Not just “high-school grads … a few years late”
If you’ve heard the phrase “today’s students” used to describe the many adults and other so-called nontraditional students who make up a huge share of the population now attending college, you’ve got Julie Peller to thank for the nomenclature. She helped to make the term popular while at the Lumina Foundation and then at Higher Learning Advocates, a bipartisan organization she formed to push for federal policies that reduce the barriers those students face in enrolling in and completing college.
I like the term because it defines students with life experiences and responsibilities beyond those of recent high-school graduates for who they are, not who they aren’t. An added impetus for Peller was getting “tired of hearing members of Congress talk about ‘those kids on campus’” when she knew about a third of all undergraduates were over the age of 25, one in five was a parent of a dependent child, and more than 30 percent were working full time.
Peller founded Higher Learning Advocates seven years ago, right before I began focusing on older students (in “The Adult Student” report in 2018 and often in this newsletter, mostly because I realized that the more flexible colleges become in serving adults, the better they can serve students of any age). Peller and her organization have been go-to sources for me, and I’ve moderated some of their events on Capitol Hill.
Last month HLA announced a transition: a move to continue a 40-group coalition it helped create but reduce the staff of HLA, its parent organization. Starting in June, HLA’s managing director of advocacy, Tanya Ang, will become executive director of the Today’s Students Coalition, which Peller calls a “deliberately big-tent” organization with ambitions to grow even larger. Peller will stay on as a board member.
The moment seemed a good one to check back with Peller on where she’s seen progress for today’s students and where there’s still work to do. Spoiler alert: There’s still plenty to do.
First, the positive: Policymakers and campus leaders increasingly recognize that many adults are enrolled in college, Peller told me over lunch last week, and that “they aren’t just recent high-school grads who showed up on campus a few years late.” Responses to the pandemic experiences may have helped them, Peller noted, as more colleges developed online and hybrid options and destigmatized time off in pursuing a degree.
But recognition goes only so far. Too often, existing systems and customs still aren’t oriented to students who can’t make college their first priority. “Higher ed needs to fit into a busy life,” Peller said, “and not the other way around.”
How does that happen? Here are four ideas distilled from our conversation, plus Peller’s take on one trendy idea she’s not so hot on right now.
Pell grants should support shorter-term programs and prior-learning credit. More students need more reasons to see higher ed as an option, said Peller, who advocates for “short-term Pell” (also sometimes called work-force Pell”) to eliminate the divide between credit and noncredit programs that exists for institutions and policymakers, not for students.
And as many colleges try to attract some of the 40 million adults with some college and no degree, Congress should allow Pell grants to pay for the tests that colleges administer to award prior-learning credit, Peller said. Right now, even a $500 assessment fee keeps some people away, she said, and the change could bring in more students and more revenue for colleges to boot. But despite bipartisan support for short-term Pell, I’m hearing that chances are slim to none for any substantive legislative action on higher ed this year.
Credit needs to be more portable within and across systems and states. Credit loss is a huge deterrent to anyone considering a return to college. Retaking courses costs students and often taxpayers, too, Peller noted. Investments in systems to foster articulation can pay off for higher ed as a whole: Ithaka S+R’s new Universal Credit Transfer Explorer is one exemplar.
Learner advocates could guide prospective students. As navigators help people find health-care coverage on state insurance exchanges, anyone considering their postsecondary options — especially adults who lack school-based counselors — could benefit from independent, informed guidance, Peller argued. Despite there being few organizations and communities that offer such services, there’s no nationwide system for this. I’ve reported on interest in education navigators before. Maybe now their time has come.
Student parents need child care. Many colleges recognize that but still “don’t see that as a problem they need to solve,” Peller said. She’s a fan of the Kids on Campus effort that the Association of Community College Trustees is establishing with the National Head Start Association to expand child-care options. “Two-year colleges get it,” she said.
One idea that doesn’t excite Peller is the “learning and employment record,” or LER, a digital tool for people to show their skills, credentials, and experiences from various employers and education providers. While advocates see these emerging tools as a way to empower learners, their widespread use still seems very far off to Peller — and the conversation is more centered on high-tech and professional fields, not, say, the commercial driver’s license and other credentials that often serve as a first step toward social mobility.
How are you getting ready for our AI future?
My last newsletter featured examples of colleges’ getting up to speed on generative AI and other artificial-intelligence tools, and I’ve been receiving lots of interesting responses on the ways your organizations are preparing, such as the AI educational programs that librarians at Camden County College developed for students and employees. I’m still collecting ideas, so please get in touch if you are part or aware of something worth sharing. I’ll collect what I’ve heard in a newsletter soon.
Making social mobility real
To better promote social mobility, higher ed needs to reject the longstanding idea that exclusivity is excellence, said panelists in a recent Chronicle virtual forum. Here are two takeaways from “Sharpening the Social-Mobility Mission,” which was moderated by Eric Kelderman, a senior writer, and underwritten by the Ascendium Education Group as part of our series on student success.
Understand policies’ unintended consequences.
A “very cumbersome” application process means families often struggle with complex paperwork and meeting a variety of deadlines, said Ellen Neufeldt, president of California State University at San Marcos. “We accidentally bureaucratize ourselves into setting up barriers.”
Institutions must do better at streamlining, she said. Beyond applying to college, requiring students to pay up front for travel opportunities — even if they’ll be reimbursed later — limits participation. Working in a lab over the summer means forgoing income from a seasonal job that many students need, unless the lab work is compensated.
Reach out earlier and more effectively to grade-school students.
Two hundred middle schoolers visited Hollins University, in rural Virginia, last year, and high schoolers can take part in two-week residential programs there, said Mary Dana Hinton, president of the institution. Higher ed needs to pursue these kinds of efforts “with deeper intention,” she said.
Evidence that college completion leads to good jobs and economic outcomes could be persuasive for prospective students, said Elizabeth Davidson Pisacreta, director of educational transformation at Ithaka S+R, as an overwhelming majority of institutions are looking to improve such prospects.
“If we want to shore up the public’s trust, we have to ensure that they’re able to access degrees and credentials that are going to translate to those economic outcomes,” Pisacreta said. “If there are degrees and credentials that aren’t going to do that, we need to ask ourselves why.” – Graham Vyse
Events: state of the sector and shared governance
What’s keeping prospective students from enrolling in college? Why do many end up dropping out? Those are some of the questions I will be taking up today (Wednesday) during a presentation on the latest “State of Higher Education 2024” report from the Lumina Foundation and Gallup. We’ll kick off in person at the Gallup building in Washington, D.C., at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. To watch live or on demand, register here. Update (as of May 9, 2024): Watch on YouTube here
It’s no secret that administrators and faculty members don’t always see eye to eye on how campuses operate. But with financial pressures growing and enrollments falling, the need for collaboration has never been more vital. What does it take to find common ground? Can shared governance — I mean real shared governance — bridge these divides? Please join me on Thursday, May 23, at 2 p.m. Eastern, as I explore those questions and dive into related survey data on a Chronicle virtual panel. Sign up here to tune in and pose questions live, or watch on demand.
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 X, @GoldieStandard is my handle. Or find me on BlueSky Social, which I just joined with the same handle.
