Stan Jones
Complete College America President Stan Jones testified Wednesday before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in a hearing titled “Keeping College Within Reach: Meeting the Needs of Contemporary Students.”
Jones focused his testimony on the failures of traditional remediation, highlighted CCA’s “Game Changer” strategies for improving college completion rates, and shared innovations from around the country that are securing big results for states and institutions.
Congressman George Miller (D-CA), the ranking member of the committee, spoke to the importance of Jones’ call for reform on traditional remediation, stating, “Remediation just isn’t hard to do. It’s almost a killer for college completion.”
Additionally, Jones urged the committee to:
Address gaps in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which currently lacks data on part-time students, transfer students, students aged 25 or older, gateway course success for remedial students, credit accumulation, time to degree, course completion, and most importantly, success rates for PELL students and veterans.
Incentivize students to take 15 credits per semester. Based on a recent survey commissioned by Complete College America, most “full-time” students are not taking the credits needed to graduate on time. Federal and state policies should encourage students to take at least 15 credits per semester or 30 credits per year.
