Upload
open-badges
View
576
Download
1
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Citation preview
THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY
Kathy Booth, WestEdNational Badging Alliance
October 2014
THE CURRENT SUCCESS CONVERSATION
The way we think about college drives what counts as success
• Many courses • Several years• Credential• Good for life• Opens door to
employment
The evolving world of work
• Most jobs require mastery of quickly-evolving technology, requiring retraining
• Workers are moving from jobs that no longer exist to jobs that may not have existed when they started their studies
• Employers expect workers to come to the job fully trained
• Sectors have bypassed academic credentials and are establishing their own
The new reality for workforce education is short-term certificates
Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce:
• Certificates accounted for 22% of post-secondary awards in 2010, up from 8% in 1980
• Certificates are now the second most common postsecondary award, ahead of associate’s degrees and master’s degrees
• 54% of these certificates are short-term (1 year or less)
The crux of the problem
While individual college programs are being developed that address the new world of work, our conversations about success are still assuming a conventional definition of the college experience
… so we need a new way to talk about alternative college pathways.
RESEARCH ON WORKFORCE TRAINING OUTCOMES
Statewide student data paired with unemployment insurance earnings
• Bahr (2013): 174,864 students who entered California community colleges for the first time between 2002–2006 and successfully engaged in short-term course-taking, by passing six or fewer credits per term over four semesters
• Bahr (2014): 759,489 students who entered California community colleges for the first time between 2002–2006
• Fuller (2013): 67,800 students who described their college goal in fall 2010 as “update job skills.”
• Fuller (2014): 68,000 students from the time period of 2002–2007 who completed credentials or left without a credential and did not transfer to a four-year institution
Statewide student data paired with surveys of former students
Greaney (2013): 11,512 students who either earned an award or had taken nine or more vocational units but stopped taking classes prior to earning an award
Key Finding: Community college offers a strong return-on-investment
Associa
te Deg
ree
Long-T
erm Certi
ficate
(
>29 units
)
Short-
Term
Certificat
e
(6
-29 units)
Low-Cred
it Award
(<6
units)
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18%
7%
17%13%
11%
Bahr, 2014
Earnings Gains By Credential Length
Key Finding: Earnings gains vary significantly by field of study
Workforce associate degree fields of study
5
13
Non-workforce associate degree fields of study
10
Bahr, 2014
Attainment of Statistically Significant Wage Gains, By Workforce and Non-Workforce Fields of Study
Wage gain No wage gain
Key Finding: Many non-completers had significant earnings gains
Water and Wastewater Technology
Administration of Justice
Electronics and Electric Technology
Manufacturing and Industrial Tech
Fire Technology
Computer Infrastructure and Support
Civil and Construction Management Tech
General Information Technology
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%6 credits9 credits12 credits Increase in Quarterly Earnings
Within 24 workforce subfields, students in 16 saw significant earnings gains after taking only a couple of courses.
Bahr, 2013
Return in Quarterly Earnings, by Subfield and Credits
Key Finding: Many non-completers had significant earnings gains
Few students with an “update job skills” goal earned a community college credential, but they did increase earnings 11% in one year.
Fuller, 2013
Return in Quarterly Earnings
Pre-college earnings Post-college earnings$0
$10,000
$20,000
$30,000
$40,000
$50,000
$60,000
$49,000 $54,600
Key Finding: Many non-completers had significant earnings gains
Non-completers earned more than completers in the following groups: • students aged 35 and older• students aged 25 or older taking ten units or less• fields like real estate, automotive technology,
electronics & electronic technology, administration of justice
• goals of “personal development” or “update job skills”
Fuller, 2014
Key Finding: Many non-completers had significant earnings gains
Greaney, 2013
Pre- and Post-College Earnings by Completion Status
Non-completers have a smaller percentage increase than leavers, but overall earn higher wages.
Non-Completer Completer
Hourly Wage PRE $21.19 $19.03
Hourly Wage POST $25.87 $24.78
Increase in Wage $4.68 $5.75
Percent Change 22.1% 30.2%
Key Finding: Non-completers are “non-traditional” students
Non-completers are older• Bahr: average age of 37• Fuller: average age of 38• Greaney: average age of 37
Many non-completers have already been to college• Fuller: 33% of “skills upgrade” students had attended a four-
year college prior to enrolling in community college• Greaney: 27% of non-completing students had earned a
bachelor’s degree or a higher degree prior to enrolling in community college coursework
Key Finding: Economic value may come from content rather than the credential
Bahr, 2014
Field of Study
Low-CreditAward
< 6 units
ShortCertificate6-29 units
LongCertificate30+ units
Assoc Degree
60+ units
Health +6% +10% +26% +99%
Business & Management +10% +5% Not significant Not significant
Public & Protective Services Not significant +13% +10% Not significant
Engineering & Industrial Tech Not significant Not significant Not significant +7%
Family & Consumer Sciences Not significant +5% Not significant Not significant
Commercial Services Too few awards +9% Not significant Not significant
Information Technology Too few awards Not significant Not significant Not significant
Wage Premium for Completing a College Credential
Unknown Factor: The value of third-party credentials
• California Career and Technical Education Outcomes Survey: 41% of non-completers reported earning a third-party credential
• Census Bureau Survey of Income and Program Participation: third-party credentials boost the income of those with “some college” by 13% and those with an associate’s degree by 18%
Implications: Current success metrics may miss the areas of biggest impact
• The bulk of economic value from a community college education is in workforce training, particularly short-term options
• Completion is not critical in most workforce training pathways (for older students)
• Success metrics need to be nuanced and take into account program of study, credential type, and student characteristics
Implications: Badging
• Sub-skills: Badges could help identify discrete sub-skills within a larger program of study that are valuable in the workplace
• Measurement: Badges could provide a means of quantifying the value of short-term coursetaking for accountability purposes
Resources
Videos and Discussion Guides• “Building More Comprehensive Measures of Workforce Training
Success” (4 minutes)• “How Workforce Pathways Shape College Outcomes and Earnings
Gains” (8 minutes)• Videos are paired with discussion guides aimed at different
audiences (policy makers, college leadership, CTE directors, faculty)Available at:
http://doingwhatmatters.cccco.edu/CollegeLeadershipResources/Informing Policy.aspx
Policy Brief• “The Ones That Got Away: Why Completing a College Degree Is Not
the Only Way to Succeed” (22-page summary of research with case studies)
Available at: http://www.wested.org/project/quantifying-non-completion-pathways-to-success/
Keep in Touch: Tell us what you find
• Contact Kathy Booth at [email protected] to share your work to measure workforce training success
• To keep in the loop about new developments, visit http://www.wested.org/project/quantifying-non-completion-pathways-to-success/