Recommendations

Based on our interviews and review of the projects’ final evaluations, we offer the following recommendations to help colleges create more effective PLA programs:

The single most important thing that colleges can do to strengthen their prior learning for credit programs is to create strong advising programs that help students take advantage of PLA opportunities. According to Marylin Smith, the state coordinator of the grant at Colorado, the advisers should not just know about PLA but also “know what questions to ask” and “how to follow up with the students about those questions.” Creating that high-quality infrastructure to connect directly to students allows the college to plug in any complex reform while actively ensuring student success.

Furthermore, to eliminate the complexity around PLA, colleges should also consider providing automatic credits for certain workforce training or particular structured work experience. Doing so would not only increase the take-up of PLA but also ensure that the credit counts towards a degree program. One or both of these reforms should be in place before colleges spend the political capital on creating additional policy changes to support PLA. No other policy will matter if students are not aware that they can get credit for learning that occurs outside the classroom.

We recommend that:

• Colleges integrate information about PLA into recruitment.
• Colleges integrate conversations about PLA into the first student advising session.
• Colleges hire specialized advisers to work with students who are found to have possible college-level learning and work to get that learning evaluated and connected to their program of study.
• Colleges build automatic PLA opportunities into programs of study where possible.
• States provide resources to support enhanced advising, particularly to support students through the PLA process.
• Colleges build this advising capacity before they start their work to improve PLA policy.

While some of the evaluations gave a good accounting, through administrative data, of the types of PLA schools offered and the number and demographics of the students who made use of it, most relied on surveys and interviews of students and administrators. Many colleges and states simply do not collect standardized data on PLA.

We recommend that:

• Colleges regularly collect data on the use of PLA with agreed-upon definitions among institutions.
• States and systems include PLA in longitudinal data systems and regularly report on the number and types of students using it.

Colleges should prioritize policy around the type of PLA that makes the most sense given their population and programs. For instance, if the college serves a large veteran population, figuring out how to give program credit for the Joint Services Transcript, which provides documentation of military education and training, should be a priority. If the college is creating a program for incumbent workers, working with an employer to grant program credit for certain types of training and experience might make the most sense.

We recommend that:

• Colleges consider how to make PLA as automatic as possible for students; this process will differ by the type of PLA and the program of study.
• Colleges align the type of PLA they are implementing with the program of study it is meant to apply to and the student population it will benefit.

Colleges need strong leadership to make the case for PLA and get buy-in from faculty and advisers. As Heather McKay, the evaluator for the Colorado Helps Advanced Manufacturing Program grant, said, “The groundwork has been laid, the foundation is there, but that culture still needs to be created.”

We recommend that:

• Those implementing PLA achieve strong buy-in first, by bringing leadership to key conferences and learning opportunities like those provided by CAEL, sharing student stories, and by demonstrating the recruitment benefits.
• Colleges involve key faculty and advisers in planning and program development.
• Colleges provide training for faculty and staff not involved in planning.

States and colleges need to change the perception of financial incentives: By focusing on how PLA can improve recruitment for the entire college rather than the forgone tuition and FTE revenue, some school leaders managed to communicate how PLA can actually be financially beneficial. But colleges need to be aware that departments and faculty may not appreciate improved recruiting when the incentive that means the most to them is being able to fill their classes.

We recommend that:

• States consider providing a small—partial FTE or performance funding—incentive for credit awarded through PLA.
• Colleges focus on how PLA can improve recruitment and enrollment college wide rather than the forgone tuition revenue.
• Colleges consider making students who are awarded PLA credits but who do not sit in class count in department budget allocations.

Creating consistent policy, like the number of credits awarded for different types of PLA, is important both within colleges and across systems. State policy is a powerful tool that can help focus colleges on PLA policy, but creating state policy on PLA needs to be timely and relevant, sequenced after building the capacity to implement PLA and connect it to students at colleges.

We recommend that:

• States and systems convene colleges to create consistent PLA policy around the transfer of credit, fees charged to students, methods of earning, and other relevant factors. More information on what those state policies can look like can be found in the publication State Policy Approaches to Support Prior Learning Assessment. ¹
• Colleges work with their states and systems to clarify their PLA policies.