Postsecondary Success Notes | April 2025

Colleagues —

Earlier this month, I joined Dr. Michelle Asha Cooper, VP for Public Policy at the Lumina Foundation, and Bill Moses, Managing Director for The Kresge Foundation’s Education Program on stage at the Celebrating and Accelerating Attainment convening (hosted by our partners at the Institute for Higher Education Policy) – a moment to reflect on where we’ve been, and where the field is heading next to continue advancing postsecondary value.

The takeaway: we’ve made real progress and there’s more work to do.

In 2008, just 38% of Americans held a credential beyond high school. Today, that number is over 53%. The rise in college attainment—driven by years of coordinated work across philanthropy, policymakers, practitioners, advocacy organizations, and institutions—is worth celebrating.

But we also know national progress doesn’t mean everyone is benefiting in the same way. We continue to see disparities in completion rates and return on investment. And as the data show, it’s often students from low-income backgrounds, students of color, and adult learners that are most affected.

The reality is, if we want to reach the next goal, we must design for the students who are still furthest from it. I applaud our partners at Lumina for their bold new goal: 75% attainment by 2040—with a sharper focus on economic mobility and the lived experiences of students.

On stage, Michelle put it simply: “Let’s make sure students have the ability to get a degree or credential that leads to something—a good job and a good life.”

And Bill added: “We need to be nimbler and more responsive to what students are facing now—and ensure the institutions we support can deliver the value students deserve.”

These reflections resonate deeply with our approach at the foundation. We’ve shifted from asking how many students are enrolling to how many are completing—and what that completion leads to. That’s why we support over 250 colleges through intermediaries to improve advising, course design, and pathways to completion; partner with others to define and measure value, helping institutions and policymakers understand what’s working and for whom; and invest in tools that help colleges provide more relevant, flexible, and affordable learning experiences.

Reflecting on the convening, a few themes stood out that I think will be key in the next chapter of this journey, so I’ll leave you with them:

• Alignment matters. Philanthropy and advocacy must move in the same direction—even if we take different paths to get there. We’re seeing strong alignment around how we define and measure postsecondary value: using transparent metrics focused on ROI for students, with an emphasis on economic mobility and prosperity. Together, we are advancing efforts to build better data systems (at the state and federal level), establish common-sense indicators of value, and advocate for policies that ensure ongoing progress. Whether it’s identifying thresholds for economic return, pushing for better transparency in program-level outcomes, or improving how cost and success data are shared, our work is increasingly coordinated to help students—and particularly students from low-income backgrounds and communities of color—access credentials that pay off in the workforce and in life.
  
  
• States are key. Translating innovation to impact requires scale—and scale happens in states.
  
  
• Courage counts. We must express our values clearly and create the conditions for our partners—who are closest to students—to do their best work. Our vision is unchanged: every student should leave college better off—academically, economically, and in life.

Patrick Methvin
Director, Postsecondary Success