Publications
Developmental Education: An Introduction for Policymakers
This ECS/CAPR brief discusses the importance of and challenges surrounding developmental education and suggests ways in which policymakers can address these challenges.
Using Data Mining to Explore Why Community College Transfer Students Earn Bachelor’s Degrees With Excess Credits
This CCRC working paper uses data-mining techniques to analyze student transcripts from two states and identify variables associated with excess credits among bachelor’s degree completers who started at a community college.
The Looming Student Loan Crisis Is Worse Than We Thought
In this Brookings report, the author analyzes new data on student debt and repayment released by the U.S. Department of Education in October 2017. The author then provides five key findings based on this analysis.
How States Are Implementing Transition Curricula: Results From a National Scan
This brief describes the availability of transition courses across the country and offers insights into curricular design and goals, subject-area focus, how students are selected to participate, and whether completion of transition curricula guarantees placement into college-level courses.
Tackling Transfer: A Guide to Convening Community Colleges and Universities to Improve Transfer Student Outcomes
This guide aims to help state entities organize workshops for two- and four-year institutions to improve transfer and graduation outcomes for their students through data analysis and self-reflection of institutional practices and the development of action plans.
Can High School Transition Courses Help Students Avoid College Remediation? Estimating the Impact of a Transition Program in a Large Urban District
This paper examines the impact of one transition course model, the At Home in College program, offered to selected high school students in New York City by the City University of New York (CUNY).
How Effective Are Community College Remedial Math Courses for Students With the Lowest Math Skills?
This article examines a study on the effectiveness of remediation for community college students who are identified as having the lowest skills in math using transcript data from a state community college system.
How to Measure Community College Effectiveness in Serving Transfer Students
This guide provides instructions for community colleges that want to use National Student Clearinghouse data to assess their own effectiveness and that of particular transfer partnerships in helping students to transfer and complete bachelor’s degrees.
Reforming the American Community College: Promising Changes and Their Challenges
This paper discusses the organization, roles, and contributions of community colleges, and it analyzes reforms that have been proposed and enacted to meet ongoing challenges.
Stackable Credentials: Do They Have Labor Market Value?
Using national, survey, and college-system-level datasets, this paper estimates the association between stackable credentials and earnings, finding weakly positive and inconsistent gains from these award combinations.
Takes Two to Tango: Essential Practices of Highly Effective Transfer Partnerships
This journal article offers a set of essential transfer practices culled from national fieldwork to two- and four-year institutional transfer partnerships identified using NSC data as highly effective in supporting transfer student success.
Building Transfer Student Success at Macomb Community College: A Report on Transfer and Degree Completion
Using student data, this report provides information on the outcomes of students who attended Macomb Community College and then transferred to one of 14 four-year destination colleges.
Thinking “Beyond the Box”: The Use of Criminal Records in College Admissions
In this Brookings report, the author examines the policy landscape and reviews available evidence to assess the potential benefits and costs of thinking beyond the box in college admissions. The author then offers six key findings that have emerged from this review.
What Happens to Students Who Take Community College "Dual Enrollment" Courses in High School?
This report uses student enrollment and degree records from the National Student Clearinghouse to examine who enrolls in community college dual enrollment courses and what happens to them after high school.
Simplifying and Modernizing Pell Grants to Maximize Efficiency and Impact
With the goal of informing federal higher education policy decisions, this brief for the Urban Institute suggests federal student aid reform that simplifies the eligibility and application process.
Building Blocks: Laying the Groundwork for Guided Pathways Reform in Ohio
This report describes how Ohio’s two-year colleges are approaching guided pathways reforms, focusing on innovations they have implemented in recent years that can serve as building blocks as they seek to transform their policies, practices, and culture following the guided pathways model.
Redesigning Advising and Student Support: Tools for Practitioners
This set of tools aims to help community colleges and broad-access four-year colleges assess their work on technology-mediated advising and student support, sometimes referred to as Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success (iPASS).
College Placement Strategies: Evolving Considerations and Practices
This CAPR working paper provides an overview of the history of college placement testing, with a focus on nonselective colleges. The authors discuss the limitations of placement tests, the consequences of placement errors, and the movement toward changing systems of placement; a typology of approaches to assessment and placement is also described.
From “Additive” to “Integrative”: Experiences of Faculty Teaching Developmental Integrated Reading and Writing Courses
Using interview, focus group, and case study data, this paper documents the perceptions and experiences of faculty members in the midst of statewide reform efforts in Virginia and North Carolina to integrate developmental reading and writing courses.
Understanding American Honors: Student Selection, Key Program Components, and Stakeholder Impressions
Based on a mixed-methods study at six colleges, this brief examines the domestic population served by American Honors; its key programmatic features; and community college student, faculty, and staff perspectives on the program.