Why Confidence in College Fell From 57% to 38%

Also in this issue

• Community College Funding Is Moving From Enrollment to Workforce Outcomes

  Mississippi's proposed $41.5 million model would fund 5,500 additional workers based on completions and workforce entry. Outcomes are becoming the unit of community-college accountability.

• Federal CTE Eligibility Rules Are Becoming a Community-College Compliance Problem

  Iowa's new Perkins-grant acknowledgments show how quickly federal eligibility policy can reshape dual enrollment, adult education, and CTE access.

• The “Nontraditional” College Student Is Now the Typical Student

  Roughly one in four students are adult learners and one in five have childcare responsibilities. Advising and career support must work beyond office hours and linear pathways.

• Michigan Turns Apprenticeship Training Into College Credit

  Twenty-six public and tribal community colleges now accept apprenticeship credit, showing how stackable pathways can turn skilled-trades training into longer-term career mobility.

• Career Literacy Is the Missing Layer Between Readiness and Mobility

  Research across roughly 36,000 adults makes the case for embedding career navigation throughout the student journey instead of waiting until senior year.

• The Tipped-Income Loophole Exposes a Weakness in Higher-Ed Accountability

  The delayed earnings test for cosmetology programs shows why institutions and regulators need transparent program-level employment and earnings data before poor outcomes become a compliance crisis.

• Trades and Degrees Are Finally Becoming One Career Pathway

  Mount Saint Vincent and Apex show how trade credentials, college credit, and employment-outcome tracking can create a mobility pathway for adult learners and traditional students alike.

• Virginia's First Adult High School Shows What a Real Mobility Bridge Looks Like

  Virginia's first adult high school paired a diploma with certification, life coaching, childcare, and a community-college pathway. It is a concrete model for wraparound career support.

• Higher-Ed AI Adoption Is a Change-Management Problem

  George Washington University's modernization work reinforces a practical lesson: AI implementation succeeds when institutions redesign workflows, ownership, and adoption, not when they simply add another tool.

• The Graduate Job Crisis and America's Worker Shortage Are the Same Mismatch

  Graduates are struggling to find entry-level work while employers face shortages in health care, skilled trades, education, and technical roles. The gap is career navigation and program alignment.

• Employer-Aligned Programs Still Fail When Students Do Not Want the Jobs

  Community colleges can build programs around employer demand and still see empty seats. Workforce alignment needs career discovery, credible job previews, and evidence that the opportunity is worth choosing.

• Mandatory Support Is Beating the Opt-In Model for At-Risk Students

  Ferrum College's required coaching and tutoring model raised retention for students on academic probation from a 37% historical baseline to 60% in its first cohort.

• Midcareer Professionals Are the Missing Workforce-Development Market

  AI and automation are disrupting degree-holding professionals too. Professional and continuing education units could become higher education's missing midcareer mobility engine.