DREAM 2026

DREAM 2026

March 2-

5, 2026

Portland, OR

Register

Supporting Student Success in Online Courses: A Model for Self-Directed Learning

March 3, 2026, 10:30—11:30 a.m.

How can online college courses better support student motivation, engagement, and help-seeking behaviors? Hosted by the Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative, this session will explore student experiences in online courses and the role that self-directed learning (SDL) can play in promoting student success. Presenters will share and reflect on key findings from the iterative development and testing of an SDL Instructional Model—a set of low-lift practical strategies to enhance learning and engagement online—across five broad-access colleges and universities. College administrators, instructors, and students will also share their first-hand experiences using the model. Attendees will receive instructor resources for integrating the model’s strategies into online courses, as well as a strategic guide for campus instructional leaders to develop a plan for broader adoption.
 
Presenters

Susan Bickerstaff, Senior Research Associate, CCRC

Jessica Mislevy, Senior Researcher, SRI

Brian Jones, Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness, Odessa College

Nikki Handley, Developmental Math Coordinator & Instructor, Odessa College

Ariela Lange, Associate Professor, Developmental Mathematics, Odessa College 

Cheyenne Natividad, Student, Odessa College

Neyeli Dominguez, Student, Odessa College

Presidents Colloquium: Accelerating Evidence-Based Reform: From Research to Practice in Community College Transformation

March 3, 2026, 11:45 a.m.—2:30 p.m.

Community colleges have made significant progress removing barriers to completion, yet too many students are still being lost while reform efforts take five to seven years per institution. This colloquium brings together research and practice to accelerate transformation. Drawing on CCRC’s groundbreaking study More Essential Than Ever: Community College Pathways to Educational and Career Success, presidents will explore five research-based frontiers for strengthening pathways to post-completion success: ensuring programs lead to good jobs and further education, developing versatile learners, redesigning recruitment and onboarding, enabling on-time completion, and rethinking dual enrollment. The session connects workforce development imperatives with evidence-based strategies that can be implemented at scale to improve outcomes for the students and the communities served.
 
Presenters

Hana Lahr, Assistant Director of Research, Director of Applied Learning, CCRC

Karen Stout, President and CEO, Achieving the Dream

Meghan Hughes, Senior Vice President; Workforce Development, Arts & Heritage Executive, Bank of America

Davis Jenkins, Senior Research Scholar, Community College Research Center 

Guided Pathways: More Essential Than Ever

March 4, 2026, 2:45—3:45 PM

In this session, presenters will discuss key insights from CCRC’s latest book, More Essential Than Ever: Community College Pathways to Educational and Career Success. These insights will invite attendees to connect their guided pathways experience with promising new practices that meet the sector’s growing emphasis on post-completion success and the introduction of new accountability measures.

 
Presenters

Hana Lahr, Assistant Director of Research, Director of Applied Learning, CCRC

Sue Cui, Senior Program Officer, Education Philanthropy,
Ascendium Education Group
 
Nate Simpson, Senior Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Spotlight Session: More Essential Than Ever: Helping Every Student Make a Career-Connected Educational Plan

March 3, 2026, 3:45—4:45 PM

This session will take a deep dive into a frontier for further innovation examined in CCRC’s new book, More Essential Than Ever: Community College Pathways to Education and Career Success. If colleges are to fulfill their critical roles in advancing upward mobility and community vibrancy, they need to help all students choose and plan a program of study that will prepare them for a good job and further education. With all students on a plan, colleges can schedule the courses students need when they need them and thus ensure students complete in as little time and cost as possible. CCRC researchers will present new findings on how community college students chose a program of study. Student success leaders from a large and small college featured as case studies in CCRC’s book will discuss how they help students make plans aligned with their career interests and aspirations and ongoing efforts to further strengthen program selection, planning and completion supports.

 
Presenters

Hana Lahr, Assistant Director of Research, Director of Applied Learning, CCRC

Davis Jenkins,
Senior Research Scholar, CCRC
 
Kellie Ziemak, Executive Director of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, St. Petersburg College
 
Holly Clendenen, Chief Student Services Officer, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College

College Business Models for Scaling Purposeful Dual Enrollment Without Passing on Costs to Students

March 5, 2026, 9:00—10:00 a.m. 

This session will share new research from CCRC describing how community colleges and their K-12 partners are finding ways to allocate, align, and sustain the resources needed to scale dual enrollment equity pathways (DEEP)—a model of purposeful dual enrollment designed to expand college and career opportunity particularly for students from underserved high schools. Presenters will summarize research from interviews with a dozen colleges nationally to share innovative strategies colleges are using to make DEEP accessible and affordable without shifting the burden onto students and families. Attendees will also hear directly from practitioners in different state funding contexts about how they are managing costs as dual enrollment expands. Finally, attendees will explore suggested activities for assessing and optimizing their own business model for dual enrollment using an accompanying inquiry guide.
 
Presenters

Sarah Griffin, Research Associate, CCRC

Davis Jenkins, Senior Research Scholar, CCRC

Christopher Conzen, Executive Director, Secaucus Center and Early College Program, Hudson County Community College

Tony De La Cruz, Associate Dean for Dual Credit Programs, South Texas College

Pell Away from the Cutoffs: A Simulated Instrument Approach to Estimating the Effects of the Pell Grant from Changes in Formula Generosity Over Time

March 21, 2026, 10:00-11:30 a.m. 

TBA
 
Presenters

CJ Libassi, Senior Research Assistant and PEAR Fellow, CCRC

Colleges in Competition? Effects of Tuition-Free Policies on Public College Enrollment

March 21, 2026, 8:15–9:45 a.m. 

TBA
 
Presenters

Daniel Sparks, Assistant Professor of Higher Education, College of Education and Health Professions, University of Arkansas

Associated project