Stephanie Riegg Cellini and Kathryn J. Blanchard write for Brookings: A small, though important, set of postsecondary programs have largely escaped the notice of policymakers and researchers: short-term vocational programs lasting between 300-599 clockhours. These short programs are not currently eligible for Pell Grants, but can access federal student loans under the Higher Education Act. We draw on information obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the Department of Education to generate counts of programs, basic statistics, and some measures of student outcomes for these short-term postsecondary programs participating in student loan programs. Our data include all short-term programs (lasting 300-599 clockhours over a minimum of 10 weeks) that applied to participate in federal student-loan programs between 2010 and 2019 under Section 481(b)(2) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1088(b)(2)).
go to Brookings: Quick college credentials: Student outcomes and accountability policy for short-term programs (brookings.edu)
