Stackable Credentials Sequences
Stackable credentials are sequences of nested postsecondary certificates and degrees serving as ladders of progressively more advanced attainment in a field of study. They hold promise for helping students to advance educationally and economically while working or carrying other adult responsibilities. Do stackable credentials improve students’ employment opportunities and earnings, and, if so, which students benefit from them?
Do Low-Income Students Stack High-Value Credentials?
2024
Jennifer May-Trifiletti, Peter Riley Bahr, Rooney Columbus, Chenjun Yu, and Lindsay Daugherty
Ed Policy Research Working Paper 24-1
Federal and state policymakers and community college administrators are increasingly designing and scaling stackable credentials programs. Advocates hope that stackable credentials programs will increase credential attainment and economic mobility, especially for students from historically underserved backgrounds. Yet, there are also concerns that these programs might divert students to lower-value credentials with limited economic prospects. Using administrative data from two states, we compared patterns of re-enrollment and credential-stacking for students from low- and high-income backgrounds. We found that certificate-earners from low-income backgrounds were more likely to re-enroll in college than their counterparts from higher-income backgrounds, but, after accounting for re-enrollment, were slightly less likely to stack credentials. Among certificate-earners who stacked, there were few differences in the likelihood of stacking higher-value credentials, defined as degrees (instead of certificates), stacked credentials in the same field of study as the first certificate, and credentials associated with higher returns in the local labor market. These findings suggest that, while certificate-earners from low-income backgrounds are likely to re-enroll in college, they are less likely to complete stackable credentials programs and to earn additional high-value credentials. Policymakers, college administrators, and faculty should consider these findings when developing stackable credentials programs.
Topics: Stackable Credentials Sequences, Education, Employment, and Earnings; Career and Technical Education
Stackable Credentials Pipelines and Equity For Low-Income Individuals: Evidence From Colorado and Ohio
2023
Lindsay Daugherty, Peter Riley Bahr, Peter Nguyen, Jennifer May-Trifiletti, Rooney Columbus, and Jonah Kushner
RAND Corporation
We take a mixed methods approach to examining stackable credential equity in Colorado and Ohio, two states pursuing stackable credential initiatives. We analyze administrative data to describe patterns in credential-stacking and in earnings for low-income individuals relative to middle- and high-income individuals. We identify four potential systemic barriers to equity within stackable credential pipelines and interview key stakeholders to learn more about factors contributing to these barriers and discuss options to ensure equitable opportunities to stack credentials across fields of study and institutions. Key findings include:
Low-income certificate-earners earned multiple credentials (i.e., stacked credentials) and went on to earn longer-term credentials (i.e., stacked vertically) at higher rates than middle- and high-income certificate-earners.
Low-income vertical stackers experienced positive economic returns from stacking and narrowed the earnings gap between low-income individuals and middle- and high-income individuals, suggesting that stackable credentials can potentially help to advance equity.
Low-income certificate-earners are overrepresented in some fields of study that offer limited stacking opportunities and low economic returns (e.g., culinary arts), and they are underrepresented in some fields where individuals frequently stack credentials and see high economic returns (e.g., information technology, manufacturing and engineering technology).
Stakeholders described many factors that might limit opportunities to stack credentials across institutions and fields, including limited workforce needs and industry engagement, substantial program startup costs, the administrative burden associated with designing new credential programs, challenges with faculty recruitment, insufficient access to equipment and instructional resources, and competition between institutions.
Individuals have limited information on stackable credential programs and credential value, and interviewees attributed this lack of information to common perceptions about the value of college and particular fields, constraints on faculty and advisors, and limited messaging from industry.
Low-income individuals account for a larger percentage of students who earn noncredit certificates, and students who earn noncredit certificates rarely go on to earn credit-bearing credentials. Alignment issues, perceptions of quality, limited awareness of noncredit-to-credit articulation agreements, and the administrative burden involved in articulating credit are all factors that limit noncredit-to-credit stacking.
Topics: Stackable Credentials Sequences; Career and Technical Education; Education, Employment, and Earnings
Do Low-Income Students Benefit From Stacking Credentials? Descriptive Evidence From Colorado and Ohio
2023
Lindsay Daugherty, Peter Riley Bahr, Peter Nguyen, Jennifer May-Trifiletti, Rooney Columbus, and Jonah Kushner
RAND Corporation
Using administrative data from Colorado and Ohio, this study examined differences in credential-stacking and labor market returns from stacking for low-income individuals versus middle- and high-income individuals (combined). The key findings were as follows:
Low-income certificate-earners were more likely to stack credentials than were middle- and high-income certificate-earners.
Low-income certificate-earners who stacked credentials were moderately more likely do so by stacking to a higher-level credential (i.e., stacking vertically) than were middle- and high-income certificate-earners.
Low-income certificate-earners who stacked vertically were more likely to advance to a middle-income wage than were low-income certificate-earners who stacked horizontally or who did not stack at all.
Stacking rates and labor market returns from stacking varied by field of study. Low-income certificate-earners were prevalent in some high-return fields but not in others.
Topics: Stackable Credentials Sequences; Career and Technical Education; Education, Employment, and Earnings
Do Stackable Credentials Pay Off For Students From Low-Income Backgrounds?
2023
Peter Riley Bahr, Jennifer May-Trifiletti, and Rooney Columbus
Inside Higher Ed
Stackable credential sequences nest short-term credentials, often certificates, in long-term programs, including associate and baccalaureate degree programs. Students can earn a certificate quickly, secure an entry-level job and then later re-enroll in college to acquire complementary skills through an additional certificate program, or advanced skills through a degree program in the field. Nesting short credentials within longer programs ensures that most or all credits are carried forward as the student progresses and completes more advanced credentials. When stackable credentials are closely linked to labor market opportunities, each credential in a sequence should open the door to additional career advancement opportunities.
Stackable credentials are promising options for increasing credential attainment, especially degree attainment. Students pursuing an associate degree who cannot complete the program due to family, financial or other reasons can exit with a certificate that offers meaningful labor market opportunities and later return to build on their earlier progress to complete a degree. Their flexibility may better serve students of color, adult students and students from low-income backgrounds, who are more likely to balance education with work, family and other responsibilities. Well-designed stackable credential sequences may strengthen connections between college and work, but whether stackable credential sequences actually benefit students from historically underserved backgrounds is not yet clear. Our study investigates the extent to which students from low-income backgrounds stack credentials and whether credential stacking yields labor market gains for these students.
Topics: Stackable Credentials Sequences; Career and Technical Education; Education, Employment, and Earnings
States Can Take Steps to Address Potential Barriers to Equity in Stackable Credential Pipelines
2023
Lindsay Daugherty, Peter Riley Bahr, Peter Nguyen, Jennifer May-Trifiletti, Rooney Columbus, and Jonah Kushner
RAND Corporation
States and institutions can take actions to scale programs in ways that ensure that low-income individuals and other historically underserved communities have access to and can succeed in stackable credentials programs. The study explores four potential barriers within stackable credential pipelines that might limit opportunities to stack credentials for low-income individuals. The study provides evidence on the factors limiting stackable credential opportunities and the actions states and institutions can take to address barriers to equity within stackable credential pipelines.
Topics: Stackable Credentials Sequences; Career and Technical Education
What Colleges, Systems, and States Can be Doing to Build Stackable Credentials
2023
Lindsay Daugherty, Peter Nguyen, Jonah Kushner, and Peter Riley Bahr
Inside Higher Ed
Stackable credentials are a top priority for many states and colleges these days. The term can be used to mean different things, from college efforts to embed short-term credentials into their degree programs to larger-scale efforts to rethink the way credentialing is done through alternative approaches, like skills badges. The goals of these initiatives are twofold: (1) to ensure individuals can get credit for a range of different learning experiences and better integrate these different types of learning, and (2) to better align our education and training systems with workforce needs, which often require reskilling through training and credentials below the bachelor’s degree level.
More than one million individuals earn college certificates in the U.S. each year (i.e., credentials that require less than two years of coursework). Many of the students who earn these certificates go on to stack credentials. When individuals stack college credentials, they see gains in earnings—this is especially the case when they move on to earn degrees.
To scale stackable credential pathways, states and colleges across the country are taking action. We highlight five actions that states and colleges are taking to scale stackable credentials.
Topics: Stackable Credentials Sequences; Career and Technical Education