The March 28, 2008 issue of Community College Times features a special article on the Ford Foundation’s ambitious Bridges to Opportunity initiative. Written by reporter Garry Boulard, the article includes commentary on the success of the initiative. CCRC Senior Research Associate Davis Jenkins states:

"It has been a very wide-ranging effort from the start, and it has also been successful from the start,” said Davis Jenkins, a senior research associate at the Community College Research Center at Columbia University (New York), who tracks Bridges to Opportunities projects.

The program essentially tests a theory that community colleges are well-situated to serve low-income students because of the institutions’ missions—they offer remediation, which many low-skilled, low-income adults need, and they also offer programs that lead toward certificates, degrees and jobs, Jenkins said.

But many colleges don’t link such programs, which makes it hard for students to work toward a degree, he said.

“There are linkage points and there are barriers that these students run up against as they try to go from remediation or adult literacy to a college-level program. So the idea has been to bring about changes in policy to facilitate more coherent pathways for students,” Jenkins said.

--The full-length Community College Times article is available at http://www.communitycollegetimes.com/article.cfm?TopicId=6&ArticleId=864 (subscription may be required to access)

Further information:

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Visit the official web site for the Ford Foundation’s Bridges to Opportunity Initiative

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Learn more about CCRC's Bridges to Opportunity research