In a year that has upended higher education and created great uncertainty, it is more important than ever for students to understand which colleges payoff and how quickly. In April of 2020, Third Way released a report outlining the use of a Price-to-Earnings Premium (PEP) to evaluate the value of attending college and help students assess and…

In the classic game of "Chutes and Ladders," the player can see square 100--the finish line--but it is not easy to get there. The player may climb one ladder only to land on the wrong spot and be sent spiraling down a chute. In the game, players are aiming for the blue ribbon on square 100, but for students enrolling in college, the…

This report is the result of a year-long exploration of the effects of charter schools and the issues that surround them. Each of its eleven issues-based stories tells what the Network for Public Education (NPE) has learned not only from research, but also from talking with parents, community members, teachers, and school leaders around the nation…

California needs 2.3 million more people with postsecondary credentials by 2025, but that goal cannot be achieved at current college completion rates. Overall, only 32 percent of California college students complete credentials on time. Low-income students are much less likely than higher income students to enroll in or complete college, and these…

The nature of the changing economic climate has resulted in drastic changes in the postsecondary education landscape. With record numbers of adult learners seeking to further their education, they are faced with numerous outlets, including traditional liberal universities and a variety of for-profit colleges and vocational schools that have…

This study seeks to extend the literature on higher education enrollment patterns during times of recession by examining patterns of enrollment and successful course completion in one of the world's largest higher education systems--the California Community College system. The data are drawn from publicly available data sources on the web. CCC…

For a business-person, the argument that making a profit leads to poor "product" quality would seem silly or worse, insulting. However, this is a common assumption in higher education. Similarly, increasing productivity (a typical business goal) has never been accepted as a worthy aspiration in higher education. In traditional…

For nearly 20 years, the California Postsecondary Education Commission has been actively involved in the development of a strong and vigorous private postsecondary and vocational education presence in California. The private postsecondary sector serves some 412,000 students seeking an education beyond high school. Following a period in the early…

The General Accounting Office (GAO) examined the extent to which the financial aid provided under Title IV of the Higher Education Act to students enrolled in proprietary schools is being spent to train individuals for demand occupations. Job opening projections in 12 states were used to estimate job demand, the National Center for Education…