While it has long been an accepted truism that ‘big data’ holds promise to revolutionize higher education, translating the 1s and 0s collected at institutions into usable, predictive information about what makes students more or less likely to complete a course has proven difficult.

With distance education being a popular way that adults with significant prior college credit but no degree gain access to college courses, keeping abreast of developments surrounding state authorization requirements are important to those seeking to serve this population.

The National League of Cities, through the Municipal Leadership for Postsecondary Success initiative, has released a series of briefs detailing promising strategies city leaders can employ to increase college completion. The briefs, described in greater detail below, show how mayors can use their unique position to bring together the many different stakeholders invested in postsecondary success – including the higher education, workforce, and private sectors.

The National Association of Workforce Boards hosts its annual forum in Washington, DC on March 9-12. This event brings together key stakeholders with an interest in adult credential completion efforts, including workforce leaders, education policymakers, government agencies, and private sector representatives. 

This year, members of the Adult College Completion Network will participate in a forum discussing ways that the higher education and workforce sectors can better collaborate to increase degree and certificate completion by adults. More information is available on the NAWB website.