May 22, 2014 Presenter: Gabi Zolla, COO, Council for Adult and Experiential Learning 23 rd Annual Conference of the Community College National Center for Community Engagement Credit for What They Know: Community Service, PLA, and Adult Degree Completion

2 Service Learning and CAEL If a Course + = College Credit Can Additional Learning from = More College Credit

3 College Credentials Matter A worker with a four-year degree on average will earn one million dollars more College graduate unemployment at 6.8% vs. non-college graduate at 24% By 2018, 63% of jobs will require some college or above Anthony Carnevale, Stephen Rose and Ban Cheah, The College Payoff: Education, Lifetime Earnings, Center on Education and the Workforce, Georgetown Public Policy Institute, August, Anthony Carnevale, Tamara Jayasundera, and Ban Cheah, The College Advantage: Weathering the Economic Storm, Center on Education and the Workforce, Georgetown Public Policy Institute, August, Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements through 2018, Georgetown University, Center for Education and the Workforce, June 2010

4 Disruptive Innovation “allows a whole new population of consumers at the bottom of a market access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill.” - Clayton Christensen’s website

5 Is Higher Education Affordable? “Right now, if you are a high-income, low performing student, you have an 80 percent chance of going to college. If you are a low- income student, but high-performing with a B or better average, you only have a 20 percent chance of going to college. That's inexcusable.” Senator Tom Harkin March 27, 2014

6 What is Expected of Higher Ed

7 “Knowledge Proliferation”

Prior Learning Assessment Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) is a process for evaluating knowledge and skills in order to award college credit for learning from: On-the-job learning Corporate training Independent study, such as MOOCs Military service Volunteer service

9 Change is Good

Graduation and Completion with PLA Credit Baccalaureate students are 2½ times more likely to persist to graduation.

11 Wasting Money Debt problem is even more tragic when students already know the subject matter and have to take the course anyway.

12 Why Learning Portfolios? Like an artist's portfolio, a student puts together a portfolio online that documents their learning.

Why LearningCounts.org On-line PLA service Free PLA Credit Predictor Complimentary student guidance on all forms of PLA Courses to teach students how to discover and document their own college-level learning and build portfolios online

14 Students Say It Helps…

15 How We Are Partnering LearningCounts/Public Allies Portal Building Advising Capacity Enrolling into Courses about Portfolios Assessing Public Allies Curricula for College-Level Credit

16 Advising Needs Service Learning Participants Choose College or Program Use of LearningCounts Address basic needs develop a support system Build and maintain confidence Prior negative experiences with learning General career planning

17 Questions? Gabi Zolla