Like many people working to improve student success, I first became passionate about education because of its ability to unlock opportunity. Ensuring that more students are proficient in reading, perform on grade level in math, and successfully make it to and through a postsecondary education or workforce training experience — that’s about as close to a magic elixir as we can get. This is evidenced by the ways that improved educational outcomes and postsecondary completion lead to improvements in other important areas of life, such as health, civic engagement, and upward mobility.
National and Tennessee-specific data clearly show that, on average, when students pursue education after high school — from a workforce-aligned technical credential to a bachelor’s degree and beyond — the results are higher wages, increased economic independence, and the skills to weather future economic recessions and changes. College matters, and that includes all kinds of postsecondary experiences, not just traditional four-year degrees.
We’re fortunate to live in a state that promotes the idea that education past high school leads to opportunity for a lifetime. Our Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology (TCATs) are preparing tens of thousands of Tennesseans for great jobs. Our universities are conducting groundbreaking research and launching unique partnerships with employers and industry. And students who are obtaining advanced degrees are able to lead in their fields in Tennessee, across the country, and around the globe.
At the same time, we know that too many Tennesseans are not finding this path to opportunity and future economic success.
Some students complete postsecondary education and land in jobs that do not require the degree or credential the student earned. In fact, a recent report from the Strada Education Foundation, showed the 47% of Tennesseans fall into this bucket. Additionally, some Tennesseans find themselves in jobs that don’t pay enough to offset the cost of pursuing their education. Others obtain a credential or degree that doesn’t immediately lead to a job that enables economic independence or provides a family-sustaining wage in our ever-changing, dynamic economy. We likely all know a young person who started college but left before completing a degree or credential because the need for immediate income outweighed their career plans or personal passions. In fact, according to the Lumina Foundation’s Stronger Nation report, 13.4% of Tennesseans 25 and older have some college education but no degree.
To help address these challenges and move us closer to a world where all students pursue educational paths that advance opportunity, SCORE worked with dozens of partners across our state for the better part of the last year to build a framework to help Tennesseans — and state leaders — more clearly understand and assess the impact of specific degrees and credentials. Ultimately, this will help ensure more Tennesseans graduate with credentials and degrees that align with career opportunities and workforce need. In the next few weeks, we’ll release a report detailing the work of this group and the specifics of the framework we outlined together.
You can learn more about this framework at a SCORE Institute we're hosting in-person and virtually on Oct. 29.
While our approach won’t assess the impact of every kind of post-high school educational experience students are pursuing, it centers on three meaningful measures that connect education with opportunity:
- The connection between a credential and the salary that a student goes on to earn
- The connection between a credential and the job growth in the industry
- The extent to which a credential can be “stacked,” allowing a student to pursue additional high-impact educational paths that will unlock future opportunity
Our hope is for this framework to inspire discussion, debate, and — ultimately — change. We think it can encourage a conversation around several important questions:
- Does a specific credential or degree lead to economic opportunity for the student who pursues it?
- If that answer is unclear, what data would we need to know the answer?
- How can we help more students know what outcomes to expect from the credential or degree they pursue?
- What can Tennessee do to ensure that more credentials and degrees in our state are “impact credentials” that lead to a good-paying job in a field with positive job growth?
- What will it mean for Tennessee’s workforce and economic success if more Tennesseans are earning impact credentials?
In the months ahead, we will use this framework — and these questions — like a pair of glasses. We will apply the lens of the framework to many different aspects of Tennessee’s work in high school, postsecondary education, and workforce preparedness. For example, we’ll ask whether high school career and technical education (CTE) programs and dual enrollment classes are preparing students for and leading them to earn high-impact credentials and degrees. We’ll explore whether the outcomes incentivized in public higher education funding can be better connected to whether a student is set up for career success. We’ll seek to determine which nondegree credentials are valued most by employers.And we’ll elevate the need for more students and families to understand the likelihood that a specific credential will — or will not — unlock economic opportunity.
Higher education has the power to unlock opportunity. It did for me, and it does for millions of Tennesseans. Please join us in working to ensure that promise of opportunity is true for every Tennessee student.
David Mansouri is president and CEO of SCORE.