By Sterling Smith

In this blog, we discuss strategies for bridging the gap between prevalent, low-wage jobs and good jobs that address quality of life and earnings. The blog also highlights a new initiative that aims to address barriers adult learners face while putting them on pathways to good jobs.

The job market can mystify job seekers and educators, but ask either and they can likely talk at length about the current real estate market. Both the job market and real estate market impact our daily lives and have experienced significant shifts over the past few decades, driven by technological advancements, changing demographics, and socioeconomic factors. By examining these parallels, we can better understand how the job market has changed and how this impacts job seekers and educators.

What Makes a Job a Good Job

Much of the current conversation about the real estate market is dominated by the unavailability of affordable housing, just as many individuals in today’s job market struggle with the lack of good jobs. While searching for both jobs and housing, many people primarily consider financials—although dollars and cents are far from the exclusive factor when choosing either. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Good Jobs Initiative has a framework of eight principles that comprise a good job. Outside of providing workers with a living wage, the framework includes

• skills and career advancement;
• organizational culture;
• empowerment and representation;
• diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility;
• benefits; and
• recruitment and hiring.

These principles have direct impacts for job seekers and educators and are important for holistically evaluating what job seekers may want from an employer. In the trucking industry, for example, a study in the journal of Workplace Health & Safety found job turnover was related to issues such as job expectations, long hours away from home, and lack of benefits, among others. While jobs have different requirements and people have different preferences, for educators and job seekers, a more comprehensive approach toward evaluating career opportunities and educational pathways enables a more efficient labor market and reduces time and costs for students.     

Living wages, however, dominate the discussion around what makes a good job. The Living Wage Calculator, developed by Amy K. Glasimer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, defines a living wage as the following:

“What one full-time worker must earn on an hourly basis to help cover the cost of their family’s minimum basic needs where they live while still being self-sufficient.”

The basic needs referenced in the MIT Living Wage calculator include childcare, food, health care, housing, internet and mobile, transportation, civic engagement, other necessities, and income and payroll taxes. Living wages vary based on location and family structure, highlighting the need for both job seekers and practitioners to consider the regional labor market information and living wage data in decision-making. 

Take Los Angeles County, for example: in a family of four with two working adults, each adult needs to earn an hourly wage of $33.24 or $69,139 annually. In comparison, for the same family in Fresno County, each adult needs to earn an hourly wage of $26.79 or $55,723 annually.

Where have all the good jobs gone?

The shortage of good jobs can be likened to the shortage of affordable housing. A number of confounding factors have led to what is called the polarization of the labor market, where middle wage jobs have been eclipsed by growth of high-wage and low-wage jobs. This polarization is reflected in the makeup of our economy. On the low end of the pay scale is the leisure and hospitality industry, which accounted for about 6 percent of jobs in the United States at the beginning of 1950. By the beginning of 2024, that figure had nearly doubled (to 11%). At the higher end of the pay scale, professional and business services saw an even larger gain (from 7% to 15%). Meanwhile, middle skills jobs like manufacturing dropped to a quarter of their prior figures (from 30% to 8%).

Economists like David Autor, Lawrence Katz, and Melissa Kearney argue that the polarization of the labor market can be partially understood through technological advances and the outsourcing of jobs internationally. Other factors have impacted good jobs, including wage stagnation, where workers’ wages remain little changed when accounting for inflation. Wage stagnation has particularly impacted workers in the lower- and middle-levels of the job market. This has coincided with the precipitous decline in the share of workers belonging to a union, which fell by half between 1983 and 2023 (from 20% to 10%), even though studies on unions show that union members have increased benefits and a wage premium between 10 percent and 15 percent. On the bright side, both wage stagnation and union membership have seen some gains recently, for example, union membership increased by approximately 200,000 in 2022.  

How can education systems design bridges across the polarized job market?

Home ownership can feel out of touch for so many, just as securing a good job can be. A college degree continues to be one of the most reliable pathways to securing a good job, with bachelor’s degree graduates typically earning $1.2 million more over their lifetime than workers with a high school diploma. However, if individuals don’t have funds for a down payment on a home or the savings to cover the cost of tuition and living expenses for several years, the only option is to take out sizable loans. A quarter of people over the age of 25 have attended college but have not earned a bachelor’s degree. If colleges want to help more adults cross the chasm between prevalent, low-pay jobs to better options, they will have to redesign the way they engage their communities. For example, to help adults navigate to jobs that better meet their goals and dreams, colleges need to understand the characteristics of jobs in their region and the specific skills and needs of people in their communities. This understanding enables colleges to work proactively to support students across the institution, from advising to wraparound services. Colleges will also need to identify ways to help adults move efficiently through training options to reduce the out-of-pocket and opportunity costs of going back to school. 

WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility is helping turn these ideas into action by supporting a new initiative that is jointly offered by the California Community Colleges (CCC) and the United Domestic Workers (UDW). Domestic workers provide in-home support to children, the elderly, and people who are disabled. These jobs require long hours and physical strength but do not pay a living wage. Domestic workers who are not part of a union often lack health care and do not have consistent schedules, two key elements of what makes a good job. The UDW members who are participating in the initiative are predominantly women of color over the age of 50, many of whom are not fluent in English. 

To help UDW members identify academic programs that will help them make progress toward their goals, WestEd examined jobs that require similar skills, do not require a bachelor’s degree, and continued to be in high demand through both the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. This information was shared with the colleges participating in the initiative at daylong design sessions where they learned about their regional labor markets, the characteristics of UDW members who live near their colleges, and their interests. Educators identified related programs at their colleges and determined the types of supports that would foster success, like offering English as a Second Language courses that teach medical terminology. Importantly, educators moved beyond traditional labor market analyses that look narrowly at projected job openings and wage thresholds. For example, for some UDW members, preparing for a medical assisting position may be an attractive option. While the job does not pay as well as health care positions that require more training, it will provide a consistent schedule, daytime working hours, health care benefits, and the opportunity to sit while working. This work is being done with a data driven and proactive approach to provide support for members, where UDW and the colleges are coordinating on barriers, including transportation, computer and internet access, and course materials.    

Balancing Jobs, Education Pathways, and People

Solving the affordable housing crisis requires innovative solutions that address the supply of housing and the barriers to building and financing. Improving access to good jobs requires equally innovative solutions that build pipelines to good jobs and remove barriers for job seekers. Targeted programs done in partnership with community organizations, such as the UDW and CCC partnership, serve as one example for engaging historically underserved populations and adult learners. Not only are these solutions impactful for individuals, they are key to preserving American competitiveness and productivity. For researchers and educators, solving the good jobs crisis requires data-informed approaches that go beyond our historical understanding of good jobs and are reflective of the populations we strive to reach.

Sterling Smith is a Senior Research Associate at WestEd. Sterling specializes in the intersection of postsecondary education and labor market outcomes. His work includes helping institutions understand how to design and implement programs that are reflective of their regional economy and using a data-driven approach to institutional planning. Sterling is a first-generation college graduate passionate about economic mobility for learners and reducing barriers for underserved individuals.

By Phyllis Pistorino, Svetlana Darche, and Kerry Sherman Headington

In this blog post, we explain the elements and perceived positive impacts of work-based learning, and explore an exciting professional development course that WestEd created for community college faculty to facilitate work-based learning in their courses.

Many of us can remember a time in school when we thought, “When will I ever use this?” Today’s students are no different: a recent Wiley study found that a substantial number of students feel disengaged because they don’t see the connections between coursework and their real lives. Students seek not only relevant, real-world experiences, but also learning that is dynamic and interactive. Additionally, students are concerned with finding a future career that they enjoy, while providing them with a meaningful way to contribute to the world.

What can educators do to foster engagement and a sense of purpose in students? Work-based learning (WBL) is an instructional strategy that supports all students’ learning while preparing them for future careers. The benefits of WBL are myriad: students can build social capital; develop “soft skills,” also known as 21st Century Skills; discover their career interests; begin to define their roles in society; and, most importantly, gain real-world experience. All this can boost their confidence and make them more valuable to employers, ultimately jumpstarting students’ economic mobility, or a person’s ability to earn a living wage and improve their economic status over the course of their lifetime. Both K-12 and college students benefit from WBL, as research shows that starting WBL from an early age provides better outcomes for postsecondary success and career readiness.

Employers also benefit by helping to shape their future workforce. Recent surveys have found that employers are seeking stronger 21st Century Skills in their new hires, namely problem solving, critical thinking, professionalism, communication skills, and adaptability, among others. Employers are increasingly seeking candidates with proven work experience for entry-level jobs; those with internships and other work experience will beat out candidates with only credentials. This movement, called “skills-based hiring,” highlights just how important contextual learning strategies like WBL are as more companies move toward this practice.

What Is WBL? Learning About, Through, and For Work

WBL operates on a continuum ranging from basic career awareness activities, such as guest speakers and job shadowing, to more involved experiences, such as internships, apprenticeships, and paid work placements. It requires a direct connection to curriculum and instruction, as well as first-hand engagement with the tasks of a given career field. While WBL used to be mainly associated with career and technical education (CTE), it’s now prevalent in both secondary and postsecondary institutions, for all students, across disciplines. The following continuum image illustrates the different levels of WBL and how students may progress through WBL activities to build career awareness, engage in career interactions, and participate in career training experiences.

As depicted in the WBL continuum image, students begin to explore careers by learning about work through brief encounters with employers and workplaces. At the second level, students engage deeply with professionals and employers, learning through work, involving the production of goods or services, which supports and expands their classroom learning. The final level, career training experiences, allows students to learn for work, by applying their knowledge in preparation for employment in specific occupations. This process can be cyclical over a lifetime, as students transition from schooling into their first jobs, and then into new occupations and careers as their life progresses.

Beginning with career awareness and exploration allows students to ease into their understanding of careers. An important aspect of WBL is that it allows students to visualize themselves at work. Students need reassurance from people already working in the profession that they can “belong” in that profession. Exposure to work culture and norms, such as how employees behave at work or what they talk about during downtime, can help students understand how they might fit in and bring their own identities and ideas to work.

WBL Supports Equity

Students who participate in WBL gain valuable mentorship and supervision from education and professional leaders, building connections that they may not otherwise have access to, thereby expanding horizons and opening doors to future opportunities that support economic mobility. Students are able to learn and demonstrate their skills and talents in ways that are not always possible in class. Research shows that students who participate in quality WBL are more likely than their peers to get a college-level job and stay in college-level jobs. While unemployment levels for Black and Hispanic or Latino young people remain high, particularly exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the good news is that student participation in WBL coursework is high among the same groups, providing these students with equitable access to opportunities and connections.

WBL in Action: Example From San Diego and Imperial Counties, California

WBL implemented at scale calls for a shift from the traditional notion of “education or work” to a more integrated “education and work” model—breaking down long-standing silos between classroom learning and the world of work. This shift requires significant and dynamic relationship building between educators and industry. The San Diego & Imperial Counties Regional Consortium, comprising 10 community colleges, embarked on this transformational work in partnership with WestEd. Over many meetings and communities of practice, the Consortium

• developed a shared language among all parties
• tracked progress by counting WBL opportunities that students were given
• hired liaisons to build relationships with employers 
• hired WBL coordinators to work with faculty and students
• created an online WBL Professional Development Course for faculty to learn how to integrate WBL into their courses.

One of the Consortium’s greater goals was to make career planning “inescapable” for students. While working with WestEd, leaders in the region recognized that bringing WBL into the classroom is the only effective way to reach all students, and to do that, educators need support. To provide that support, educators throughout the region are invited to participate in the WBL Professional Development Course, which is offered three times a year and administered by WestEd. The WBL course uses an asynchronous cohort-based model on the Canvas platform, where participants review content, engage in discussion forums, and participate in knowledge checks, with the final product being a WBL Lesson Plan in their chosen discipline. Participants exit the course with the lesson plan and a toolbox of downloadable resources they can use with students.

As of Spring 2024, nearly 175 instructors and staff in the region have completed the WBL Professional Development Course. Assuming a course completer leads at least two courses of 30 students in a calendar year, it’s estimated that nearly 10,500 students have been exposed to WBL in just one year! Lesson plans submitted by course completers range from hosting guest speakers in an English as a Second Language course, to completing service learning with local nonprofits for a geography course, to participating in an industry-judged simulated workplace “restaurant war” in a culinary arts course. Instructors who completed the course were enthusiastic—in the end-of-course survey, 100% said they would recommend the course to a colleague, and many realized the benefits of integrating WBL into their instruction.

Watch this video to learn more about the WBL Professional Development Course created for the San Diego & Imperial Counties Regional Consortium.

How You Can Develop WBL Opportunities

WestEd offers expertise in work-based and experiential learning to support learners’ needs in the rapidly changing world. We assist with planning and system development, development of resources and tools, and design and delivery of professional learning, as well as data collection and evaluation processes. We work at the state level, with regional groups, and with colleges and K-12 school districts. The WBL Professional Development Course can be adapted for any region.

Do you want students to engage in real-world experiences and develop the 21st Century Skills employers are increasingly seeking? Are you interested in implementing WBL strategies? Contact the WestEd team at [email protected].

 

Phyllis Pistorino serves as a Program Associate at WestEd, where her efforts are instrumental in advancing projects across adult education, postsecondary education, and workforce development. Her educational journey began at community college, an experience that shaped her conviction in their critical role in transforming students’ lives and uplifting communities.

Svetlana Darche is a Senior Research Associate and Director of Career Education at WestEd. She is responsible for co-leading work in career-related education, workforce development, and adult education, including evaluation, policy research, needs assessment, technical assistance, and materials and tool development.

Kerry Sherman Headington is an education consultant working with WestEd and other organizations at the K-12 and college levels. She works on education research, development, and service projects at the local and state levels and is a Certified Linked Learning Coach. Her passion is in guiding educators and students in experiential and work-based learning as a means to college and career success.

By Rachel Antrobus

The cost of higher education has been rising steadily in recent years, making it even more difficult for many students to afford college and further exacerbating the economic divide. We know that students who complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) are more likely to enroll in higher education, persist in their coursework, and obtain a degree. The students who stand to benefit most, including first-generation students and those with low income, are the least likely to complete the FAFSA. The effect of filing a FAFSA is more significant among Pell Grant-eligible students of low income because these FAFSA filers have 122 percent higher odds of persisting compared to their peers of lower income who did not file a FAFSA.

Starting in the 2024–25 application, the FAFSA will be significantly streamlined to reduce the burden on students and families. The FAFSA is the primary conduit of access to federal financial aid programs, including federal grants, loans, and work-study programs. However, completing the FAFSA can be a daunting task for many students and their families. The application requires detailed financial information, and many families may not know how to complete it accurately and meet the time-sensitive deadlines. In California, the California Dream Act allows undocumented students to receive certain types of financial aid and allows eligible students to pay in-state tuition at any public college, but they must first complete the California Dream Act Application (CADAA). More than one third of high school seniors fail to complete the FAFSA and leave an estimated $3.4 billion in financial aid on the table.

In tandem with changes to the 2024–25 FAFSA, California recently passed interconnected legislation^[1] focused on supporting the financial aid process. One of the policies, AB 469, requires local education agencies to ensure high school seniors complete a financial aid application, starting with the class of 2023. Recognizing the critical role high school staff play in financial aid, a group of college access providers and advocates partnered to leverage support for students and schools. Funded by College Futures Foundation and led by uAspire, their aim is to amplify best practices, understand the needs of schools, and identify efficient ways to use financial aid data to actualize the goal of reaching 100 percent of California high school seniors completing the FAFSA or CADAA.

To provide resources for schools and counselors, the Financial Aid for All (FA4All) coalition, leveraged one coalition member’s (Education Trust-West) existing financial aid toolbox that contains key strategies to increase and sustain FAFSA/CADAA completion rates. Based on these foundational success components, coalition members, including CaliforniaColleges.edu, California Student Aid Commission, NextGen Policy, and WestEd, synthesized the best practices and policies occurring in schools and districts. The fa4allca.org website highlights practices and policies that are effective in equitably improving financial aid awareness and completion and provides a practitioner-focused inventory and a resource library. On the site, schools and partners can complete a quick self-assessment and receive a set of curated resources designed to aid in the pursuit of reaching 100 percent FAFSA and CADAA completion.

The long-term impact of these policies and efforts are unclear, but the future looks bright. Increasing the FAFSA/CADAA completion rates for all students is an ambitious and important step in making college, and the careers requiring college degrees, more accessible to students with low income. The efforts in California seem to be making a difference; 8 percent more high school seniors completed a FAFSA or CA Dream Act application by the March 2 deadline in 2023 than they did in 2022.

But even with this success, we cannot let up. It is more important than ever for each of us to find our role in supporting students to complete college. Higher education in a just society must be attainable to everyone, and by focusing on financial aid we can reduce one important barrier students have to reaching their dreams

^[1] AB 1456; Cal Grant Reform Act; AB 469: Pupil Instruction financial aid applications; SB 737: California Student Opportunity and Access Program; and SB 132: Cradle-to-Career Data System.

By Pamela Fong

Traditionally, postsecondary students are expected to start their college journey with some sense about their education and career goals. While some students may know their goals, the reality is that most do not. Until they know their goals, students may waste valuable time and money, taking random classes and delaying the start of their career earnings.

Most community college students believe career advising is what they need when they’re close to completing their coursework and are ready to seek employment — rather than at the start of their college journey. College knowledge, such as establishing education and career goals, participating in career advising, and attending office hours can be considered the “hidden curriculum” of college, especially for first-generation and underrepresented college students. Many students do not understand that these career development activities can help them prepare for their future. And on most campuses, the onus of responsibility is on the student. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Instead, what if career development (the ongoing process of identifying, preparing for, entering, and reevaluating a career) were embedded throughout every student’s college experience? From an equity standpoint, career development provides opportunities for students without the kind of social capital that can bridge them directly to employers.

What if, for example, during orientation students meet a panel of faculty who talk about their education and career journeys? Within the start of their first-year experience, students engage in career planning before education planning and learn about stackable credentials and degree options that lead to employment in the region. What if, when students choose an academic and career pathway, they enroll in a credit-bearing career exploration course and can engage in advising with counselors affiliated with their pathway? What if students experience work-based learning (WBL) as part of their academic and career development, and institutions sustain a team focused on building employer relationships to create those WBL and internship opportunities for students? Finally, imagine if faculty were supported with professional development on ways to integrate career relevance into their curriculum and instruction.

These emerging and promising practices, and many more, are underway at the 10 California community colleges in the San Diego and Imperial region. WestEd spoke with more than 30 career counselors, career services staff, and deans from across the colleges in 2023 and learned about innovative practices of integrating career development into the student experience. In fact, the changemakers we talked with were passionate about this career development effort being equity work that lifts students who have been marginalized into careers that yield family-sustaining earnings. The goal is to ensure that for every student, career development is everywhere and inescapable.

In the brief, Career Everywhere: How Community Colleges Address Equity, prepared for the San Diego and Imperial Regional Consortium and its community colleges, we captured practices and organized them by five themes:

• Career Awareness during Outreach and Orientation
• Career Focus Integrated into Academic Pathways and Programs
• Collaborative Strategies that Broaden Career Services Reach
• Technology and Career Exploration Courses
• Professional Development

Read the full-length brief to learn details about the colleges’ practices and to access an annotated bibliography of research-based, equity-centered career development practices. See the executive summary to review the themes. Both resources discuss implementation barriers and calls to action about ways that institutional leaders can better support the collaborative efforts of career services and other departments to advance equity through career development everywhere.

By Ann Edwards

U.S. adult numeracy education is a complex landscape. Numeracy, defined as “the ability to access, use, interpret and communicate mathematical information and ideas in order to engage in and manage the mathematical demands of a range of situations in adult life” (National Center for Education Statistics, 2020), emphasizes learners’ use and application of mathematical skills, understanding, and, increasingly, digital literacy. In trying to build these skills, adult learners must navigate a variety of course structures around the competing demands of their daily lives, while instructors balance diverse policies, content, and standards to try to meet learners’ needs. So how can adult numeracy instructors create courses that address this reality and help students succeed?

The Adult Numeracy in the Digital Era (ANDE) Project was funded by the U.S Department of Education Institute for Education Sciences to develop and test a technology-enabled approach to improving adult numeracy and digital literacy. As part of this project, we scanned the field to gain a better understanding of the adult numeracy education landscape and inform our course design. Using a data collection and synthesis approach pioneered by researchers at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Park & Takahashi, 2013) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, we examined written resources, interviewed experts, and conducted site visits. Two themes emerged from our research:

Variability is a defining element of adult education

• Adult learners bring a variety of backgrounds and levels of readiness as well as valuable and unrecognized practical numeracy knowledge drawn from life experiences—such as running businesses and obtaining prior degrees.
• Numeracy instructors also have varied backgrounds in education and mathematics, and teach in complex situations where they must respond to multiple, competing standards, work in a range of classroom contexts, and address state and federal requirements that compete with learning activities.
• Course schedules and structures vary across several dimensions—course length, frequency of class meetings, delivery method, class duration, format—and these differences make planning and course development challenging for instructors and institutions.

Learner goals are diverse and there are obstacles to meeting them

• Adult learners are motivated to participate in adult education by personal, societal, and economic forces to attain high school credits or a diploma, college readiness, new job skills, or general career advancement.
• Although they are goal-oriented and committed to their courses and future endeavors, adult learners have limited time and competing responsibilities, including work and family commitments.
• Course content, standards, and sequences may not directly align with adult learners’ goals, in part because policies and federal reporting requirements may shift the focus to other priorities.

Given these factors, we have identified three principles for adult numeracy course design to make courses more responsive to learners, along with questions that instructors and course designers can consider.

Aligned and Relevant

Adult learners want course content that meets their needs and will help them attain their personal and professional goals. However, with learners’ diverse experiences and the paucity of rigorously-tested adult learning curriculum materials, instructors spend significant time deciding on content while balancing the demands of mandated standards and high-stakes assessments. Formative assessment data, such as collecting student responses systematically and identifying common student errors, would help instructors better address student needs and facilitate students’ development and conceptual understanding. Keep these ideas in mind by asking yourself the following questions:

• What are my students’ goals and how do I know?
• What connections can I make from the course content to my students’ goals?
• How does the course content support overlooked aspects of numeracy like mathematical practices or problem-solving skills?
• What information could I easily gather to use for formative assessment?

Interactive and Participatory

In variable policy contexts and learning conditions, flexible and engaging mathematics activities create rich mathematics learning opportunities for students. Students mentioned how important it was to be able to ask questions freely and receive just-in-time support from instructors. Different learning modalities—online or in-person classes, videos, worksheets—were also described as compelling and motivating. Identify approaches you could take by addressing the following questions:

• What activities encourage student mathematical talk?
• How do I use synchronous and asynchronous instruction strategically to realize learning goals?

Relationship-Centered

Students’ academic mindset, self-efficacy, and anxiety influence how they feel about and perform in a mathematics learning situation and the trust that they develop with others in that setting. Adult numeracy instructors are exceedingly mission-driven and seek to build trusting relationships with their students and support their students’ success, even if they may focus more on supporting ongoing attendance than on emphasizing numeracy skills. Build on these strengths by considering the following questions:

• What do I know about my students as mathematics learners?
• What strengths do my students bring to mathematics class and how can I capitalize on them?
• What activities can I include to foster a mathematics community?

Gain a more comprehensive picture of the adult numeracy education landscape and key factors impacting adult numeracy learning and technology use by reading the full research brief or revisiting our Adult Numeracy in the Digital Era (ANDE) project website for updates on the development of our adult numeracy course.

By Kathy Booth

Each year, the federal government and philanthropy release funding opportunities for educators to improve outcomes for learners. Often, these resources are channeled into multiyear initiatives. Educators rally around fresh logic models, master the terminology of new frameworks, review metrics for success, and roll out innovative implementation strategies. But frequently these efforts lose traction. Rather than dig into resistance to a reform effort that has been underway for a few years, attention shifts to a new approach that has come into vogue. Therefore, it is not surprising that many practitioners feel jaded about the boom-and-bust cycle of education reform. While the specific call to action may change from case to case, the factors that cause improvement efforts to flounder are often the same. Based on our experience working within institutions on implementing systems change, the Center for Economic Mobility staff refer to these roadblocks as the Seven Deadly Sins of Education Reform.

1. Death by Pilot

Given the limited discretionary funding at most education institutions, pilot projects are appealing mechanisms to improve student outcomes. However, they can also be very effective at diverting the energies of talented educators into work that affects only a small percentage of the overall learner population. Even though research may show that the piloted approach works, these reformers often hear that the costs are too great to be applied to all learners. Meanwhile, institutions continue to pour significant resources into things that don’t work and often kick off new pilot projects, which contributes to initiative fatigue.

2. Hiding Behind Regulations

When someone says “this isn’t allowed!” and cites a legal framework like the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), we often let the conversation stop rather than investigating what the rules really are and whether they prohibit the intended action. Or education institutions may be reluctant to devote resources to new strategies because they believe that funding streams prohibit nontraditional activities. Furthermore, when regulations truly run counter to our intended actions, we often treat them as immutable rather than working to fix the rules that are getting in learners’ ways.

3. Blaming Teachers and Counselors

When initiatives aren’t implemented with fidelity, we often point the finger at people who work with learners most closely. However, these frontline educators (especially adjunct professors) may not have been engaged in designing the interventions or given clear information about the intended changes to practice. Rather than viewing communication and professional development as critical components of achieving our institutional reform goals, engagement and training resources are generally minimal and uncoordinated.

4. Blaming Partners and Learners

Education has a hierarchy. Four-year institutions may view community colleges as less rigorous, while community colleges may blame high schools and adult education providers for sending them underprepared learners. However, policies and mindsets within our own institutions can have a significant negative impact on enrollment and persistence. Furthermore, when our education partners or employers make it difficult for learners to continue their training and career journeys, we don’t always speak up and identify ways to better serve our learners together.

5. Allowing a Vocal Minority to Prevail

When we allow a forceful voice in a meeting to drown out other perspectives, internal concerns can overrule learner needs and derail reform efforts. For example, a few faculty in a math department may become the arbiters of the types of quantitative skills that are available to all learners, or resources for early career exploration can be diverted from liberal arts programs because some educators feel that discussing money cheapens their discipline. Avoiding conflict can also mean that groups won’t override a single naysayer even when most parties agree on a solution.

6. Arguing Over Data Definitions

It is important to understand the methodology behind metrics, but focusing on edge cases can prevent meaningful engagement with the overall numbers. Too often, we get distracted by arguing about data definitions and insisting on complete and perfect data sets. This allows us to sidestep research findings and avoid conversations about the implications of available data. For example, in a situation where only 5 percent of learners are succeeding, debating whether the denominator should be expanded to make the figure 8 percent may be less important than identifying what stands in the way for the vast majority of learners.

7. Ignoring Learners to Preserve Our Own Comfort

Many of the changes necessary to improve learner outcomes will require giving things up and shifting what each of us does within an institution. This type of change can be painful and uncomfortable, but it can also be freeing and bring us into alignment with why we chose to work in education. Many of these issues are grounded in race and deep divides in opportunity, reflecting unconscious bias that reinforces inequity. We must address these issues head on to create lasting improvements to education attainment for historically minoritized populations.

For every Deadly Sin our team has seen, we have also witnessed many courageous solutions. Access this PowerPoint deck for examples of how educators have demonstrated “Sprightly Virtues” that are antidotes to the Seven Deadly Sins and get inspired about ways that you can make a difference too.