Data on Adult Learners That Help Educators Build Stronger Pathways

Working with the California Adult Education Program, WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility linked adult education and community college data and then gathered insights from educators about ways to improve transitions to college.

The Challenge

Adult education programs are important starting points for many different types of learners seeking to earn high school equivalency certificates, learn English, or get job training. These programs are a good foundation, but adult learners have much better chances of earning higher wages when they go on to career and technical education or for-credit college courses.

The problem is that we know very little about whether adult learners continue their education after these programs. Many states don’t collect information on adult education participants in a way that connects to college data systems. Because educators can’t see the outcomes for their learners after they leave, it’s hard for educators to create pathways that help their learners move from adult education to college.

This information gap especially hurts learners who would benefit most from clear pathways to higher wage opportunities, such as English language learners, adults without high school diplomas, and justice-involved individuals. We need to understand which strategies work—and for which types of learners—so we can build an adult education system that truly helps people improve their economic situation.

How We’re Taking Action

In partnership with the California Adult Education Program, we created a data set that links information from adult education to credit coursework. Then, in 2023, we analyzed transition rates and conducted interviews with adult education program staff to identify practices that support stronger outcomes.

We found the following:

  • Only one in five students transitioned from adult basic education courses to postsecondary education.
  • Adult learner transition rates are higher from adult education programs that are offered at community colleges, compared to programs based at K–12 schools, perhaps because being co-located means they have fewer cultural, geographical, and institutional barriers to overcome.

When documenting the practices that support transition, we observed the following:

  • Strong collaboration practices include frequent meetings among those supporting adult learners, pooling resources across campuses to hire transition coordinators, and formal structures like transition workshops and referral systems.
  • Structural shifts that have the largest impact focus on the enrollment process, providing wraparound supports and offering low-risk opportunities for adults to explore learning opportunities.
  • When serving justice-involved individuals, it is important to offer authentic, relevant education, training, and job opportunities and address students’ social–emotional and life needs.

Having documented the gaps in transitions, we are building additional data sets that can help educators understand opportunities for creating strong pathways. For example, we reviewed noncredit courses that are offered by community colleges and compared them to similar credit programs to support advising efforts. We also flagged places where noncredit offerings could be developed to create stronger on-ramps to in-demand jobs.

Resources

Reports:

What Makes Us Different

Data integration expertise – By successfully linking data sets that traditionally exist in separate systems, we created visibility into student journeys that was previously impossible. This technical achievement required not just data skills but a deep understanding of different educational segments and their administrative systems.

Systems perspective – We examined transitions holistically, recognizing that successful pathways depend on coordinated efforts across institutional boundaries. We identified opportunities for collaboration and redesign that will have an impact that goes beyond individual program improvements.

Actionable recommendations – Our findings moved beyond academic observations to provide specific, implementable practices that practitioners could adopt in their unique contexts. By documenting both what works and how to implement it, we bridged the gap between research and practice.