More than 39 million Americans have attended college, but earned no degree or other credential, according to a new report released Tuesday by the the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC). That figure represents about 22% of U.S. residents 18 years of age or older.
The “some college, no credential” (SCNC) population is up 3.1 million from the nearly 36 million previously reported in 2019, the result of both real net growth and improved NSCRC identification of students. That’s an 8.6% increase, with the number of SCNC individuals growing in every state except Nebraska and Connecticut.
The SCNC population by state was generally proportional to current undergraduate enrollment levels. California, Texas, New York, and Illinois accounted for more than a third of the nation’s SCNC population, with Arizona showing the sharpest increase with more than 86,400 SCNC students. Among all the states, Alaska had the largest number of SCNC students per 1,000 currently enrolled undergraduates.
According to the report, “Some College, No Credential Student Outcomes Annual Progress Report – Academic Year 2020/21,” more than 944,000 SCNC Americans between the ages of 18 to 64 re-enrolled in higher education during the academic year 2020-21. And 60,400 earned their first-ever postsecondary credential, including more than 18,000 bachelor’s degrees. Of those who re-enrolled in 2019-20, 61.1% (531,700 students) had either continued into a second year of enrollment or earned a credential within a year of re-enrolling.
“These outcomes indicate the scale of opportunity that the SCNC population represents for efforts to raise the level of postsecondary education attainment in the U.S.,” said Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center in NSCRC’s news release. “Moreover, at a time when most colleges are still reeling from historic enrollment declines during the pandemic, the continued health of higher education institutions, and their ability to meet the needs of future students, may depend on their success at re-engaging SCNC learners.”
Here are a few of the report’s other findings about the SCNC population:
- Most were younger than 35 when they stopped out of college, and the majority of SCNC students last attended a community college.
- Black, Latinx, and Native American individuals were over-represented among the SCNC population, relative to their shares of currently enrolled undergraduate students. White students comprised 45.3% of SCNC students, compared to 51.8% of overall undergraduate students. Black and Latinx SCNC students collectively made up 42.8% of the SCNC population, compared to 34.3% of overall undergraduates.
- Of the SCNC learners who did re-enroll, about 62% did so at a different institution than the one they had last attended.
- Re-enrolling in a community college after last attending a community college was the most common pathway for SCNC re-enrollees (38.5%).
- Of the 60,400 completers, 70% obtained their credential from a public institution (either a two- or four-year college). Private nonprofit four-year institutions had the highest perseverance rates among returners (64.8%), while community colleges had the lowest (50.2%).
- Women outnumbered men in re-enrollment, credential earning, and perseverance. The share of re-enrollees among minority women was substantially higher than men (63.5% versus 34.6%).
- Asian (61.2%) and White (57.6%) SCNC students persevered at rates higher compared to Latinx (55.0%), Black (51.4%), and Native American (51.1%) students.
- Associate degrees were the most common credential earned by Latinx SCNC students (42.5%), whereas Black students were most likely to have completed a certificate (42.7%). Asian students were the only SCNC group where the bachelors degree was the most commonly earned credential (43.8%).
As the report points out, low student success rates are all too common at the nation’s higher education institutions. More than 25% of freshmen do not return for their second year in college, including 41% of those who started at a community college, according to a 2021 NSCRC report. The nation’s overall six-year completion rate is currently 62.2%.
Those numbers have led a number of states to develop a variety of outreach strategies and incentives - including Project Win-Win and Degrees When Due - intended to encourage former students to return to college to earn a certificate or undergraduate degree. The new report confirms the need for such strategies to be intensified if states are ever to reach the ambitious college attainment goals most of them have set.
About NSCRC
The NSCRC is the research arm of the National Student Clearinghouse. It collaborates with higher education institutions, states, school districts, high schools, and educational organizations to gather accurate longitudinal data that can be used to guide educational policy decisions.
NSCRC analyzes data from more than 3,600 postsecondary institutions, which represent 97% of the nation’s postsecondary enrollment in Title IV degree-granting institutions in the U.S., as of 2018.
The new report, which is the third in NSCRC’s “Some College, No Credential” series (prior reports were in 2014 and 2019), includes SCNC outcomes for all 50 states and D.C. The series receives support from the Lumina Foundation, which has long championed policies to increase America’s post-secondary attainment levels.
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