From Completion to Value | Issue 27 | The Rise Report

This week, state higher education leaders and policymakers, researchers, and advocates gathered in Chicago for SHEEO’s Higher Education Policy Conference. I always find this conference to be a great opportunity to network and finally meet all of the colleagues I know best from their Zoom square or LinkedIn posts – and begin to plot new ways to share learnings across state lines.

As I mentioned in The Rise Report last week, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel on state agency mergers and the governance issues that follow. My takeaway this week: state policy has moved past simple graduation rates. The focus now is economic mobility, structural efficiency, and what a degree is actually worth after graduation. 

In addition to talking about Workforce Pell (IYKYK), here are the four shifts that dominated the conversations in Chicago this week:

1 — Real-World Lessons from Merging Higher Ed and Workforce Agencies I had the opportunity to moderate a panel with leaders from Colorado, Missouri, and Rhode Island and we got into the practical realities of tearing down the bureaucratic walls between higher education and workforce development. These states are trading actual blueprints for aligning — or outright merging — the two systems, tying degree production directly to state economic demand and maximizing more return for taxpayers, learners and opportunity seekers. Thanks to Shannon Gilkey (RI), JB Holston (CO), and Ben Boggs (MO) for your thoughtful and candid insights!

2 — From “Completion” to “Value” For a decade, the watchword was completion — getting students across the finish line. This week it was value. A session from the Community College Research Center (CCRC) mapped how states can rebuild community college pathways to lead explicitly to living-wage jobs or clean university transfers. And leaders from Tennessee and Colorado detailed their work with the Strada Education Foundation to scale accredited apprenticeships and work-based learning. Nicely done Dr. Gillian McKnight-Tutein!

3 — Predictive Data and Basic Needs Data integration is getting sharper. Groups including NORC at the University of Chicago are helping states securely connect K-12, higher education, and workforce data systems. Colorado showed how it uses those systems to track student well-being — building the legal frameworks to flag food and housing insecurity early, so agencies can intervene before a student drops out rather than after. Great to see you highlight our state’s work Michael Vente!

4 — Bracing for the “Enrollment Cliff” The demographic decline in traditional college-aged students isn’t a projection anymore — it’s here. Delegations leaned on the annual State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) report to compare response tactics, and the priority that kept surfacing was re-engineering state financial aid to favor adult learners and low-income students the system has historically left out.

The Bottom Line We’ve entered a practical, accountability-driven era. If a credential doesn’t clearly lead to economic stability — and support a student’s well-being along the way — policymakers are increasingly looking at redesign, systems transformation, or reallocating scarce resources.

Case in point: While we were in Chicago, the U.S. Department of Education approved the nation’s first Workforce Pell Grant program — a 14-week EMT credential at Iowa Central Community College, the first short-term program cleared for federal Pell dollars under the new law.

Colorado’s build-your-own model: Our state offered another version of the same idea. Facing a projected 30,000-worker shortage by 2030, Colorado’s construction industry used a $2.8M Opportunity Now grant to stand up its own employer-led training pipeline — Project SCALE (Scaling Construction Access for Learners and Earners) — pulling a fractured industry to one table to design the system itself. It’s the lead story in WorkShift’s five-part series on Opportunity Now Colorado, the state’s $90M investment in employer-led workforce partnerships that reached every county in the state.

Dive Deeper:

The Gates Foundation set a new goal: ensuring 10 million young adults (ages 18–34) earn “credentials of value” by 2045 — roughly double the current rate of growth. The target lands the same year the foundation plans to spend down its endowment and close its doors, giving it a finite, two-decade window to move the number. The framing also signals a heavier tilt toward postsecondary value, career readiness, and AI as a lever to reach more learners.

Every college and university has been asked by U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to publish a public statement by the end of 2026 committing to reforms meant to restore public trust. Her letter poses seven questions spanning admissions transparency and merit, free speech and open inquiry, intellectual pluralism, affordability and student outcomes, academic rigor in the age of AI, research integrity and foreign influence, and alignment with American workforce and security needs. Read the full letter here. Our colleagues at McGuireWoods have a helpful breakdown of what it may mean for governing boards.

The College Transparency Act advances after the U.S. Senate HELP Committee approved the legislation on a bipartisan vote — a step toward a national student-level data system that would give students and families real, program-level outcomes on completion and earnings.

The Rise Report welcomes updates from our colleagues across Colorado. Think of this as your one-stop-shop for conference updates, new research + reports, job postings, and career moves.

Vice President Mike Pence is joining Colorado Christian University as a visiting faculty member this fall.

A new Harvard Kennedy School Project on Workforce report lays out how community colleges can build the institutional agility to keep pace with an AI-driven labor market.

The Competency-Based Education Network’s annual gathering, CBExchange will be held from September 30 – October 3 at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Register here.

The Attainment Network's 2026 Career-Connected L/Earning Conference will be held on October 29-30 at The Antlers Hotel in Colorado Springs. The cross-sector convening will focus on building clearer pathways from learning to meaningful careers. Register here.

MACRO is holding a free event with Common Sense Media focused on aligning K-12 and postsecondary CTE programs around digital literacy and student well-being. Held at the IBEW Local 68 Lodge in Denver on August 18 from 8am – 1pm, the agenda includes breakout sessions, legislative updates, and a tour of the DJEATC training center. Register here.

The last of my colleagues' back-to-school lists landed this week. The practical picks are easy — an extra-long charging cable (dorm outlets weren't built for scrolling in bed) and a mattress topper (nothing says higher education like sleeping on a saltine cracker). But the two worth actually packing? Those you can’t buy at all:

A special thanks to Colorado Community College System Chancellor Marielena DeSanctis for these two most powerful reminders.

Until next week,

Alison