Interesting Reads This Week

Was this forwarded to you by a friend? Sign up, and get your own copy of the news that matters sent to your inbox every week. Sign up for the On EdTech newsletter. Interested in additional analysis? Try with our 30-day free trial and Upgrade to the On EdTech+ newsletter.

My birthday is coming up soon, and a friend just gifted me this model car. Not only does it bring me great joy, but I also think it carries a message about innovation. That message is that the final form of innovative thinking is often nothing like where we start or what we expect. Some aspects of this can be cause for regret, but it's not entirely a bad thing.

But dreaming up wild ideas is important too. And speaking of wild ideas, what did I read this week?

What we have here is a failure to communicate

To be honest, that line isn’t just from a couple of great movies, it could also be the headline for most stories in this newsletter.

In this case, it seems to be the central theme and core problem of an interesting report from Ithaka S+R on how several states, systems, and institutions are working to facilitate credit transfer for students. Transferring credits between institutions is a critical issue. A couple of weeks ago, I covered a report from Public Agenda on the challenges students face when trying to transfer credits across institutions.

Ithaka took a qualitative deep dive into how different institutions are addressing this issue. Their report provides fascinating details on the scale of the challenge, along with insights into the solutions being implemented.

The authors highlight that, nationally, 45.6% of associate’s degree holders and 67% of bachelor’s degree holders have transcripts from multiple institutions. In Idaho, one of the states profiled, these trends are amplified by the state's strong emphasis on dual enrollment. In fiscal year 2022, 37,868 students enrolled in dual credit courses. From FY16 to FY22, the total number of students who took at least one dual credit class increased by 114.3%, while total dual credit hours in the state increased by 130.8%. As a result, students often accumulate multiple transcripts, sometimes from all eight public institutions in the state.

Many of the states and institutions featured in the case studies are doing impressive work to facilitate credit transfer through common course numbering and articulation agreements. At Florida International University, another institution highlighted in the report, the six-year graduation rate for transfer students is 69.4%, which is no small feat.

But two aspects of the report stand out.

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.