The American dream has always hinged on education as the key to upward mobility. But today, rising tuition and diminishing returns have left millions of Americans trapped in debt with limited prospects for economic advancement.
Moreover, higher education institutions need more accountability. Recouping the return on investment (ROI) from a postsecondary pathway begins with completing that pathway—a hurdle many students struggle to clear. While attending college and completion rates have improved in the U.S., the numbers remain sobering. Only 51% of students who began a four-year degree in 2012 completed it within eight years at the same institution. For students who started a two-year degree in 2012, just 30% completed their degree at the same institution within the same timeframe, although 29% transferred to continue their education elsewhere.
These statistics underscore a significant challenge within the higher education system: For many students, the promise of a degree remains unfulfilled. This, coupled with the growing appeal of nondegree certificates and credentials as faster, skills-focused pathways to career readiness, signals the need for a broader reevaluation of how we define and support student success in higher education.
Furthermore, 81% of employers think that skills should take precedence over degrees, highlighting a mismatch between the established degree-forced system and the real-world hiring needs of today’s economy. A report by the Association of American Colleges and Universities found that 6 in 10 employers believe that college graduates possess the knowledge and skills needed for success in entry-level roles, indicating a perceived gap between education outcomes and workforce needs. Employers consistently rank critical thinking, teamwork, and communication skills as the most important for workforce success. Yet, only 39% to 48% of employers believe recent graduates are well-prepared in these areas.
These concerns echo a growing dissatisfaction with traditional educational pathways, which often fail to prepare students for real-world careers. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Disrupting the status quo begins with reimagining how we deliver education—decoupling learning outcomes from traditional pathways—a vision made even more urgent by the rapid rise of AI technology. Key to this transformation are innovations in educational design and accreditation, where new approaches are breaking through.
The crisis: Rising costs and declining ROI
For millions of Americans, the rising cost of higher education has reached a breaking point. Over the past 20 years, fees have increased by 126%, far outpacing wage growth and inflation and leaving students buried under mountains of debt. Today, the average student loan debt stands at $37,853, with many graduates struggling to repay loans even as their degrees fail to offer the anticipated economic return.
Develop accessible and affordable pathways
The groundbreaking Duet-Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) partnership presents a compelling case for disrupting higher education. Duet, a Boston-based nonprofit, collaborates with SNHU to offer a hybrid college model that combines flexible, competency-based online courses with intensive in-person support. According to a 2021 Harvard University working paper, the Duet-SNHU program has achieved remarkable success in providing accessible, affordable education to a traditionally underserved population.
Graduation success: The three-year graduation rate for Duet students pursuing associate degrees is 46%, compared to just 19% at traditional two-year colleges in Massachusetts. Students of color, historically disadvantaged in higher education, are more than twice as likely to graduate through Duet.
Faster, more affordable degrees: On average, Duet students earn their degrees in 18 months, compared to 67 months at traditional institutions. The total cost for an associate degree through Duet is $11,670, nearly half the $21,300 at conventional schools.
These outcomes provide a powerful blueprint for closing the equity gap in higher education while enhancing social mobility. This approach empowers working adults, parents, and first-generation students to pursue and complete their degrees through flexible, affordable pathways.
Alongside Duet-SNHU, the Bellwether report “Best of Both Worlds” underscores the transformative potential of hybrid models like Teacher Apprenticeship Degrees (TAD). TAD addresses significant educational workforce gaps, offering a low-cost path that lets apprentices earn a bachelor’s degree and teaching certificate while gaining classroom experience. Programs like TAD demonstrate the viability of alternative pathways that meet educational and economic needs, proving that postsecondary education can be rigorous and affordable. Expanding such models could help bridge critical workforce gaps and foster equitable access to careers in education and beyond.
Reimagine accreditation and accountability
The push to overhaul the broken accreditation system is at the heart of reforming higher education. Under recent policy shifts, the U.S. Department of Education has opened the door to new accrediting bodies focused on raising academic quality and accountability standards. These new policies address the current system’s limitations, where accreditors often have close ties to the institutions they regulate, rarely approving new colleges or holding existing ones accountable for student outcomes.
Accreditation, traditionally a rubber-stamp process, must evolve into a rigorous evaluation of educational outcomes. Reform advocates are pushing for metrics assessing student satisfaction or institutional reputation and real-world results—graduation rates, job placements, and student ROI. A higher bar for accreditation would ensure that institutions are models of efficiency and equity grounded in performance indicators that matter to everyday Americans.
Act on the economic and moral imperative
The Duet-SNHU model proves that accessible, flexible, and cost-effective alternatives are possible and scalable. Meanwhile, the explosion of nondegree credentials offers additional pathways to skills-focused career readiness, reflecting a growing appetite for innovation in education. To remain competitive in the global economy, the U.S. must embrace these alternatives while reforming traditional institutions.
Policymakers must prioritize funding based on performance metrics like graduation rates and job placements, and accreditors must hold institutions accountable for real-world outcomes. Business leaders, educators, and community stakeholders must champion scalable models that deliver equity and opportunity. The stakes are too high to cling to an outdated system. By disrupting the status quo, we can create an education system that serves all Americans and strengthens the economy for generations to come.
AJ Gutierrez is chief policy and public affairs officer of Saga Education.