Research & Reports

Alaska

Research Presentations

Alaska Postsecondary Access & Completion Inventory – Scott Miller, MPPM, Senior Consultant, McDowell Group, LLC.

Getting to 65 by 2025: Understanding the Demographic Landscape – by Dan Robinson, Research Chief, Alaska DOLWD, Research and Analysis

Looking Ahead to 2020: Occupational Projections and Training Needs – Dan Robinson, Research Chief, Alaska DOLWD, Research and Analysis

College Access and Success in Alaska: Data Analysis – Patrick Kelly, NCHEMS

Publications

The 2015 Alaska Postsecondary Access & Completion Program Inventory, commissioned by the Network through ACPE, and developed by the McDowell Group, LLC. provides the most comprehensive overview of Alaska’s postsecondary access and completion environment available to date. Download the report here.

• Alaska Performance Scholarship Outcomes Report
• 2021 APS 10-year Review & Recommendations Report

National

Here is a list of research and reports that provide further evidence about the importance of a college degree.

• “Good jobs” – full-time jobs that provide higher wages ($53,000 annually) and better benefits such as health insurance and employer-provided retirement plans – have grown the most in a post-recession recovery. Read more about the report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.
• For those Americans between 55 to 64, 42 percent have a college degree, a rate surpassed only by Canada and Israel in the O.E.C.D. But among people aged 25 to 34, the United States is in 11th place, with a college graduation rate only slightly greater, at 44 percent. Read more stats in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development 2014 Report.
• 45% of voters nationally think expanding access to college will help better the U.S. Check out a survey released by education reform advocacy group @50CAN to find out other fascinating facts about Americans’ view on education. @50CANS, Education Roadtrip Survey
• College grads say college is worth it. Read this and other key findings about the value of going to college.
  Pew Research Report 2014, The Rising Cost of Not Going to College
• Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, by 2020, 66 percent of jobs in Alaska will require some college. Georgetown University Research Results
• Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters. A KIDS COUNT Special Report, Annie E. Casey Foundation.
  AECF.org, Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters
• The case for investing in PreK-3rd education. Challenging Myths about School Reform.  Lumina Foundation For Child Development, Investing in PreK-3rd Education
• Lumina Foundation tracks the nation’s progress toward Goal 2025—to have 60% of Americans who hold a high-quality college degree, certificate or other postsecondary.
• Lumina Foundation – A Stronger Nation Through Higher Education – Full Report
• A Stronger Alaska through Higher Education – Alaska data
• The Closing the Expectations Gap Report is produced by Achieve and details states’ progress on college and career readiness. The report shows how all states are aligning college and career ready standards with policies and practice to better ensure that all students are academically prepared for life after high school.

• ACT publishes the “Condition of College Readiness” each year and periodically publishes additional reports focused on particular sub-groups. Their recent report focuses on the college readiness of low-income students. Key findings in the 2013 report include:
  • About 95% of students from low-income families wish to pursue some type of postsecondary education, compared to about 87% of all students.
  • Only 59% of students from low-income families immediately enrolled in postsecondary education, compared to 71% of all students.
  • Fewer students from low-income families take a core curriculum, at 69%, compared to 84% of students from high-income families (defined as family income of more than $100,000 a year). Only 20% of students from low-income families met at least three of the four ACT academic benchmarks, compared to 62% of students from high-income families.