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Lifelong Learning

Postsecondary education that advances one's career or provides personal enrichment without leading to a degree is generally known as continuing education. RAND's research in this area of education has focused on such diverse topics as improving the participation of adult learners in the U.S. military, continuing education in the Arab world, and the economic benefits for the general population stemming from greater educational attainment.

Report
Fortifying Education as a Pathway to the Middle Class
Education levels in the United States have been rising for 50 years, including large gains for many demographic groups. Adults with college degrees have higher incomes than their less-educated peers. But declining public support for higher education and increasing costs are making it harder to obtain degrees.
Mar 25, 2021
Blog
Pardee RAND's Faculty Leaders Program: Shaping the Future of Public Policy
To be effective, public policy needs to reflect the aspirations, lives, and perspectives of the people it serves. The Pardee RAND Graduate School seeks to build diversity in public policy by engaging faculty leaders from U.S. colleges and universities committed to serving students of color.
Sep 3, 2020
Report
Employers and Colleges Could Plan Better for Future Oil and Natural Gas Workforce
Advances in natural gas extraction should bring long-term economic benefits to Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. A survey of employers and educators can inform policy decisions on how best to expand and sustain the pool of skilled workers.
Oct 16, 2017
Report
Education: Digital technology's role in enabling skills development for a connected world
This Perspective explores the ways in which the growth of digital technology is impacting education and skills.
Jul 3, 2017
Commentary
The Shared Savings Model: An Innovative Way to Attack Rapidly Rising College Costs
The challenge facing policymakers is how to lessen the college cost pressure felt by families while incentivizing institutions to innovate to reduce cost and improve quality. What if cost savings from increased productivity were quantified and a portion returned to institutions?
Oct 22, 2015
Report
Leveraging Shared Savings to Promote High-Quality, Cost-Effective Higher Education
This Perspective proposes a new funding model in higher education that leverages the savings generated when institutions increase productivity.
Oct 22, 2015
Testimony
Higher-Education Benefits for Post-9/11 Military Service Members and Veterans
Many types of federal educational benefits are available to U.S. veterans. However, there are many ways Congress can ensure long-term viability of assistance, thus improving access to affordable higher education for the post-9/11 generation and their families.
Mar 17, 2015
Report
Improving Federal Educational Assistance Programs for U.S. Service Members
Federal educational assistance programs offer U.S. military personnel many pathways to obtaining college degrees. But service members may require assistance navigating the disparate programs and sources of information available to them.
Feb 23, 2015
Report
Advancing the Careers of Military Spouses
Military spouses face challenges related to military life that can make it difficult for them to maintain and develop careers. The My Career Advancement Account (MyCAA) scholarship is one program designed to help them, but only one in five eligible spouses reported using it.
Jan 21, 2015
Report
The DNP by 2015: A Study of the Institutional, Political, and Professional Issues that Facilitate or Impede Establishing a Post-Baccalaureate Doctor of Nursing Practice Program
In 2004, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing voted that all master's programs for advanced-practice registered nurses transition to doctorate programs by 2015. RAND studied current programs and barriers to adoption of doctorate programs.
Jan 9, 2015
Project
Encouraging Workforce Development in the Gulf States
As Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama seek to expand their economies, employers will require highly literate workers with advanced technical skills. RAND has conducted extensive research on K-12, college, and vocational education in the United States and overseas, as well as the role of education in workforce development.
Nov 1, 2012
Commentary
Colleges Can Learn from For-Profits' Emphasis on the Consumer
Though for-profit institutions had been criticized in the Senate report as offering credits that were hard to transfer elsewhere, it was the colleges' willingness to accept military transcripts that appealed to veterans who wanted to complete their degrees as fast as possible, writes Jennifer Steele.
Feb 9, 2012
Report
Evaluating the Communities Foundation of Texas's Gift to the Dallas Police Department: The Caruth Police Institute's First Leadership Course
An evaluation of the first course offered by the Caruth Police Institute at Dallas, supported by funds from the Communities Foundation of Texas, considered participants' opinions of the course's impact on various aspects of their jobs.
Jan 18, 2012
Journal Article
Not Making the Transition to College: School, Work, and Opportunities in the Lives of Contemporary American Youth
In applying latent class analysis techniques, we identified multiple types of students who do not pursue college. One group of non-enrollees (27.6%) reports forgoing college because the economic barriers are too high – either because of college affordability or family financial responsibility.
Jul 1, 2011
Report
Military Veterans' Experiences Using the Post-9/11 GI Bill and Adapting to Life on Campus
The Post-9/11 GI Bill increased the higher education benefits available to eligible individuals, but its implementation presented challenges to both student veterans and campus administrators.
Jan 31, 2011
Research Brief
How Military Veterans Are Using the Post-9/11 GI Bill and Adapting to Life in College
The Post-9/11 GI Bill increased the higher education benefits available to eligible individuals. Offering benefits to nearly 2 million veterans, it is more generous than previous bills but beneficiaries report challenges in using the new benefits.
Nov 5, 2010
Research Brief
How Taxpayers Benefit When Students Attain Higher Levels of Education
Describes how increases in students' educational attainment result in benefits to taxpayers, in the form of increases in tax revenues and decreases in public spending on social support programs and correctional facilities.
Oct 16, 2009
Research Brief
Revitalizing Qatar's National University (Arabic version)
Describes the effort, begun in 2003, to reform Qatar University, including the impetus for reform, the design and implementation of the reform agenda, and a review of challenges that have been overcome and those that remain.
Sep 25, 2009
Research Brief
Revitalizing Qatar's National University
Describes the effort, begun in 2003, to reform Qatar University, including the impetus for reform, the design and implementation of the reform agenda, and a review of challenges that have been overcome and those that remain.
Sep 15, 2009
Report
Barriers to the Broad Dissemination of Creative Works in the Arab World
Many analysts have examined the media that violent extremists use to communicate their core messages. Far less research, however, has been devoted to the growing body of creative works produced by Arab authors and artists that counter the intellectual and ideological underpinnings of violent extremism.
Sep 4, 2009

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RAND Topic:
Continuing Education

Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Dwayne M. Butler

Senior Management Scientist

Dwayne Butler is a senior management scientist at the RAND Corporation, and professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His areas of substantive knowledge or experience include: leadership; human capital management; organizational theory; educational theory, with particular…
Amanda Perez

Ph.D. Student, Pardee RAND Graduate School, and Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND

Amanda Sari Perez is a Ph.D. student in the Research, Analysis, and Design stream at the Pardee RAND Graduate School and an assistant policy researcher at RAND. She has an M.S. in biomedical engineering and an M.S. in engineering and technology innovation management from Carnegie Mellon…

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