During the pandemic, Congress appropriated more than $25 billion in Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) Funds to help community colleges and their students. How did colleges use these funds? What were the results of their spending and associated efforts? What remaining needs do they have, if any? The ARCC Network’s Survey of Pandemic Relief Spending and Recovery Strategies seeks to answer these questions.
Dual enrollment students, or "stealth transfer students," and their pathway are becoming increasingly hard to ignore. Aurely Garcia Tulloch explains the issues this raises for both two- and four-year institutions and how the transfer pathway could be better leveraged for increasing college access and equity in a new blog post originally published by Inside Higher Ed.
Maria S. Cormier, Ariel Deutsch, and Betsy L. Tessler explore two Virginia Community College System programs for helping adults earn credentials that improve their labor market prospects and provide on-ramps to further education: FastForward and Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead (G3).
What do students consider important for creating a sense of welcome and belonging at college? Susan Bickerstaff, Selena Cho, Elisabeth A. Barnett, and Andrea Lopez Salazar spoke with students and found that relatively simple actions by faculty and staff can make a big difference.
As dual enrollment participation has expanded, so too have the types of programs and courses offered. Lauren Schudde and Wonsun Ryu discuss how differences in course set up have the potential to shape students’ dual enrollment experiences and overall course performance, as well as their subsequent college enrollment decisions.
Chet Jordan of Greenfield Community College explores the College's guided pathways reforms and discusses how they have evolved since CCRC's Guided Pathways Summer Institute.
Students are told that enrolling in a community college is an affordable onramp to a bachelor’s degree. But in reality, only a small percentage of students transfer and graduate. To fix the problem, experts first have to know what’s causing it. Alex Anacki and Jessica Steiger address the current lack of available transfer data.
Dr. Karen Mayo reflects on the 2022 Guided Pathways Summer Institute, sharing how Bluegrass Community and Technical College has since worked to implement pathways reforms and how their efforts have evolved.
Recent data suggest that students are returning to community colleges, though total numbers are well below pre-pandemic levels. Davis Jenkins explores the causes of enrollment declines in recent decades and examines ways colleges can build on successful reforms to improve student outcomes.
Earning college credit in high school enables more students—especially those historically underrepresented in higher education—to pursue college after high school. However, many students who stand to benefit the most from these opportunities often have limited access to them. Jessica Steiger breaks down a new CCRC brief that examines the potential of five different models to help underrepresented students enter college degree programs in high-opportunity fields.
