Why Cooperative Extension Belongs in Statewide Higher Education Strategy

Cooperative Extension is a noncredit service of land-grant universities, as well as some historically Black and tribal colleges and universities. It’s designed to reach people throughout each state with applied knowledge to support individual and collective prosperity. Historically, its focus has been on agriculture and natural resources, areas that have driven rural economies. As states look to close postsecondary attainment gaps and strengthen rural economies, existing infrastructure like Cooperative Extension could be a powerful but underused lever.

While Extension has been known primarily through its programs, such as 4-H or Master Gardener, it acts as an effective, publicly-funded, institutionally-based, noncredit, affordable, or free educational provider in nearly every county across the nation. As local economies shift, the services that Extension provides may also grow and adapt to meet a broader range of community needs.

In this way, Extension could play a key role in statewide higher education and talent development plans. However, very little is known about the degree to which the state leaders charged with creating these plans (1) know about Extension, or (2) engage with its work. To begin to fill this gap, NCHEMS held a focus group of State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEOs) and SHEEO agency leaders from four states, aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of their perceptions of Extension and its potential.

In this focus group, we learned that:

Extension has broad public support.

Many people benefit from Extension’s services, starting with youth who engage in 4-H. Indeed, Extension may very well be someone’s first contact with public higher education, whether they recognize the link to the land-grant institution or not. A county Extension office may be the land-grant institution’s only footprint in some rural counties and communities. This highlights the tremendous potential that Extension holds as a service-oriented public higher education service. SHEEOs generally perceive that funding cuts to higher education will typically spare Extension, at least relative to core institutional budgets

Extension generally operates out of the state higher education agency’s line of sight.

SHEEO agencies are generally not deeply aware of Extension’s activities or impact. As Extension is called to serve more people with community- and workforce-relevant content, this disconnect poses risks both to SHEEO agencies and to Extension. Uncoordinated efforts may be unnecessarily duplicated, or opportunities to improve practice may be missed if state higher education agencies and Extension are out of alignment.

For example, many states have set focused goals for increasing higher education attainment to meet current and future workforce needs. These goals are often expansive, encompassing not only college degrees but also other types of credentials, such as certificates or other noncredit, workforce-aligned learning. While many states have these goals, far fewer integrate learning done through Cooperative Extension in shaping their tactics, and even fewer still work explicitly to ensure people can leverage learning done through Extension in an eventual plan to earn a credential.

There are some hopeful examples of alignment, such as direct admissions programs for students who participated in 4-H in Maine, or noncredit-to-credit pathways for industry-aligned learning in Missouri. Examples like these should be amplified to better understand their impact on statewide higher education attainment.

There is room for more effective collaboration between state higher education planning and the work of Extension.

Extension agents are experts in community engagement, especially in rural areas — a skill that can be difficult for statewide higher education agencies to master. At the same time, state higher education agencies are often skilled at measuring workforce needs across the state and understanding where public higher education is most needed at a broader level. These are only two examples of possible collaboration between Extension and statewide higher education agencies. Other possibilities related to funding, organization, and outcomes measurement could also be imagined.

In sum, as an integral part of land-grant universities, Extension is also part of states’ higher education assets. In fact, it is the most widely distributed one. While there have historically been several degrees of separation between statewide higher education planning and Extension, meeting the community and workforce development needs of many rural communities will demand creative and collaborative thinking. Extension, as a decades-old, service-oriented effort, could be a key part in driving higher education’s impact in rural communities across the nation.