New England Board of Higher Education » Richard M. Freeland

Been There, Done That … Now to Get Credit Toward a Degree

John O. Harney — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 15:07:58 +0000

Assessing what someone has learned from work and life experience to determine if it's worth college credit

When Massachusetts Higher Education Commissioner Richard M. Freeland met in June with representatives from Boston businesses and the local community, four-year colleges, community colleges and the workforce system, he described the Vision Project, an initiative through the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education that aims to produce the best-educated citizenry and workforce in the nation. And he emphasized that this cannot be accomplished without encouraging adults, who may have dropped out of college long ago, to return to school and graduate.

The aim of the summit and others like it that have occurred around the country recently was to move individuals toward degree completion more quickly and efficiently, and to ensure that higher education is more adult worker-friendly. More and more institutions and state higher education systems are recognizing the significance of adult learners and the impact serving them can have on degree-completion rates.

Approximately 17% of adults in Massachusetts have gone to college but do not have either a two- or four-year degree, according to a report by the Lumina Foundation. Similarly, in the rest of New England, over 18% of adults in Connecticut and Vermont have some college but no degree. In Rhode Island and New Hampshire, the figure is just over 20%, and in Maine, it is over 21%.

The biggest barriers to returning to school for these working adults are generally time and money. One of the themes of the summit was unconventional ways to earn college credit, including a variety of ways to assess what someone has learned from work and life experience to determine if it is “college-level” and worthy of college credit. Taken together, these methods are referred to by educators as Prior Learning Assessment (PLA).

Some of these methods, such as College Level Examination Program (CLEP) tests, Excelsior College’s UExcel examinations and faculty-developed course challenge examinations, are widely used and marketed to incoming students of all ages, and therefore more accepted across institutions. Other methods such as portfolio assessment have been offered at a smaller number of institutions and involve unique approaches which follow national standards promulgated by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL). Still others, such as evaluations of corporate and military training by the National College Credit Recommendation Service (NCCRS) and the American Council on Education (ACE), use standardized approaches that are accepted by more institutions but are often not counted toward majors and specific degree programs.

With technology rapidly changing the learning environment, however, all these methods are becoming more standardized and uniformly accepted. All are viable options for incoming students with experience in professional or work settings. Asking adults to take courses in subjects they have already mastered only makes the time and money barriers larger and more obstructive.

Freeland and Massachusetts Board of Higher Education Chair Charles Desmond referenced PLA as an important method for offering credit for outside learning. For adult learners, PLA can make the difference between settling for the status quo and taking action to return to college. Hundreds of colleges and universities in the U.S. award credit to students for knowledge and skills learned outside the classroom through PLA, which can include learning from sources such as the workplace, military service, volunteerism, massive open online courses (MOOCs), non-credit courses, and other forms of on-line and independent study.

A 2010 multi-institutional study by CAEL revealed that adult students with PLA credits are 2½ times more likely to persist to graduation than adult students without PLA credit. This was true regardless of race, gender, age, income level or academic performance.

Despite these promising results, some have questioned the validity of prior learning assessments over the years—and with some reason, given that some colleges have created PLA programs on their own campuses with very limited resources, and with practices that have limited validity or rigor built into the process. There are also a few colleges that have taken advantage of learners and fostered bad practices, but CAEL’s research and history illustrate that assessments of outside learning can be done with validity and rigor.

CAEL was formed through a grant from the Carnegie Corporation to Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the early 1970s. The project was originally housed at the ETS Princeton, N.J., headquarters as a joint venture between the organization and 10 task force institutions, which included, among others, Framingham State College and the Community College of Vermont. The primary goal of the project was to identify and make more widely known best practices in the assessment of experiential learning, and to prove that faculty experts could agree on the level and number of credits to be awarded for student learning that had occurred outside a formal college classroom.

Extensive research conducted during the project concluded that it was indeed possible to accurately and rigorously assess learning that occurs outside the college classroom and determine if it is college-level. One method tested was portfolio assessment, where students compile a learning portfolio that documents what they know, at which point faculty subject matter experts evaluate the portfolio to determine if the learning is college-level and what level of credit award should be made.

Today, CAEL is a nonprofit organization with a broader mission to make it easier for adults to attain meaningful learning, credentials and work. Since 1974, CAEL has consulted with colleges and universities and trained faculty to assess prior learning for college credit. CAEL is the recognized national expert on the portfolio assessment method of PLA, and its Ten Standards for Assessing Learning are used by colleges and universities, as well as accrediting organizations, across the country.

CAEL has been partnering with the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) in efforts to expand awareness of PLA in New England. NEBHE has assisted by helping CAEL understand how postsecondary institutions in the region currently serve adult and nontraditional students. For example, NEBHE included questions about adult-focused programs in a survey of New England higher education institutions. Of the 26 responding institutions:

8 offer programs that enable students to accelerate their progress toward a degree such as cohort-based models with five-week intensive semesters, and programs aimed at certificates and trainings at the graduate level
14 offer distance learning, and 8 offer degree programs entirely online
16 accept CLEP exams—standardized national exams intended to test general knowledge in areas such as history, languages, art, science and English
10 accept DSST exams—subject standardized tests, originally designed for the military;
3 accept ACE credit recommendations—ACE has evaluated many military, corporate, and non-profit trainings, and has then recommended them for college credit. For example, McDonalds’ Hamburger University offers training in business, management and leadership that have been evaluated by ACE for college credit.

Clearly, work needs to be done to make PLA available to more New England students. Especially with portfolio assessment, we have seen a need, not only in New England but nationally, to provide simpler ways to offer PLA to students and bring these services to scale.

To address this problem, CAEL launched LearningCounts.org in 2011, a web-based platform with expert faculty assessors to examine the content and breadth of students’ learning and determine credit recommendations. The service helps colleges and universities nationwide that do not currently offer a PLA program, those that need support for existing on-campus PLA programs, or those that have a need for a more streamlined and cost-effective process.

LearningCounts is already serving a number of New England colleges. CAEL’s partners include Southern New Hampshire University, Franklin Pierce University, Cape Cod Community College, Eastern Nazarene College, Fisher College, New England College of Business, Middlesex Community College (of Massachusetts), and Providence College School of Continuing Education. Already, more than 100 students from New England colleges have taken part in the LearningCounts service. The service also engages adults not yet affiliated with a college or university through CAEL’s nationwide marketing campaign.

CAEL is also working on the policy front to advance PLA. At the federal level, the most important change would be the designation of PLA as an allowable expense under Title IV and the various GI bills so adult learners and veterans can use their financial aid resources to cover the costs of PLA. I recently testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, urging them to make this change. I also recommended that in the meantime, prior to the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the Department of Education launch an “experimental sites” initiative which would allow a national PLA experiment to test ways to ensure the quality of the PLA process. Since the Department of Education already has authorization by Congress to undertake experimental sites initiatives, launching one on PLA would spur innovation at a much greater scale.

While this change in federal policy would have a great impact, state policy change is equally important for PLA to flourish. It is at the state level where systemwide PLA policy or legislation can encourage institutional investment in PLA while removing unnecessary barriers. In a 2012 publication, the policy consulting and advocacy firm HCM, together with CAEL, identified more than 20 states that have introduced or passed PLA legislation since 2008. Taking this kind of action at the state level can encourage institutions to move more rapidly on PLA, and can encourage the institutions to recognize PLA credits upon transfer to another institution within the same state system.

Another state policy approach that can provide momentum for PLA is the transition to a performance-based funding formula for supporting public colleges and universities—and this kind of funding formula is under active consideration in 33 states. Our national study from 2010 I mentioned earlier, which showed that students who begin a degree path with some credits awarded through PLA are 2½ times more likely to persist and graduate, has caused states to see PLA as one strategy to achieve greater rates of completion. We have already heard from institutional leaders that when they have incentives to graduate students, rather than just to enroll them, PLA moves up on the policy and practice agenda. In New England, Massachusetts has already determined that of its $24 million increase in FY 2013 funding for community colleges, $20 million will be distributed using a new performance-based funding formula. As of February, Maine was also engaged in formal discussions about performance-based funding, and others are on the way. This funding approach is already providing a new incentive for colleges in other parts of the country, such as Tennessee and Ohio, to adopt better policies and practices related to PLA.

The summit in Massachusetts culminated in an action plan for changing policies and processes that have hindered adults in their quest to attain a degree. I hope that individual institutions and other states within New England will join the growing chorus to make PLA available to more students. Our country, our higher education system, our employers, and the adult learners we serve can wait no longer.

Pamela Tate is president and CEO of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning.

Credit Where It’s Due: NEBHE Survey Finds More Colleges Rewarding Prior Learning

Coming Into Focus: A New Vision for Public Higher Education in Massachusetts

NEBHE Admin — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:55:38 +0000

This past September as thousands of college students moved into their dorms, the Boston Globe ran a front-page story about UMass Amherst. The theme of that story was familiar to anyone who has worked in public higher education in Massachusetts: The university community has high aspirations, but those hopes and plans have been consistently thwarted by public apathy and governmental neglect. Quoting a former Bay State governor, the Globe evoked a deeply rooted doubt in the body politic as to whether Massachusetts needs excellence in public higher education. After all, we have Harvard and MIT, not to mention a distinguished additional array of private colleges and universities. Who needs a first-class public research university? Our teaching-oriented state universities and community colleges didn’t even rate a mention.

A second Globe story written by veteran higher education reporter Jon Marcus echoed some of these same themes in a piece that ran Oct. 31. It too focused attention on the “second-class treatment” Massachusetts’ 29 public universities and colleges have been getting from the state.

Some in our public higher education community were understandably outraged that the Globe, in both instances, neglected our many outstanding achievements. But frustration should not blind anyone to the painful truths these stories contain about public perception. Many in Massachusetts do doubt the importance as well as the quality of public higher education in our state. Many do believe, deep down, that Massachusetts has done well enough for many years based on the excellence of its private institutions and that those institutions will enable us to flourish in the future.

A reality check is in order, so here’s a memo to Massachusetts.

The world has changed. What may have been true historically is no longer true. In our state’s quintessential knowledge economy, new jobs are in fields that require a college education. Population growth is stagnant; domestic in-migration is non-existent. Bright young professionals trained in our private universities often leave the state after graduation. The college-educated workers, executives and entrepreneurs of the future will come from the public-sector institutions that now educate two-thirds of the high school graduates who attend college within the state. These institutions do a terrific job, but they can’t sustain quality and affordability forever while enrollments grow and support stagnates.

So wake up, Massachusetts. This is the 21st century.

Sincerely, Richard M. Freeland, Commissioner of Higher Education.

Anyone who works on economic development will tell you that Massachusetts can’t compete with other states on housing costs or labor costs or health care costs, or on the quality of transportation systems, efficiency of permitting processes, or the level of taxation. In all these comparisons, the Commonwealth can’t hope to be much better than average. Where we can and must compete is in the education of our citizenry, the quality of our workforce and the strength of our research enterprise. Our job is to connect the dots: If you want the nation’s best-educated citizenry and workforce, you need to invest in public higher education. You can’t have one without the other.

Yet Massachusetts has never supported a system of public higher education at levels consistent with the goal of national leadership. Although Gov. Deval Patrick attempted to restore years of cuts to higher education budgets, state support is currently no better than average among the states. In FY09, the Commonwealth ranks 26^th in the nation in funding per FTE.

The Vision thing

In the end, Massachusetts will have the system of public higher education that the people of the Commonwealth demand. My goal as commissioner is to make sure that as demand for access increases, demand for quality increases along with it. In pursuit of this goal, I have invested much of my time in an initiative called the Vision Project, a call for aspiration, accountability and unity in public higher education. The message of the Vision Project to the faculty and staff of our public colleges and universities is that, to borrow the current cliché, we need to be the change we want to see.

This effort has been a long time in the making. Throughout last year, discussions involving the Board of Higher Education, the presidents of the state universities and community colleges, and the leadership of UMass examined how we can most effectively respond to limited support at a time when our importance to the state is greater than ever. The Vision Project arose from the perception that we need a new approach to advancing our cause, that years of complaints by many in the system have not produced significant increases in state investment. We began with a brief Vision Statement that was produced, vetted, critiqued and tweaked during months of discussion:

We will produce the best-educated citizenry and workforce in the nation.
We will lead the nation in research that drives economic development.

This statement expresses something that thoughtful civic leaders truly believe, that the primary assets of Massachusetts in the fierce competition among states for talent, investment and jobs are the educational levels of our workforce and our capacity for innovation rooted in university-based research.

The Vision Statement has provided us with the basis for a “public agenda” for public higher education in Massachusetts. We asked ourselves the question: If the Vision statement defines what the state most needs us to accomplish, what must be true for us to claim that we are doing that job? This question led us to formulate the key outcomes that constitute the functional heart of the Vision Project: seven explicit, measurable goals to which we will aspire as a system.

Five of the goals focus on our educational programs: We will send more of our high school graduates on to college than any other state. We will graduate students from our public campuses at higher rates than our peer institutions in other states. We will develop authentic assessments of learning to demonstrate that our students are achieving high levels of intellectual competence in comparison with students elsewhere. We will align our programs with the workforce needs of the state. And we will eliminate disparities among ethnic, racial and economic subpopulations with respect to all these educational outcomes. The two research goals, reflecting the work of UMass, are also very straightforward: We will be a national leader in research related to economic development and in economic activity derived from that research.

With the seven key outcomes defined, we turned to measurement and agreed upon a set of metrics that will be used to compare Massachusetts with other states in the areas where we seek national leadership. We will continue to refine these metrics as the Vision Project develops.

The Vision Project was endorsed by the Board of Higher Education last May. With that vote the focus shifted from designing the project to implementing it. In the coming months, we will learn whether broad agreement on overall objectives translates into rock-hard support for a focused effort, for transparency and for accountability. We have promised the public that we will share not only our good news and best scores but also our challenges and areas in need of improvement. I attach a sense of urgency to this work. As several speakers at a recent Vision Project launch conference made clear, the days when public institutions can say to government, “Give us your money and leave us alone” are long gone. We must be willing to be accountable.

Our immediate focus is on organizing the work of the Department of Higher Education, in collaboration with our 29 public campuses, to work toward national leadership in each of the seven key outcomes identified by the Vision Project. In two of these areas—student learning outcomes assessment and graduation rates—task forces are already at work developing systemwide strategies and policies. In the other areas, efforts are still taking shape. Our goal, by the end of the current academic year, is to have clear strategies at the system level to advance our work on each of the key outcomes.

A final element of the Vision Project is the annual report, a compilation of data on our standing in comparison with other states and our progress toward national leadership. Data will be reported by segment, not by individual institution, to keep the focus on the overall achievements of the system. This is where we have an opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to accountability. The message of the annual report to the public will be: You know you need public higher education to achieve certain objectives. We are focused on this mission. In some areas we are already national leaders. In other areas we have work to do. But we are doing that work and on the whole, we are a much stronger educational enterprise than many of you think we are. We are about aspiration and excellence. We deserve your support, and we need it to accomplish what we must on behalf of the Commonwealth.

The ultimate goal of the Vision Project is to change public perceptions and attitudes. Many of my colleagues in higher education, however, have reason to be skeptical about change. This state has seen multiple attempts to restructure the system and embark on reforms. Often those who set the goals provide little support for reaching them. Campuses are urged to achieve more, with more students and with less money. It is tempting to be resigned in the face of entrenched patterns.

I view such cynicism as a luxury we cannot afford. I define my work as an education leader in a political context. Max Weber once observed that “Politics is the slow boring of hard boards.” To make change, one needs to identify goals that are important to the body politic even if most people don’t yet understand them, and then to pursue those goals relentlessly, doing one’s job well in the present while working toward a breakthrough moment when the public consciousness is altered, when the political dynamics shift, and when real change becomes possible.

I believe that such a breakthrough moment is on the horizon for Massachusetts. For years education policy discussions have focused on K-12 reform. The result of the Commonwealth’s substantial investment in elementary, middle and high schools is that we can now boast of the highest NAEP scores in the nation. But what is this reform effort for, if not to prepare students for college? Our students need us to do that slow boring; the state needs our institutions to be first-rate. The goal of the Vision Project is to pursue excellence now with the resources available to us while advancing an enhanced appreciation of the importance of our work and positioning ourselves to take advantage of the possibility of change when the moment comes.