The Great Admissions Redesign
Lumina Foundation is seeking to work with states, higher education systems, and groups of colleges and universities ready to transform how potential students apply, enroll, and access their institutions.
Featured Resources
Some highlights of Lumina's work
We're sharing tools and takeaways from our efforts to create a better-educated nation.
A Stronger Nation
We're tracking America's progress toward the nation's 60% attainment goal.
Community College Challenge
The Million Dollar Community College Challenge team is shining a spotlight on the great work of community colleges around the country.
REACH Collaborative
We're supporting community colleges in six states to create short-term credential-to-degree pathways for adults who are Black, Latino, Hispanic, and Native American.
Changing the Narrative on Student Borrowers of Color
A collection of essays from student loan experts sets the record straight on borrowing among students of color.
Community Grants
Our community grants portfolio supports local organizations in our hometown of Indianapolis and around central Indiana.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Hear stories about how HBCU's help students thrive.
Tuition Reimbursement
Meet a few of the workers and employers participating in tuition reimbursement programs.
Lumina Impact Ventures
Lumina Impact Ventures is the Foundation's impact investing arm partnering with mission-aligned social enterprises.
Local Talent Handbook
A guide for local leaders to build talent pool in their communities.
I Want That Job!
A series from WorkingNation on promising career paths for early-career workers
History of Federal Student Aid
A film series documenting the policy and the political origins of federal financial aid programs
Beyond Financial Aid
How colleges can strengthen students’ financial stability, leading to higher completion rates
State Strategy Labs
Lumina supports state leaders’ efforts to increase education levels by offering nonpartisan research, data, peer advice, and technical support.
Degree Qualification Profile
A learning-centered framework for what college graduates should know and be able to do to earn the associate, bachelor’s or master’s degree.
DEEP Insights: Redesigning Dual Enrollment as a Purposeful Pathway to College and Career Opportunity
Oct. 23, 2023
Dual enrollment equity pathways (DEEP) is a research-based framework for rethinking dual enrollment as a more equitable on-ramp to college programs of study that lead to family-supporting, career-path jobs for students who might not otherwise pursue education after college.
Reimagining Online Education in California: A Roadmap for Advancing Access and Quality
Oct. 15, 2023
Enrollment in online courses and programs has steadily increased over the past 15 years, and in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed widespread use of remote courses and services. This shift prompted higher education faculty, staff, administrators, and students to reflect on online education’s role in improving access to courses, programs, and services, while balancing…
Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning
May 22, 2023
Today, many priorities for improvements to teaching and learning are unmet. Educators seek technology-enhanced approaches addressing these priorities that would be safe, effective, and scalable. Naturally, educators wonder if the rapid advances in technology in everyday lives could help.
Worlds Apart: The Non-College Economy
May 19, 2023
There are two Americas today: one for the college educated, and one for those without four-year degrees. Workers in these economies are worlds apart—the type of work they do, how they receive their pay, when they start their workday, and the benefits they get from employment are night and day.
What Works: Ten Education, Training, and Work-Based Pathway Changes That Lead to Good Jobs
April 28, 2023
A report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce identifies 10 pathway changes involving education, training, and work experience with the greatest potential to improve employment outcomes for young adults.
What Policymakers Need To Know About Today’s Working Class
April 6, 2023
Today’s working class is far different than the working class of more than half a century ago, at the height of American manufacturing’s importance in the labor market. Yet, widespread misconceptions persist about the people without a four-year college degree who make up the American working class. Throughout the 2016 and 2020 election cycles, the…
A Roadmap for Immigration Reform
March 28, 2023
The last time the U.S. enacted major immigration reform was the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986. Since then, little has been done to fix what has become a broken system despite heated debate at the national, state, and local levels.
Five Charts to Understand Black Registered Apprentices in the United States
March 16, 2023
Apprenticeship has gained a renewed reputation as a promising training strategy.
Using Universal Design for Learning for Inclusive Apprenticeships
Jan. 26, 2023
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a way of organizing learning environments to accommodate people with a wide array of learning preferences, needs, and ways of expressing and receiving information and demonstrating competency.
Designing Career and Technical Education Programs That Help Students Get Good Jobs
Dec. 22, 2022
Education and training beyond the high school level is often seen as an essential component on the path to a good job. Evidence suggests higher levels of education are broadly associated with higher earnings, but a student’s return on their investment varies widely depending on program choice, the local labor market, structural barriers faced by…
Stop the Presses
Dec. 7, 2022
As the newspaper industry faces ongoing disruption, the number of journalism jobs will continue to decline over the next decade. More than one-third of journalism jobs will be lost between 2002 and 2031, according to this report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Stop the Presses explores the transformation of the…
What Works in Tech Apprenticeship
June 21, 2022
In today’s world of work there exists a pool of talented and capable Americans with the potential for and interest in working in tech, but they face hiring challenges because they lack certain credentials or prior work experience in the field. It is increasingly evident that there is a mismatch between traditional tech hiring practices…
The Most Popular Degree Pays Off
June 1, 2022
Majoring in business pays off. A new report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce finds that while graduates’ earnings and federal student loan debt vary by institution and degree level, the majority of business programs lead to median earnings that are roughly 10 times graduates’ debt payments two years after program…
Grads on the Go: Measuring College-Specific Labor Markets for Graduates
May 27, 2022
This report from the National Bureau of Economic Research presents a new measure of the labor markets served by colleges and universities across the United States. About 50 percent of recent college graduates are living and working in the metro area nearest the institution they attended, with this figure climbing to 67 percent in-state. The…
How To Ease the Nursing Shortage in America
May 23, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic worsened a national shortage of registered nurses, making it increasingly urgent that policymakers invest in higher education, coordinate strategies to alleviate the pressures on the nursing workforce, and make the entire health care system more equitable and stable.A report by the Center for American Progress examines the barriers in higher education contributing…
Preparing for Tomorrow’s Middle-Skill Jobs
April 13, 2022
This report describes a study conducted by researchers from CCRC and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Task Force on the Work of the Future to understand how community colleges are adapting their workforce programs to changing skill demands, diversifying pathways to certificates and degrees, and grappling with equity concerns.
How the Great American Jobs Reshuffle Enables a New Opportunity Agenda
March 16, 2022
There’s a great American jobs reshuffle underway that, while wrenching, has a potential upside for education, contends this report from the American Enterprise Institute. This upside is an opportunity to expand two promising and related approaches to education, training, and hiring: skills-based hiring and K–12 career pathways programs. These new approaches create workers skilled through…
Promising Approaches for Connecting Opportunity Youth to Registered Apprenticeships
Dec. 16, 2021
Apprenticeships can be a vehicle to turn young people’s aspirations into rewarding careers. A new report from Jobs for the Future describes promising practices in building and growing successful apprenticeship programs for young people ages 16 to 24 who are neither working nor in school.
The Education Blockchain Initiative
Dec. 7, 2021
A report from the American Council on Education summarizes the U.S. Department of Education-funded and ACE-managed Education Blockchain Initiative, the key results of the Blockchain Innovation Challenge, and the lessons learned and best practices identified by the selected four pilots.
Youth Policy: How Can We Smooth the Rocky Pathway to Adulthood?
Dec. 6, 2021
The COVID-19 recession has highlighted the ongoing vulnerabilities of young people in the workforce following a prolonged series of especially harsh economic downturns. A new report from the Center on Education and the Workforce examines the United States’ fragmented and inadequate approach to youth policy against the backdrop of economic pressures facing youth and young…