Unlocking Opportunity: Progress Moving More Students Toward Good Jobs
This report details promising early effects of reform at ten colleges participating in the Unlocking Opportunity network and provides recommendations for how community colleges can strengthen program value and help more students access good jobs and bachelor’s degrees.
Making Short-Term Training Policy Work: Lessons From Virginia’s G3 Program
Drawing on three rounds of site visits to eight institutions, this brief examines how Virginia community colleges implemented G3 policy and offers lessons for developing, strengthening, and expanding access to short-term training programs for high-demand jobs.
Alignment Between Community College Credentials and Middle-Skill Jobs in Advanced Infrastructure and Energy
This brief introduces an inventory of advanced infrastructure, energy, and agriculture (AIREA) jobs and identifies regions with well-aligned job demand and credential production to help policymakers support community and technical colleges in developing and expanding programs where trained workers are needed most.
The Returns to Degree Completion at CUNY’s Community Colleges
Drawing on more than a decade of data, this report examines earnings returns for CUNY community college associate degree program entrants, showing substantial long-run gains from degree completion and distinguishing between terminal associate degree completion and pathways involving bachelor’s attainment.
Who Rides Out the Storm? The Immediate Post-College Transition and Its Role in Socioeconomic Earnings Gaps
Using administrative data from a large, urban, public college system, this paper documents large gaps in earnings five years after graduation by SES and the extent to which differences in the first job transition can explain these gaps.