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.
Impassioned speeches took center stage at this year's National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education conference, where diversity officers came together in Philadelphia to grieve and gather steam after a tumultuous year of rebranding and cuts to diversity, equity, and inclusion offices, programs and jobs.
Speakers doubled down on a message of hope, telling beleaguered higher ed diversity officers that their efforts on campuses would continue, despite state bans and anti-DEI executive orders and crackdowns from the Trump administration.
Mindy Bernhardt teaches criminal justice to undergraduates at Kennesaw State University. Recently, she has found herself grading more easily and expecting less from her students. The reason? They are unable to do the work her previous students accomplished.
Bernhardt’s experience is a common one. Students are coming into college with weaker study skills and a marked decline in their reading, math, and writing abilities. They avoid courses that might lower their grade-point average and often expect to be graded on how hard they worked, not how well they understand the material. Professors now face a dilemma: If they hold students to the same standards they used even 10 years ago, more will do poorly. If they ease up, students won’t be prepared for more advanced work.
To gauge the economy, you can check gas prices, housing costs, or the stock market. But for many people, the most basic indicator of whether the economy is working for them is whether they have a job. The term reverberating through the job market right now is "low fire, low hire." That is, employers overall aren't cutting many jobs, but they also aren't adding much either.
This stagnation, with few workers flowing in and out of the labor force, poses a particular challenge for those hoping to start their careers. In this interview, soon-to-be college graduates and an economist discuss navigating today's tough job market.
Mass firings, contract cuts and cancellations, and stalled grant funding have battered the federal education research system, which tracks student learning and evaluates what works. Many researchers at private research organizations have lost their jobs, and those with a more protected perch at universities face profound uncertainty.
Researchers now face pressure to advocate for their field, but doing so could jeopardize their work and their institutions.
As rapid technological shifts reshape the labor market, the debate over the "value of college" has reached a fever pitch. But amid the noise, one reality remains clear: States cannot build a competitive workforce or a thriving economy without robust postsecondary systems.
The defining challenge today isn't whether higher education still matters; it's whether it can evolve fast enough to meet the demands of the modern economy. A group of forward-thinking states is betting that it can.
High school seniors across California are anxiously awaiting word on their public university acceptances. However, thousands of other soon-to-be graduates face virtual exclusion. A key reason? Nearly half haven’t taken the required classes. Low-income, Black, and Latino students have among the lowest class-completion rates.
California students who take these courses, known as the A-G requirements, are more likely to go to college straight after high school. As it turns out, a small high school in Compton is a state leader. Could leaders there scale their results across the district’s larger high schools?
