CPL Creates More Ladders to Success for Today’s Students
“You mean that gave me a full semester of credits? I will finish a semester early?”
Sheila looked at me incredulously and hopefully. Newly divorced and desperate to find a way to create a sustainable life for herself and her four children, she turned to school. But halfway through her second semester, she wasn’t sure how she could do it, overwhelmed and unable to imagine enduring three more years of school as a single mom in higher ed. Seeing how her prior work experience translated into enough credits for an entire semester, however, gave her the motivation she needed to keep moving forward.
This woman’s story is not unique. Throughout the six years I supported adult students seeking a four-year degree, many were balancing competing responsibilities, including full-time work, being a caretaker of a sick parent, partner, or child, caring for their children, and then, adding “student” to the list. Almost all were experiencing significant life changes, such as divorce or job loss. Discovering that even a few of their required courses were completed by virtue of their job training and work experience was enough to help them finish school, shorten their time to completion, and lower their cost of education.
Credit for prior learning (CPL), also referred to as prior learning assessment, has sometimes been controversial at brick-and-mortar institutions of higher education (IHEs). In the [general time frame], I worked at one of the few universities in my area that was serving returning adult students, Vanguard University. While we were able to offer CPL, even at our institution it was the expectation, not the norm. There, professors balked at the idea of utilizing the experience many of these students had acquired outside of the classroom to meet the related college credit requirements, such as communications 101 or a computer coding class. They were adamant that despite the rigorous review process they went through–first, the faculty member teaching the course, then the department chair, and finally, the dean of that school–the only way a student could genuinely learn was in a classroom setting.
This same argument carried over to my time at the American Council on Education, where I worked to evaluate military training and experience for college credit recommendations. Professors who would participate in the review process were always blown away by the depths of learning and experience service members had and would often state that the training and experience they had was equivalent to or exceeded what they taught in their similar classes. Whether it was computer classes, business classes, or intercultural studies, the responses from the evaluators were the same.
Unfortunately, the feedback from academics at other IHEs was not the same. Similar to the pushback I heard at the university, despite the rigorous review these recommended credits went through to confirm the training they received covered the same subject matters of the classes they taught, many academics who did not participate in the evaluation process refused to believe that students could learn anything outside of their classroom.
That argument is outdated. Hands-on experience and training are one of the most effective ways for individuals to learn. It takes the theoretical and puts it into concrete, real-life examples. It is not about where students learn but what they’ve learned–the content, scope, and rigor of what they learn that matters.
In a time when the conversation around college affordability is at an all-time high and with 39 million adults with some credit but no credential, extensive and serious conversation around CPL is overdue. Also, it’s time to allow a certain amount of federal financial aid to cover the cost of those credits. At many IHEs, the process of reviewing a student’s training and experience for CPL is extensive and costly; a cost that is transferred to the student. Once a determination is made, many times students have to pay out of pocket to receive those credits. The cost of those credits is much lower than the cost of the actual class, but, since federal financial aid does not cover CPL, students are left to find a way to come up with the money. This puts low-income students at a disadvantage. They are left unable to access those credits and instead use federal financial aid for another semester or two of classes.
The silos between work experience and classroom learning is a costly disconnect for students, creating more chutes and fewer ladders for individuals working to achieve their academic and career goals. Requiring students to take duplicative training they have already received wastes the time and money of the student and the taxpayer.
The benefits of CPL are real. Adult students who received CPL saved up to $10,200 on the cost of college. Earning CPL is associated with a 17 percent increase in the likelihood of a student completing their program of study. CPL breaks down the silos between the workforce and higher education and removes barriers for students finishing their program of study.
The single mom who sat in my office only one-and-a-half semesters into her program of study walked into my office three years later with her cap and gown and tears in her eyes. She said she never thought she would see this day, but here she was. She acknowledged how receiving 12 credits of CPL allowed her to stay on track to graduate on time. I called her name again two years later at our school’s commencement ceremony. She had earned a master’s degree in psychology on a full scholarship. Her degree allowed her to create a job with flexible hours to balance her child care.
Students like these are at the heart of Higher Learning Advocates’ Widen the Path campaign. We understand that the path to a postsecondary credential is sometimes more complex, especially for today’s students who are more diverse in age, race, and income level, balancing enrollment and employment, and wearing many hats beyond “student.” We understand many students have stops and starts in their educational journeys as life happens and responsibilities get in the way. That is why we are working to find ways to help “break down barriers between higher learning and the workforce and create new opportunities for today’s students.” Finding ways to reduce duplicative training and reduce time to completion for students is one way we can do so.
It is time for us to have serious discussions on ways to make CPL more accessible and affordable. To learn more about CPL, check out our recently published policy brief.
