Our nation is urgently trying to increase the number of college graduates it produces, and community colleges are under enormous pressure to contribute to this growth. In Redesigning America’s Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success, Thomas Bailey, Shanna Smith Jaggars, and Davis Jenkins argue that to substantially increase student completion, community colleges must engage in fundamental redesign.
Synthesizing findings from CCRC’s intensive study of community colleges over the past eight years, Bailey, Jaggars, and Jenkins argue that improving developmental education, instruction, student supports, and the overall student experience is necessary but not sufficient; targeted reforms must be implemented as part of a broader institutional restructuring.
The authors delineate a set of research-based design principles and strategies to help colleges achieve this challenging goal, and lay out a path for community colleges working to achieve greater success for their students, and for our nation as a whole.
The authors discussed the book at a panel event on May 14, 2015 in Washington, DC. A recording of the event is available below.
Thomas Bailey was also interviewed about the book on WNYC’s Leonard Lopate Show on July 8, 2015. A recording of the discussion is available on WNYC’s website.