“Are you experienced?”

1. “Are you experienced?” Translating Experiential Learning into Credit for Non-Traditional Students Amy Sherman The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL)

2. Why Does College Completion Matter to Our Nation? Source: Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements through 2018, Georgetown University, Center for Education and the Workforce, June 2010 • U.S. position as a world leader in education has slipped in recent years, from 4th place in 1997 to 11th place in 2009 • By 2018, 62% of jobs will require some college or above • But only 40% of adults 25-34 have attained a post secondary degree

3. What about existing skills? • Most of the people you are serving are not fresh out of high school. • What have they been doing? • Working in various jobs • Serving in the military • Serving their communities • Pursuing personal interests

4. Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) Can Help

5. PLA Basics

6. What is PLA? The evaluation for college credit of the knowledge and skills one gains from: • employment • military service • non-credit instruction/training • travel • hobbies • civic activities • volunteer service

7. PLA Methods • Standardized exams • Advanced Placement (AP) • College Level Examination Program (CLEP) • Excelsior College Exams • DANTES Subject Standardized Tests (DSST) • Challenge exams • Individual student portfolios • Evaluation of non-college training • corporate or military training • Evaluation of non-credit instruction

8. History Two important educational developments: Regional accrediting agencies emerge; define what is “college level learning” Rise of standardized testing; now learning can be evaluated independently of the source of learning Result: acceptance of the idea that creditable college-level learning is both measurable and independent of its source.

9. History CAEL founded in 1974 as a project of the Educational Testing Service Question: is it possible to conduct valid and reliable assessment of learning gained from work or life experience? Answer: Yes, with appropriate procedures and processes in place to evaluate that learning.

10. Standards to Ensure Quality The 10 CAEL Standards for Assessing Learning ensure quality

11. 5 ACADEMIC STANDARDS 1. Credit or its equivalent should be awarded only for learning, and not for experience.2. Assessment should be based on standards and criteria for the level of acceptable learning that are both agreed upon and made public. 3. Assessment should be treated as an integral part of learning, not separate from it, and should be based on an understanding of learning processes. 4. The determination of credit awards and competence levels must be made by appropriate subject matter and academic or credentialing experts.5. Credit or other credentialing should be appropriate to the context in which it is awarded and accepted.

12. 5 ADMINISTRATIVE STANDARDS 6. If awards are for credit, transcript entries should clearly describe what learning is being recognized and should be monitored to avoid giving credit twice for the same learning.7. Policies, procedures, and criteria applied to assessment, including provision for appeal, should be fully disclosed and prominently available to all parties involved in the assessment process.8. Fees charged for assessment should be based on the services performed in the process and not determined by the amount of credit awarded.9.All personnel involved in the assessment of learning should pursue and receive adequate training and continuing professional development for the functions they perform.10. Assessment programs should be regularly monitored, reviewed, evaluated, and revised as needed to reflect changes in the needs being served, the purposes being met, and the state of the assessment arts.

13. Training for faculty assessors Understand principles of experiential learning, including its value for adults. Understand and apply the steps and procedures in the PLA process. Understand the links between experience and learning, and be able to determine college-level learning gained from experience. Discriminate between college-level and pre-college-level learning. Understand the history and development of PLA. Know and be able to apply principles of best PLA practice Apply administrative principles of PLA within the context of your institution. Able to express to various audiences the value of PLA.

14. Value of PLA

15. CAEL’sPLA Study What we wanted to know: Do adults who earn PLA credit have better graduation rates, compared with those who do not earn PLA credit? Do they have better persistence? Do they earn their degrees in a shorter period of time?

16. CAEL’s PLA Study • 48-institution study of PLA and academic outcomes (funded by Lumina Foundation for Education) • 62,475 total adult students in our sample (adult = age 25 or older)

17. The 48 Institutions • 41 four-year, 7 two-year • 22 public, 24 private not-for-profit, 2 private for-profit • Range in size from under 1,000 students to more than 20,000 • From all regions in the US, with heaviest representation from Mid East, Great Lakes, Plains and Southeast • 46 US institutions, 2 Canadian

18. What PLA Options Counted? • standardized exams (e.g., CLEP, DSST, AP, Excelsior) • externally-evaluated training program (e.g., ACE) • institutional challenge exams • portfolio assessment • And “other”

19. The Data • Student record data on 2001-2002 adult cohort • Information on PLA policies and practices, reasons for offering PLA, etc. • IPEDS institutional data

20. The PLA Programs • 66% of the institutions had offered some form of PLA since before 1980 • 64% offered five or more PLA methods • 94% offered standardized exams, 88% offered portfolio assessment

21. Top Reasons for Offering PLA • Provide a time-saving avenue for degree completion, 92% • Fulfill mission to serve adult learners, 92% • Encourage greater student persistence towards a degree, 90% • Recognize value of learning that happens outside of the classroom, 88% • Provide cost-effective avenue for degree completion, 85% • Remove barriers to education, 83% • Offer way for students to avoid redundant class work, 73%

22. The Students • 62,475 total adult students in our sample (adult = age 25 or older) • 15,594 (25%) had earned PLA credit between 2001 and 2008

23. PLA Students by Size of Institution

24. PLA Students by Control of Institution

25. PLA and Student Demographics • Higher percent of male (29%) than female students (22%) earn PLA credit • Higher percent of white, non-Hispanic (33%) and Asian (40%), compared to black, non-Hispanic (24%) or Hispanic (15%) • Slightly higher rate of PLA earning among those aged 35-54, compared to younger and older groups

26. PLA and Student Outcomes Graduation rates Persistence Time to degree

27. Graduation Rates

28. Graduation Rates of PLA Students

29. Graduation Rate by Institution Level

30. What we now can say Evidence shows that PLA students, on average, have higher rates of degree earning than do non-PLA students. This is true at institutions of all sizes, levels and controls.

32. Students Taking Remedial Courses

33. Analysis by Grade Point Averages

34. Persistence

35. Ways We Measured Persistence • Credit accumulation towards an associate’s or bachelor’s degree • Number of years in which the student earned credit between 2001-2002 and 2007-2008

36. Credit Accumulation, No Degree Earners

37. Total Credits Earned at Institutiona.k.a.: how institutions benefit from PLA students Average for All PLA Students Average for All Non-PLA Students 43.8 credits 53.7 credits

38. Time to Degree

39. Time to Bachelor’s Degree

40. Time to Associate’s Degree

41. Institutional Policies on PLA PLA credit can be used to obtain advanced standing at the institution PLA credit can be used to waive course prerequisites PLA credit can be used to meet general education requirements PLA credit can be used to meet program/major requirements

42. Do Institutional Policies Matter? The greater the flexibility the student has for using the PLA credit, the better the academic outcomes.

43. Additional findings: student demographics Gender Age Race/ethnicity Financial aid recipients

44. Summary – Graduation Rates PLA students in this study had better graduation rates than non-PLA students: • regardless of institutional size, level (two-year or four-year) or control (private for-profit, non-profit, or public) • regardless of the individual student’s academic ability or grade point average • regardless of the individual student’s age, gender, or race/ethnicity • regardless of whether or not the individual student receives financial aid

45. Summary - Persistence PLA students have higher rates of persistence compared with non-PLA students. • In terms of credit accumulation/progress towards the degree • In terms of number of years of credit-earning

46. Summary – Time to Degree • PLA students earned bachelor’s degrees in a shorter periods of time compared with non-PLA students – a difference of between 2.5 and 10.1 months, depending upon the number of PLA credits earned. • PLA earners with associate’s degrees saved an average of between 1.5 and 4.5 months of time in earning their degrees, compared to non-PLA students earning associate’s degrees.

47. Want to read the report? Our published report on this study was released in March 2010. Executive summary: www.cael.org/pdf/PLA_Executive-Summary.pdf Full report: www.cael.org/pdf/PLA_Fueling-the-Race.pdf

48. The Need to Scale Up PLA Offerings

49. Community College Survey • Spring 2010 CAEL study of community colleges shows a need for PLA. • 88 respondents from two-year institutions

50. Community College PLA Survey • Sample Question: Do you have younger adults who come to your institution with some technical training that they have learned on the job?