A Year in Review: Major Events and Milestones for CCRC in 2022

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. Read on to learn about some of this year’s highlights.

CCRC Leads Research Network on Pandemic Recovery

In response to the critical need to combat community college enrollment drops and learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Institute of Education Sciences named CCRC as a lead partner for the Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges Network, or ARCC Network, a collaboration of several research teams studying promising recovery strategies.

“There is deep concern about the steep drop in enrollment at community colleges, particularly among Black and Indigenous students,” said Tom Brock, the director of CCRC and the principal investigator of the new network. “The goal of the network is to identify strategies that community colleges can use to bring students back, support their learning, and ensure they can succeed in the rapidly evolving post-pandemic economy.”

Over the three years of the project, the network will focus on the groups most affected by the pandemic at community colleges, including students of color, low-income students, first-generation students, and adult students.

Guided Pathways Summer Institute Returns for Second Year

This year’s Guided Pathways Summer Institute united 24 colleges across 18 states to learn about whole-college reform in the interest of promoting equity and upward mobility for students. In June and July, teams of faculty, staff, and administrators were led through exercises designed to encourage exploration of institutional data on student enrollment, coursetaking, and completion and to plan innovations to their colleges' new student onboarding practices. By the end of the two-week online institute, participants were better positioned to design and implement data-informed reforms to support students' diverse needs and educational and career goals.

CCRC Launches Redesigned Website

We launched a redesigned website in March that put a sharper focus on our major research areas and made it easier to sort through our ever-growing list of publications. Pages on guided pathways, the high school to college transition, developmental education, teaching and learning, workforce education, and advising and student support lay out what we’ve learned from our research and questions we’re still seeking answers to.

Judith Scott-Clayton Appointed Senior Economist at White House Council of Economic Advisers

Judith Scott-Clayton, a professor in the Teachers College Economics and Education Program and a senior research scholar at CCRC, began a one-year term as a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in September. An agency within the Executive Office of the President, the council serves the president by providing objective economic analysis to inform policymaking in the executive branch. Scott-Clayton said the appointment is an honor and that using her skills to support good public policy in the nation’s capital is a lifelong dream.

Teachers College Welcomes Second Cohort of PEAR Fellows

The second cohort of Postsecondary Education Applied Research (PEAR) fellows began at Teachers College this fall. The PEAR Fellowship provides doctoral students with training in advanced quantitative analysis and the practical skills needed for a career in applied research in postsecondary education. This year’s cohort includes Mycaeri Atkinson, Erin Huffer, Tia Monahan, and Jessica Steiger.

Applications for the third cohort closed on December 1. PEAR fellows in the third cohort will begin their training in fall 2023.

CCRC Congratulates 2022 Graduates

Eight CCRC researchers earned their graduate degrees this year:

Nicole Cennamo, master’s in Politics and Education
Cameron Diwa, master’s in Sociology and Education
Serena C. Klempin, PhD in Sociology and Education
Teresita Martinez, master’s in Economics and Education
Theo Pippins, PhD in Economics and Education
Tucker Reyes, master’s in Sociology and Education
Tatiana Velasco Rodriguez, PhD in Economics and Education
Rachel Zhou, PhD in Economics and Education

Congratulations on all your hard work, and we wish you much success in your next steps!

CCRC Publishes Popular Reports

This year, CCRC released 21 reports, briefs, and other publications, on top of 27 blog posts. Some highlights from the year include fact sheets on STEM pathways and the public funding of community colleges as well as publications on:

• funding guided pathways reforms at small colleges
• helping students gain momentum through the Ask-Connect-Inspire-Plan framework
• how nonacademic staff can create a caring environment on campus
• what developmental education reforms are most effective for students
• how changes in developmental placement can promote equitable access to college-level courses
• what community colleges are doing to adapt workforce programs to changing skill demands.

From all of us at CCRC, we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season and look forward to seeing you next year!