Nadia Leal-Carrillo, Executive Director, Success Center

As a first-generation college graduate and someone who has spent more than two decades advancing higher education policy and leading large-scale, systemwide reforms to address barriers to student success, I keep returning to one question that has shaped how I approach this work: are our systems, policies, and structures truly designed for the learners we serve today? I think especially about those who enroll in or return to college later in life, like my siblings, while balancing work, family, and other real-world responsibilities.

In 2025-26, more than 2.6 million students enrolled in the California Community Colleges, and about 40% were 25 or older. That is nearly 900,000 adult learners. They are not a niche population. They represent nearly half of our students, yet many higher education structures were built around a different reality: students move directly from high school to college and can organize their lives around the classroom. Our students have changed. The question for all of us is whether our systems have kept pace.

Adult learners are often described as a “special population,” but I see them differently. They are parents, veterans, caregivers, working professionals, and community members pursuing education alongside countless other responsibilities. Many bring years of professional and life experience and a clear sense of purpose to their educational goals. In many ways, adult learners are not on the margins of higher education. They are central to its present and future.

I know something of what they carry. My own path through higher education required balancing work and college, and it taught me how quickly seemingly “ordinary” requirements can become barriers layered on top of jobs, family commitments, and financial pressure. Those barriers are rarely dramatic. They look like a shift that runs late, childcare that falls through, or a class scheduled at the one time a student simply cannot be there. For many adult learners, these realities shape their experience every day, and they challenge us to rethink how our institutions support student success.

A Shared Premise

At the Success Center, much of our work is rooted in the core belief that our students, particularly our adult students, arrive with knowledge, skills, and experience that deserve recognition. Two initiatives that embody these values are our work on Direct Assessment Competency-Based Education (CBE) and Credit for Prior Learning (CPL).

Measuring What Students Know

Direct Assessment Competency-Based Education (CBE) questions a long-held assumption. It challenges the idea that all students should progress through learning on the same timeline. Instead, students move forward by demonstrating mastery of clearly defined competencies at their own pace. For a returning learner with years of professional and technical experience, this can be a more responsive and meaningful route to a credential or degree. It also asks colleges to rethink how they design programs, assess learning, and support students, prioritizing demonstrated learning over prescribed timelines.

To support this important work, our team partnered with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, CCC Curriculum Committee, the Academic Senate, and eight pilot colleges to test this innovative model.

Recognizing Learning Wherever It Happens

Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) rests on a related idea that valuable learning happens well beyond the traditional classroom. Adults gain knowledge through employment, military service, workforce training, industry certifications, and community engagement. Effective CPL policies recognize those competencies, accelerating progress while maintaining academic quality and rigor.

California has made real progress here. The Success Center’s CPL initiative from 2018 to 2021 helped catalyze CPL policies in all 72 districts, and a project now underway is exploring how artificial intelligence can accelerate the work.

Neither approach lowers expectations. Both create multiple high-quality pathways to the same meaningful outcomes. Rather than continually asking students to adapt their lives to our systems, we can redesign our systems to respond to their lives.

Turning Innovation Into Practice

The Success Center helps California’s colleges turn promising ideas into lasting practice and systemic change. Working with the Chancellor’s Office, colleges, and cross-sector partners, we operate at the intersection of research, policy, and practice: building evidence, convening partners, and supporting implementation. We bring what colleges learn back into statewide conversations so policy reflects reality, and we co-design solutions with the faculty, staff, and administrators closest to students to expand opportunity, mobility, and success. 

Looking Ahead

An estimated 6.8 million Californians have a high school diploma but no postsecondary credential. That is both untapped talent and an opportunity to expand educational attainment and economic mobility across the state. The work reaches beyond academic models to financial aid, student supports, credential pathways, and workforce connections. The work is ongoing. We must keep listening to students and practitioners, testing new approaches, and building evidence about what works across very different colleges and communities. If we keep learners at the center of our policies, practices, and systems, a future where more adult learners can enroll, persist, and thrive is well within reach.