Lumina Foundation is committed to increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees, certificates and other credentials to 60 percent by 2025.
After one of the most divisive elections in decades, Donald J. Trump will return to the White House in January as the nation's 47th president. For many education watchers, that reality is causing fear and uncertainty. Trump has promised the largest deportation of immigrants in American history, rolling back new protections for LGBTQ students, and instituting ideological changes in the federal education system, including plans to gut the U.S. Department of Education, which provides billions of dollars in scholarships for low-income students to afford college.
Now he gets his chance. And Trump insiders say they believe he’ll be able to move faster than he did in his first term to accomplish those goals.
The California State University system’s current Graduation Initiative, an ambitious plan to increase graduation rates, eliminate equity gaps in degree completion, and meet California’s workforce needs, has lasted nearly a decade. When it ends next year, Cal State could just launch another one.
But the nation’s largest four-year public institution by enrollment—about 460,000 students across 23 universities—is planning a new emphasis for its next campaign: what happens to students after they graduate.
Seth Kaplan has a theory about why the country is so divided. Kaplan, the author of Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society One Zip Code at a Time, argues that the social decline in America is happening at the community level, driving depression, anxiety, loneliness, drug addiction, and other ills—even among college students.
Kaplan also believes our social fabric has to be repaired, not by a top-down effort but with a “sideways approach,” which knits together community needs, institutions, and organizations tackling a local challenge. Colleges are often key economic and cultural anchors in a neighborhood or city. But are they drivers of community-building?
With Manufacturing Month wrapping up one week ago, Jamestown, New York, is all in, all year round. Local business leaders see a growing manufacturing industry, but like many communities, finding the workforce to fill new jobs remains a challenge.
Mayor Kimberly A. Ecklund, the second woman ever elected as mayor of Jamestown, acknowledges that manufacturing still carries a stigma. In this interview, she outlines the efforts underway to alter this dynamic and foster highly sought-after careers in manufacturing and other fields.
Direct admissions programs have been gaining traction as a way to nudge more students to attend college, particularly those who might otherwise consider going. Now, California State University is going the direct admissions route with an initiative to automatically accept certain students attending public high schools in Riverside County.
The pilot is the 461,000-student system’s first-ever attempt at direct admissions, which will inform students via mailed brochures that they’ve been accepted before they even apply. Ten of the system’s 23 campuses are participating in the initiative.
Although Jo Mackiewicz had a rewarding gig as a professor at Iowa State University, she often daydreamed about learning a trade—something that required both her mind and her hands. She decided to make that dream happen in 2018, taking night courses in welding at Des Moines Area Community College and eventually securing a good job at a local welding and fabrication company.
During her journey, Mackiewicz quickly discovered that learning the skilled trades as a woman involves constant workarounds, physical challenges, and scrutiny for competence.
