There is no simple recipe for developing an equitable, effective community college funding system. But understanding the challenges facing community colleges and the finance systems that underpin them can help policymakers, educators, and advocates develop new funding approaches. Kate Shaw, Lauren Asher, and Stephanie Murphy share findings from their latest report, Mapping Community College Finance Systems to Develop Equitable and Effective Finance Policy.
Jessie Steiger has always understood the power of transitions. From her own turbulent transition into high school to the challenges she faced as a transfer student at Penn State, the CCRC senior research assistant and PEAR fellow says the times she spent in flux tuned her in to the ways the education system is stacked against some students.
While community college practice has changed considerably in recent decades, workforce and economic development programs remain stagnant. Jim Jacobs reflects on how community colleges might update the way they work with employers to ensure equity remains a central goal of workforce programs.
While commentary on the dire state of the humanities in higher education continues, the role that community colleges might play in helping put students on the humanities track has been largely overlooked. How might community colleges strengthen their humanities offerings, and working with their four-year partners, better propel more of their students to successful transfer in the humanities?
Many community colleges offer dual enrollment courses at a lower tuition rate than is paid by post-high school students. But—as dual enrollment students have come to comprise a larger share of community college enrollments—can colleges afford to continue offering these courses at a discount? Clive Belfield, Davis Jenkins, and John Fink consider how community colleges can structure their programs to be more efficient and financially sustainable.
CCRC has been awarded $7 million to support five projects that will allow the center to build on current research, expand into new areas, and share our knowledge with the field.
Three new members are joining CCRC’s National Advisory Board, bringing fresh perspectives to the 12-member body and bolstering the center’s already strong connections with community college educators and other leaders in the field.
Former research intern Hamnah Malik breaks down the potential benefits and drawbacks of the quarter system and discusses how a similar system of mini-semesters at community colleges could facilitate learning and promote student success.
For the first time following the pandemic, we can examine detailed state- and college-level enrollment trends by age group using the latest federal data. Senior Research Associate and Program Lead John Fink examines these numbers and offers three major takeaways on how community college enrollment changed during the pandemic.
This year, loosened social distancing measures allowed a number of opportunities for us to reconnect—a welcomed change from recent years. As 2022 comes to a close, we look back on a year of accomplishments by CCRC colleagues and celebrate their efforts to make a college education more accessible, equitable, and rewarding for students.
Complete College America (CCA) has long been a leading voice in the push for colleges to adopt corequisite support, arguing that the evidence that coreq helps students was strong even when cautious researchers wanted to see more.
In this blog post, Christopher Quarles, a former community college teacher and current PhD candidate at the University of Michigan School of Information, shares findings from his recently published study on student capital, which he defines as the cumulative effect of all factors that account for student success.
The Institute of Education Sciences has selected CCRC to lead the Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges Network (ARCC Network), which will include research teams from across the country that will study recovery strategies such as enhanced financial aid, innovative workforce programs, improved online and hybrid education, and new course formats.
In the webinar Helping Black, Latinx, and Limited-Income Students at High-Performing iPASS Colleges: An Exploration of Support Practices, which took place September 20, 2022, CCRC Senior Research Associate Hoori Santikian Kalamkarian and Research Associate Andrea Lopez Salazar discussed their research at five colleges with some improvements in outcomes among these student groups.
Much is unknown about the nature of first-generation students' personal networks, but a new CCRC study is changing that. CCRC Senior Research Assistant and PEAR Fellow Melissa Herman and Senior Research Associate Hoori Santikian Kalamkarian discuss the impetus for the study and share some preliminary findings in this blog post.
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Explore trends in community college outcomes with our interactive data visualizations.
