Strada collaborates with students, policymakers, educators, and employers across the U.S. to strengthen the link between education and opportunity.
Learn More
We prioritize policies, practices, and programs that help ensure postsecondary education provides equitable pathways to opportunity.
We advance our mission through research, grantmaking, social impact investments, public policy solutions, Strada-supported nonprofit organizations, and strategic initiatives.
Read time
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. With equitable student success at the forefront, college and university leaders are pursuing the solutions for a future where all students realize the benefits of their investment in postsecondary education — employment, economic, social, and otherwise.
While not a new phenomenon, the years of the COVID-19 pandemic have been marked by further erosion of public confidence in the value of higher education. This lack of confidence among prospective and current students revolves around return on investment and is driven by questions about the connection between education and a good job. In contrast, the pandemic and resulting economic crisis made clear the value of a degree or credential after high school. According to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, workers without a degree were more likely than their peers with a degree to become unemployed during the pandemic. These data become even more stark when viewed with an equity lens, as the 2020 and 2021 unemployment rate for African-American and Hispanic workers without degrees was far higher than their white counterparts.
As the nation responds to the pandemic and the economic upheaval, higher education and policy leaders have the opportunity to simultaneously address eroding public confidence in the value of postsecondary education and training to better meet workforce needs by focusing on postgraduation outcomes to drive new thinking, solutions, strategies, and policies that will better connect education and work.
According to data from Strada’s Student Viewpoint Survey and the 2021 Strada Outcomes Survey, students are nearly five times more likely to say their education is worth the cost when they have excellent support to connect their education to their future career.3“Public Viewpoint: COVID-19 and the Value of College,” Strada Education Network, October 27, 2020, https://cci.stradaeducation.org/pv-release-october-27-2020/. In addition, graduates who had strong career-related experiences, such as internships, project-based learning, and career and job placement, reported higher postcompletion earnings and were much more likely to say their education was worth the cost and that it helped them achieve their goals.4“Student Outcomes Beyond Completion: National Findings from the 2021 Strada Outcomes Survey,” Strada Education Network, October 27, 2021, https://cci.stradaeducation.org/pv-release-oct-27-2021/. Put simply, when degree holders look back and report valuable experiences connecting their education-to-career preparation and the development of skills valued in the labor market, they are more satisfied with the value of their education and their post-graduation outcomes are markedly better.
In light of these national trends and the desire to support student success through and beyond completion of degrees and credentials after high school, Strada launched the Beyond Completion Challenge — a $10 million national competitive grant process to incentivize and support innovation aimed at improving equitable outcomes for students. Strada invited institutions within the Taskforce on Higher Education and Opportunity — a group of 36 universities and systems serving 2.4 million students that formed amid the pandemic to reimagine a higher education system — to submit proposals. Through the process of reviewing grant proposals and engaging with many higher education leaders from across the country, we’ve observed trends and initial insights into how leaders and institutions are adapting and innovating to advance more equitable postgraduation outcomes for the students they serve. We are delighted to highlight the work of our campus-based colleagues in hopes that we can inform, inspire, and support the many leaders working to change students’ lives and trajectories. We started this in today’s Public Viewpoint webinar and will continue to share insights throughout both phase one and phase two of the Beyond Completion Challenge.
Our policy agenda focuses on five priority areas: Clear Outcomes, Education-to-Career Coaching, Affordability, Work-Based Learning, and Employer Alignment. Our work focuses on improving both education and employment systems so students realize the economic value of their education and employers have the talent and skills they need to meet the demands of the labor market.
Strada’s newest report, Quality Coaching, looks at students’ experiences across three elements of quality coaching and we examine the experiences of recent graduates. The report also offers insights to leaders, practitioners, and others seeking to improve students’ career outcomes.
Strada’s newest report, Building Better Internships, looks at the latest findings from the National Survey of College Internships (NSCI), a survey developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions.
The State Opportunity Index was developed to help states build a stronger connection between education after high school and equitable pathways to opportunity so students realize the full value of their education and employers have the workforce they need to fill high-demand jobs.
New research highlights what states and institutions can do to help more graduates secure college-level jobs.
To better understand the value community colleges provide to individuals and communities, we need to acknowledge the range of needs they serve.
A wide range of experiences prepare students for success beyond the completion of their college degree. The evidence for the value of interning on students' future careers is strong.
In an era of student enrollment declines, tight labor markets, rising college costs, and a growing lack of confidence in the value of a postsecondary education, community colleges and employers have ample reasons to partner together.
Partnerships between community colleges and employers have the opportunity to address local and regional economic needs through a range of tools, including supporting student success through resources and services, integrating work-based learning, and building career pathways.
The list of benefits associated with earning a college degree is extensive and oft-repeated. It includes higher average lifetime earnings, employment security, greater self-esteem, and better health, among many others.
Amid all of this disruption, the number of U.S. workers leaving or changing their jobs sharply increased. Known variously as the Great Resignation, Reshuffle, or Realignment, the trend has been cast in the cultural imagination as a collective desire on the part of the American workforce for more rewarding or meaningful work.
Over the past 80 years, our nation has made great strides in improving access to college, and then ensuring that many more students could complete a college degree.
Spring 2022 enrollment numbers from the National Student Clearinghouse reveal a fifth straight semester of enrollment declines, with more than 1 million fewer students enrolled compared to spring 2020
Higher education’s measurement of student success is in the midst of an evolution. For nearly five decades, success efforts focused on access, then two decades with completion as the horizon for success, and now the focus is extending to student outcomes beyond completion.
Applied connections between education and work are increasingly a part of undergraduate education in the United States.
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.
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.
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.
In the wake of historic pandemic-related enrollment declines, postsecondary institutions have responded by developing and expanding innovative approaches to engaging learners.
The baccalaureate degree remains the surest path to economic mobility, employment stability, and a host of associated social benefits.
Steep declines in undergraduate enrollment during 2020 and 2021 threaten to widen existing equity gaps in college completion and career opportunities.
Nondegree credentials have been growing rapidly for decades. During the COVID-19 economic crisis, interest in nondegree credentials and skills training options was especially high. Questions about their quality and value, however, remain.
The high school classes of 2020 and 2021 have endured massive disruption to their education.
From its onset in early 2020, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has upended life across the world, leading to uncertainty around health, work, finances, education, and a host of other issues.
The pandemic has led to a national crisis of widespread disruption to both work and education for millions of adults in the U.S., especially those from historically marginalized groups.
We asked alumni nationwide who had borrowed money to go to school if their loans were worth it. Strada Education Network and Gallup surveyed a nationally representative sample of more than 6,000 student loan holders.