Chike Aguh, former chief innovation officer at the US Department of Labor, and Joanitt Montano, provost of CHCP, Share Ideas for Improving Parent Learner Success in Times Higher Education

Last week, Times Higher Education, featured an op-ed from Chike Aguh, former chief innovation officer at the U.S. Department of Labor and current advisor to The Project on Workforce at Harvard University, and Joanitt Montano, provost and vice president of academics at CHCP. The op-ed discusess the hardships adult learners with children often go through and what institutions can do to help keep retention and graduation rates high for this group of students. 

In “Childcare remains a barrier for too many learners. Here’s how institutions can remove it” Joanitt and Chike discuss the expense and complexities of caring for children that adult learners often navigate while also returning to school. Students who are parents are already much less likely than other students to finish college.

The op-ed calls out potential innovative solutions to address the needs of student parents, including CHCP’s current pilot schedule that brings medical assisting students to campus only one day each week -- allowing them to learn in-person and practice skills, while also reducing the need for childcare. This pilot builds off of CHCP’s two-day-a-week programs, which already helps learners balance education and life. Aguh and Montano discuss how reducing in-person class requirements to one day per week can help make college a reality for those with kids as well as those juggling jobs or living long distances from campus. The op-ed also notes that by relieving the child care burden we can also help reduce educational poverty in underserved communities.

Read the full story here.