Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead? Evaluating the Effects of Virginia’s G3 Program
April 23, 4:20–5:50pm | Room TBD
Virginia’s G3 initiative was a bipartisan effort to invest in and align community college workforce education to a rapidly changing economy. The tuition-free community college program was leveraged as a pandemic recovery strategy and was implemented in fall 2021. The key goals of the G3 program are to increase college enrollment, improve workforce program persistence and completion rates, and increase labor market returns, particularly for historically marginalized adults. Our results suggest that G3 increased FAFSA completion by 5 percentage points and resulted in small but significant increases in enrollment in G3 eligible programs. We find no evidence that G3 increased credits attempted or earned by students, first year enrollment persistence, or degree completion rates. Daniel Sparks of the University of Pennsylvania will present the findings.
Presenters
- Daniel Sparks, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania; Research Affiliate, CCRC
Adult Learners: Policy and Practice
April 24, 9:50–11:20 AM | Four Seasons Ballroom 1
As part of a roundtable discussion, the authors will present on a paper that presents findings on federal and state adult education English as a second language (AE ESL) policies, including the opportunities and challenges that these policies present for the delivery of AE ESL services within community colleges (CCs). CCs provide access to free or low-cost AE ESL courses and supportive services and have transformative potential for creating pathways to postsecondary education and occupational training for a wide range of multilingual learners (MLs). However, like other providers, CCs can struggle to fully meet this population’s needs, due to structural constraints, including limitations within the policies governing AE programming.
Presenters
- Julia Raufman, Research Associate, CCRC
- Nikki Edgecombe, Senior Research Scholar, CCRC
- George C. Bunch, Professor of Education and Department Chair, UC Santa Cruz
