Upcoming Presentations

DREAM 2025

February 18–21, 2025
Philadelphia, PA

More Essential than Ever: Community College Pathways to Educational and Career Success

February 19, 10:30–10:30 AM

In this session, CCRC researchers will review the research presented in CCRC's forthcoming book, More Essential than Ever: Community College Pathways to Educational and Career Success. They will highlight the need for, and strategies for scaling community colleges reforms in four key areas: 1) ensuring programs lead to good jobs and further education, 2) creating a more engaging recruitment and onboarding experience, 3) helping students complete their programs on schedule and affordably, and 4) rethinking dual enrollment as an on-ramp to college and career opportunity. They will describe the steps colleges and state agencies can take to plan for and implement these reform priorities.

Presenters

Davis Jenkins, Senior Research Scholar, CCRC

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

Transforming Transfer: Findings from the New Edition of the Transfer Playbook

February 19, 12:30–1:00 PM

Presenters

Josh Wyner, Executive Director, College Excellence Program, The Aspen Institute

Pascale Charlot, Managing Director, College Excellence Program

Tatiana Velasco, Senior Research Associate, CCRC

Unlocking Opportunity: Eight Strategies To Strengthen the Value of Community College Credentials

February 19, 3:45–4:45 PM

Presenters

Millicent Bender, Director - Leadership and Field Engagement, College Excellence Program

Davis Jenkins, Senior Research Scholar, CCRC

Marcia Ballinger, President, Lorain County Community College

Greg Williams, President, Odessa College

Jason Wood, President, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College

2025 Innovations Conference

Month 9–12, 2025
San Antonio, TX

Beyond Engagement: Evidence-Based Strategies for Improving Learning Online

March 11, 2025 | 10:15–11:15 AM CT
Grand Hyatt San Antonio Riverwalk; Republic A-C, Fourth Floor

Students and faculty both encounter challenges in the online environment. These challenges frequently manifest and are understood in terms of low student engagement. In this session, researchers and community college faculty will present a specific and actionable framework to bolster students’ abilities to remain motivated and manage their learning processes in online courses. The presenters refer to these mutually reinforcing mindsets and behaviors as self-directed learning (SDL) skills and they include motivational processes (e.g., self-efficacy), metacognitive processes (e.g., planning), and applied learning processes (e.g., help seeking). Presenters will describe a set of evidence-based instructional strategies to support SDL developed in collaboration with instructors at broad-access institutions. Speakers will share research findings on how the strategies have been implemented in postsecondary online STEM courses and their effect on student outcomes. A community college faculty member will share their experience implementing the strategies in an online biology course.

Presenters

Ellen Wasserman, Research Associate, CCRC

Allystair Jones, Department Chair, Science & Professor of Biology, Odessa College

Hannah Cheever, Technical Assistance Provider and Education Researcher, SRI Education

2025 COABE National Conference

March 30–April 2, 2025
Dallas, TX

The Opportunities and Challenges of Community Colleges as Providers of Adult Education ESL

April 1, Time TBD

This session explores national research and practices in adult education (AE) English as a Second Language (ESL). Researchers from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) and the Community College Research Center (CCRC) will discuss the impact of federal and state AE policies on community colleges providing AE ESL. Drawing from new CCRC research, attendees will learn about opportunities, challenges, and innovative programming strategies that support multilingual learners’ academic and career success within current federal policy constraints.

Presenters

Julia Raufman, Research Associate, CCRC

Jacob Hofstetter, Research Analyst, Migration Policy Institute's National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy

2025 AERA Annual Meeting

April 23–27, 2025
Denver, CO

Adult Learners: Policy and Practice

April 24, 9:50–11:20 AM | Four Seasons Ballroom 1

As part of a roundtable discussion, the authors will present on a paper that presents findings on federal and state adult education English as a second language (AE ESL) policies, including the opportunities and challenges that these policies present for the delivery of AE ESL services within community colleges (CCs). CCs provide access to free or low-cost AE ESL courses and supportive services and have transformative potential for creating pathways to postsecondary education and occupational training for a wide range of multilingual learners (MLs). However, like other providers, CCs can struggle to fully meet this population’s needs, due to structural constraints, including limitations within the policies governing AE programming.

Presenters

Julia Raufman, Research Associate, CCRC

Nikki Edgecombe, Senior Research Scholar, CCRC

George C. Bunch, Professor of Education and Department Chair, UC Santa Cruz

CCRC Webinar on Costs and Funding of Guided Pathways in California

February 03, 2021

CCRC's new research on guided pathways tackles two big questions: How much will guided pathways cost, and how can colleges fund and sustain the large-scale changes involved? This webinar provided insights into these questions with a focus on the economics of guided pathways in California community colleges.

CCRC Senior Research Scholar Davis Jenkins summarized findings from CCRC's new research on guided pathways economics. Sonya Christian, President of Bakersfield College, and Anthony Culpepper, Executive Vice President of Administrative Services at Glendale Community College, shared how their institutions have approached financing guided pathways reforms on their campuses. Lizette Navarette, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Facilities Planning at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, discussed the implications of this research and experience for California community college leaders who are trying to figure out how to fund large-scale student success reforms in a challenging fiscal environment.

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Associated Papers

Participants

Senior Research Scholar
Community College Research Center
Sonya Christian
President
Bakersfield College
Anthony Culpepper
Executive Vice President of Administrative Services
Glendale Community College
Lizette Navarette
Vice Chancellor for Finance and Facilities Planning
California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office

Associated Project(s)