The Plain Dealer’s Patrick O’Donnell had a feeling his story was bigger than just Cleveland. His team heard reports of people graduating from high school and struggling to find gainful employment, while employers in the area complained of a mismatched skill level when hiring for trade jobs.

His research ultimately led to a 10-part series called "Pathways to Prosperity" that examined the cultural differences in the European and American approaches to the relationships between the workforce and higher education.

In this interview, O’Donnell talks about his experiences as an American journalist abroad and what’s stopping Americans from adopting more centralized apprenticeship structures. 

Researchers at the Urban Institute used student-level data from Connecticut and Virginia and worked with policymakers in those states to assess their data needs in measuring student outcomes and the performance of colleges.

The resulting reports include an effort to compare colleges' graduation rates by adjusting for student characteristics, a case study and interactive data dashboard on college graduation rates in Virginia, an analysis of equity gaps in graduation rates, an assessment of program-level completion metrics in Virginia, an analysis of earning metrics for graduates using data from Connecticut, and a report with key lessons for policymakers.