The Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges Network, or ARCC Network, is studying strategies that community colleges are using to combat enrollment drops, learning loss, and other negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The network is working closely with community colleges and college systems to identify and evaluate programs and policies designed to bring students back to college and accelerate their academic progress.
CCRC is partnering with the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center and Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research at the University of California, Davis to lead the network and conduct national research on enrollment and transfer trends, pandemic recovery strategies, and unmet needs. The network, which is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences at the Department of Education, also includes independent research teams investigating recovery efforts such as enhanced financial aid, innovative workforce programs, improved online and hybrid education, and new course formats in California and Virginia.
The network lead coordinates the independent research teams so the research has the broadest possible benefit for community colleges and their students.
As part of the network lead team, the Clearinghouse issued two annual reports, with subgroup trends, on student enrollment and transfer. The network lead team also analyzed how community colleges spent the Higher Education Emergency Relief funds appropriated by Congress in several COVID relief packages. And it conducted a survey of community colleges in six states—California, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas—to gain deeper insight into the specific pandemic recovery initiatives they put in place, the student groups who were targeted, and the issues that still need to be addressed.
The network is focusing on the groups most affected by the pandemic at community colleges, including students of color, low-income students, first-generation students, and adult students.
To learn more about the research projects in the network, visit the ARCC Network website.
This project is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305X220022 to Teachers College, Columbia University.