In 2008, the Lumina Foundation, an independent private foundation in Indianapolis, issued a challenge to American higher education, what it called its “Big Goal.” By 2025, it said, 60 percent of working-age adults nationwide should have earned a college degree or other postsecondary credential such as certificates or industry certifications.  At the time, only 38 percent of American adults possessed at least one of those credentials.

The goal captured the attention of the higher ed sector partly because it was clear, concise, and compelling—but also because, with nearly $1 billion in assets, Lumina was willing to provide serious money to institutions that shared its vision. Those resources helped state officials, policymakers, and higher-ed leaders complement their traditional attention to expanding access to postsecondary education with stronger efforts to ensure more students earned college degrees or completed training programs that resulted in a certificate or other credential.

Today, 55 percent of American adults have a postsecondary credential, according to the latest version of  A Stronger Nation,  Lumina’s online, interactive tracking tool. That’s five percentage points short of the foundation’s goal but serious progress, nonetheless.

Yet if attainment is up, higher education’s reputation is down. That’s partially because of politics—faith in the sector has cratered among conservatives, not liberals. Still, Americans across party lines think college has become unaffordable, and institutions of higher learning are facing increasing political pressure to show that the degrees they grant meet the needs of employers and lead to real income gains for graduates.

On March 4, Lumina released a new version of its big goal—one that both reflects the tough new environment higher education finds itself in and bets big on the sector’s ability to meet the challenge. As part of an updated strategic framework, Lumina has announced that by 2040, it wants 75 percent of working-age adults in the labor force to have either college degrees or other “credentials of value” that lead to economic prosperity.

Read the full article about Lumina Foundation's goal by Michael T. Nietzel at Washington Monthly.