1. Postsecondary Education
Kentucky Adults in
Postsecondary Education
I am Charles McGrew. I am the director of information and research for the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.

2. Education in Kentucky Kentucky Education Cabinet
Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
Kentucky Department of Education
In Kentucky, K12 and postsecondary education are both organized under the state education cabinet.
The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education works with both postsecondary as in college and university level education as well as Kentucky Adult Education.
Adult
Education
Colleges
&
Universities

3. Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
Education in Kentucky
Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
Public
Comm. &
Tech.
Colleges
Adult
Education
Colleges
&
Universities
The Council is responsible for licensing all four-year institutions (public and private) and public two-year institutions.
Adult Education has 120 contracts (1 for each county) to provide services for adult education.
Services include regular GED programs, adult literacy, ESL, and various preparation and assessment services
Private
4-Year
Institutions
Public
4-Year
Institutions

4. Planning for 2020
By 2020, Kentucky plans to be at the national average in terms of the proportion of our working age population who have a bachelor’s degree or above.
In effect, this will require doubling the number of people with a bachelor’s degree.
By having adult and postsecondary education under the same umbrella, it makes it easy to bridge the gap with data and information to provide feedback to adult education about how well their students transition to postsecondary education.

5. Reaching the National Average
K12 population figures are flat so we must Increase K12 graduation and college-going rates.
Colleges must retain and graduate more students.
Adults must be brought into or brought back to higher education.
K12 figures in Kentucky are basically flat for the foreseeable future.
Even if we achieve the highest high school graduation and college going rates in the country, it won’t be enough people.
To reach this objective, we also have to transition more adults into college. Some of these will be new college students. Others will be returning students who may have started postsecondary education and dropped out or possibly may have earned a certificate or associate degree in the past and could be brought back to complete a bachelor’s degree.

6. Adults in Postsecondary Ed.
Transition more adults from GED programs into postsecondary.
Encourage the development of programs to attract adults into PSE.
Encourage adults who have started their education and stopped to return and complete it.
K12 figures in Kentucky are basically flat for the foreseeable future.
Even if we achieve the highest high school graduation and college going rates in the country, it won’t be enough people.
To reach this objective, we also have to transition more adults into college. Some of these will be new college students. Others will be returning students who may have started postsecondary education and dropped out or possibly may have earned a certificate or associate degree in the past and could be brought back to complete a bachelor’s degree.

7. Tracking Adults from GED into College
GED recipients’ records are matched with postsecondary enrollments to identify transitions to college and university programs.
Transition numbers are shared with each of the individual providers so they know how well their program does much in the same way transitions to work etc. are shared. In the transition rate was 21%.
In some counties, the Community and Technical College has the contract to supply adult education services so students can get used to the culture and make what should be an easier transition.
KYAE is currently reevaluating the formula used to fund programs and transitions to college and university programs is one of the measures being considered.
By having adult and postsecondary education under the same umbrella, it makes it easy to bridge the gap with data and information to provide feedback to adult education about how well their students transition to postsecondary education.

8. Helping Adults Succeed in College
KCTCS conducted research on the adult segment of Kentucky’s population to see what they wanted from postsecondary education – the majority wanted a four-year degree.
The Council is contracting with a firm to conduct a telephone survey of adults who started their degrees to see what their interests are and what barriers are preventing them from returning to complete their education.
Special attention is being paid to former students who completed a large proportion of hours and would be nearer to completing a bachelor’s degree.
By having adult and postsecondary education under the same umbrella, it makes it easy to bridge the gap with data and information to provide feedback to adult education about how well their students transition to postsecondary education.

9. Initiatives Targeting Adults
Innovative programs must be considered including special completer degrees like bachelor’s of general studies (BGS).
The private sector has been more successful in serving this population in the past and are an important player in reaching these objectives.
Financial, time, and even location barriers will likely need to be addressed among other things.
By having adult and postsecondary education under the same umbrella, it makes it easy to bridge the gap with data and information to provide feedback to adult education about how well their students transition to postsecondary education.

10. Charles McGrew Director, Information & Research Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
Currently we use the CMS to produce everything. However, due to the amount of information we post and how frequently some of it has to be replaced or updated as well as the technical limitations, we are trying to evaluate if this is the most time efficient way of doing it.
Our initial decision was that all information would be available as a PDF and only as a PDF to minimize platform and software issues and to allow us to have more control over the format of the output. One of the items up for consideration for the Summer update is whether we should also add an Excel and Word version of each item in addition to the PDF for people who may want to manipulate the data or use it in other forms.
Developing this site took hundreds of hours of staff time. However, in terms of the number of special data requests we receive has dropped dramatically since it’s posting and more often than not, our more frequent “customers” contact us and say that they couldn’t find something on the portal so they would like us to develop it.
Creating the portal was a leap of faith that people would use it but it has paid off in the long term and we look forward to adding functionality in the future.