| State
Indicators Project (Lumina)
Comparative Indicators of State Performance
on Adult Learning
The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) has
received a continuation grant of $350,000 from Lumina Foundation
for Education to examine state-by-state performance on enhancing
educational access and success for adult learners. The award
will support CAEL’s on-going work to develop a set of
measures which can be used by states, researchers, and others
to more systematically document how well states are serving
adult learners. The goal of the project reflects CAEL’s
mission: to remove barriers that adult learners encounter
in their pursuit of postsecondary education. CAEL’s
partner in this initiative is the National Center for Higher
Education Management Systems (NCHEMS).
Project Components
The project
has two interrelated components: a data-based Comparative
Analysis of State Performance on Adult Learning to synthesize
the findings from the data analyses and to highlight the strategic
importance of adult learning to economic development priorities
in this country; and an Adult Learner Policy Framework Review,
or audit, to encourage each state to compare its own policies
to an adult learner-focused policy framework that CAEL created
in order to improve the state’s responsiveness to adult
learners. The data will be housed at www.higheredinfo.org
with a link from CAEL’s web pages. The Policy Framework
will also be posted at www.cael.org and available at no charge.
Additional technical assistance from CAEL is available to
states or groups interested in using the data and policy framework
to better understand how well the state is serving adult learners.
Need for State Indicators
This initiative will help raise awareness and understanding
of adult learning issues among policymakers and institutional
leaders and will pave the way for increased attention on removing
the barriers to the participation of adult learners. The U.S.
faces a significant shortfall in the numbers of citizens who
have earned college degrees at a time when achieving higher
levels of educational attainment has become critical. The
Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 15 million new U.S.
jobs that require a college education will be created by 2020,
but based on current attainment rates, projections show a
new gain of perhaps only 3 million new workers with college
credentials. Focusing on K-12 programs or traditional-aged
college students to meet skill demands will be insufficient—there
will not be enough of them. Educating working-aged adults
is an important, but largely unrecognized, part of the solution
to this problem. Yet little is known or publicized about the
scope and potential of adult postsecondary study in the U.S.,
and what barriers there are to adult participation.
Products
The project will have several products by early 2008. A major
deliverable will be a monograph with a comparative analysis
of state performance on adult learning, including a “case
statement” that emphasizes the demand for greater postsecondary
attainment among adult citizens and a “comparative indicators”
section that describes performance in providing adult postsecondary
education for as many states as possible. Comparative indicators
will be prepared for a) overall adult participation and attainment,
b) barriers to adult participation and, c) benefits to society.
Additionally, individual state profiles will be developed.
Finally, an Adult Learning Policy Framework will be available
as a complementary tool to be used with the data so that policymakers
and educators have a more complete set of information to examine
individual state efforts, identify strengths and areas for
improvement, and develop a strategic plan to improve access
and success for adult learners in postsecondary education.
All documents will be available at no charge on CAEL’s
web pages.
Click
here 
for a PDF version of the state indicators. Click here for a PDF version of the policy framework.
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