Partnerships, yes. OPMs, not so much.
Higher-ed leaders continue to rely on partnerships with vendors for campus operations, but as a new Chronicle and P3•EDU survey shows, colleges’ interest in deals with private companies for online-program management (OPM) has fallen precipitously in the last year.
That’s one of several findings that jumped out at me as I previewed the “2023 Public-Private Partnership Survey.” And it’s not the only data point that reflects how presidents, provosts, and chief financial officers are responding to recent economic and technological change. Enrollment declines and revenue concerns continue to be big motivating factors for colleges to consider or pursue partnerships, respondents’ comments on the survey show. “Enrollment is driving everything right now,” said James Sparkman, the founder of Alpha Education, a consultancy that collaborated on the survey.
This year only 29 percent of respondents identified OPM partnerships as areas of major interest. In 2022 that answer hit 41 percent, and in 2019 it was 42 percent. It’s hard to know for sure what prompted the drop, but it’s safe to assume at least two factors contributed:
- More colleges are developing their own expertise in running online programs in cost-effective ways.
- The U.S. Department of Education plans to more actively scrutinize and perhaps regulate them as third-party-servicer arrangements.
Meanwhile, colleges’ interest in private partnerships in other areas held steady or increased. In health and telehealth services, 48 percent of respondents were interested, up from 44 percent last year. And more than two-thirds of respondents were interested in partnerships for employee training, which may reflect the broader staffing challenges colleges are now facing.
The survey, which collected responses from 385 college leaders, was conducted in advance of the P3•EDU Conference next month at the University of Colorado at Denver. (I’ll be moderating a panel there, as will my colleagues Scott Carlson and Lee Gardner.)
This year’s survey also touched on new developments like ChatGPT and other advancements in artificial intelligence, and respondents reacted: 64 percent said they believed their institution will need to partner with the private sector to manage or make use of AI. And I suspect AI was on the minds of the 54 percent of respondents who said “new technological developments” have changed their views about partnerships.
Notably, 24 percent cited potential new federal regulations as a factor in their attitudes toward partnerships. The economy also played in: 11 percent of respondents cited rising interest rates, presumably wary of deals that would lock them into fixed payments over a long period while interest rates were volatile.
And one more finding of note, highlighted by Sparkman: On one question, more than three-quarters of respondents said they had the requisite skills in-house to explore, engage, and manage private partnerships. But on another question, almost 60 percent said they still hire lawyers, consultants, or other outside parties to help execute such deals.
What makes for a good teaching apprenticeship?
On-the-job training is typically part of the teacher-education regimen, but until recently, teaching wasn’t part of the federal government’s Registered Apprenticeship Program — and so it wasn’t eligible for the federal funds that often come with that designation. That changed in January 2022 when a program sponsored by Austin Peay State University, in Tennessee, and its local school district became the first registered teaching apprenticeship. Today there are such programs in more than 20 states. Some involve two- and four-year colleges, while others were developed by school districts (check out some models here).
Apprenticeships, along with paid teacher residencies and other grow-your-own approaches, are considered some of the most promising ways to deal with the nation’s continuing shortage of elementary- and secondary-school teachers, especially in rural and urban districts and for specialties like math, science, and special education.
These pipelines can build a more diverse pool because they allow aspiring teachers to train without required clinical assignments that are unpaid. Often programs are designed to attract employees already working in school systems as teachers’ aides or in other paraprofessional roles — people with roots in their communities — which reduces the problem of teacher turnover.
“There’s a narrative that people don’t want to be teachers,” Prentice Chandler, dean at Austin Peay’s education school, told me recently. But when aspiring teachers are presented with a path that suits their needs, he said, many actually do want to take it. Austin Peay has enrolled more than 200 students in its first three cohorts, and it has a 100-person waiting list.
Apprenticeships, and the broader model of residencies, could also help boost enrollments in teacher-preparation programs at colleges and other training organizations around the country, which had dropped by more than 30 percent from 2012 to 2015. Enrollments have been gradually rebounding, but not yet to 2012 levels. You can see those data and more here.
Last week, the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor put some oomph behind the apprenticeship movement, hosting an online event to unveil guidelines developed by an alliance of education organizations to define the “essential elements” of such programs. Among them: at least one year of on-the-job paid learning, a path to at least a bachelor degree, and progressively increasing levels of responsibility and wages.
While the guidelines are voluntary, the intent is to set a standard for quality, said Jacqueline King, a consultant to the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and a co-chair of the group that wrote the guidelines, even as individual organizations might choose different models. One more example: Apprentices should never be the teacher of record. “We want these apprentices to really be in learning mode,” King told me. “If they’re solo in the classroom, they’re not getting that direct observation and feedback.”
Residency programs that are apprenticeships can become eligible for Department of Labor grants and funds from its Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act program. Those additional spigots of money can lower costs for students and for colleges and organizations offering the programs — in some cases to subsidize students’ tuition, transportation expenses, or fees for their licensing exams.
Since the pandemic’s disruptions to schooling, I’ve been tracking various new approaches to teacher prep, especially models that aim to diversify the profession and raise its stature. King told me she’s seen “huge interest” in apprenticeships, and she’s hopeful that the new guidelines, designed to facilitate new applications to the program — along with a $35-million commitment from the Department of Labor — will give them (and apprenticeships for principals) a boost.
Quick news of note.
Calbright College, California’s unusual public start-up whose fits and starts I wrote about in May, has just received initial accreditation. With this action, by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission, Calbright will now be able to offer prior-learning credit and allow students to transfer Calbright credits to other institutions.
Got a tip you’d like to share or a question you’d like me to answer? Let me know, at goldie@chronicle.com. If you have been forwarded this newsletter and would like to see past issues, find them here. To receive your own copy, free, register here. If you want to follow me on Twitter, @GoldieStandard is my handle.
