Postsecondary Education and Workforce

Our team of researchers brings deep expertise in postsecondary and workforce policies. Our college to career focus includes examining effects of complex statewide policy reform efforts, as well as place-based programs, exploring how policies and policy contexts vary across states and localities, and interrogating how policy design and implementation processes can affect the efficacy of these policies. RFA’s expertise is gleaned from a broad range of relevant research projects.

Our researchers have experience conducting comprehensive, multi-site, mixed-methods postsecondary research studies in in state and local contexts. RFA has conducted research on statewide and local College Promise programs, policies and approaches to improving student access, persistence, and completion, statewide remediation reforms, outcomes-based/ student success funding policies, initiatives that seek to advance racial equity in higher education attainment levels, and alternative credentials that recognize out-of-classroom learning.

With a focus on access, success, and equity, RFA’s postsecondary work ranges from large-scale analyses of state- and system-level postsecondary policy to in-depth examination of changes in institutional culture and practice.