Please read the first draft of my research paper. So far it only consists of the Introduction, parts of the literature review and Methods. Can you write me a three paragraph critique. Please consider the following:

What is clear ?

What is not Clear?

Is this clearly organized?

Does each sentence support the topic sentence ?

Run on sentences

Paragraphs with evidence that doesn't support the purpose ?

Themes

Also make sure to provide negative AND POSITIVE feedback

Introduction

Higher Education has a problem, and it can't fix it with some online courses and motivational posters. Enrollment is down. And the 18-22 college age group, according to one research model in 2020, will drop between 13 and 29 percent between 2020 and 2030 depending on the state. (Pavlov & Katsamakas, 2020). Despite this, and an existential need for universities to enroll adult learners, or adults older than 22, some recent research shows higher turnover for adult students, as well as multiple pain-points preventing some from getting into the classroom in the first place. (Malhotra & Apicerno, 2023). Throughout this paper, there is one overarching theme that will emerge: Adult learners are being left behind, and an already existing equity gap between those who can go to college at 18, and those who try to college later in life, is not only hurting individuals, but also society as a whole during a time of great cultural and technological transformation.

When we look at the national economy, we see very real incentives for companies and universities to do more to include students over the age of 22. We have a skilled worker shortage in everything from nursing to engineering. (McKendrick, 2023) Entire swaths of rural America is in a deep cycle of poverty, with entire towns beginning to fade into the history books. (Butler et al., 2020) In the rust belt, good paying jobs for high school graduates are in high demand with a low supply. There is more nuance to this of course, and research has indeed shown that some sectors are loosening college degree requirements for some types of jobs. After all, by one study, including a degree requirement in a job opening can eliminate 64 percent of the talent pool by default. (Fuller et al., 2022) That being said, people with college degrees still have lower

unemployment rates, higher lifetime earning potential and are significantly more likely to get ahead compared to people without college degrees. However, it should be noted that those better outcomes does also vary again based on secondary variables. According to one report by the Pew Research Center, first generation college graduates have worse outcomes than their peers with the same level of education, which we'll dive deeper into later. (Fry, 2021)

At the same time, we also see the rise of anti-intellectualism in the very communities that need additional opportunities the most. And yet, when we look at the pathway for older adults attempting to go back to school, for any degree or any field, we still see large institutional and socio-economic barriers in place, even in places like New York City with larger public university systems. And so, when we talk about topics like making college for accessible for everyone, and bridging the inequity gap that we see in America, there is one overarching research question we should ask ourselves: What are the main barriers to success for adult learners, and how do we overcome them?

Before we dive into the nuances of higher education, and the many barriers that adult learners face, let's first talk about what adult learners are as a community. For the purposes of this paper, adult learner students are any college students, degree-seeking or non-degree seeking, over the age of 22. When we talk about adult learners, we are talking about people already in the workforce attempting to advance or change their careers, people with alcohol or drug addiction or mental health issues that are attempting to re-enter the workforce, single parents and any other community of people that did not have the opportunity, for whatever reason, to go to college after high school straight away. We are also talking about people with undergraduate degrees that

are attempting to go to grad school later in life. We are also talking about neurodiverse people that don't conform to the traditional learning model that a lot of university classes are programmed around.

When we talk about barriers to success for adult learners there are two main types of barriers that will be discussed in this paper. The first would be called Barrier to Entry. This type of barrier involves the ability for non-traditional students to get to the classroom in the first place. This can range from tuition cost to simple scheduling. If a non-traditional student works 9am to 5pm, Monday Through Friday, and every class for their preferred major meets during the day, they are by default at a disadvantage and in many cases not able to enroll in the first place, even if they are accepted and capable by any other metric. There is also the potential loss of wages. If a college schedule prevents a person already in the workforce from working full-time because of scheduling, that could then have a cascading impact on every aspect of that person's life. Suddenly on paper, going to college becomes a liability, rather than an asset. The second main type of barrier for non-traditional college students that will be discussed in this research paper will be the Learning Barrier. In other words, once non-traditional students get into the classroom, are college classes accommodating them? When we look at contemporary college programs for non-traditional students, asynchronous learning has been a major tool presented by universities such as Southern New Hampshire University and CUNY to make college more accessible for flexible for working adults. But in addressing the scheduling and time barrier for non-traditional students, are we still providing non-traditional students the resources to actually succeed?

Literature Review

Skilled Worker Gap: Is the labor force prepared for future

When talking about adult learners, it is important to get an understand of some relevant trends in population and income inequality. Later in this paper, we will go more in-depth on the economic inequity gap between people who have a college degree and people who don't. In a 2020 Research paper, written by Sociology researchers at Penn State and Cornell University respectively, we see some relevant trends Rural America worth expounding on. The conclusions from this piece literature review, in part, that the effects of population decline in rural areas on income inequality can vary depending on the region. Another interesting finding from the reading is that inequality in rural areas can also be impacted by an increase in young adults with higher levels of education moving to urban areas, an increase in single parent-families. There is also some interesting analysis of the concept of ethnic heterogeneity and whether it increases inequality, with a influx of Hispanic workers at rural food plants being one example of this form of positive migration increasing the economic inequality gap. (Butler et al., 2020)

Another takeway from the data in this research piece; some major causes of inequality in rural counties with positive population growth is an increase of wealthier residents while concurrently having a higher concentration of low-wage and part-time work. In other words, too much focus on high-wage employees from a municipal planning standpoint, could cause worse overall conditions for the county population over-time. And so, what the data in this piece does show better outcomes for people with higher education levels, it also shows that too much concentration on a smaller sample of higher education residents, and not enough focus on training and educating everyone else, can cause severe consequences, even in rural counties that aren't suffering depopulation problems.

Another piece of the puzzle when it comes to the Skilled Worker Gap and the economic context behind the push to attempt to better accommodate adult learners, is the changes in the way employers are hiring people to begin with. In "The Emerging Degree Reset", a report by the Burning Glass Institute, we see data on the changes in degree requirements for role across a variety of roles. One interesting conclusion from this piece of literature, is that this shift in hiring practices started well before the Pandemic, though we did see an acceleration thereafter. The report focuses on the idea that jobs don't require a college education, employers do. It touches on "Degree Inflation", or an phenomenon where employers started adding degree requirements for positions that had not otherwise changed in any meaningful way. (Fuller et al., 2022). Critical Analysis from this research piece found that an additional 1.4 million jobs could open to workers with college degrees in the next 5 years. (Fuller et al., 2022). The literature also touches on drawbacks to removing degree requirements from positions that don't require them. One drawback mentioned is that with the removal of degree requirements, employers can then add to the requirements in other ways through additional hard, technical, and social skills. In other words, the job requirement would still not necessarily better reflect the actual complexities and skill requirements of the job itself. Another significant data point derived from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: Middle skilled job openings remained relatively stable during the Pandemic, while high skill job openings fell by 5 percent. (Fuller et al., 2022)

In other research, I looked at the factor of automation and the ability for the average worker to find work, as well as how modern technology has changed the way that manufacturing has operated. Some conclusions I derived from my review of existing literature: Automation alone is not enough to fill the existing skilled worker gap in America or oversees. Additionally, the new

jobs that are being created as manufacturing begins to come back to North America are less numerous and more skilled than the factory jobs of old, with advanced training and education required.

Methods

When discussing the best way to answer my research question, I looked at a number of different ways to address the barriers that adult learners face in obtaining a college education. I looked at three major research areas. The first focused on the socio-economic background of the United States and the current state of labor market. In research terms, I looked at journals and articles that touched on the demographic makeup of rural and urban communities, racial and soio-economic inequities and the specific data on the skilled labor market and how the current state of higher education and vocational programs geared toward older adults were not quite enough to fill the gaps. I believe that this more quantantive analysis of the economy and demographics behind the communities that adult learners live in would help provide vital context for the rest of the research areas. My research on rural America in particular and its data on income inequality is one example of how seemingly unrelated research can connect into my research question. (Butler et al., 2020). I also looked at research that focused on correlations between the aging domestic population and its effect on college enrollments. (Pavlov & Katsamakas, 2020)

The second major research area focused on student outcome. In other words, how are adult learners faring compared to traditional students? I looked at data involving University programming, academic pieces on student learning, including a journal article on adult re-entry

into college after the COVID-19 Pandemic. (Malhotra & Apicerno, 2023). The methods of my research in this area includes both economic data on income projections for college graduates, graduation rates for different portions of the population, critical analysis of existing programs geared toward adult learners, and studies of adult learners that focused on experiences and individual needs of adult learners versus their younger traditional counterparts.

The third major research area focused on barriers for adult learners. This includes institutional barriers preventing adult learners from getting into the class room in the first place, and barriers in the classroom themselves. For this area, I am including a primary source, a ten-person interview series of adult learners that dig into their experience navigating higher education, returning to college and the challenges they have faced along the way. It will be a series of in-person and zoom-based interviews. Data will be collected and coded anonymously and then analysis for the purposes of the research paper. For secondary sources, I looked at studies, literature analysis and socio-economic analysis. I also looked at news articles that looked at University policy changes over time.