Lumina Foundation is working to increase the share of adults in the U.S. labor force with college degrees or other credentials of value leading to economic prosperity.
Adult learners, working students, student parents, transfer students, and first-generation students are often grouped under the broad umbrella of “nontraditional” students. While their experiences differ, they also highlight the various ways higher education is, or isn’t, designed around the realities of students’ lives.
Many of these students are navigating similar pressures: balancing college with work and family responsibilities, managing financial challenges, and figuring out systems that weren’t necessarily built with them in mind. In this interview, Bryan Ashton of Trellis Strategies discusses what colleges need to rethink as “nontraditional” students increasingly reflect today’s college population.
At the ninth annual Reagan Institute Summit on Education in Washington, D.C., policymakers, business leaders, and education advocates from across the political spectrum gathered to address a single question: What is the purpose of education in America?
Discussions ranged from rising college costs and “cognitive surrender” fueled by artificial intelligence to the broader goal of fostering an educated citizenry. Panelist Maria Flynn, president and CEO of Jobs for the Future, emphasized the need to align what students learn in school with what the workforce will require in the next five, 10, and 15 years.
Michigan’s Dual Enrollment Task Force recently released recommendations on how to remove barriers and improve access so that more students can take advantage of the benefits of dual enrollment. These recommendations come at a pivotal moment as ongoing research shows that too many Michigan students are missing out on this important opportunity.
Research consistently highlights the benefits that dual enrollment offers students, including stronger high school grades and completion, higher rates of college enrollment, increased college credit accumulation, and greater likelihood of degree completion. Dual enrollment can also reduce the time it takes to earn a degree and lower overall college costs, directly addressing key concerns such as affordability.
Normandale Community College is launching a new program—Growth and Achievement Through Inclusive Education—designed to empower students with intellectual and developmental disabilities with credentialed education that will guide them toward stable employment and confidence in adulthood.
Many adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities never see postsecondary schooling as an option, but those who do, and especially those who are in inclusive programs at any of the 300-plus U.S. colleges that offer similar programs to GainED, tend to fare well after graduation. Research shows that 65 percent of students who participate in inclusive postsecondary programs find paid work after leaving college.
The sticker price of college is only one part of what students actually pay. Even when financial aid covers much of a student’s tuition, other expenses, including housing, food, transportation, technology and child care, can make college unaffordable. Those costs can be particularly difficult for students from low-income families, students of color, students from immigrant families, and first-generation college students, who may have fewer financial resources to fall back on.
Maycee DeJersey-Gonzales, who attends a local community college, knows these realities all too well.
The Trump administration says it wants to close the U.S. Department of Education to cut bureaucracy and increase efficiency. Despite those claims, however, many insiders say the decision is adding bureaucracy and making it harder to serve students.
Five Education Department employees share how the administration's publicly stated goals are unfolding inside the agency. They all asked to remain unnamed because they are unauthorized to speak publicly about the moves and fear professional repercussions for doing so.
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