October 13, 2021

The Effects of COVID on Community Colleges and Students

Community colleges have adapted significantly throughout the course of the pandemic, shifting to online programming, attempting to counteract enrollment slides, and more. CCRC Director Tom Brock described these changes in Affordable Colleges Online, explaining how the two-year sector has changed in the last 18 months and what he thinks may be ahead for community colleges.

October 08, 2021

‘Demographics Are Not Destiny’

A new Brookings report found that community college students enrolled in programs with more underrepresented students earn less and struggle to pay back their student loans. In light of these findings, CCRC Senior Research Scholar Davis Jenkins told Inside Higher Ed that many colleges have programs that lead to well-paying jobs—it's just a matter of steering students toward them.

October 04, 2021

More Community Colleges Are Mandating Coronavirus Vaccination

Community colleges in Maryland are increasingly imposing vaccine requirements on faculty, staff, and students, but their counterparts in Virginia have instead opted to encourage rather than require the COVID-19 shots. CCRC Senior Research Scholar Davis Jenkins told The Washington Post that community colleges tend to avoid appearing partisan, noting that the open-access institutions are still recovering from pandemic-related enrollment declines and therefore may not want to impose additional barriers like vaccine requirements on prospective students.

October 02, 2021

Student Enrollment at Arizona's Community Colleges Continues to Fall

Arizona community colleges are still seeing enrollment number drop more than 18 months into the pandemic. CCRC Director Tom Brock told AZ Central that one explanation for the declines is that the virus has disproportionately affected populations that community colleges serve.

September 20, 2021

Reynolds Community College Works to Re-enroll Lost Students

Officials at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, a Virginia college where enrollment has dropped by 20% since the start of the pandemic, are considering new approaches to bring students back into the classroom. CCRC Senior Research Scholar Elisabeth Barnett told The Henrico Citizen that there several reasons for the national decline in community college enrollment, including that students' lives are complicated and that online learning may not offer them as great a value.

September 01, 2021

Households With Kids See Continued Educational Hurdles as Pandemic Drags On

Census survey data reveals that a significant number of American students in every region of the United States changed their postsecondary plans as a result of the pandemic. CCRC Director Thomas Brock, who analyzed similar census data last year, told Education Week that although he's less optimistic than he was before the onset of the Delta variant, he still believes the community college sector's worst pandemic days have passed.

August 31, 2021

‘A Red Flag’ on Transfers

Racial inequities plague upward transfer enrollment, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center that also found that colleges and universities lost nearly 200,000 transfer students from July 2020 to June 2021. CCRC Senior Research Associate John Fink told Inside Higher Ed that the upward transfer rate, which remained relatively steady during the last year, is still too low.

August 06, 2021

Community College Bachelor’s Degrees Help Achieve Access and Equity

Community college students often transfer with a significant number of excess credits. CCRC Director Thomas Brock told Diverse: Issues in Higher Education that one of the benefits of earning a baccalaureate degree from a community college is that students can avoid retaking classes after transferring to a four-year institution.

August 05, 2021

Biden's Free Community College Plan Won't Succeed Without Robust Transfer Strategies

In this Education Dive op-ed, the Aspen Institute's Gelsey Mehl cites CCRC research on improving transfer student outcomes to argue that free community college programs are most effective when educators and lawmakers ensure students can transfer their free credits to earn a bachelor's degree. Mehl is a coauthor of The Dual Enrollment Playbook, a 2020 joint publication between CCRC and the Aspen Institute.

July 30, 2021

How Tennessee Schools Are Helping Aspiring Barbers With High Debt Kickstart Their Careers

Many aspiring barbers and cosmetologists in Tennessee struggle under the weight of student loan debt accumulated during their training. CCRC Senior Research Scholar Judith Scott-Clayton told Commercial Appeal that policy proposals to forgive even modest amounts of student debt would go a long way because many people who fall behind on their loan payments owe less than $10,000.