WICHE Policy Analysis & Research: A Stronger Nation through Higher Education

According to the recent Lumina Foundation report, A Stronger Nation through Higher Education, 38.3% of working-age Americans (ages 25-64) held a two- or four-year college degree in 2010, up modestly from 2009 (38.1%) and 2008 (37.9%). The report measures progress toward Goal 2025, which is a national movement to increase the percentage of Americans with high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by the year 2025. And the findings suggest that while more people are graduating from college, the current pace is not sufficient to meet the target pace or the growing skills demand in the economy. The report includes detailed data on degree attainment at the national, state and county levels, and for the first time, for the 100 largest metropolitan areas.

The report is available from http://www.luminafoundation.org/publications/A_Stronger_Nation-2012.pdf.

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) strives to maintain excellent communication with the education policy and research communities. You can SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to the Policy Alerts and/or Stat Alerts distribution lists. These electronic distribution lists are used to share resources about relevant issues in higher education policy and research. As an additional resource, WICHE maintains a Policy Publication Clearinghouse on the web at http://wiche.edu/publicationsClearinghouse, which includes past Policy Alerts and Stat Alerts, as well as other studies, reports, surveys, and policy briefs.