As we approach the end of the year, we’re taking time to celebrate our colleagues’ accomplishments and the ways they’ve furthered our mission to improve community colleges in 2025.
While sweeping changes to the federal landscape of higher education have posed new obstacles for community colleges across the country, we remain committed to providing colleges, educators, and policymakers with evidence they need to make decisions that promote student success.
Before we dive into the new year—which will mark 30 years since the founding of CCRC—here’s a look at 2025:
New Book Explores the Next Frontiers of Guided Pathways
In August, CCRC released a new book, More Essential Than Ever: Community College Pathways to Educational and Career Success, which brings together what we’ve learned about guided pathways reform over the last decade and explores the most innovative practices colleges are now adopting to help their students succeed. The authors provide guidance for community colleges, sharing practical ways to improve student persistence and post-completion success at a time when the value of higher education is in question. The book is an update to CCRC’s 2015 book, Redesigning America’s Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success.
Ascendium Awards Major Grant for Four New and Continuing Projects
In October, Ascendium Education Group awarded CCRC a $10 million grant to support four new projects over the next four years.
The new projects will study and support the implementation of next-frontier guided pathways innovations, look at how students’ program and career choices evolve over time, investigate college scheduling practices and how colleges can ensure that students have access to the classes they need to graduate on time, and support a partnership with Washington State to strengthen pathways for English learners. Several of the projects build on existing research funded by a previous Ascendium grant.
Federal Shifts Affect CCRC Funding
In March, four of CCRC’s grants from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education were terminated, leaving large gaps in project funding. The grants were part of the $400 million in research support to Columbia University that were cancelled amid federal investigations into the university. They funded CCRC work that measured the effects of the Federal Work-Study program, investigated the efficacy of the G3 last-dollar workforce scholarship program in Virginia, examined pandemic recovery at community colleges, and supported the Postsecondary Education Applied Research (PEAR) training fellowship program at Teachers College.
Though most Columbia grants were restored after the university settled with the federal government, grants from the Education Department were not reinstated. But foundations stepped up with grants to allow the completion of two of the research projects. Lumina Foundation awarded last-mile funding for the project investigating the G3 scholarship program, and Strada Education Foundation awarded funds to complete the six-year evaluation of the Federal Work-Study program.
“We are now pivoting to an environment in which we rely primarily on foundations to advance our mission: to conduct research that strengthens the nation’s community colleges and leads to measurable improvements in student outcomes, including credential attainment, employment, and earnings,” CCRC Director Tom Brock wrote in a blog on the loss of the grant funding.
Fellows From First PEAR Cohort Awarded Education Sciences Certificates
The first group of PhD students being trained for careers in higher education research through a joint project between CCRC and Teachers College earned their Education Sciences Certificates, a major milestone in their graduate studies. Astrid Pineda, Taylor Myers, and Melissa Herman completed the requirements of the Postsecondary Education Applied Research (PEAR) Fellowship and were awarded their certificates in June.
The PEAR Fellowship is a training program for doctoral students that couples rigorous coursework with hands-on training in quantitative analysis to build skills that prepare students for a career in applied research. The certificate recognizes the completion of PEAR Fellowship curriculum requirements, including defense of their dissertation proposal and research and practice/policy apprenticeship components.
Research Highlights Student Voices
Numbers are essential when it comes to research, but so are the voices those numbers represent. CCRC worked to keep student experiences at the center of our work this year through interviews, internships, and the launch of a dual enrollment student advisory panel.
Interviews. The Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative, a joint research project led by SRI Education, Achieving the Dream, and CCRC, is developing approaches instructors can use to keep students engaged in online learning and to get them thinking about strategies for their own process of learning. A series of interviews, summarized on CCRC’s blog, shed light on what students find valuable about these strategies and what challenges they face in online courses.
Internships. Two interns joined CCRC this summer to learn more about higher education, research, and communications. Helen Kim, a student in paralegal studies at CUNY’s LaGuardia Community College, contributed a blog post about her experiences as a community college student and ways colleges can design courses and programs that work with more students’ busy schedules. Melissa Cruz Duque, an economics and public administration student at CUNY’s John Jay College, wrote about two pathways for English learners in CUNY: the intensive English Language Immersion Program (CLIP) and traditional academic ESL courses.
Dual enrollment student advisory panel. To make sure their research stays rooted in the student experience, CCRC’s dual enrollment team launched a student advisory panel, dubbed the “Dual Enrollment Squad.” Eleven current and former dual enrollment students from nine states make up the panel. The students have a wide range of dual enrollment experience—from taking one or two courses, to earning an associate degree in high school.
Over the next year, they will provide CCRC’s researchers with feedback, co-present at conferences, and contribute blog posts and other content to CCRC’s website and affiliated Instagram and LinkedIn accounts (@DualEnrollmentSquad). Stay tuned in the new year for more from the Dual Enrollment Squad!
CCRC Researchers Earn Advanced Degrees
This year, five CCRC researchers earned advanced degrees from Teachers College:
Cindy Do graduated with a master’s in education policy; Shakira Henry earned her master’s in economics and education; Nicole Mora was awarded her master’s in sociology and education; Astrid Pineda earned her PhD in economics and education; and Zaakirah Rahman graduated with her master’s in education policy.
Congratulations to this year’s graduates!
More Noteworthy Moments
Major reports. CCRC released multiple reports with findings that caught the attention of press, college leaders, faculty, and policymakers, including:
- The Transfer Playbook (Second Edition): A Practical Guide for Achieving Excellence in Transfer and Bachelor’s Attainment for Community College Students
- Promising Combinations of Dual Enrollment, AP/IB, and CTE: The College and Earnings Trajectories of Texas High School Students Who Take Accelerated Coursework
- Why Did They Leave? Learning From the Experiences of Former Community College Students
New data tools. CCRC also posted innovative data tools, including:
- Advanced Infrastructure, Energy, and Agriculture (AIREA) Jobs Data Explorer
- High School Dual Enrollment Growth
- Community College Awards and Earnings Tracker
Biennial report. The 2024-26 Biennial Report describes achievements and new directions for CCRC.
Webinars. CCRC hosted six webinars this year, with more than 2,700 total registrants.
- Video: Webinar Explores How Students Choose a Program of Study
- Video: Students Share Their Perspectives on Redesigning Dual Enrollment Supports in Webinar
- Video: Webinar Shares Tool to Understand Community College Alignment With Labor Markets in Advanced Infrastructure and Energy Sectors
- Video: Webinar Shares Next Frontier Strategies for Strengthening Guided Pathways
- Video: Webinar Highlights Latest Data and Guidance on Transfer
- Video: Webinar Explores Scaling of Corequisite Reforms in Three Community College Systems
From all of us here at CCRC, have a safe and warm holiday season—we look forward to connecting with you in the new year!
