In the September 2, 2009 edition of Education Week, reporter Debra Viadero investigates whether or not research on community colleges indicates that President Obama’s plan to increase graduation rates will be effective.

According to the article:

…Researchers and federal policymakers have long neglected community colleges, focusing instead on improving K-12 education, said Thomas Bailey, the director of the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University.

“Up until 10 years ago, people thought our higher education system was the best in the world,” he said. But as recent studies have begun to show the United States falling behind some other developed nations in producing college graduates, he added, “people have begun to realize that, yes, while we have a lot of students coming from around the world to attend our Ivy League and flagship schools, our typical institutions don’t seem to be doing so well.”

That realization has prompted a number of national foundations, including the Lumina Foundation, of Indianapolis, the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, in Stanford, Calif., to invest millions of dollars over the past five years in new initiatives and new research aimed at improving community colleges.

--The full-length article in Education Week can be found at http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/09/02/02comcolleges_ep.h29.html?r=93403117 (subscription may be required).

--Learn more about CCRC’s research with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation for Education.