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More adults in the United States are earning degrees or other credentials after high school, but not fast enough to meet the goals set 16 years ago by an independent private foundation focused on access to higher education.
As part of its Stronger Nation project, the Lumina Foundation set a goal in 2008 to have 60 percent of adults nationwide obtain a post-high school degree or other credential by 2025. Officials do not expect the goal to be achieved in time, but progress is being made. made.
“We often hear that higher education is in decline. Too often we hear that students don’t need to go to college,” said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, during a live webinar Wednesday. “You might have expected the data to show some of that, but it didn't. It showed quite the opposite. “It shows the problem with universities.”
The foundation released 2022 data, the most recent data available, showing that 54% of people ages 25 to 64 have a college degree, certificate, or industry-recognized certification, up nearly 16 percentage points from 2009.
“Some of this is due to finding ways to measure and add short-term credentials, but a significant portion of that, about 8.5 percentage points, is the increase in bachelor’s and associate’s degree attainment,” Courtney Brown said. He is Lumina's vice president of strategic impact and initiatives and director of the A Stronger Nation project.
The first step the state can take to reach the 60 percent goal is to increase graduation rates, Mitchell said. One strategy is to do a better job of reaching people who have college but no degree.
Brown said there are about 40 million people in the United States who have college but no degree.
“We have to make sure those people don’t break their promises,” Brown said.
California is slightly above the national average at 55% and falls in the middle of the pack compared to other states. Nevada has the lowest percentage of adults with a degree or certificate at nearly 43%, while Washington, D.C. has the highest at about 75%, according to 2022 data.
The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 42 states all saw increases in the number of adults with degrees, according to the data. In 2009, less than 38% of adults aged 25 to 34 had a degree; by 2022, that percentage had risen to about 56%. A big part of the increase is due to the Latino population, Brown said. The most recent data shows that the number of Latino Americans with degrees has increased from about 19% in 2009 to about 34%.
However, there is still a large gap between whites and people of color who earn degrees after high school.
“We are getting closer, but we still see a stubborn equity gap with Black and Hispanic Americans on one side of the spectrum and whites and Asian Americans on the other,” Brown said on a press call.
The national percentage of adults ages 25 to 64 with an associate's, bachelor's, graduate, or professional degree is 46.5%, with all racial groups below this rate except whites (52%) and Asian Americans (67%). Nearly 30% of Hispanic Americans have a degree, compared with about 36% of Black Americans and about 27% of American Indian or Alaska Natives.
In California, the percentage of Latinos who have earned a degree is even lower, at nearly 24%, according to the data. Data show that about 40% of black Americans have earned a degree, compared with 30% of American Indian or Alaska Natives, 67% of Asian Americans, and about 59% of white Americans.
For county-by-county data in California, go here.
Note: EdSource receives funding from several foundations, including the Lumina Foundation. EdSource maintains sole editorial control over its reporting.
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