Research Projects

July 2023–December 2024

Working with Complete College America, CCRC researchers will identify colleges closing equity gaps between students of color and their peers. This project is intended to highlight opportunities to integrate student success reforms with culturally sustaining offerings.

September 2022–August 2026

In this project, researchers will use a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate whether a cost-of-living grant for low-income community college students increases college retention and completion.

September 2023–December 2024

To build a sustainable future, community colleges are aligning training programs to the opportunities and demands of a green economy. However, research has yet to document the actions community colleges are taking nationally to prepare students for jobs in the green economy

September 2023–August 2025

Working with Dr. Lauren Schudde and her team at the University of Texas at Austin, CCRC researchers are examining which types of dual enrollment deliver the strongest educational and economic returns, in which states dual enrollment is more effective, and opportunities for greater impact.

January 2023–December 2024

This project explores the backgrounds and goals of adult education ESL students and the barriers they face navigating long ESL course sequences and complicated performance requirements. It will also examine how City College Chicago campuses are reforming ESL, how federal and state policy related to ESL courses is helping or hindering student outcomes, and the perspectives of adult education ESL instructors.

January 2023–December 2025

Using surveys and interviews with students, faculty, and staff, as well as
administrative data, this project will explore students’ decision-making about programs of study and what perceptions they have about these programs over the course of their college careers.

June 2023–September 2024

This study will identify what topics colleges most want to learn about and what they see as their most pressing challenges. The findings will be used to make recommendations regarding what applied research organizations, intermediaries, technical assistance providers, and funders can do to design and implement applied learning activities that will do a better job of attracting and addressing the needs of underserved colleges.

September 2022–August 2024

In this project, CCRC will partner with the Aspen Institute and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) to update two influential publications on transfer but with a more central focus on improving equity in bachelor’s degree attainment among community college transfer students.

September 2022–August 2025

CCRC is partnering with the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) and the University of Pennsylvania to examine and improve Get A Skill, Get A Job, Get Ahead (G3), VCCS’s pandemic workforce recovery initiative.

September 2022–August 2025

The Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges Network (ARCC Network) is studying strategies that community colleges are using to combat enrollment drops, learning loss, and other negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the three years of the project, the network will work closely with community colleges and college systems to identify and evaluate programs and policies designed to bring students back to college and accelerate their academic progress.

June 2022–November 2025

In this project, CCRC and the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program will collaborate with 10 community colleges or districts to improve their students’ post-college outcomes.

January 2022–January 2027

The Regional Education Laboratory (REL) Northwest, led by WestEd, is creating a toolkit to facilitate the adoption of the recommendations in a practice guide on technology and postsecondary instruction from the Institute of Education Sciences at the Department of Education. In this project, CCRC will evaluate a professional learning component of the toolkit.

January 2022–December 2023

In this two-year project, CCRC will develop additional guidance for state policymakers on how they can support the scaling of dual enrollment equity pathways (DEEP) practices across their states.

August 2021–December 2024

This project will examine community college funding policy and institutional resources allocation in Texas, California, and Ohio.

July 2021–June 2026

The Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative works with students, faculty, technology developers, and other researchers to improve our knowledge of how college and university instructors can effectively use technology to help students develop self-directed learning skills in online courses.

September 2021–August 2024

In this project, CCRC will work in Florida and Texas to expand efforts by community colleges and their K-12 partners to extend equity-focused guided pathways practices to dual enrollment students from underserved groups.

July 2021–June 2024

In this mixed-methods project, researchers will describe the support networks and help-seeking preferences and behaviors of first-generation students at four public colleges in California.

November 2020–October 2022

This project will address the need for targeted efforts to support Black, Latinx, and low-income students and close achievement gaps.

January 2021–March 2023

In this project, CCRC is using a mixed-methods design to examine how community colleges promote and facilitate enrollment, persistence, and transfer in humanities fields.

June 2019–July 2020

CCRC is developing two tools to help colleges identify equity gaps at the program level and to reflect on current policies and practices that may be contributing to inequitable outcomes and seek to change them.

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