Advancing A Comprehensive Study Of Post-Collegiate Outcomes: Framework And Toolkit (2015)

This document from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) introduces the Post-Collegiate Outcomes (PCO) Initiative, aimed at providing a richer and more comprehensive framework for assessing the various outcomes of college education. The initiative emphasizes measuring both economic and social benefits, seeking to broaden the scope of how post-collegiate success is defined and evaluated across different sectors of society.

Main Takeaways:

• Multidimensional Framework: The PCO Framework categorizes outcomes into four quadrants—public/economic, public/social capital, private/economic, and private/social capital—to capture a wide range of benefits from higher education, such as employment, civic engagement, personal development, and community contributions.
• Inclusion of Social Capital: The framework uniquely incorporates social capital outcomes, highlighting the societal benefits of higher education such as increased civic participation and social cohesion, which are often overlooked in traditional economic metrics.
• Toolkit for Implementation: A toolkit accompanies the framework to help stakeholders—educational institutions, policymakers, and community leaders—apply this model to evaluate and report on educational outcomes more effectively.
• Stakeholder Perspectives: The initiative provides perspectives for different stakeholders to understand how educational outcomes intersect with broader social and economic goals, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation of the value provided by postsecondary institutions.