Report Profiles Progress by State in Educational Attainment Rates

A new report from the Lumina Foundation finds the U.S. is making progress in the number of Americans holding high-quality credentials beyond high school diplomas. For the seventh straight year, the percentage of the country’s working age population (age 25-64 years) with a quality post-secondary credential increased, reaching 45.3 percent in 2014. Even with the progress that has been made, however, the U.S. still has a long way to go to meet the foundation’s goal that, by 2025, more than 60 percent of Americans will hold high-quality post-secondary degrees or certificates, according to the report. The full report also includes individual policy briefs for each state, highlighting discrepancies between credential, population group, county, and age. The five states with the highest attainment rates, according to the report, are: Massachusetts (55.4 percent); Colorado (54.2 percent); Connecticut (53.2 percent); Minnesota (52.9 percent); and, Washington (51.6 percent).

The share of the country’s working age population (age 25-64 years) with a quality postsecondary credential – as measured by an associate’s degree or higher – has increased each year since 2008, rising from 37.9 percent to 40.4 percent in 2014, according to the report. While this marks the seventh year that the foundation has released a Stronger Nation report, this is the first time that it includes data on the attainment of postsecondary certificates. Using data gathered from the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago and Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW), the report’s authors find that 4.9 percent of Americans have high-quality postsecondary certificates. Lumina Foundation defines high-quality certificates as those where holders are employed in the field in which the certificate was awarded.  

Lumina’s projection models suggest that, if current rates of degree and certificate production across ages continue, approximately 35.7 million Americans will earn credentials that count toward the foundation’s 2025 Goal. In order to reach their 60 percent goal for 2025, however, 10.9 million more Americans would need to be added to that total, according to the report.

Read A Stronger Nation here: https://www.luminafoundation.org/files/publications/stronger_nation/2016/A_Stronger_Nation-2016-Full.pdf