Supporting Adult Learners from Enrollment to Completion

Lumina Foundation seeks to increase the proportion of Americans who hold a postsecondary credential to 60 percent by 2025, across all racial, ethnic, immigration, and income groups. Recognizing that this goal cannot be achieved through a focus on traditional-age college students alone, Lumina launched the Adult Promise initiative in 2017. Between 2017 and 2019, the foundation made multiyear grants to a total of 15 states to address adult postsecondary attainment through recruitment, supports, and financial commitments. The Adult Promise evaluation tracked progress in 11 states included in the 2017 and 2018 grant waves (California, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Washington), focusing on six domains: (1) state and institutional policy context, (2) outreach and recruitment, (3) supports for adult students, (4) financial assistance, (5) equity considerations, and (6) crisis response, which was especially relevant in 2020.

This report presents evidence about the progress these state grantees made in these six domains to support adult learners attain postsecondary education.