http://www.clasp.org/issues/rss/publications.xml?type=postsecondary_and_economic_success Resources and Publications from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) en-us Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:20:04 -0500 info@clasp.org webmaster@clasp.org 40 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/ACA-Toolkit_Helping-Students-Understand-Health-Care-Reform-and-Enroll-in-Health-Insurance.pdf Young adults ages 18 to 34 are uninsured at almost double the rate of older adults. Community colleges, in particular, tend to enroll students who are disproportionately uninsured, including low-income students, part-time students, and minority students. Community colleges are in a great position to help students connect to coverage. This guide includes information about student health insurance options, how to apply, who can help, and key messages and outreach methods a community college administrator, faculty member, or staff member can use to inform students about their health care options. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/ACA-Toolkit_Helping-Students-Understand-Health-Care-Reform-and-Enroll-in-Health-Insurance.pdf Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/Testimony-to-the-Committee-on-Education-on-the-FY14-Budget.pdf In 2013, it is a complete misnomer to label adult education as simply a "literacy" program. It is so much more. Adult education is an oft-overlooked and integral part of the District's workforce development system. Gone are the days when one could attain self-sufficiency with only a high school diploma. Today's workers need higher level skills and often postsecondary-level credentials to compete for jobs in the changing economy. In fact, by 2018, 71 percent of all jobs in D.C. will require some postsecondary training beyond high school. Yet far too many workers in the city are falling far short of these credential requirements and will be left behind. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Testimony-to-the-Committee-on-Education-on-the-FY14-Budget.pdf Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/CLASP-Unmet-Need-Brief-041213-final-ab-2.pdf Over the last three decades, college tuition and fees have increased nearly four times faster than median income and four-and-a-half times faster than inflation. The rapid increase in college costs and flat or reduced funding in student aid has resulted in sizable unmet need and has forced students -- particularly low-income students -- to borrow more, work more hours, take fewer courses, or in some cases, drop out altogether. Unmet need and student loan debt for students at high-cost institutions have attracted widespread public attention. Less attention has been paid to unmet need at community colleges, where 41 percent of all undergraduates living in poverty are enrolled, according to the most recent data available (2007-2008). http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/CLASP-Unmet-Need-Brief-041213-final-ab-2.pdf Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/CLASP-Comments-on-Education-and-Family-Tax-Benefits-4-15-2013.pdf CLASP submits comments on family and education tax credits to the Education and Family Benefits Working Group, House Committee on Ways and Means as part of the committee's work to review possible changes to the federal income tax system. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/CLASP-Comments-on-Education-and-Family-Tax-Benefits-4-15-2013.pdf Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0500 /postsecondary/publication?id=0762&list=publications This toolkit is designed to help interagency state teams identify and facilitate "braiding" of federal resources to design and develop career pathways and bridges into them for adults and out-of-school youth. The toolkit also will help state teams identify state policy barriers to using federal resources for career pathways and bridges and, ideally, address them. http://www.clasp.org/postsecondary/publication?id=0762&list=publications Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/A-Guide-for-HPOG-Programs-March-2013-Final.pdf Healthcare is one of the fastest growing sectors in our economy, and there are many jobs in this sector that require fewer than 4 years of college education, have high demand, and offer good pay. However, low-income workers often face barriers to accessing the education and training they need to enter these jobs, including lack of information, poor basic skills, confusing and poorly aligned training programs, cost of training, and need for supportive services, such as child care and transportation. The Heath Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG), authorized by section 5507 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA; Public Law 111-148), address this issue by supporting models for providing education, training, and support services to enable recipients of cash assistance under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other low-income individuals to obtain well-paying jobs in high-demand healthcare occupations. The HPOG program is one of several provisions of ACA aimed at supporting training for the healthcare workforce of the future. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/A-Guide-for-HPOG-Programs-March-2013-Final.pdf Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/Final-RADD-Exec-Summ-Feb-2013.pdf Funded as part of the Gates Foundation's Reimagining Aid Design and Delivery project, our paper focuses on two areas that have received scant attention from federal policymakers: tax-based student aid and the use of performance metrics in aid policy. IOur paper offers a range of policy options for consolidating the various tax-based aid provisions and better targeting this aid toward low- and modest-income families. We also propose piloting "real-time payment" of the American Opportunity Tax Credit to deliver this aid to students when they enroll, not just at tax time. Our ideas are backed by ten-year revenue estimates and distributional estimates from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Final-RADD-Exec-Summ-Feb-2013.pdf Fri, 08 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/Final-RADD-WhitePaper-Feb-2013.pdf Our paper offers a range of policy options for consolidating the various tax-based aid provisions and better targeting this aid toward low- and modest-income families. We also propose piloting "real-time payment" of the American Opportunity Tax Credit to deliver this aid to students when they enroll, not just at tax time. Our ideas are backed by ten-year revenue estimates and distributional estimates from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. We've crafted our recommendations to be revenue neutral or modestly positive to respond to current budget realities, and we believe these proposals are timely, given the potential for tax reform in this Congress. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Final-RADD-WhitePaper-Feb-2013.pdf Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/CLASP-AQCP-Metrics-Feb-2013.pdf This working paper examines three elements of career pathway metrics development and provides an overview of what state and local/regional career pathway systems have done in relation to those elements. Our scan provides an impression of current practices but not a systematic description. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/CLASP-AQCP-Metrics-Feb-2013.pdf Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0600 /admin/site/publications/files/CLASP-The-AQCP-Approach-Feb-2013.pdf The Alliance for Quality Career Pathways is a two-year, state driven, CLASP-led effort to identify criteria that define high quality career pathway systems and a set of shared performance metrics for measuring and managing their success. CLASP will work with 10 states that are leading the nation in experience with developing and taking to scale career pathways, using a consensus process, to create this framework of criteria and metrics. These leading states participating in the Alliance are Arkansas, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/CLASP-The-AQCP-Approach-Feb-2013.pdf Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/AdultEducationJobsandtheEconomyFINAL.pdf Nearly 30 million adults in the U.S. have below a high school education and over 24 million have English language training needs. Even for those adults with a high school diploma, basic skills deficiencies have a detrimental and long-lasting impact on our nation's families and economic growth. Adult education (Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, Title II of the Workforce Investment Act) plays a critical role in the economic opportunity of over two million adult learners each year who use these services to earn a high school equivalency, increase basic and employability skills, or improve their English language proficiency. Fully investing in adult education and reforming the program to meet the needs of today's workers will help workers and their families build a better economic future for themselves and the nation. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/AdultEducationJobsandtheEconomyFINAL.pdf Thu, 28 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/Sinking-or-Swimming-State-Adult-Education-Tuition-and-Financing-Policies.pdf At no time in recent history has the importance of adult education been greater and the funding more threatened. Despite the fact that as many as 93 million adults in the U.S. may need basic skills services to improve their economic prospects, funding for these services is stagnating at the federal level and being slashed in statehouses and state agencies across the country. Demand remains high, with at least 160,000 people on waiting lists that exist in nearly every state. To begin the conversation about how to meet existing and emerging needs with shrinking resources, CLASP and the National Council for State Directors of Adult Education (NCSDAE) surveyed state directors of adult education in February 2012. The goal was to glean information about important policies that govern the way adult education is funded, including the costs borne by local districts, community colleges, and other providers and by the states, the federal government, and students. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Sinking-or-Swimming-State-Adult-Education-Tuition-and-Financing-Policies.pdf Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500 /postsecondary/publication?id=1131&list=publications On June 14, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2013 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill that sets funding levels for key education and training programs. Importantly, the bill also includes an amendment that would restore financial aid eligibility for some students without a high school diploma or its equivalent who are able to demonstrate their ability to benefit from college-level coursework. The provision would allow this eligibility only for ATB-eligible students who are enrolled in career pathway programs, a program model which CLASP has long-supported. http://www.clasp.org/postsecondary/publication?id=1131&list=publications Thu, 31 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500 /postsecondary/publication?id=1126&list=publications Evelyn Ganzglass, director of Workforce Development at CLASP, presented on the panel Financing College Success: Innovations to Promote Readiness, Access, and Completion on May 31 at the New America Foundation. Ms. Ganzglass discussed specific issues related to community college affordability and focus on a range of interventions that aim to improve community college success, including building assets, accessing public benefits, emergency loans, financial literacy education, and work opportunities more conducive to full-time attendance at school. http://www.clasp.org/postsecondary/publication?id=1126&list=publications Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500 /postsecondary/publication?id=1110&list=publications CLASP and the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) hosted a webinar announcing an exciting interactive tool to measure the personal, state and federal revenue returns to increasing the number of adults with a postsecondary credentials. http://www.clasp.org/postsecondary/publication?id=1110&list=publications Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/Refocusing-Adult-Education.pdf Two proposals to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) are in the House of Representatives. Both proposals reflect a priority of greater alignment among adult education (Title II), workforce development (Title I), and postsecondary education, and both increase the focus on preparing adult students not just to earn a secondary school diploma but for college and careers. Despite these similarities, the bills differ across several dimensions. This analysis highlights key provisions in each bill that strengthen or weaken the overall goal of refocusing Title II on career and postsecondary success. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Refocusing-Adult-Education.pdf Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/Litmus-for-Legislation.pdf During the past year, a number of bills have been introduced in the House and Senate to reduce the number of federal workforce programs, consolidate programs in some cases and to improve the efficiency of the workforce system. CLASP recognizes the need for a more coherent and effective workforce development system. However, it is wrong to assume that the federal government's support of multiple workforce programs necessarily amounts to or results in duplicative services. To help advocates and other stakeholders, CLASP has developed a set of criteria with which to evaluate proposals that consolidate or restructure programs offering workforce services to low-income families and individuals. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Litmus-for-Legislation.pdf Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/Credential-Improvement-Rate-State-Rankings.pdf This fact sheet ranks states by the level of improvement needed annually from 2010-2025 for each state to meet the 60 percent postsecondary credential attainment goal. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Credential-Improvement-Rate-State-Rankings.pdf Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500 /admin/site/publications/files/Full-Paper-The-Credential-Differential.pdf http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Full-Paper-The-Credential-Differential.pdf Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500 /postsecondary/publication?id=1097&list=publications http://www.clasp.org/postsecondary/publication?id=1097&list=publications