description:
Statement:
Increase STEM pathway opportunities that enable access to and completion of postsecondary programs.
Description:
Agency Priority Goals
Statement:
We will measure the overall college attainment goal, and the effectiveness of the college value and affordability initiatives that foster higher attainment rates, by focusing on the critical 25-34 year old cohort. By September 30, 2015, 45.6% of adults ages 25-34 will have an associate’s degree or higher, which will place the nation on track to reach the President’s goal of 60% attainment by 2020.
Description:
GOAL OVERVIEW
Dramatically boosting completion rates for postsecondary certificates and degrees is essential for the United States to successfully compete in a global economy. The President set a goal in 2009 that, by 2020, the U.S. will have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. Meeting this goal will require millions of additional Americans to earn a postsecondary degree by the end of this decade—a 50 percent increase nationwide. New initiatives from the President’s College Value and Affordability Agenda are being implemented to help increase the college attainment rate, and the Department has proposed several new programs which, if funded, will significantly accelerate progress toward the goal. Starting from a baseline college degree attainment rate of 44.0 percent in 2012, we set annual targets projecting the annual increase to grow progressively each year above the four-year historical average of 0.7 percentage points: 0.7, 0.9, 1.2, 1.6, 2.1, 2.8, 3.2, and 3.5. (The curve reflects the results of the intensified efforts, which have a future impact given the length of postsecondary programs.) Since the data for any given year are reported in the following year, the growth will lead to 60% of all Americans having an associate’s degree or higher (as reported in 2021, reflecting 2020 data; note that certificates are not included since the U.S. does not currently have a way to measure attainment of certificates in the population). The 45.6% rate in 2015 represents two years of growth from the baseline.
The President’s focus on educational attainment of American between the ages of 25-34 allows us to assess progress in preparing the next generation of U.S. workers and to benchmark for international comparisons. Nonetheless, college completion for all ages is important, including unemployed, under-skilled and older workers, veterans and other underrepresented student categories.
KEY BARRIERS AND CHALLENGES
Success will depend in large part on the extent to which states reinvest in higher education and on whether both states and institutions (a) implement policies and programs to increase college access and success, (b) reduce costs and time to completion, (c) support accelerated learning opportunities, including dual enrollment, (d) develop and adopt effective and innovative practices that improve student outcomes, and (e) promote seamless transitions from secondary to postsecondary education and among higher education institutions. The Department will use its available resources and programs, administrative action, bully pulpit, technical assistance, and ability to convene stakeholders to drive collaboration and best practices, but has limited leverage to influence state policies and institutional practices without new programs that are specifically structured toward this goal.
EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS
States, Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs), Students and their Families, Businesses, Philanthropy, Not-for-profit Organizations, and other Federal Departments and Agencies.
