Today, educators acknowledge that there is no straight line to earning a college credential. Some students start college courses while in high school through dual enrollment, and others start at colleges they don't necessarily imagine fininishing. They "swirl" from institution to institution and back again.
Amid all these pathways and detours, educators and policy-makers are finding ways to help more students complete degrees and leverage the knowledge they pick up along the way. Here's what we found from a high school, higher education, and workforce level in terms of changing pathways.