1 / 21

Building New Pathways to Degrees SHEEO Higher Education Policy Conference August 11, 2010

Building New Pathways to Degrees SHEEO Higher Education Policy Conference August 11, 2010. Judy Wertheim V.P., Higher Education Services The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL). Adult Learning: A National Priority.

sloan
Download Presentation

Building New Pathways to Degrees SHEEO Higher Education Policy Conference August 11, 2010

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Building New Pathways to Degrees SHEEO Higher Education Policy ConferenceAugust 11, 2010 Judy Wertheim V.P., Higher Education Services The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL)

  2. Adult Learning: A National Priority • Great and growing need for the nation’s workforce to acquire more postsecondary credentials to compete • Many emphasizing the importance of greater success and persistence among college enrollees: • President Obama • Lumina Foundation for Education • Individual States

  3. The U.S. Skills Gap • Report Released June, 2010 by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce: • U.S. “ on a collision course with the future” • By 2018, our economy will have jobs for 22 million with college degrees, but a shortage of nearly 8 million • By 2018, 63 % of jobs will require postsecondary training

  4. Even Best Performance with Traditional College-Aged Students at Each Stage of the Educational Pipeline Will Leave Gaps in More than 30 States Texas 1,333,645 Florida 893,504 California 560,688 New Jersey 320,720 Tennessee 307,956 Nevada 287,565 Louisiana 204,814 Arkansas 186,640 Kentucky 159,765 North Carolina 132,748 Arizona 122,061 Mississippi 115,120 In order to reach international competitiveness by 2025, the U.S. and 32 states can’t close the gap with even best performance with traditional college students. They must rely on the re-entry pipeline – getting older adults back into the education system and on track to attaining college degrees. Ohio 114,375 South Carolina 112,681 Alabama 110,495 West Virginia 74,752 Alaska 65,853 Oklahoma 62,332 Oregon 53,995 Michigan 53,574 New Mexico 47,420 Wisconsin 44,757 Maine 39,436 Idaho 37,706 Montana 34,547 Hawaii 28,659 Georgia 25,326 Wyoming 24,741 Maryland 23,542 Connecticut 10,875 Missouri 8,898 Indiana 2,788 0 300,000 600,000 900,000 1,200,000 1,500,000

  5. Adult Learning in Focus Main sources will have to be tapped to rectify this shortfall: • Adults (25-64) who never completed high school – 21 million • Adults with high school diplomas but no college—46 million • Adults with some college but no degree—32 million

  6. Factors Affecting Adult Participation Affordability Accessibility Aspiration

  7. PLA Can Help What Is Prior Learning Assessment (PLA)? The evaluation for college credit of the knowledge and skills one gains from life experiences (or from non-college instructional programs) including: employment travel hobbies civic activities volunteer service military service

  8. More about PLA PLA Methods • Standardized exams • Advanced Placement (AP) • College Level Examination Program (CLEP) • Excelsior College Exams • DANTES Subject Standardized Tests (DSST) • Challenge exams • Evaluation of non-college training (e.g. corporate or military) • Individual student portfolios

  9. PLA Addresses: Affordability Accessibility Aspiration

  10. How Can PLA Help? CAEL Study of PLA and Student Outcomes • 48-institution study of PLA and academic outcomes (funded by Lumina Foundation), released in March, 2010 • 62,475 total adult students in our sample (adult = age 25 or older) • Increased Graduation Rates, Greater Persistence, and Shorter Time to Degree www.cael.org

  11. PLA and Community Colleges Spring, 2010 – a CAEL exploratory study of PLA in community colleges 91% of the respondents believe that their student populations have technical skills and knowledge learned on the job that could be assessed for college-level credit.

  12. Need for More PLA Other CAEL research, completed in 2006, indicated that only 66% of higher education institutions offered the portfolio method of assessing experiential learning. Many institutions that do have a policy for assessing portfolios serve very few students annually.

  13. Scaling Up the Use of PLA CAEL Virtual PLA Center • Designed with a planning grant from Lumina Foundation for Education • Implementation began July 1, 2010 • ACE and College Board partnering on project • CAEL will draw upon faculty experts nationwide for teaching portfolio development course and reviewing adult students’ portfolios

  14. CAEL Virtual PLA Center VPLA Center will use on-line platform The Center will help students earn all forms of PLA credit Credit recommendations from CAEL VPLA Center faculty experts will be sent on ACE transcript to colleges, as ACE already does today with military and corporate training Scaling Up the Use of PLA

  15. Whom Will It Serve? • Individuals already enrolled in community colleges or four-year institutions • Provide support for postsecondary institutions that have no existing PLA programs • Augment existing PLA programs at some postsecondary institutions

  16. Whom Will It Serve? • Unaffiliated individuals not yet in college or having started but never finished college • Active duty military and veterans • Document and certify skills from their military careers • Workers in transition or lower-income workers • Workforce Investment Boards might send workers to document skills from previous jobs and have that learning evaluated by faculty

  17. Whom Will It Serve? • Employers and industry groups • To pursue the further credentialing of their employees • To document learning that has already been completed and identify skills gaps

  18. Why Colleges Are Interested Consistent application of PLA standards Lack of a PLA program at their institution Existing program cannot keep up with high volume of portfolio submissions Lack of personnel to adequately staff their PLA program Lack of credentialed faculty to review submitted portfolios in certain fields Interest in streamlining their process through increased capacity and speed Reliance on VPLA Center as an interim resource while the institution prepares to launch or expand its own PLA program on campus

  19. Pilot Institutions CAEL has requested commitment from institutions, systems, and organizations to participate in the pilot launch of VPLA Center

  20. Criteria for Participation in the Pilot Institutions are adult-serving and adult learner-friendly and agree to: • treat PLA credit recommendations as they do other transfer credit • identify group of adults to participate in the VPLA Center process

  21. Questions? Judy Wertheim V.P., Higher Education Services Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) 312.499.2659 jwertheim@cael.org

More Related