“….persons in the country desirous to learn this art [shorthand], may by having the several lessons sent weekly to them, be as perfectly instructed as those that live in Boston.’’ 

Suppose you walked into a local coffee shop in Boston today. In that case, you may see a college student or professional staring intently at a phone or tablet, completing bite-sized lessons for academic credit or career advancement.  These lessons may be enhanced by AI (Artificial Intelligence) and have shorter, more focused assessments. 

Distance learning has come a long way since that Boston Gazette ad, and in recent years, eLearning has continued to evolve at a frantic pace. 

Today, we’re going to look at some of the latest developments in online learning that are shaping the future of this medium.

Mobile Learning (mLearning)

Mobile devices are everywhere.  Want to know the weather?  Look at your phone.  Need to capture the moment?  Take out your phone?  Did someone ask for the time?  Turn on your phone.  

Online learning brings education out of the classroom and to the learner where the learner is.  However, the software was designed to be viewed and used on a desktop or laptop screen.

Mobile Learning, microlearning or mLearning, is designed specially to be viewed on mobile devices, negating the need to be tethered to a desktop computer or a laptop in a computer bag.  It is a ‘professor in a pocket.’  The class content is visually engaging on a cell phone or tablet because designers use bite-size pieces of information, limited character counts, and expressive emojis.  Audio and video examples are time-limited.  Content is narrowly focused.  With these constraints, educators streamline complex content to the basics; lessons are often completed in five minutes or less.

Students enrolled in ‘micro-classes’ enjoy the flexibility of completing coursework anywhere there is a Wi-Fi connection without needing a desk, a comfortable chair, or even a cup of coffee.  The lesson or course is often finished before the need to fidget or sip sets in.  Picture upskilling at 30,000 feet or completing mandatory job HR compliance training while waiting for an oil change.  mLearning gives students back valuable time.  Seat time is irrelevant.

Two outstanding examples of microlearning are Arist and Duolingo. 

Arist is a text message-based mLearning platform that was established in 2018.  Their goal was to deliver entrepreneurship classes to war-torn parts of the world, where high school students had little access to computers, yet many had cell phones.  With character limitations and international text messaging charges, Arist quickly learned to be concise.  Today, Arist is used by Fortune 500 companies and nonprofits to deliver management training, HR compliance, and other critical, time-sensitive information to employees.  

The Duolingo model is the standard bearer for successful mLearning.   As of 2023, the platform is barely a decade old and has had over 500 million users arounds the world.  Duolingo has more active users than Netflix, Apple Music, and Amazon Prime users combined.  

As this article from Maestro Learning summed it up, “Duolingo recognized that people learn best, and enjoy it, when it is fun!  That’s why they took a gamification and microlearning approach to language learning.  In just 5-20 minutes a day, you can gain proficiency in a language.  …(Duolingo) is for the in-between moments.  The moments when it is too short to do anything for a long period, and yet there is enough time to fit something in while you wait for a lunch order or for a friend who is notoriously late.”

Assessment in Online Learning

Formative assessments are eclipsing the importance of summative assessments.  To understand how formative assessments are incorporated into online learning, let’s look at why formative assessments have replaced summative assessments in measuring student mastery.

The way we assess students is an integral part of a quality education.  Before the COVID-19 pandemic, standardized tests were considered the most critical summative assessment.  These high-stakes exams often determined student placement, impacted the teacher’s performance review, and affected the district’s ranking within the state.

Pandemic school closures forced educators to rethink how we assess students; the spring of 2020 saw almost no schools administering summative assessments.  How would stakeholders fill in the gaps this missing information caused?

Formative assessments were a familiar idea in 2020.  Educators, however, placed less importance on them.  The conditions in spring 2020 showed teachers the value of ‘assessing while learning’–the smaller, more frequent check-ins while content delivery was in progress.  After educating students online during the pandemic, school districts slowly realized summative assessments would not occur as usual.  A collection of formative assessments substituted for the year-end data.  

In retrospect, administrators and teachers realized the value of the quick course correction formative assessment provides.  Formative assessments support students by giving real-time feedback, allow teachers to tailor responses to individual needs, and save time closer to the summative assessment by correcting misunderstandings and confusion early on.  As students returned to in-person learning, formative assessments became a more permanent and frequent measure of student and teacher success.  

Colleges and universities are placing less importance on SAT and ACT scores, two of the most popular summative assessments in the country.  This trend is likely to grow stronger in 2024 and beyond.

Last year, my oldest son began his college application journey.  Many of his ‘target colleges’ accepted applications as ‘test-optional,’ meaning he could choose whether or not to send SAT and ACT scores.  I inquired, not as a parent, but as a researcher, what data will replace these scores?

“General trends in high school grades and mid-year marks,” one high school advisor told me.  “Mid-year marks are considered the formative assessment of the high school journey; if you look at high school as a four-year block with the SAT or ACT being the summative assessment, midterms or finals are the smaller assessments along the way.”

A college admissions officer responded: “We no longer place high importance on a single, three-hour test that is supposed to tell us how prepared a student is for university-level learning at the end of high school; we [our specific university] are more interested in seeing academic improvement in each student, and the grades achieved along the way.

Colleges and universities now see formative assessment as a better indicator of student success than summative assessment.  

In the digital space, formative assessments are created and completed simply and efficiently.  Examples include the ‘Exit Ticket,’ which can be a message blasted to a class consisting of 1-3 questions. An online educator I work closely with sends this Exit Ticket often: “What do you know about this topic that you didn’t know when you came to class today?”  He consistently receives valuable feedback that informs his students’ understanding of the lesson.  A variation of this exit ticket is, “What is one question you have about today’s lesson?” 

In a hybrid, secondary learning environment where I taught, our LMS supported a chat function called QuikChat.  From my laptop, I could ‘Create A Ticket” in the last five minutes of class which would send a character limited message or question to the class at one time.  In under a minute, I could create, send, and receive the answers to a formative assessment based on that days’ lesson.  To increase engagement, I varied my exit ticket queries with true/false or multiple choice questions, polls, opinion seeking (a student favorite!), and ‘create a question.’  When the exit ticket asked students to create a question, the student became the teacher and asked a question for another student to demonstrate understanding.  

INTEGRATING AI

Daniel Fitzmaurice, former Chief of Staff at Americans for the Arts, recently stated in an interview, “Artificial Intelligence in education is neither good nor bad; it is inevitable.  It is simply another tool we must master and then teach our students how to use properly in our educational setting.”   

The keys to using AI effectively in the classroom are teacher understanding of the tool, and teaching students at all levels how to use this new tool appropriately. Many online educators, especially ones who have supported distance learning from its earliest days, were at first distrustful of AI.  

“AI is going to make our students lazy,” one colleague recently lamented.

“How will we know things are not copies and pasted?” asked another.  “We have ways of checking if writing is plagiarized from other online sources, but not necessarily AI.”

Understanding how AI works is the first step to embracing it and using it efficiently in your class setting.  ChatGPT, for example, answers a search by collecting information from dozens of other searches and creates a well written narrative response.  However, that response will lack any emotional voice or connection to the student you know personally.  Forging relationships with your students before assigning work that includes  AI is critically important.

Next, online teachers who use AI in their lessons get the best results when they review expectations up front with their students.  Have a conversation with them.  Ask your students how they plan to use AI in the assignments.  What do they think are the pros and cons?

Ultimately, AI can be used effectively as an assistant for your students.  Start by assigning a task that could not be completed without using AI as an assistant.  For example, an online Spanish teacher I spoke with told me she “…gave a group project that culminated in a novelette, replacing a 500 word essay.  Many opinions and perspectives had to be considered, and there was a reflection piece involving peer review.  AI could not generate that, but could support their research and give them time to create a more substantial product.”

An Exciting Time for Online Learning

Whether you are a passionate educator in the digital era or a distance learner, this is an exciting time.  Technology continues to grow and expand.  These developments lead to improvements in education, online or in-person.

“eLearning is changing. And, we will see new models, new technologies, and designs emerge. So, let’s drop the “e” – or at least give it a new and wider definition.” — Elliot Masie

Other Useful Resources

• What is Adaptive Learning?
• What is Inquiry Based Learning?
• What is Just in Time Learning?
• What is Problem Based Learning?
• What is Project Based Learning?
• What is Service Learning?

The post eLearning Trends: How mLearning, AI, and New Assessment Strategies are Shaping Education appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

In 2013, there were 16,279,138 undergraduate students enrolled at American universities (this includes both two and four-year public and private institutions). Fast forward 10 years, and the most recent estimates from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center show there are now only 14,187,588 enrolled undergrad students across the country. That’s a 12.8% drop of about 2.1 million undergraduate students over the last 10 years.

While there are numerous factors experts point to that impact college enrollment, from the COVID-19 pandemic to declining birth rates, the most common reason young adults say they’re skipping college is that it’s become too costly. As one of our previous reports revealed, the cost of going to college has outpaced the rate of inflation by about three times over the last 40 years.

Despite skyrocketing tuition fees, most studies show that the cost of college is worth it, offering students higher lifetime earnings and lower chances of experiencing unemployment.

With that in mind, what’s the potential economic impact of over 2 million adults declining to go to college over the last decade? After all, the data shows this represents a massive potential loss to these students’ future earnings which also could result in significant economic implications for the whole country.

Even though many of these “lost students” have skipped college for readily available jobs or to even start their own businesses right now, statistics show that unless they eventually go to school, they’re less likely to grow their earnings than their college-attending peers over time. As one recent report found, “Economists estimate that in 2031, the nation will have 171 million jobs. But only 30 percent of them will be open to workers without college degrees…Put another way, in 2031, 70 percent of workers with a college degree will have a good job, 40 percent of those with some post-high school education will have a good job and just 2 percent of those with a high school diploma will have a good job.”

So, what is the total potential economic impact of the declining college enrollment over the past decade?

We’ve run the numbers, and they’re shocking.

The total potential loss of lifetime earnings by the 2.1 million students skipping out of college since 2013 could exceed $2 trillion.

By The Numbers

How could the loss of 2,091,550 potential students result in over $2 trillion in lost income?

Here’s the breakdown:

• Data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that 63% of students who enroll in college end up getting at least a bachelor’s degree. This means that of the 2,091,550 lost students since 2013, we could have expected 1,317,677 to go on to receive at least a bachelor’s degree.
• Of those who earn a bachelor’s degree, US Census data shows that more than 27% will get a master’s degree, just under 6% will earn a doctoral degree, and about 4.5% will get a professional degree (Note: While the percentages presented are rounded for visual clarity and simplicity, all calculations that follow use exact, non-rounded figures to ensure accuracy in the large-scale computations.). Based on this information, of the 1,317,677 who would have earned a bachelor’s had they not skipped college during the last decade:
  • 812,699 would have gotten just a bachelor’s
  • 366,898 would have gotten a master’s
  • 78,903 would have gotten a doctoral degree
  • 59,177 would have gotten a professional degree
• Finally, that means the remaining 773,874 “lost students” would have failed to graduate, but would have completed some college before dropping out.

Now that we have identified likely potential educational outcomes for these students if they had chosen to attend college, we can figure out the economic impact of their decision to forego higher education.

A study by Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce calculated the average lifetime earnings of Americans based on their level of education:

• High school diploma – $1.6 million
• Some college, but no degree – $1.9 million ($300,000 more than those with a high school diploma only)
• Bachelor’s degree – $2.8 million ($1.2 million more than those with a high school diploma only)
• Master’s degree – $3.2 million ($1.6 million more than those with a high school diploma only)
• Doctoral degree – $4 million ($2.4 million more than those with a high school diploma only)
• Professional degree – $4.7 million ($3.1 million more than those with a high school diploma only)

With these numbers, we can now work out the potential dip in future earnings for these “lost students” over the past decade:

• Those who would have earned a bachelor’s degree only: $975,238,415,568.86
• Those who would have earned a master’s: $587,036,716,167.67
• Those who would have earned a doctoral degree: $189,366,682,634.73
• Those who would have earned a professional degree: $183,448,973,802.40
• Those who would have done “some college”: $232,162,050,000.00

Total potential lost lifetime earnings among all the lost students: $2,167,252,838,173.65

A Massive Economic Impact

With a staggering potential lost earnings of more than $2 trillion, the ripples from the college enrollment crisis seen over the last decade may be felt by the entire US economy in the coming years.

There’s a catch for these potential students who might be swapping their education for readily available low-skilled job opportunities at the moment — while they’re making money now instead of paying high tuition fees, they’re probably going to be anchored to their current wages for a good while.

In straightforward terms, workers pulling in higher wages give the economy, especially at a local level, a nice boost.

Tony Carnevale, the director of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, shared with NPR a pretty clear picture when discussing the potential ramifications of the college enrollment decline, “The direct loss to the economy is the workers themselves. If they were trained and ready, they would get higher-wage jobs and they would add more to GDP, making us all richer and increasing taxes, reducing welfare costs, crime costs, on and on.”

A slide in enrollment is also likely to result eventually in skill gaps, making the hunt for qualified workers a tougher game for businesses, potentially forcing many to close their doors over time.

Will Colleges Reverse the Trend?

The colossal economic implications of the shrinking college enrollment are complex, but the message rings clear – colleges have their work cut out in halting the decline and reclaiming students.

As mentioned earlier, the ticket price of college has skyrocketed at nearly three times the rate of general inflation over the past 40 years, causing many students to balk at the steep tuition fees.

The past couple of years have financially upended numerous Americans, leaving those most economically fragile unable to foot the bill for college. Even with financial aid in the picture, the value proposition is still questioned by a large portion of the population. A notable chunk of young adults is pivoting towards career training on online course websites like Coursera, edX, Udacity, and Udemy, which come without the hefty price tag (or the prestigious degree) of college.

The most impactful move would be to make college more wallet-friendly, making it less enticing for young adults to bypass education for immediate employment that manages the bills today, albeit perhaps not in the future.

The post College Enrollment Decline Over Last Decade Could Lead to $2 Trillion Less Lifetime Income for Students Skipping Out appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

It’s no secret that college enrollment has been plummeting for years now, and the problem has only worsened since the pandemic. And while there might be some signs that the enrollment decline is finally starting to slow a bit, enrollment is still projected to be down year over year for the Fall 2023 semester.

As Fortune magazine explained, “The slide in the college-going rate since 2018 is the steepest on record, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

The most commonly cited reason young adults are skipping out on college? They say it’s become too expensive.

On the surface, it sounds like colleges are facing a crisis as they have fewer students paying to attend than at any time in recent history, but would you believe it if we told you that universities are actually raking in more in total tuition revenue than ever before?

We’ve crunched the numbers and our analysis found that even though college enrollment has dropped by an astonishing 14.4% since 2013, colleges and universities are still bringing in 5.6% more in overall tuition revenue from students.

By the Numbers

According to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC), in fall 2013, total enrollment across all two and four-year universities totaled 19.9 million students. Jump ahead a decade and our estimates for the fall 2023 semester show that number has dropped all the way to 17 million — a loss of 2.9 million enrolled students in a 10-year span.

Here’s a look at total fall semester enrollment numbers over the last decade (includes enrollment at public two-year community colleges, public four-year universities, and private four-year universities):

• 2013–19,885,203
• 2014–19,619,773
• 2015–19,280,473
• 2016–19,010,459
• 2017–18,811,280
• 2018–18,482,391
• 2019–18,239,874
• 2020–17,778,484
• 2021–17,302,364
• 2022–17,112,038
• 2023–17,026,478

With nearly 3 million fewer paying students, you’d think this decline would cause a significant decrease in revenue, but in reality, the opposite has happened.

We found that total annual revenue for US colleges from tuition and fees has increased by at least $15.2 billion over the last decade.

We arrived at this figure by studying student enrollment data from NSCRC for the past 10 years across all sectors — community colleges, public universities, and private universities. We then analyzed the College Board’s historical tuition data by year for each of those sectors.

By combining the two data sets and using our estimations for Fall 2023 figures based on current data and recent trends, we were able to see exactly how the enrollment decline impacted total tuition revenue for colleges and universities.

• Community colleges–In 2013, two-year colleges had an average tuition of $3,590 for a full school year, pulling in $22.7 billion in revenue from 6.3 million enrolled students. In 2023, community college tuition has only increased a bit to an estimated $4,014 per year, for a total of $18.8 billion in tuition revenue (4.67 million students). What’s interesting to note is that two-year colleges are the only type of university to lose tuition revenue over the last decade.
• Public universities–In 2013, four-year public universities had an average in-state tuition of $9,860 for a full school year, pulling in at least $78.5 billion in revenue (likely higher as out-of-state tuition rates are higher, but data on enrollment numbers for in-state vs out-of-state was unavailable for the nearly 8 million total students). In 2023, public university tuition at four-year schools jumped to an estimated $11,378 per year, for a total of at least $86.5 billion in tuition revenue (7.6 million students).
• Private universities–In 2013, private universities had an average tuition of $33,420 for a full school year, pulling in $169.9 billion in revenue (5.1 million students). In 2023, tuition fees for four-year private universities increased to $40,976 per year according to our estimates, for a total of $181.1 billion in tuition revenue (4.4. million students).

Do Colleges Lack an Incentive to Lower the Cost of Tuition?

Typically, if a business’ customer base shrank by more than 14% in a decade because its product was too expensive, that business would be scrambling to lower prices to stop the bleeding. But this isn’t a typical situation, and that’s not what we’ve seen happen in the higher education landscape.

As we’ve previously reported, the cost of going to college has gone up by about 3 times the rate of inflation over the last 40 years. These massive tuition fees have caused many college-aged individuals to think twice about enrolling in school.

But as our analysis found, despite a decline in college enrollment universities are raking in more revenue than ever before.

This paradox prompts a critical question: Do colleges have any real incentive to lower their tuition rates?

Only time will tell, but as more and more would-be students continue to get priced out, you can’t help but wonder if colleges will eventually have to do something about their tuition fees and try to turn around the drop in enrollment.

Meanwhile, numerous young adults are choosing to pursue career training through online learning platforms such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX, all at a fraction of the expense associated with college education, albeit without the accompanying prestigious degree.

Maybe schools will eventually strike the right balance between tuition fees and enrollment figures, but until that happens, it’s likely that the trend of declining enrollment will persist.

The post US College Enrollment Has Dropped By 2.9 Million Students Since 2013, But Annual Tuition Revenue Is Up By $15.2 Billion appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

Affording college is more difficult than ever before. Tuition rates have outpaced inflation by nearly 5 times over the last 50 years, textbook prices have continued to skyrocket, and back-to-school spending on school supplies is at record highs.

Simply put, the financial burden of pursuing higher education has reached unprecedented levels, affecting not only tuition fees but also everyday essentials like food. Yes, even staying fed has become increasingly difficult for many college students to afford.

According to our recent analysis, the average college student will spend over $700 a month on food, a significant dent in an already stretched budget. This record-high number is 5.9% more than students spent on food last school year.

Read on for our full report.

Projected Monthly Grocery Spending for College Students by State

According to a recent USDA report, the average price of groceries has gone up by 4.7 percent in the period between June 2022 to June 2023.

That means the average individual American now spends about $433.64 per month on groceries. However, college students tend to spend about 27% less per month on groceries than the average adult.

Knowing this, we were able to determine that the average college student will spend $304.86 per month on groceries this school year. That works out to about $2,439 for a full, two-semester school year, about $87 more than they spent last school year and nearly $360 more than they were spending on groceries two years ago.

Porjected Monthly Cost of Eating Out for College Students

While college students will be dealing with record-high grocery spending this school year, they’ll still be going out to eat off campus from time to time.

From the time period of June 2022 to June 2023, the cost of eating out at a restaurant has gone up an average of 7.7%.

Recent reports show that most Americans now eat out between 4 to 5 times a week. With that in mind, we project the typical college student to spend on average $397.80 a month eating out this school year. That’s a total of $3,182.41 across the entire 8-month school year.

The Average Cost Per Meal for College Students in 2023-24

Between the cost of groceries and eating out off-campus, students will spend $702.66 per month on food.

If you assume a typical student eats 3 meals per day, that works out to a cost of $7.81 per meal and $23.42 per day over the course of a 30-day month.

Some might wonder if getting a meal plan through the university is a more economical option for students. Today, the average meal plan costs around $4,500 for an eight-month school year, with some meal plans costing as much as $9,000 in some cases. That works out to about $6.25 per meal or $18.75 per day, which is a bit cheaper than the $23.42 per day cost of groceries and eating out, but it’s important to remember that a lot of students on meal plans still eat out occasionally and spend a little bit of money on groceries to have on hand.

Rising Food Costs Leave Students Hungry for Help

The pursuit of higher education, once seen as a gateway to opportunity, has evolved into a labyrinth of escalating costs, leaving students to grapple with the daunting reality of strained budgets and difficult choices.

Affording a college education has become an uphill battle, where the relentless rise in tuition rates, textbook prices, and school supplies are only compounded by the high cost of food.

The weight of these escalating expenses extends beyond the classroom, impacting even the most basic necessity: sustenance.

Grocery bills surge, restaurant meals become elusive luxuries, and the once simple act of staying fed morphs into a financial feat.

At what point do students decide the whole pursuit of higher education simply isn’t worth the cost?

The post Report: College Student Spending on Groceries & Eating Out to Reach Record High in New School Year appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

For most workers, that means trying to deduct as many job-related expenses as possible to lower their taxable income. Those deductions can be substantial in many professions, but for teachers, that may not be the case.

Unfortunately for educators, the reality is that they are spending far more out of pocket on classroom supplies than what can be deducted from their taxes.

The educator expense deduction was enacted just over 20 years ago in 2002, giving teachers the ability to deduct up to $250 of out-of-pocket classroom expenses when filing their federal tax returns.

For the 2022 tax year being filed now, the maximum deduction has only increased ever so slightly to just $300.

If the maximum educator expense education had kept pace with inflation since its passing in 2002, teachers would be able to deduct over $400 in expenses, but that’s not the case. And even still, that wouldn’t be enough to cover what teachers actually have to spend to get their classrooms up and running for their students.

Our data shows that the typical teacher spent an average of $820.14 out of pocket on school supplies in 2022 — the largest amount ever.

That means teachers are spending 2.7 times more on classroom expenses than what they can deduct.

In all, teachers across the US spent an estimated $3 billion on essential items to help their students succeed, like pencils, paper, cleaning supplies, books, software, and other materials.

Many teachers have expressed frustration with the current system, feeling like it doesn’t reflect the true cost of setting up and running a classroom. Educators are essential to our communities, yet they’re not being provided with the financial support they need to do their job effectively.

$2,000 would be more realistic.

— Dale Batko MBA M.Ed. (@BatkoDale) January 24, 2023

Pencils, ball point pens(blue & black), red pens, colored pencils, glue sticks, notebook paper, flash drives, TPT Resources, meals, snacks, waters, spirit wear, comfortable shoes, motivational posters, letters, boarders…every single year! I’d blow through 300$ in the first week!

— elainepangle (@elainepangle281) January 26, 2023

It’s $750-$1,000. School budgets don’t buy tape or staples anymore, let alone books for my classroom library.

— John Bergeland (@CoachBergeland) January 24, 2023

So teachers get to claim $300 on education expenses on their tax forms this year. Hopefully it will get to $500 at some point

— Kelly D (@KellDA) August 18, 2022

And while teachers are spending more out-of-pocket money than ever before, their salaries haven’t been keeping up with inflation.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that the country is facing a dangerous teacher shortage, spurred on by the fact that many teachers feel undervalued, underpaid, and overworked. Many teachers would point to the inadequate funding of education as a major factor in why they are not staying in the profession.

Teachers should not have to pay out of pocket for school supplies.

— Irishrygirl (@irishrygirl) August 15, 2022

It’s clear that teachers feel they need more support from our government and our country to help alleviate the financial burden they face each year for out-of-pocket expenses related to their classrooms.

And with a recent survey finding that 63% of educators said they’re considering leaving the profession altogether in the near future, it’s time to address the issue now before things get any worse.

If you’re a teacher, we want to hear from you. How much do you spend in an average school year on supplies for your classroom?

The post Report: Teachers Spent Nearly 3x More on Classroom Expenses in 2022 Than They Can Deduct appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

Needless to say, that’s not the case.

Data from the nonprofit group College Board reveals the average annual price for attending a public college (tuition, fees, room & board, books/supplies) is currently between $23,250 for in-state students to $40,550 for out-of-state students — in the 1982-83 school year, it was just $3,200.

For students at private universities, the yearly cost has reached a jaw-dropping $53,430 — in 1982, this was $7,130 per year.

In other words, the cost of going to college has increased by as much as 649% in some cases — over 3 times the rate of inflation during the last 40 years.

A Turning Point

Why are we focusing on the last 40 years in particular?

Because when you look back at the historical data on tuition costs, the 80s were a significant turning point.

Between 1980 and 1990, the cost of going to college basically doubled — rising 141% for private universities and 99% for public colleges.

The 1980s decade saw some of the biggest year-over-year tuition increases of any decade.

In 1986, William Bennett, the Secretary of Education, sounded the alarm on the rising costs of college, accusing institutions of “defrauding students [and] ripping off the American public” and warning that the fast-rising default rate on student loans was unsustainable.

Unfortunately, the trajectory of increasing tuition and fees that started 4 decades ago has continued to this day.

College Enrollment is on the Decline

As the cost of going to college has soared, many young adults have simply started to opt out of attending.

We recently reported that enrollment across all two and four-year universities dropped by 3.1 million students from 2012 to 2022.

However, tuition prices have risen so much during that same 10-year period that total annual revenue for US colleges from tuition and fees actually increased by at least $6.9 billion.

At the same time, some students have started to explore alternatives to the traditional college education, turning instead to online courses websites like Coursera, Udemy, Udacity, LinkedIn Learning, and Skillshare where they can take online certificate courses from schools like Harvard and Yale at home and at a fraction of the price (or even free in some cases). Many of these online course sites like Coursera have reported huge increases in enrollments over the last couple of years.

Worrisome Trends Show No Sign of Reversing

Unfortunately, the trend of rising tuition costs and student debt for traditional college education shows no signs of reversing.

Today, the average college graduate leaves school with about $31,100 in student loan debt they’ll have to pay back. The latest data shows that U.S. student loan debt totals about $1.76 trillion.

And as we recently reported, it’s no longer realistic for students to work their way through college with decades of stagnant wages during a time of astronomic spikes in tuition and fees.

Eventually, something has to give. The future of higher education might depend on it.

The post Analysis: College Tuition Has Outpaced Inflation by More Than 3x Over the Last 40 Years appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

Consider this: 30 years ago, the average student at a public university could pay for a full year of tuition by working around 500 hours at a minimum wage job — a little less than 10 hours per week throughout the year (source: National Center for Education Statistics).

Today, our analysis finds the same student would have to work 2,022 hours on average at a minimum wage job to cover a year of tuition at a public university — about 39 hours each week, all year long. And in some states, he or she would have to work even more than that.

In other words, the average college student in 2023 has to work about 4x as many hours on minimum wage as a student 30 years ago to access the same education.

But it gets worse. Students who want to attend a private university would have to work about 4,646 hours on average at a minimum wage job to cover a year of tuition — around 89 hours each week, every week of the year.

And really, these estimates are very conservative. They assume a student has no other expenses to pay for (e.g. books, room and board, food, entertainment, etc.) and don’t factor in the various taxes that come out of the typical paycheck. Things would look even more dismaying if all of those numbers were also tabulated.

Yet many people still hold the antiquated belief that it’s easy to work your way through college. These numbers paint a very different picture.

To further understand just how hard it is for students to pay for college without taking out a loan or receiving other aid, we did a full state-by-state breakdown of average public university tuition and fees (weighted to account for the percentage of in-state and out-of-state students in each state) and current local minimum wages.

The results are eye-opening, to say the least.

Key Findings

• While public and private college tuition rates have increased at several times the rate of inflation over the last 30 years, the minimum wage hasn’t even kept pace with inflation.
• There are 9 states where a student would have to work more than 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year at minimum wage just to cover the cost of tuition and fees.
• In 28 states, a student would need to work 30+ hours a week, every week of the year to afford the average tuition.
• The average student attending college today has to work about 4x as many hours on minimum wage as a student 30 years ago to pay for school.

State-by-State Breakdown (Raw Data)

The post Report: Average College Student Today Has to Work 4x More Hours on Minimum Wage to Afford Tuition Than 30 Years Ago appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

We all have our personal favorites, whether it’s Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the 80’s favorite The Polar Express, the all-time classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, or something else.

There are dozens of Christmas stories that many of us cherish, but did you know your favorite holiday book might actually be influenced by where you live?

With the help of the data analysis firm Mindnet Analytics, we decided to do a deep dive into the data to see if we could determine what the most popular Christmas book is in each state across the country.

Noteworthy Findings

• A few books were tied for first place, each topping the rankings in 4 states: A Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Gift of the Magi, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, The Polar Express, The Snowman, and Twas the Night Before Christmas.
• Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol; The Chimes; The Cricket on the Hearth) and Hans Christian Andersen (The Little Match Girl; The Steadfast Tin Soldier) both have multiple Christmas books that earned spots on our list.
• The New England area loves A Christmas Carol as it was the most popular book in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.

The Christmas Book Each State Loves the Most

Here are the findings of our analysis in list form:

The post The Most Popular Christmas Book in Every State for 2022 appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

While the COVID-19 pandemic certainly accelerated the enrollment decline trend, the crisis has been going on for years.

Thanks to skyrocketing tuition costs that have drastically outpaced inflation, many young people have sought out alternatives to the traditional college experience that might be more affordable and better suited to their needs.

The rise in online education, coding boot camps, and other options has given students more choices when it comes to attaining higher education.

But here’s the thing — our analysis found that even though college enrollment has dropped by a whopping 15.3% since 2012, colleges and universities are still raking in 2.54% more in total revenue from students paying tuition.

By the Numbers

According to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC), in fall 2012, total enrollment across all two and four-year universities totaled 20.2 million students. Fast forward 10 years and early estimates for the fall 2022 semester show that number has plummeted to 17.1 million students — a loss of 3.1 million enrolled individuals over the course of a decade.

Here’s a look at total fall semester enrollment numbers over the last decade (includes enrollment at public two-year community college, public four-year universities, and private four-year universities):

• 2012–20,195,924
• 2013–19,885,203
• 2014–19,619,773
• 2015–19,280,473
• 2016–19,010,459
• 2017–18,811,280
• 2018–18,482,391
• 2019–18,239,874
• 2020–17,778,484
• 2021–17,302,364
• 2022–17,112,038

While some might assume that losing millions of students would cause a decrease in revenue, our analysis revealed that hasn’t been the case at all.

In fact, we found that total annual revenue for US colleges from tuition and fees has increased by at least $6.9 billion over the last decade.

We calculated this number by looking at student enrollment data from NSCRC for the past 10 years across all sectors — community colleges, public universities, and private universities. We then looked at the College Board’s historical tuition data by year for each of those sectors.

By bringing together the two data sets, we were able to see exactly how the enrollment decline impacted total tuition revenue for colleges and universities.

• Community colleges–In 2012, two-year colleges had an average tuition of $3,560 for a full school year, pulling in $23.9 billion in revenue (6.7 million students). In 2022, community college tuition only rose a bit to $3,860 per year, for a total of $17.9 billion in tuition revenue (4.6 million students). It’s worth noting that two-year colleges are the only type of school to lose tuition revenue over this time period.
• Public universities–In 2012, four-year public universities had an average in-state tuition of $9,780 for a full school year, pulling in at least $76 billion in revenue (likely higher as out-of-state tuition rates are higher, but data on enrollment numbers for in-state vs out-of-state was unavailable for the 7.8 million total students). In 2022, public university tuition at four-year schools rose to $10,940 per year, for a total of at least $83.6 billion in tuition revenue (7.6 million students).
• Private universities–In 2012, private universities had an average tuition of $32,790 for a full school year, pulling in $169.8 billion in revenue (5.2 million students). In 2022, tuition for four-year private universities increased to $39,400 per year, for a total of $175 billion in tuition revenue (4.4. million students).

Will Colleges Try to Reverse the Enrollment Decline Trend?

More students than ever are opting to pursue other options outside of the traditional college experience to further their education, in large part due to out-of-control tuition costs.

As we recently reported, the cost of going to college has risen at nearly 5 times the rate of inflation over the last 50 years, giving many students major pause about paying exorbitant tuition fees.

Typically, when an organization has priced out a significant segment of their target audience, they will adjust prices to try and recapture these lost customers, but since most schools are bringing in more revenue than ever, even with fewer paying students, do colleges even have the incentive to make prices more affordable?

That remains to be seen, but in a time when the cost of higher education is at record highs, one can’t help but wonder if colleges will ever take some action to adjust tuition prices and try to reverse this enrollment decline trend.

In the meantime, many young adults are even opting to get career training on online learning sites like Coursera, Udemy, and Skillshare at a fraction of the cost of college (but without the prestigious degree).

Perhaps the schools will eventually figure out the right balance between tuition costs and enrollment numbers, but until then, the enrollment decline trend will likely continue.

The post US College Enrollment Has Dropped by 3.1 Million Students Since 2012, But Annual Tuition Revenue is Up by $6.9 Billion appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

Tuition has risen at nearly 5 times the rate of inflation over the last 50 years, textbook prices have continued to increase year over year, and the list of expenses goes on.

And now, to worsen matters, students are having to spend more than ever on groceries and meals thanks to rapid inflation over the last year.

According to our most recent analysis, the average college student will spend $294.06 per month on groceries this school year. In some states, that number is over $500 a month for a single student.

Not only that, but students will also spend an additional $369.36 each month eating out.

Read on for the full details of our report.

Monthly Grocery Spending by Month for College Students by State

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of groceries increased by 13.1% from August 2021 to August 2022. That was the largest annual increase since the year ending in March 1979.

That means the average individual American now spends about $402.64 per month on groceries. However, college students tend to spend about 27% less per month on groceries than the average adult.

With that in mind, we were able to calculate that the average college student will spend $294.06 per month on groceries this school year. That works out to about $2,352 for a full, two-semester school year, about $270 more than they spent last school year.

Furthermore, we were able to identify the amount college students will spend on groceries each month depending on which state they’re going to school in.

Here’s what we found:

Monthly Cost of Eating Out for College Students

While college students will be spending more than ever on groceries this semester, they’ll still be eating out off-campus on on a fairly regular basis.

From the time period of August 2021 to August 2022, the cost of eating out has risen by 8%.

On average, most Americans eat out between 4 to 5 times a week. That means college students will spend on average $369.36 a month eating off-campus this school year.

Average Cost Per Meal for College Students

Between the cost of groceries and eating out off-campus, students will spend $663.42 per month on food.

If you assume a typical student eats 3 meals per day, that works out to a cost of $7.37 per meal and $22.11 per day over the course of a 30-day month.

What about Meal Plans?

Of course, not all college students shell out for groceries and eating out. Many students are on meal plans through their university that give them access to 3 meals per day on campus.

At first glance, it seems obvious that meal plans would be the cheaper option for students. However, that’s not might not necessarily the case.

The average meal plan is about $4,500 for an eight-month school year, according to the Hechinger Report at Columbia Teacher’s College.

Averaged out, that tallies up to $6.25 per meal or $18.75 per day. While that is a little cheaper than the $22.11 per day cost of groceries and eating out, it’s important to remember that many students on meal plans still eat out occasionally and may still need to spend a little bit of money on groceries.

When you factor that in, the cost of a meal plan and eating out/groceries is probably about the same.

Food is Eating Up Students’ Budgets

Of course, the cost of food is just one part of the equation when it comes to college expenses. Students also have to worry about tuition, books, rent, and other necessary costs of living.

When you add it all up, college is getting more and more difficult for students to afford.

At a certain point, something has to give, and for some students, that means making some tough choices when it comes to food and their education in general.

The post Here’s How Much More College Students Will Spend on Groceries This School Year appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

The last couple of years have shaken up the face of education and caused many parents to reassess their choice of schooling for their children.

Whether parents are experiencing safety concerns of exposure to the coronavirus, dissatisfaction with the quality of education kids are receiving, or even philosophical differences with school leadership, the outcome is the same — interest in homeschool has soared over the last two years.

One study found 72.2% of families who started homeschooling their kids during the pandemic wouldn’t be returning to public schools. Another study prior to the start of the 2021-2022 school year revealed that 9% of parents who weren’t previously homeschooling their kids were planning to give it a shot this year. One more recent study found that homeschooling numbers have increased by over 60% in some states.

Additionally, many homeschooling coalitions have been reporting a massive increase in calls and emails from parents who want to learn more about potentially homeschooling their children. And many homeschool apps are seeing an increase in downloads.

And with teacher shortages further complicating things at a number of schools across the country, many parents are still considering the switch to homeschooling as we head into the 2022-23 academic year.

But is this growing interest in homeschooling something that’s consistent all across the United States? Or is it more prevalent in some regions of the country than others?

We partnered with Mindnet Analytics, a data science consulting firm, to compare interest in homeschooling across all 50 states, combining search trends with publicly available demographic data.

Here’s what we found…

Overview

State Rankings of Homeschooling Interest

Key Findings

Our analysis revealed a number of interesting findings about the growth of homeschooling interest across the US:

States with Higher Average Education are More Interested in Homeschooling

The strongest correlation we found was between education level and interest in how to homeschool kids. This is backed by previous studies, including a 2015 report from the US Department of Education, showing that higher educated parents are likelier to homeschool their kids compared to those with less education.

Republican States are a Little More Interested in Homeschooling

We also found a relatively strong correlation between political identity and homeschooling interest. Simply put, red states are likelier to have parents interested in homeschooling their children than blue states.

This aligns with previous voter surveys that found 62% of homeschool parents reported voting for the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016 while 61% voted for Romney in 2021.

States with Lower Income are More Interested in Homeschooling

Perhaps the most surprising finding we uncovered is that homeschooling interest is higher right now in lower income states.

This is interesting because previously homeschooling families were much likelier to report earning an average or above-average income. But after months of dealing with this pandemic, this is no longer the case. Now, we’re seeing a much more economically diverse homeschooling population, and interest amongst those in lower income brackets seems to be on the rise.

In fact, a recent United States Census Bureau survey found that “20 percent of US homeschool households had yearly incomes of less than $25,000, 17.8 percent experienced incomes between $25,000 and $34,999, [and] 19.5 percent between $35,000 to 49,999”.

Our Methodology

We used search volume data from Google Trends to measure interest in homeschooling in the US. To capture multiple forms of search queries about homeschooling we extracted and averaged the search frequencies for various terms indicating searcher interest in homeschooling.

In each visualization, we rescaled the search interest variable so that “100” represents the state with the most search interest (or the time with the most search interest in the case of the time series visualization).

To assess correlations with demographics, we merged in state-level demographic information on political party, income, and education levels. Official 2020 presidential voting records were obtained from the MIT Election Data + Science Lab. To assess the percent of the population in each state that voted Democratic we calculated the vote share for Democratic candidates in each state. The information we obtained on median household income per state and education level was originally collected by the US Census Bureau, averaged over 2015 through 2019.

Technical notes: To assess the correlations between these three demographic variables and homeschooling interest we fitted a multivariate OLS regression model with homeschooling search interest predicted by the three demographic variables. These results confirm that the association with education is the strongest and most robust.

The post Which States are Seeing the Biggest Interest in Homeschooling Amongst Parents? appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

Surveys have shown that almost all teachers say they pay for supplies for their classrooms without getting reimbursed.

And despite recent increases, the educator expense deduction still isn’t nearly enough to cover how much teachers have to spend, only allowing teachers to deduct up to $300 of out-of-pocket classroom expenses when filing their federal tax returns.

Over the years, the amount of money teachers are spending out of pocket on items for their classrooms has steadily risen, reaching $750 in 2021, and this year as the cost of goods rises, our study shows things are only getting worse even with back to school sales going on.

Our analysis finds that teachers will spend an average of $820.14 out of pocket on school supplies during the 2022-2023 school year — the largest amount ever.

Teachers are now spending about 37% more on school supplies than they were back in 2015.

In total, teachers across the US will spend around $3 billion on essential items to help their students succeed during the upcoming school year. This includes items like pencils, paper, cleaning supplies, books, software, and other materials.

On average, teacher spending this year will look like this:

• Non-consumable supplies (books, software, etc.) – $193.55
• Classroom decor – $172.23
• Consumable supplies (pencils, paper, etc.) – $142.70
• Food & Snacks – $121.39
• Prizes – $119.74
• Cleaning supplies – $70.53

And while they’re spending more of their own money than ever before, teacher salaries haven’t even been keeping up with inflation over the years.

The problem has gotten so bad that many teachers across the country are turning to crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe to raise money for their classrooms, but even then, some districts are expressing concern and disapproval because they’re unable to track the spending.

Meanwhile, America is facing a “catastrophic teacher shortage“, in part because many teachers feel underappreciated, underpaid, and overworked. Undoubtedly, many teachers would point to the fact that they have to spend their own money on classroom supplies as just another sign of unfair treatment.

Below, we’ve broken down expected spending by teachers in each state:

If you’re a teacher, we’d like to hear from you. How much will you be spending this year on supplies for your classroom?

The post Report: Teachers Will Spend Over $820 of Their Own Money on Classroom Supplies This Year appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

Today’s typical new college graduate leaves school with around $31,100 in student loan debt. That number has steadily increased over the years as the cost of college continues to skyrocket out of control (see our previous report where we found the cost of attending college has increased at 5x the rate of inflation).

While some of these new graduates will undoubtedly land great jobs and be able to start paying off their loans, the reality is many of them will struggle to make the required payments. And as time goes on and interest adds up, many of these new graduates may soon find themselves in a situation faced by tens of millions of other Americans right now where they simply can’t afford to pay off their loans.

Student loan forgiveness has been a hot topic in the news as the Biden administration reportedly has been considering forgiving $10,000 of debt for qualifying borrowers (those who earn less than $150,000 per year, or less than $300,000 annually for married couples filing jointly).

The current pause on federal student loan payments that was enacted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic is set to come to an end in August, making it more likely that an official decision on the issue will be made later this summer.

While those in DC will continue to debate the social and economic consequences of student loan forgiveness in the coming weeks, we wanted to get a feel for what level of interest there is across the country for it.

Is the demand for student loan forgiveness something that’s consistent all across the United States? Or is it more prevalent in some regions of the country than others?

We partnered with Mindnet Analytics, a data science consulting firm, to compare interest in student loan forgiveness across all 50 states, combining search trends with publicly available demographic data.

Here’s what we found…

Overview

Search interest in student loan forgiveness has drastically increased in recent times:

In the graph directly below, you can see the increase in search interest in student loan forgiveness before COVID and after COVID in each US state. Some states have seen a sharper increase in interest in student loan forgiveness than others:

While we expected states with a higher cost of living to see the greatest increase in interest around student loan forgiveness, our analysis did not find an association between the two metrics:

State Rankings of Student Loan Forgiveness Interest

We calculated the increase in interest in student loan forgiveness for each state by subtracting the interest before COVID from the interest after COVID. These results are shown below and can be found in the table below:

Increase in Student Loan Forgiveness by Metro Area

We also calculated the increase in interest in student loan forgiveness for nearly 200 cities and towns across the country by subtracting the interest before COVID from the interest after COVID. These 50 metro areas have seen the biggest increase in interest for student loan forgiveness:

Methodology

We extracted the frequency of searches in each state about student loan forgiveness using relevant search phrases. We then examined the differences in search frequencies for these keywords two years before COVID versus two years after the start COVID.

We controlled for seasonal changes in loan forgiveness interest by comparing a full two years before COVID to a full two years after. We used March 11, 2020 as the official start of COVID-19 as this is when it was declared a pandemic in the US.

We report the amounts searches increased in each state and city after COVID-19 began. We also examined the relationship between these trends and local cost of living in each state.

The post Report: Here are the States Where People are Most Interested in Student Loan Forgiveness appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

The educator expense deduction was enacted 20 years in ago in 2002, allowing teachers to deduct up to $250 of out-of-pocket classroom expenses when filing their federal tax returns. For the 2021 tax year being filed now, the maximum deduction is still $250.

That’s right, the teacher expense deduction has remained unchanged from the 2002 through 2021 tax years. 

The problem?

Teachers spend an average of $750 of their own money each year on classroom expenses — 3 times the amount they’re able to deduct.

https://twitter.com/NikiLynn14/status/1514720822979706884?s=20&t=m-ZWIi4jiTvwYD0B_t6M2A

In total, teachers across the US shelled out approximately $2.8 billion on essential items to help their students succeed, like books, software, pencils, paper, cleaning supplies, and other materials.

Many have argued that teacher deductions pale in comparison to those afforded to other industries.

And before anyone says, “Well I’m a [insert any trade] and I have to buy my supplies!”

That is true, you do… BUT YOU CAN ALSO WRITE OFF EVERY PENNY SPENT ON SUPPLIES (AND EVEN TRAVEL) ON YOUR TAXES. Teachers only get $250. https://t.co/0BNAJaehFX

— Nicholas Ferroni (@NicholasFerroni) December 15, 2021

Some teachers are even spending thousands of dollars each year on classroom expenses, eating the cost themselves.

About $250 PER MONTH

— Andria Morrison, MA Ed. (@mrsmorrison2019) February 20, 2020

In fact, teacher spending on classroom supplies has increased by 25% just since 2015. Meanwhile, their salaries aren’t even keeping up with inflation, and they’re still only allowed to deduct the same amount for expenses they were two decades ago.

If there’s one small bit of good news, it’s that the annual deduction limit for educators will increase slightly to $300 for the 2022 tax year and will rise in $50 increments in future years based on inflation adjustments, but the reality is that’s still not nearly enough.

At a time when we’re dealing with a serious shortage of educators (there are 567,000 fewer teachers on the job now than there were before the pandemic and a reported 55% of those still teaching are considering leaving the profession sooner than they originally planned), is it really wise to make things harder than they need to be for teachers?

If you’re a teacher, we’d love to hear from you. How much do you spend in an average school year on supplies for your classroom?

The post Teachers Spend 3x More On Classroom Expenses Than They’re Able To Deduct appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

While there are numerous factors causing teacher shortages, the most glaring issue is that the average teacher salary has been largely stagnant over the years, particularly when it comes to starting salaries for new teachers. 

In fact, based on our analysis, we found that new teachers are earning nearly 11% less than they were about 30 years ago when accounting for inflation.

If starting salaries for new teachers had kept pace with inflation over the last 3 decades, a first-year teacher would be making $46,762 per year right now. Instead, the average annual income for a new teacher is around $41,780 according to our estimates.

That’s a difference of nearly $4,982 a year, representing an earnings decline of just under 11%. 

And as gas prices reach record highs, driving up the cost of commuting, and inflation continues to surge with no end yet in sight, the gap between what new teachers should be earning and what they’re actually taking home will likely continue to widen. 

Not only that, but we also found that a first-year teacher is earning about 25% less per year than the average new college graduate who makes over $55,000 annually.

Taking all of this into consideration, it’s probably not all that surprising to hear that multiple reports show enrollment in education majors is sharply declining, meaning there will be fewer new teachers in the coming years. 

“The severity of the teacher shortage crisis cannot be overstated,” said Scott Winstead, founder of My eLearning World. “We simply do not have enough new teachers to fill the vacancies, and it’s starting to affect the quality of education and support our students are receiving. A shortage of teachers means more crowded classrooms, less one-on-one support for students, and potentially even some schools being forced to close.”

Furthermore, there are 567,000 fewer teachers on the job now than there were before the pandemic, and a recent survey found that 55% of those still teaching plan on leaving the profession sooner than they originally planned. 

“School staffing shortages are not new, but what we are seeing now, is an unprecedented staffing crisis across every job category,” said National Education Association President Becky Pringle in a recent news release.

In many states across the country — including Illinois, New Mexico, and Texas, among others — recent bills have been proposed and in some cases already passed to increase minimum teacher salaries in hopes to combat educator shortages.

Winstead said, “Recent surveys have found that the majority of parents don’t want their kids to pursue a career in teaching. We have to find a way to make teaching a more enticing profession to enter, and one of the best ways to do that is by increasing pay for teachers.”

The post New Teachers are Earning 11% Less Than They Were 30 Years Ago appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

And while college enrollment has been steadily declining over the last decade, the global health crisis has drastically accelerated the trend.

All in all, there has been a 6.6% decline in enrollment since the pandemic hit — a total loss of 1,025,600 potential students.

Whether it’s due to the rising cost of college, Americans choosing to take advantage of rising wages in low-skilled jobs, anxiety about attending school during a pandemic, or something else, the bottom line is there are going to be some serious ramifications to students deciding to skip out on college.

Most notable is the potential economic impact of over 1 million adults declining to go to college. As some experts have already pointed out, this represents a huge potential loss to these students’ future earnings which could have serious economic implications for the whole country.

But what exactly is the total potential economic impact of this pandemic enrollment decline?

We’ve run the numbers, and they’re jaw-dropping.

The total potential loss of lifetime earnings by the over 1 million students skipping out of college right now could exceed $1 trillion.

By The Numbers

How could the loss of 1,025,600 potential students result in over $1 trillion in lost income?

Here’s the breakdown:

• 63% of students who enroll in college end up getting at least a bachelor’s degree, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This means that of the 1,025,600 lost students during the pandemic, we could have expected 646,128 to go on to receive at least a bachelor’s degree.
• Furthermore, of those that earn a bachelor’s degree, US Census data shows that over 27% will go on to get a master’s degree, a little under 6% will earn a doctoral degree, and about 4.5% will get a professional degree (Note: these percentages are rounded for the sake of cleaner presentation, but for the calculations below, we used the full nonrounded numbers for accuracy at this large scale). Based on this information, of the 646,128 who would have earned a bachelor’s had they not skipped out on college during these pandemic times:
  • 398,510 would have gotten just a bachelor’s
  • 179,910 would have gotten a master’s
  • 38,690 would have gotten a doctoral degree
  • 29,018 would have gotten a professional degree
• Finally, that means the remaining 379,472 “lost students” would have failed to graduate, but would have completed some college before dropping out.

Now that we’ve established reasonable educational outcomes for these students had they attended college, we can need to calculate the potential economic impact of their decision to skip school.

We know that those who earn college degrees earn significantly more on average during their lifetimes than those who only hold a high school diploma.

Here are the latest average lifetime earnings numbers from a report by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce:

• High school diploma – $1.6 million
• Some college, but no degree – $1.9 million ($300,000 more than those w/ a high school diploma only)
• Bachelor’s degree – $2.8 million ($1.2 million more than those w/ a high school diploma only)
• Master’s degree – $3.2 million ($1.6 million more than those w/ a high school diploma only)
• Doctoral degree – $4 million ($2.4 million more than those w/ a high school diploma only)
• Professional degree – $4.7 million ($3.1 million more than those w/ a high school diploma only)

With these numbers in hand, we can calculate the potential loss to these “lost students” future earnings:

• Those who would have earned a bachelor’s degree only: $478,212,000,000 (398,510 students x $1.2 million less in lifetime earnings per student)
• Those who would have earned a master’s: $287,856,000,000 (179,910 students x $1.6 million less in lifetime earnings per student)
• Those who would have earned a doctoral degree: $92,856,000,000 (38,690 students x $2.4 million less in lifetime earnings per student)
• Those who would have earned a professional degree: $89,955,800,000 (29,018 students x $3.1 million less in lifetime earnings per student) 
• Those who would have done “some college”: $113,841,600,000 (379,472 x $300,000 less in lifetime earnings per student)

Total potential lost lifetime earnings among the 1,025,600 lost students: $1,062,721,400,000

Economic Impact That Will Be Felt Far And Wide

With over $1 trillion in potential lost earnings, the shockwaves of the college enrollment crisis during the pandemic are sure to be felt throughout the entire US economy in the coming years.

While some of these potential students might be trading away their education for low-skilled job opportunities available right now, the problem is they’re likely to get stuck around the wages they’re making now for many years to come.

Simply put, workers earning higher wages benefits the economy, particularly on a local level.

As  Tony Carnevale, the director of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce told NPR when over a million potential students are lost and get on the path to earning less in the future, “The direct loss to the economy is the workers themselves. If they were trained and ready, they would get higher-wage jobs and they would add more to GDP, making us all richer and increasing taxes, reducing welfare costs, crime costs, on and on.”

Declining enrollment will also likely lead to skill gaps, making it harder for businesses to find qualified workers, which could result in many businesses being forced to shutter.

Can Colleges Reverse the Trend?

All of this is just scratching the surface of the immense economic ramifications of dwindling college enrollment that will permeate many levels, but the point is clear — colleges need to figure out a way to stop the bleeding and win back students.

As we recently reported, the cost of going to college has risen at nearly 5 times the rate of inflation over the last 50 years, giving many students major pause about paying exorbitant tuition fees.

The last two years have left many Americans financially devastated, and those most economically vulnerable simply can’t afford to go to college anymore. And even if they can access financial aid, they wonder if it’s worth it. Many young adults are even opting to get career training on online learning sites like Coursera and Skillshare at a fraction of the cost of college (but without the prestigious degree).

There’s a lot that universities will need to do if they want to reverse the worrisome trend of declining enrollment, but the single biggest thing that would help is making college more affordable so young adults aren’t as tempted to skip school for jobs that pay the bills now but might not in the future.

What do you think colleges can do (if anything) to reverse declining enrollment trends?

The post Pandemic College Enrollment Decline Could Lead to $1 Trillion Lost in Lifetime Income for Students Skipping Out appeared first on MyeLearningWorld.

We conducted a national survey of US parents with kids currently enrolled in school and found growing concern about the safety of attending school in the face of rising COVID-19 cases, but also doubts about the academic efficacy of another return to remote learning.

Key Findings

43% of all parents said the emergence of Omicron has made them more concerned about sending their kids to school

Coronavirus cases are surging and reports are swirling about children being hospitalized with COVID at record levels. The Omicron variant is known to be highly transmissible, and the American Academy of Pediatrics has reported a big rise in pediatric coronavirus cases. With all of this taken into account, it’s not surprising to discover that many parents are becoming increasingly worried about sending their kids into classrooms. More than 2/5 of parents are more concerned now about their kids attending school in person than they were previously.

We also found that:

• 51% of parents w/ vaccinated children said their level of concern for their child’s safety has increased due to Omicron, while just 35% of parents of unvaccinated kids expressed growing concern.

• Dads were almost 3x as likely as moms to say their level of concern about their child’s safety has actually decreased with the emergence of the Omicron variant

Nearly half of all parents believe schools should offer both remote and in-person options and let parents choose the best option for their kids

While officials are pushing to keep classrooms open, a large number of parents think schools should at the very least offer the option of remote learning — and not just for kids who have tested positive for COVID-19.

• 44.5% of parents said schools should offer both remote and in-person options and let parents choose the option they’re most comfortable with for their kids.
• 15% of those surveyed said schools should go 100% remote/virtual for the time being as Omicron runs its course.
• 17% of parents said schools should only offer in-person education and require all kids to attend.
• 19% of all parents surveyed believe only vaccinated children should be allowed to attend school in person while all other kids should be required to stay at home and learn remotely.
• Dads are likelier than moms (23% vs 16%) to support a policy that would only allow  access to in-person school to vaccinated kids

About 1/3 of parents of vaccinated children think only kids who have been vaccinated should be allowed to attend school in person

Parents who have had their children vaccinated against the coronavirus were much likelier to support a policy that would only allow vaccinated kids to be in the classroom. That said, the majority of parents are still against schools mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for students.

About ⅓ of parents aren’t satisfied with how schools have responded to the pandemic

While roughly half of all parents report being satisfied to some extent with how schools have been handling the pandemic, a significant percentage are still unhappy. About 1 in 3 parents have expressed dissatisfaction with the safety protocols and information distribution/communication from schools during these times.

71% of parents think their kids will learn less if schools decide to go fully remote in response to the increase in COVID cases

22% think their kids will learn about the same as they would in person, 7% think they’ll learn more remotely.

Even though many parents are worried if it’s safe to send their children into classrooms as cases soar, they’re also greatly concerned their kids will fall behind if schools shut down and go to a distance learning model. Nearly 3/4 of all parents believe their kids would learn less in remote/online classes than they would in the classroom. 

In previous studies during the spring 2020 school closures, more than half of parents believed online learning caused their children to fall behind in school. So it’s not too surprising to see that most parents are worried about the academic ramifications of more potential school closures.

Quality of education and lack of socialization are most parents biggest concerns about their kids potentially having to attend school virtually

There are numerous pros and cons to online learning in general, but for parents of school-aged children, there are some serious concerns, including most notably the effectiveness of remote learning, the lack of socialization kids get during school closures, and their children’s overall mental health (a recent New York Times report found school closings and remote learning have resulted in mental health issues among some teenagers) and emotional well being when stuck learning from home.

In particular, the parents we surveyed had a lot to say about the quality of the education students receive in remote classes.

One parent said that when her child has had to attend virtual classes in the past, “He [was often] home alone and [had] ZERO accountability during the day.” She added, “I’ve watched several lessons during remote learning and it’s absolute garbage.”

Another parent echoed this sentiment, saying, “The teachers at my kid’s school in general don’t seem to [care] about remote lessons. Before when we did them, the teachers seemed to not even care.”

Other Interesting Findings

• Dads are about twice as likely as moms to support a policy that would require schools to make up any days they go remote with in-person classes later
• Dads are likelier than moms (23% vs 16%) to support a policy that would only allow  access to in-person school to vaccinated kids
• Dads are a little less likely than moms (67% vs 73%) to think their kids will learn less remotely than in person

Methodology & Other Notes

We worked with the data analysis firm Mindnet Analytics to conduct an online survey of 858 moms and dads of children currently enrolled in US schools between the grades of kindergarten through 12th. The survey was conducted from December 23-31, 2021.

Only US participants who are currently parents of children in school were permitted to take the study. The fastest 1% of responses were excluded prior to analysis to remove participants who may have rushed through the survey. Participants were also required to answer an ‘attention check’ question and were excluded from analysis if they did not answer it correctly.

Confidence Level: 95%, 3.4% margin of error

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But as everybody knows, that’s certainly not the case.

According to data from the nonprofit group College Board, the average annual price for attending a public college (tuition, fees, room & board, books/supplies)  is currently between $22,690 for in-state students to $39,510 for out-of-state students — in 1971, it was just $1,410 a year.

For students at private universities, the yearly cost has ballooned to $51,690 — in 1971, this was $2,930 per year.

That means the average cost of going to college has increased by as much as 2700% in some cases — about 4.6 times the rate of inflation during the last 50 years.

And there are some serious problems with this fact.

First, wages aren’t keeping up with inflation, making it harder for students and their families to afford the astronomical cost of college without getting buried in student loan debt. In fact, data suggests that for most workers, real wages haven’t grown much since 1970. In other words, wages after accounting for inflation have been mostly stable while college prices have skyrocketed. 

Even worse, many families drastically underestimate the cost of college — with one recent Fidelity Investments survey showing that 1 in 4 parents and 38% of high school students think college costs $5,000 or less per year.

On top of all this, the value of a college degree has diminished over time.

In other words, the cost of a bachelor’s degree has increased to a point that it’s too expensive for many Americans to afford while also decreasing in value.

College Enrollment Declining, Students Turning Elsewhere

Perhaps not surprisingly, college enrollment has been declining steadily in recent years.

In fact, student enrollment at universities has decreased every year since 2011, thanks in large part to the soaring tuition and fees. This past spring semester saw one of the most dramatic declines in student enrollment yet of over 5% from the previous year as the pandemic undoubtedly compounded an already deteriorating situation.

And things don’t seem to be turning around in the fall semester.

According to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, “Fall 2021 enrollment numbers show no signs of recovery from last year’s declines. Undergraduate enrollment is down 3.2 percent from a year ago. Undergraduate student numbers have now fallen by 6.5 percent as a total from two years ago.”

Furthermore, many students have started to explore alternatives to the traditional college education, instead opting for online courses websites like Coursera, Udemy, Udacity, LinkedIn Learning, and Skillshare where they can get the knowledge and the skills they need from home and at a fraction of the price.

From mid-March to November 2020, the online learning platform Coursera reported seeing an over 300% increase in enrollments. And eLearning’s growth is expected to accelerate even more in the coming years.

“Since mid-March, we’ve had 24 million individuals register for the first time. That’s about 320% up from the same period a year ago,” Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of online learning platform Coursera, told the BBC.

Will Online Learning Replace the Traditional College Experience?

College continues to become more expensive and enrollment to traditional universities is steadily declining with no end in sight. Meanwhile, online education is booming with enrollment numbers skyrocketing.

Does this mean that online learning is the future of higher education?

While the return on investment for a college degree has decreased over the years, higher education typically does still pay off for most graduates.

According to a new report from Georgetown University, high school graduates earn a median of $1.6 million during their lifetimes. Bachelor’s degree holders, on the other hand, earn a median of $2.8 million during their lifetimes.

But even though more education generally means more earnings, that’s not always the case as the report points out. Field of study, occupation, age, gender, and other factors can affect earnings and influence whether paying for college will actually be worth it.

The study points out that “16% of high school graduates, 23% of workers with some college education but no degree, and 28% of associate’s degree holders earn more than half of workers with a bachelor’s degree.”

“More education doesn’t always get you more money,” CEW Director and lead report author Anthony P. Carnevale said. “There’s a lot of variation in earnings related to field of study, occupation, and other factors.”

Online learning does offer some significant advantages over the traditional college model that put it into a unique position to perhaps one day overtake higher learning institutions.

Students learning online can put together a more flexible, varied curriculum more tailored to their interests in their career goals as there are practically infinite classes available.

And of course, there’s the flexibility to take these classes from anywhere in the world, and all at a fraction of the cost of attending college.

That said, employers in many fields still require degrees from traditional universities at this point and a certificate from an online school might not open as many employment opportunities at this point, depending on the industry.

But as online education continues to grow in popularity and college enrollment declines, could things change in the next 5, 10, 15, or 20 years? It’s a distinct possibility and something worth keeping a close eye on in the coming years.

As Ban Cheah, report author and CEW research professor and senior economist said, “Students need professional guidance on the economic outcomes of college and career pathways before they make one of the biggest decisions of their lives.”

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