State Policy for Expanding Access to High-Demand Jobs: The Role of G3, GO Virginia, and Virginia’s Community Colleges
This ARCC Network brief examines two statewide workforce-focused initiatives, G3 and GO Virginia. The authors present a snapshot of how these initiatives interact on the ground and describe opportunities for more deliberate and strategic efforts to better align their goals and investments.
What’s the Value of a Master’s Degree?
Using administrative data from Ohio, this Third Way brief compares master’s degree completers’ earnings before and after graduate school and finds that, on average, earning a master’s degree increases earnings, though returns vary by field and student demographics.
Which Community College Awards Are Likely to Prepare Students for Post-Completion Success?
This report uses IPEDS and College Scorecard data to classify the credentials awarded by community colleges in 2022-23 and to assess which credentials are and are not likely to enable students to secure a living-wage job or transfer efficiently in a major.
Institutional and Student Responses to Free College: Evidence From Virginia
Using administrative data, this paper analyzes Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead (G3)—a free community college initiative that Virginia implemented in 2021—and shows that both institutions and students responded to the tuition-free messaging and eligibility criteria.
Classifying Community College Programs by Post-Completion Success in Transfer and Workforce
This program classification guidebook and accompanying data analysis and visualization tools from the Aspen Institute and CCRC can be useful for community colleges seeking to increase the number of students in high-value programs and decrease the number in lower value pathways.
