Too little attention has been given to how colleges, and in particular community colleges, may influence the number of students who enter the teaching profession. Using administrative data from the City University of New York (CUNY), this brief explores the role that the seven CUNY community colleges play in contributing to CUNY degrees awarded in education, especially in critical shortage areas such as bilingual education and STEM education. The author measures the community college contribution to education degree production in terms of both students whose initial enrollment was at a community college and students who ever enrolled at a community college. The results show that community colleges play a key role in degree production in education: 39% of CUNY students who earn a bachelor’s degree in education and 15% of students who earn a master’s degree in education started at a CUNY community college.
The brief also discusses measures CUNY has taken to support student transfer between two- and four-year colleges, highlighting the creation of transfer course articulation for education coursework as a means to improve the transfer experience for community college students interested in pursuing programs and careers in education. The brief concludes by considering how policies adopted in systems and states nationwide could improve access to high-quality teacher preparation programs at four-year colleges and increase support for community college students interested in careers as teachers.