'Some College, No Degree': A 2019 Snapshot for the Nation and 50 States (Signature Report No. 17)

The United States saw nearly one million Some College, No Degree students in just five years who, against all the odds, found their way back into postsecondary education and worked their way through to ultimately earn their first undergraduate credential. This report tells a story of success and points the way to further success. Former students are most likely to re-enroll and complete in a different institution than their institution of last enrollment, but in the same type of institution and state. They are drawn to online programs, but their most common destination is a local community college. To reach a state's postsecondary attainment goal or to address enrollment challenges facing institutions, each state should start with the most up-to-date information from this report to assess and target, for example, how many Some College, No Degree students are residing in state, which students are most likely to return, where they last enrolled, where they are most likely to re-enroll and graduate, and what type of credential they are likely to pursue. The "Some College, No Degree" report series seeks to understand the educational trajectories of millions of Americans who left postsecondary education without receiving a degree or certificate. As the second in the series, this report offers insights about their subsequent enrollments and completions, based on the most current national data that tracks individual students over time and across institutions and across state lines since the first report was released in 2014. [For a related fact sheet, see ED599540. For the first report in this series, see ED556472.]