Boosting post-secondary educational attainment is critical to Utah’s future and the Utah Foundation has released a report exploring how to increase success in students who traditionally have been less likely to complete higher ed degrees. Key findings include:
- Utah’s population is changing. If the state’s post-secondary educational institutions do not respond to those changes, tens of thousands of Utahns may miss out on educational advancement in the coming decades.
- Engaging and re-engaging with adult learners requires a specific set of strategies, such as offering robust child-care services, offering a wider range of online opportunities and providing class credit that is based upon pre-existing experience and course competencies.
- First-generation students – those whose parents have not completed college themselves – can struggle with some of the post-secondary familial advantages that many take for granted. UVU’s “I am First” and USU’s Aggie First Scholars programs are examples of support-programs that provide a useful bridge for this population…