Adult Learner Transitions to Postsecondary Education: Promising Practices Briefs from West Ed

This year, we have asked different states and adult education programs to share some of the promising practices they feel are helping more adult learners transition to postsecondary education and training. Recently, WestEd released two promising practices briefs that you may be interested in reading. 

Adult Learner Transitions to Postsecondary Education: Promising Practices for Programs Serving Incarcerated Populations A Promising Practice Brief

Adult Learner Transitions to Postsecondary Education: Adult School and Community College Collaborations A Promising Practice Brief 

Some interesting data shared on the WestEd website:

"California provides one example of the power of tracking adult education transition data. Recently, WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility explored transition rates for adult learners using data that has been made publicly available in the LaunchBoard Adult Education Pipeline. Among nearly 400,000 students enrolled in adult education in 2019, we found that

  • Only one in five students transitioned from adult basic education courses to postsecondary education.
  • Adult learners from adult basic education and adult secondary education programs (who tend to be younger) are about twice as likely to transition to postsecondary education as older students in English as a second language programs.
  • Adult learner transition rates are higher from adult basic education programs that are offered at community colleges, compared to programs based at K–12 schools, perhaps because being co-located means they have fewer cultural, geographical, and institutional barriers to overcome.
  • Transition rates vary by racial and ethnic groups, with the strongest outcomes for Black/African American learners (one in three), followed by White (one in four), and Asian and Hispanic students (one in five)."

Please share your thoughts in this discussion post on how we can support and encourage more adult learners to pursue postsecondary education and training. 

Comments

It makes sense to me that offerings at community colleges would roll a bit better.  
I'm wondering what the barriers are -- and whether or not they're being assumed to not be academic (e.g., lacking foundation skills in reading, writing and math).   

Thanks for joining the conversation, Susan. I think barriers really vary from one person to another and even one community to the next. One mistake we often make is having a list of barriers that we talk to learners about and never really asking the simple question, " What do you need?" We ask about (and sometimes get too focused on) transportation, childcare, school/work supplies, etc... Some students however, may need a mentor or someone to help them organize things or a way to do their laundry for free. Asking about the "little" things that stack up to be stressful and really taking time to listen to learners is so important.