Publications

Drawing on the administration of a multi-wave survey, this report describes how combining multi-channel communication, financial incentives, initial in-person classroom visits, technical coordination, and other measures can address survey recruitment and retention challenges.

Drawing on research, institutional case studies, and first-person narratives, this book presents five principles to guide the next phase of community college reform and help leaders forge lasting partnerships that improve outcomes for a broader group of students.

Based on research from "More Essential Than Ever" and other recent research, this brief shows how educational plans convert abstract choices into personalized roadmaps in order to improve student persistence, timely program completion, and long-term career success.

Using data from a multi-campus public college system, this brief shows that differences in first post-college jobs—primarily starting salaries—can explain two thirds or more of the Year 5 earnings gap between otherwise similar low- and high-SES graduates.

This tool and accompanying guide are designed to help community colleges assess the extent to which they have implemented at scale key practices for strengthening guided pathways, as laid out in CCRC's recent book.

This new fact sheet explores students' basic needs—including nutrition, housing, childcare, transportation, and healthcare—and provides policy considerations for improving basic needs supports.

This report revisits a randomized controlled trial of the CUNY ASAP program that began in 2010 and assesses the program's long-term impacts on educational attainment and labor market outcomes over fourteen years.

Drawing on data from interviews and site visits at three Texas community colleges and their partner high schools, this paper examines how college and high school staff navigate boundaries between their organizations and make decisions to support dual enrollment students and courses.

Drawing on examples from around the country, this policy brief identifies five strategies states can use to help colleges and school districts adopt and sustain purposeful dual enrollment practices that lead to greater opportunity for students.

Using information and cost data from several CUNY campuses, this brief describes the FWS program’s core administrative components, estimates the campus costs of its implementation, and shows how program scale, staffing, and technology shape these costs.

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.

Drawing on faculty and student survey data and interviews, this brief reports on a pilot study of the SDL Instructional Model and finds that faculty and students perceived the model as valuable and distinct from typical practice in online courses.

This model offers a set of research-based strategies designed to help students more effectively manage their learning in online and hybrid courses, includes guidance for instructors, and provides recommendations for adopting and scaling the strategies across institutions.

Drawing on student surveys, staff interviews, and administrative data, this brief describes the pandemic-era evolution of the FWS program across multiple undergraduate CUNY colleges, highlighting institutional management challenges, student access issues, and common academic benefits of work-study jobs.

This new fact sheet explores student debt among community college students and provides policy considerations for supporting students in making informed borrowing decisions and successfully repaying their loans.

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.

This new fact sheet provides an overview of student parents and the challenges they face, and provides policy considerations for supporting student parents and improving their experiences.

This report uses student survey and interview data from four California colleges to examine how first-generation college students build relationships and use support networks on- and off-campus to address academic and nonacademic challenges in the first year of college.

Through an analysis of longitudinal student data from four states, this brief introduces a set of metrics predictive of subsequent postsecondary progress that educators can use as momentum indicators for dual enrollment program improvement.

This report examines why some students still struggle in reformed developmental education contexts, considers strategies for improving their experiences and outcomes, and reports on innovations under development at four community colleges participating in a Community of Practice.

This journal article examines how community colleges distributed and utilized Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) funding through analysis of nationwide expenditure data from 976 colleges and survey responses from 170 colleges across six states.

Based on a review of relevant literature and interviews with experts and administrators, this report discusses how federal policy aims are addressed by AE ESL providers and the distinct role that community colleges play in delivering AE ESL programming.

Using administrative data tracking Federal Work Study (FWS) offers, enrollment, and participation from the date of application, this working paper studies the causal impacts of receiving an FWS offer at a large public college system, including both two- and four-year campuses.

This guide introduces the Community College Program Mapper—an Excel-based data tool that helps colleges identify where students lack clear, goal-aligned plans and take action to strengthen pathways to post-completion success.

Based on survey and interview data from first-generation students who stopped out of four colleges in California, this brief examines students’ reasons for leaving, the role their social networks played in informing or supporting their decision, and how they thought about their futures—including the possibility of reenrollment.

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.

Drawing on 107 sources, this paper discusses the backgrounds and experiences of students and instructors in adult education ESL programs as well as institutional practices, curriculum and pedagogy, and policy contexts relevant to the programs.

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.

This report describes how placement processes, departmental structures, ESL course sequences, and instructional models at five CUNY community colleges shape learners’ access to and experiences in corequisite or standalone college-level English courses.

Based on findings from a study examining the policies and practices impacting multilingual learners (MLs) at City Colleges of Chicago, this report provides insights for community college practitioners and policymakers on the goals and backgrounds of MLs, their experiences, and promising approaches to serving this population.

CCRC’s 2024–2026 Biennial Report highlights major findings from the center’s recent research, including new measures of community college progress and emerging areas of study. It showcases how CCRC’s work is informing policy and practice nationwide and reflects on the center’s 30-year history. The report also includes research snapshots, outreach statistics, and a financial overview.

This updated fact sheet describes the growth of dual enrollment, the various models and funding mechanisms, and steps colleges and high schools can take to make dual enrollment more equitable.

This book chapter describes how state funding formulas, enrollment declines, and federal recovery investments during the COVID-19 pandemic intersect to shape future prospects for community college revenues and spending patterns.

This new fact sheet describes community college baccalaureate programs in relation to bachelor's programs offered by four-year colleges, demographic characteristics and earnings of graduates, and considerations for program improvement.

In this updated fact sheet, CCRC offers a short primer on the multiple missions of community colleges, what kinds of students they enroll, what outcomes they produce, and some of the major issues they face.

This updated fact sheet outlines challenges in supporting successful student transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions and considerations for improving the transfer process.

This practice guide builds on the work of colleges in the Unlocking Opportunity Network by offering practical strategies that can help more students graduate with credentials that lead directly to good jobs or transfer and successful attainment of a bachelor’s degree.

This article examines a decade of research on guided pathways whole-college reforms at over 100 community colleges nationally, their effects on student outcomes and college performance, and next-frontier reforms needed to further improve student success.

This report discusses the program choice process among 42 student interviewees; it describes factors that influenced their choice and how their choice often changed, and it offers recommendations to better support students in selecting a program.

Based on survey findings from 480 former students who stopped out of community college before the start of their second year, this report sheds light on the experiences of this population and their reasons for leaving college.

Drawing on survey and interview data, this article describes what students want from their dual enrollment experiences and implications for college and K-12 leaders working to strengthen their dual enrollment programming.

This report describes strategies for providing purposeful dual enrollment, which better guides underserved students into degree- and career-connected education after high school, without shifting the cost burden onto students and families.

Using data from Texas, this report examines how students combine different types of accelerated coursetaking in high school and how these combinations are associated with students’ subsequent postsecondary attainment and earnings trajectories.

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.

This book chapter examines the role of community colleges in higher education and discusses enrollment trends and student characteristics and outcomes. The authors synthesize research on reforms intended to improve student outcomes and conclude with new directions for research and practice.

Using survey data from incoming students at four colleges, this report examines how they think about choosing a program of study, how well their educational and career goals align, and implications for colleges seeking to better support students’ decision-making.

Based on faculty and staff interviews at four colleges, this brief describes how students experience the program choice process, including barriers they face, and discusses practices for improving support for program and career exploration.

This paper documents the annual costs associated with six common community college success strategies; overall costs, the distribution of costs, and costs per student, as well as how costs are borne by various actors are identified.

Drawing on a decade of research on whole-college guided pathways reforms, this book presents five next-frontier strategies colleges can use to strengthen pathways to post-completion student success in jobs and further education.

This discussion guide for More Essential Than Ever is designed to help community college faculty, staff, and administrators discuss ideas presented in the book and consider which might be most helpful for improving student success at their institutions.