In spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to switch quickly to online learning. Before then, Hawai?i had been expanding its dual credit program, in which high school students could take courses that would yield both high school and college credits. These dual credit programs require partnerships between high schools and colleges. RTI…

In September 2015, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) was awarded a First in the World (FITW) grant from the United States Department of Education. Interstate Passport® is the only nationwide network of regionally accredited, nonprofit, public and private two- and four-year institutions dedicated to the block transfer…

Despite the long-standing centrality and growing prevalence of transfer in the American postsecondary system, students, college professionals, and policymakers decry the lack of credit transferability between colleges. However, limited research has examined the factors most related to the magnitude of credit loss students experience. This study…

Prior learning assessment policies allow students to earn college credit for knowledge and experience gained outside of a classroom, which can accelerate their time to graduation. Research shows that students who receive Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) credit accumulate more credit and graduate more quickly and at higher rates than their peers who…

College Promise programs--initiatives designed to guarantee tuition and fees for eligible students--have swept across the country, unlocking the opportunity of higher education for students in more than 200 communities across 44 states, including 16 statewide programs that have passed through legislation or executive orders. These forward-thinking…

In late 2020, Hawaii community colleges participated in a national study of community college workforce education. Hawaii was one of 14 states where education authorities volunteered to encourage colleges to respond early enough in 2020 to receive preliminary statewide results in January 2021. This brief compares Hawaii to the 14 states in this…

On February 18-19, 2016, representatives of 10 states participating in the Credit When It's Due (CWID) initiative attended a convening held at the University of Utah. The meeting was led by the CWID Research Team and sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Kresge Foundation, on behalf of the CWID Funders Collaborative. The…

College enrollment and completion rates among low-income and historically underserved students are lower than those of their middle- and upper-income counterparts. "Promise scholarships," also known as "last dollar" scholarships, are becoming an increasingly popular way for states throughout the U.S. to incentivize…

In spite of the well-paying, in-demand jobs that many STEM degrees can lead to, just 18 percent of the 1.9 million bachelor's degrees awarded in the U.S. in 2015-16 (the most recent data available) were in STEM subject areas.3 Given that about 5 percent of workers with a non-STEM undergraduate degree work in a STEM field, a large proportion of a…

Higher education often operates under old rules -- rules that continue despite an increasingly diverse student population and improved understanding of human behavior and choice. Under these old rules, fewer than half of students graduate on time, if at all, and troubling equity gaps exist based on income, race, and ethnicity. It is time for new…