States Make Progress on Outcomes-Based Higher Education

In 2024, when the Strada Education Foundation first attempted to quantify and rate each state’s ability to ensure college students get a positive return on investment for their degree, none was deemed strong at providing work-based learning. Only about a quarter of bachelor’s degree graduates had completed a paid internship, the inaugural survey found.

Three years later, at least four states are considered strong on work-based learning opportunities and 12 are nearly there; meanwhile, 43 percent of graduating seniors say they’ve completed a paid, immersive work-based learning experience. States and public university systems have also improved when it comes to providing quality career coaching, aligning with employers’ needs and collecting clear outcomes data, the new 2026 Strada State Opportunities Index shows.

Since the nonprofit group began publishing this benchmark tool, they’ve seen “incredible progress,” said Dave Clayton, Strada’s senior vice president of research.

“When you look at state data infrastructures, we have firmly moved from a focus on access and then completion into an outcomes era,” he said. “You just see states flooding into that space, building integrated data systems and other resources to understand education-to-employment outcomes.”

Each year, the report has measured states’ performance in five areas that are critical to providing a positive return on investment: affordability, clear outcomes data, employer alignment, quality career coaching and work-based learning. And in each of the five categories, as well as a number of subcategories, metrics are then used to rate each state. The lowest score is “foundational,” middle tiers include “developing” and “advanced,” and the highest score is “leading.”

Not all metrics covered in the report, which was produced using a combination of student surveys and aggregated government data, show as significant a margin of growth as work-based learning. For example, the percentage of graduates nationally with a positive return on investment after 10 years only increased by about two percentage points from 2024 to 2025, remaining stagnant at 70 percent in 2026.

Clayton acknowledged the American higher education system has a long way to go before it connects all students to economic opportunity and meets the nation’s workforce needs. Still, he said, the overall trend demonstrates that state systems are making tangible steps forward.

“Ultimately, no, this year’s progress is not enough … We want every individual who invests their hopes, dreams, time and resources into pursuing postsecondary education to be better off financially,” he said. But “we’re delighted that people are making progress and that it’s showing up in ways that can be measured.”

When Strada first measured work-based learning for four-year degree programs in 2024, the nation was labeled as developing. Now, 16 states are either labeled advanced or sit right on the cusp between developing and advanced, though no state has yet reached the top tier.

Similar patterns can be seen in the four other categories. In 2024 only nine states demonstrated a strong enough data infrastructure to be deemed leading in the “clear outcomes” category, and 12 were advanced. Now those numbers are 17 and 22, respectively. Looking at affordability, 24 states earned a “leading” designation for associate degrees in 2024 and none for bachelor’s degrees; this year 35 states were rated “leading” for affordable associate degrees and two for affordable bachelors’.

In the few instances where states have appeared to slide backward—for instance, the number of leading states for “clear outcomes” fell from 20 last year to 17 this year—Clayton noted that Strada has actually raised the bar.

“So it was not going backwards. It was just saying we need to have more,” he said.

Strada also added two new elements to the 2026 index, called “states to watch” and “pathways to progress,” which highlight states that have made significant progress and the strategies they’re using. In one “states to watch” section, Indiana is spotlighted for establishing a consultant team at Ivy Tech Community College that develops more work-based opportunities through immediate partnerships with employers. A “pathways to progress” section notes that a number of states have established stipends for student teachers or apprenticeship programs for nurses, paying students to complete practicums that historically have been unpaid.

Clayton hopes the new feature will allow states to learn from one another, leading to continued improvement across all five categories. Eventually, he added, it should improve the nationwide return on investment.

“The power of the State Opportunity Index is that it’s a framework within which employers and providers of postsecondary education can have a shared discussion, both to identify the strengths they currently have, as well as areas where they can grow,” he said.