Building On-Ramps to Student Success June 27, 2017 By Carlo Salerno Read Time Center for Educat... Article Consumer Voice Navigating Education ... Postsecondary training is an expensive proposition without a guaranteed payoff. To make matters worse, many students find themselves in the position of making large financial investments and never completing a degree, a near worst-case scenario that often leaves individuals with lots of debt and no credential to earn the wages needed to pay back those borrowed dollars. Success requires earning the kinds of certificates and degrees employers value, which is why federal and state policy has gradually moved away from facilitating access and toward supporting completion. Much of the effort, though, has gone into making institutional accountability more robust, which really is only half the battle. Success starts with ensuring a good fit between what prospective students want and what institutions offer. How do we help prospective and current students make sensible choices that reflect their aspirations and abilities? We do it with the data, but most importantly, we do it with the right kind of data. Yes, consumers need more transparent data about college costs. But, as I shared during a panel discussion at the ASU + GSV Summit this spring, what they sorely need is much better information about the economic returns a degree can yield. Watch video Accessing the right data Many service sectors, for example, rely on consumer satisfaction feedback to help guide choices and improve offerings — just think of resources like Yelp! or Consumer Reports. While college rankings and ratings certainly are not in short supply, they often end up being measures of what methodologists think good schools should be like, rather than what actual users believe was a good or bad investment. What’s more, they don’t really distinguish between nonselective institutions or those with a more vocational bent, like the nation’s community colleges and technical schools that enroll about half of all students today. Even where there is reputable data, such as the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard, it’s clear there are challenges. Look up Grand Valley State University in Michigan, for example, and you’ll find an institution where the net cost of a bachelor’s degree can run anywhere from $67,000 to almost $100,000, and former students (only those who received federal aid) earn just less than $40,000 a year a full decade after they’ve left. Is that a good deal? Are those good wages? It’s hard to tell, since we’re talking about a school that at any given time enrolls more than 20,000 students and offers more than 190 different academic programs. Consumers need program-level wage and career data. They also need to know what starting salaries look like, in addition to mid- and late-career earnings, if we’re going to reasonably expect them to properly value an investment that can potentially bear out over a 30-plus year career. What does the average worker earn in the student’s desired field? What does someone who’s in the 25th or 95th percentile earn? Is the student looking to enter a high-demand field, or one that’s already flooded with hundreds of thousands of other people who have degrees and highly valued work experience? Finding the right pathway From constructing a building, to training to become a world-class athlete, to building a rewarding, lifelong career, a good foundation matters. At the end of the day, people choose where to study, what to study, and what degree to pursue. In the absence of good data, the lifelong investment choices we expect consumers to make end up resting instead on an unstable foundation of piecemeal data, anecdotes and romanticized beliefs about career options and opportunities. Giving people the right tools to make sensible choices that meet their uniquely personal circumstances is a laudable goal. Whether it’s policymakers, pundits or the public, we should continually look for better ways to leverage data to help education consumers help themselves. Group 13 Group 11 Group 12 To create a PDF of the webpage, choose in opened window 'Save as PDF' option in 'Destination' select or something like that and click to save or print button. Got it Carlo Salerno Vice President, Data Analytics Strada Education Network Learn More In the news from Strada April 8, 2021 Public Viewpoint — Alumni Perspectives: Are Student Loans Worth It? Over the past 15 years, the number of student loan recipients has increased by 51 percent and the debt associated with those loans has more than doubled. More Americans are borrowing more money to go to college Center for Educat... Article Measuring the Val... Pathways with Pur... Career Connection Completion Consumer Voice Navigating Education Value ... February 25, 2021 Public Viewpoint Takeaways: Helping Americans Get Back to Work Expert panelists discuss the value of short-term programs, employer investments, and skills-based hiring Center for Educat... Article Career Connection COVID-19 Employers Equity & Oppo... Navigating Education Nondegree ... May 26, 2020 Pandemic puts education plans in flux as Americans prefer nontraditional sources of continuing education After weeks of uncertainty, precaution, stay-at-home orders, and economic turbulence, Americans are beginning to plan for the next stage of their lives. For many, that means making decisions about whether to pursue education and training. In the eighth week of Strada’s Public Viewpoint survey centered around Americans’ attitudes during the pandemic, we gathered insights about Americans’ plans for their education and training, which groups are most likely to enroll, and who Americans are consulting for advice on their education plans. Center for Educat... Article Adult Learners COVID-19 Navigating Education Nondegree ... May 9, 2019 Intertwining Education and Career Paths Keeps Lifelong Learners Skilled and Employed In partnership with Gallup to interview more than 300,000 Americans between the ages of 18-65 about their expectations and experiences with post-high school education. Center for Educat... Article Career Connection Consumer Voice Value ... February 18, 2019 The Important Role of Minority-Serving Institutions At Strada Education Network®, we’re interested in supporting all students on their education-to-career journey and we are fortunate to have great partners in this work – partners who understand the value of engaging with students wherever they are on that journey and supporting their success. Center for Educat... Article Consumer Voice Employers Equity & Oppo... Value Engagement & ... ... January 31, 2019 Mentors Matter: Students Value Advice and Guidance from Faculty and Employers Career mentoring is more important than ever in helping learners of all ages and stages navigate pathways between education and employment. Everybody needs the support of a mentor, from young adults entering the workforce to adult learners looking to advance professionally. Having a mentor can mean the difference between seeking more education to jumpstart a new career or settling for an at-risk job soon to be automated. Center for Educat... Article Advising Career Connection Employers Navigating Education Engagement & ... ... October 21, 2018 Mentoring Matters This week, recent college graduates affirm a growing body of research: faculty-student relationships matter. At colleges and universities across the nation, professors play an important role as mentors providing both academic and career advice to their students. Center for Educat... Article Advising Career Connection Navigating Education ... September 7, 2018 America’s Employers Place Technical Skills and Work Experience Above College Rankings Important news for all students when it comes to getting a job: what you can do is more important than the ranking of the university you attended. Center for Educat... Article Career Connection Employers ... July 17, 2018 Students Are Consumers. It’s Time to Treat Them That Way. Your opinion matters. Tell us about your shopping experience. No sooner do we pay for coffee or exit an Apple Store, than we are inundated with questionnaires, surveys, or flash polls that solicit our views as consumers. Center for Educat... Article Consumer Voice February 13, 2018 Why Go to College? Student Perspectives on Higher Ed This article by Carol D’Amico originally appeared on RealClear Education. Center for Educat... Article Career Connection Completion Consumer Voice Value ... June 27, 2017 Building On-Ramps to Student Success Postsecondary training is an expensive proposition without a guaranteed payoff. To make matters worse, many students find themselves in the position of making large financial investments and never completing a degree, a near worst-case scenario that often leaves individuals with lots of debt and no credential to earn the wages needed to pay back those borrowed dollars. Center for Educat... Article Consumer Voice Navigating Education ... June 20, 2017 Strengthening CTE Opens More Pathways to Success for Students and Employers This week Congress will vote on a bill to reauthorize federal support for career and technical education (CTE). The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (H.R. 2353) is a bipartisan effort to elevate these programs in our nation’s schools and community colleges and to better align them with in-demand, skilled jobs. Center for Educat... Article Career Connection Employers Nondegree ... June 9, 2017 Do You Regret Your College Choices? Research from Strada Education and Gallup finds 51% of Americans regret higher education decisions. Center for Educat... Article Advising Consumer Voice Navigating Education Value ... June 2, 2017 Empowering the Consumer Voice to Transform Postsecondary Education Strada Education Network is proud to partner with Gallup, the world leader in consumer insights, to launch the Education Consumer Pulse™. Center for Educat... Article Consumer Voice June 1, 2017 Second Thoughts About Higher Education Decisions "Most former college students say they would change either their major, college attended or credential pursued if they could do it all over again, survey finds." Center for Educat... Article Advising Consumer Voice Navigating Education Value ... June 1, 2017 Survey: Second-guessing Often Accompanies Degrees More than half of adults in the U.S. would change at least one aspect of their higher education experience, according to a new survey from Gallup and the Strada Education Network. Common regrets were choice of institution and major or field of study. Comparatively, relatively few regretted their degree type. Center for Educat... Article Advising Consumer Voice Navigating Education Value ... May 22, 2017 Institutions must think broader when utilizing analytics Forcing institutions into data-based accountability around achievement metrics is difficult due to a variety of factors that can make pushing students through a system difficult. Center for Educat... Article Value May 15, 2017 New data shows low-income students equally likely to thrive These students are just as capable of thriving as those from more affluent households, but institutions and policymakers must also consider that they may need more resources. Center for Educat... Article Equity & Oppo... Engagement & ... ... May 12, 2017 3 key questions to consider in building ‘on-ramps’ to higher ed success A panel of thought leaders at ASU+GSV tackled issues ranging from who's to blame for failure to the rising cost of tuition Center for Educat... Article Navigating Education February 16, 2017 The Intersection of Instruction and Outcomes What is the relationship between college instruction and student outcomes? Center for Educat... Article Navigating Education Engagement & ... ... January 27, 2017 Advancing the Higher Education Innovation Agenda Sixty years ago this October, the Soviet Union’s launch of a tiny satellite called Sputnik shocked the United States out of its complacency over the education levels of its citizens. Our nation responded with an array of innovative new policies and practices to enhance Americans’ skill levels — especially in science, math and engineering — and open the doors of higher education to millions of new students. Center for Educat... Education at Work Inside Track Roadtrip Nation Article Career Connection Consumer Voice Navigating Education ... May 20, 2015 Our Team Center for Educat... Article Completion