Building On-Ramps to Student Success June 27, 2017 By Carlo Salerno Read Time Strada Article Consumer Voice Navigating Education Research Research Team ... Postsecondary training is an expensive proposition without a guaranteed payoff. To make matters worse, many students find themselves in the position of making large financial investments and never completing a degree, a near worst-case scenario that often leaves individuals with lots of debt and no credential to earn the wages needed to pay back those borrowed dollars. Success requires earning the kinds of certificates and degrees employers value, which is why federal and state policy has gradually moved away from facilitating access and toward supporting completion. Much of the effort, though, has gone into making institutional accountability more robust, which really is only half the battle. Success starts with ensuring a good fit between what prospective students want and what institutions offer. How do we help prospective and current students make sensible choices that reflect their aspirations and abilities? We do it with the data, but most importantly, we do it with the right kind of data. Yes, consumers need more transparent data about college costs. But, as I shared during a panel discussion at the ASU + GSV Summit this spring, what they sorely need is much better information about the economic returns a degree can yield. Watch video Accessing the right data Many service sectors, for example, rely on consumer satisfaction feedback to help guide choices and improve offerings — just think of resources like Yelp! or Consumer Reports. While college rankings and ratings certainly are not in short supply, they often end up being measures of what methodologists think good schools should be like, rather than what actual users believe was a good or bad investment. What’s more, they don’t really distinguish between nonselective institutions or those with a more vocational bent, like the nation’s community colleges and technical schools that enroll about half of all students today. Even where there is reputable data, such as the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard, it’s clear there are challenges. Look up Grand Valley State University in Michigan, for example, and you’ll find an institution where the net cost of a bachelor’s degree can run anywhere from $67,000 to almost $100,000, and former students (only those who received federal aid) earn just less than $40,000 a year a full decade after they’ve left. Is that a good deal? Are those good wages? It’s hard to tell, since we’re talking about a school that at any given time enrolls more than 20,000 students and offers more than 190 different academic programs. Consumers need program-level wage and career data. They also need to know what starting salaries look like, in addition to mid- and late-career earnings, if we’re going to reasonably expect them to properly value an investment that can potentially bear out over a 30-plus year career. What does the average worker earn in the student’s desired field? What does someone who’s in the 25th or 95th percentile earn? Is the student looking to enter a high-demand field, or one that’s already flooded with hundreds of thousands of other people who have degrees and highly valued work experience? Finding the right pathway From constructing a building, to training to become a world-class athlete, to building a rewarding, lifelong career, a good foundation matters. At the end of the day, people choose where to study, what to study, and what degree to pursue. In the absence of good data, the lifelong investment choices we expect consumers to make end up resting instead on an unstable foundation of piecemeal data, anecdotes and romanticized beliefs about career options and opportunities. Giving people the right tools to make sensible choices that meet their uniquely personal circumstances is a laudable goal. Whether it’s policymakers, pundits or the public, we should continually look for better ways to leverage data to help education consumers help themselves. Group 13 Group 11 Group 12 To create a PDF of the webpage, choose in opened window 'Save as PDF' option in 'Destination' select or something like that and click to save or print button. Got it Carlo Salerno Vice President, Data Analytics Strada Education Network Learn More Latest From Research March 16, 2022 The Power of Work-Based Learning Applied connections between education and work are increasingly a part of undergraduate education in the United States. March 16, 2022 New study shows paid internships boost first-job salaries by $3,000 and student confidence about their careers Disparities in securing paid internships persist for women, people of color, first-generation college students, and students with low incomes — even when taking into account their fields of study February 16, 2022 The Significant Value of Historically Black Colleges and Universities Two centuries after the first historically Black colleges and universities were founded, the 101 accredited HBCUs in operation today continue to deliver on their legacy of expanding educational opportunity for Black students that leads to successful and fulfilling lives. January 19, 2022 How Colleges Help Students Succeed Beyond Completion As a field, higher education has experienced a continuing evolution in how to measure success. For nearly five decades success efforts were focused on access, followed by the past decade and a half pursuing completion, and the field now has a growing focus on the value of a degree and student outcomes beyond completion. January 5, 2022 5 Ways To Integrate Career Connection Into College Experience Recent Strada research points to a striking disparity between first-year students’ aspirations for career planning in their undergraduate years and seniors’ actual experiences. December 8, 2021 Understanding Undergraduates’ Career Preparation Experiences Strada’s prior research on undergraduate perceptions of the value of their education demonstrates that students value their education most when they receive support to connect their education and career interests. December 8, 2021 Analysis of Undergraduate Career Preparation Emphasizes Need for Professional NSSE and Strada researchers identify gaps in social capital development in 2021 NSSE career preparation data November 29, 2021 Promising Practices for Reconnecting Recent High School Graduates to Postsecondary Education In the wake of historic pandemic-related enrollment declines, postsecondary institutions have responded by developing and expanding innovative approaches to engaging learners. October 27, 2021 Student Outcomes Beyond Completion: National Findings From the 2021 Strada Alumni Survey The baccalaureate degree remains the surest path to economic mobility, employment stability, and a host of associated social benefits. October 27, 2021 Nationwide alumni survey looks beyond completion to understand experience, benefits of a college degree Courses, faculty receive high marks, but valued education-career connections are less consistent, and females, first-generation, Black alumni are less likely to report successful outcomes