Publications

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.

In this AIED conference paper, the authors evaluate four text alignment strategies based on large language learning models (LLMs) or traditional natural language processing (NLP) for skill extraction, a core task in curricular analytics.

Using a regression discontinuity approach and data from two cohorts of students in one state, this paper examines the effect of taking dual enrollment credits on the number of in-state public colleges students apply and are admitted to and the selectivity of those colleges.

This CAPR brief provides an overview of corequisite course models at three CUNY colleges and, using student focus group data, describes three factors that improved students’ experiences with corequisites and three factors that presented challenges for students.

This ARCC Network brief examines two statewide workforce-focused initiatives, G3 and GO Virginia. The authors present a snapshot of how these initiatives interact on the ground and describe opportunities for more deliberate and strategic efforts to better align their goals and investments.

Using interview data from program leaders and statewide student data, this paper examines the implementation and estimates the effects of Ohio’s Innovative Programs, a policy aimed at expanding access to dual enrollment for underserved high school students.

Using administrative data from Ohio, this Third Way brief compares master’s degree completers’ earnings before and after graduate school and finds that, on average, earning a master’s degree increases earnings, though returns vary by field and student demographics.

Using nine terms of outcomes data, this CAPR working paper presents findings from an impact study on multiple measures assessment at seven State University of New York (SUNY) community colleges.

This working paper describes dual enrollment (DE) high school–college partnerships and estimates which DE structures and contexts predict aggregate DE course completion, college enrollment, and degree attainment.

Using two quasi-experimental methods, this paper estimates the causal impact of Virginia’s Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead initiative on financial aid and academic outcomes of community college students.

This report uses IPEDS and College Scorecard data to classify the credentials awarded by community colleges in 2022-23 and to assess which credentials are and are not likely to enable students to secure a living-wage job or transfer efficiently in a major.

The second edition of the Transfer Playbook provides guidance for achieving excellence in transfer and bachelor’s attainment for community college students based on practices observed at exemplary community college and university partnerships.

Informed by a recent project to scale MMA throughout the state of Arkansas, this CAPR brief describes the state’s policy context, summarizes adoption efforts, and presents five strategies for other states that want to scale assessment reform.

This Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative brief examines how students develop and use self-directed learning (SDL) skills—motivational, metacognitive, and applied learning processes that enable them to sustain effort, reflect on progress, set goals, and adapt their study strategies.

This Center on Poverty and Social Policy working paper estimates the incremental long-run benefits and costs of participation in CUNY’s Accelerate, Complete, and Engage program, aimed at increasing bachelor’s completion rates.

This CAPR report draws on interview data with faculty and staff to examine how seven City University of New York colleges transitioned to fully scaled corequisite courses in English and math and the implications of their choices for early implementation.

This journal article describes the design of the Caring Campus–Faculty program, presents findings from four years of research on important practices and outcomes, and describes implementation experiences at one college that adopted the program.

This journal article reviews evidence on adult learners taking online courses, describes online teaching practices that draw on a self-directed learning skills framework, and outlines an evidence-based embedded coaching program that improves student outcomes.

Using NSC data, this report presents national and state-by-state findings on the postsecondary enrollment and completion outcomes of high school students who began taking dual enrollment college courses in fall 2015, tracked for four years after high school.

Based on focus group interviews with predominantly Black, Hispanic, and low-income students, this brief examines the experiences of students historically underserved in dual enrollment to understand what these students want from their programs and the educators who lead them.

Using administrative data, this paper analyzes Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead (G3)—a free community college initiative that Virginia implemented in 2021—and shows that both institutions and students responded to the tuition-free messaging and eligibility criteria.

This program classification guidebook and accompanying data analysis and visualization tools from the Aspen Institute and CCRC can be useful for community colleges seeking to increase the number of students in high-value programs and decrease the number in lower value pathways.

This ARCC Network brief uses enrollment and outcome data as well as interview data from eight colleges implementing the Get A Skill, Get A Job, Get Ahead (G3) program to examine college-level G3 outreach, recruitment, and enrollment strategies and the process for awarding G3 aid.

In this Call to Action, CCRC shares five insights from a recent symposium on the role community colleges can play in addressing climate change, with the goal of supporting work currently underway and galvanizing further efforts to prepare workers for the green economy.

This article introduces “dual enrollment equity pathways” (DEEP)—a research-based framework for rethinking à la carte dual enrollment as a more equitable on-ramp to college programs of study that lead to high-opportunity career paths for students historically underserved in dual enrollment.

Using clickstream data from five online courses, this article presents preliminary findings from a rapid-cycle evaluation testing the use of videos and prompts as technology-supported instructional strategies designed to improve self-regulated learning in online classrooms.

This book chapter explores the personal support networks and help-seeking preferences of immigrant-origin, first-generation-in-college students (FGCS) as part of a three-year longitudinal mixed-methods study with FGCSs at four public Hispanic-serving institutions in California.

This book chapter explores the personal support networks and help-seeking preferences of immigrant-origin, first-generation-in-college students (FGCS) as part of a three-year longitudinal mixed-methods study with FGCSs at four public Hispanic-serving institutions in California.

This Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative report examines how faculty and staff at nine institutions reconsidered students’ online learning needs in the midst of the pandemic, and it explores how supports were offered to help students strengthen their self-directed learning skills.

This Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative brief discusses some of the challenges with online teaching reported by STEM instructors, describes a self-directed learning (SDL) framework to address these challenges, and highlights support strategies that can be integrated into teaching practices.

This journal article analyzes how choice proliferation and information inequity in higher education join to produce and legitimate educational inequality, and it offers detailed recommendations on how to reduce this inegalitarian impact.

This Annenberg Institute working paper examines the relationship between community college students’ academic persistence and their time utilization, engagement with campus resources, and financial and mental well-being, as well as the relative importance of these factors for students’ educational attainment.

This paper describes research that prompted developmental education reform, explores efforts in California that led to the passing of A.B. 705, summarizes research on its implementation and outcomes, and discusses the implications of this research for improving postsecondary access and success.

This brief discusses findings and implications from two recent large studies of guided pathways that examined the scale at which colleges have implemented reforms and the association between adopted practices and early student outcomes.

Using institutional survey and administrative data, this paper examines the association between statewide adoption of guided pathways practices by community colleges in Tennessee, Ohio, and Washington and improvements in first-year student outcomes.

This CAPR report highlights the roles of key actors and of state context and policy in the implementation of multiple measures assessment (MMA) at 12 two- and four-year colleges in Arkansas and Texas. It also discusses costs and describes challenges, such as obtaining staff buy-in, managing student data, and ensuring sufficient staffing.

Using financial data from IPEDS, this ARCC Network brief examines what happened to community college revenue and student aid during the pandemic and assesses the importance of Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) funding for community colleges and their students.

This Annenberg Institute working paper provides up-to-date causal evidence on labor market returns to master’s degrees and examines heterogeneity in the returns by field area, student demographics, and initial labor market conditions.

This ARCC Network report examines how Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) funds were distributed to community colleges and the extent to which the colleges spent those funds. It also explores how HEER funding and spending patterns differed by institutional and student characteristics.

These two reports use student data disaggregated by race/ethnicity, neighborhood income, and age to measure the performance of two- and four-year institutions in enabling students who start college at a community college to transfer and complete bachelor’s programs. State-by-state breakdowns of transfer metrics designed for use by college and state system leaders are included in the reports and in an online data dashboard.

Informed by findings from The Dual Enrollment Playbook and site visits to Title I high schools and their community college partners in Texas and Florida, this report offers guidance for state leaders on how to support practitioner efforts to broaden the benefits of dual enrollment.

This brief, published by The Campaign for College Opportunity, explores ways transfer reform can close equity gaps in bachelor’s degree attainment by providing vital degree pathways for students from minoritized backgrounds.

Using administrative data from CUNY, this brief explores the role that community colleges play in contributing to degrees awarded in education, and it considers how the transfer experience for students interested in pursuing careers as teachers can be improved.

This report argues that a more inclusive definition of STEM that accounts for STEM-oriented technical training programs would better represent the contribution community colleges make to STEM education and the STEM workforce.

The brief, published by The Campaign for College Opportunity, summarizes the research on dual enrollment programs and offers policymakers a strategy to increase college enrollment and attainment via such efforts.

This CAPR brief describes findings and implications of an evaluation study of multiple measures assessment (MMA); it focuses on results among students whose placements changed (or would have changed) under MMA.

Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, this report presents findings from research on humanities coursetaking at Michigan community colleges conducted as part of the Strengthening Michigan Humanities project.

This report presents the dual enrollment equity pathways (DEEP) framework, which aims to expand access to dual enrollment and redesign practices so that underserved students can use it to pursue a high-value postsecondary degree program directly after high school.

This report describes dual enrollment equity pathways (DEEP) reforms implemented by six community college–K-12 partnerships in Florida and Texas, and it provides insights and guidance for other colleges and schools interested in undertaking DEEP reforms.

Drawing on administrative records from transfer-intending community college starters across three states, this paper develops a set of early STEM momentum metrics that are useful indicators of subsequent STEM transfer and bachelor’s degree attainment.

CCRC’s 2020-2022 Biennial Report tells the story of CCRC’s impact on the field through quotes from community college leaders and statistics about our outreach efforts. It also talks about the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the research process. The report marks CCRC’s 25th anniversary, discusses other major areas of research, and provides a snapshot of the center’s finances.

Based on interview, focus group, observational, and student survey data, this CAPR brief presents findings on the design and implementation of corequisite developmental courses at four colleges, and it highlights lessons for other colleges.

Drawing on interviews as well as self-assessment and performance data, this report discusses what the AACC Pathways colleges have accomplished in their guided pathways reforms over the past seven years and what they have learned about institutional transformation.

This brief details advice from leaders—including college presidents, senior administrators, faculty, and staff֫— who were involved in planning, overseeing, or coordinating guided pathways reforms at the 30 colleges that participated in the AACC Pathways Project.

Based on institutional survey data, this report presents findings from a study on the scale of adoption of guided pathways practices at community and technical colleges in Ohio, Tennessee, and Washington State.

This report uses IPEDS data to better understand healthcare training programs and the current role that community colleges play in training healthcare workers, including public health workers.

This ARCC Network brief describes Higher Education Emergency Relief funding the federal government provided to community colleges, and it provides a first look at how much funding was awarded to and spent by the colleges through February 2023.

Based on interview data, this report examines a set of seven strategies that presidents of community colleges implementing Caring Campus are using to develop a more positive college culture and to support this culture-focused reform.

This fact sheet discusses how important Pell Grants are for community college students and describes recent and proposed changes in the Pell Grant program.

Using data from Texas, this paper describes dual enrollment course characteristics such as instructor affiliation, location, and modality and examines how these characteristics predict students’ course completion, course grades, and subsequent college enrollment.

This brief examines research on five programs—AP, IB, dual enrollment, ECHSs and P-TECHs, and high school CTE with articulated credit—and assesses their potential as large-scale on-ramps to high-quality postsecondary programs for underrepresented students.

This paper examines how the process of making higher education choices in the U.S.—whether to enter higher education, attend a particular college, or follow a particular path through college—produces and legitimates social inequality.

This report describes the diversity and complexity of community college state finance systems, and how to identify the often competing incentives within them, by comparing the systems of three very different states: California, Ohio, and Texas.

This report describes the rationale, goals, and activities of the Strengthening Michigan Humanities project, and it provides statewide statistics and trends on community college enrollment, transfer, and bachelor’s degree completion in humanities fields.

Using administrative data from the City University of New York (CUNY), this paper examines the impact of the summer Pell program on community college student persistence, completion, and employment outcomes.

Using an innovative text mining technique on transcript data from a large public college system, this paper examines patterns and post-degree labor market outcomes of taking work-based courses at two-year and four-year colleges in that system.

Using three case studies, this paper examines the conditions under which dual enrollment programming could be made sustainable through efficiency gains, even for colleges that charge discounted tuition (or none at all)

This report shares results of research undertaken to understand what five iPASS institutions were doing before and during the iPASS grant period to advise and support Black, Latinx, and low-income students both in and outside the classroom.

Caring Campus/Faculty is a program aimed at increasing students’ connection to college; this report shares findings from a study on how it is being adopted at several colleges, including insights into effective faculty engagement and implementation.

Using employer-employee-student matched administrative data from Ohio, this paper provides the first direct evidence of workers' enrollment responses following mass layoffs in the United States.

In a review of impact and implementation studies from the past ten years, this CAPR report summarizes what is known about how innovations to developmental education can improve student outcomes, and it draws out five principles that are key for reform.

This report and accompanying case studies describe how three small colleges have made large-scale changes in practice based on the guided pathways model and how they funded and are sustaining these changes to improve rates of student progression and completion.

This CAPR brief provides guidance to institutions seeking to design and implement placement systems that redress limitations of test-only systems and that work in conjunction with other reforms to generate more equitable outcomes.

Using nine years of data from one state, this paper tracks completion and transfer outcomes to examine when gaps between Black, Hispanic, and White community college students occur, and it estimates the benefits of reaching early academic milestones for such students.

This fact sheet describes how community colleges hold potential for diversifying the STEM workforce as well as the challenges that community college students face in completing STEM programs.

This journal article examines how students at six community colleges identified and weighed possible transfer destination colleges, and how dedicated and personalized advisement shaped students’ transfer plans and contributed to their transfer outcomes.

This paper presents a methodology for assessing the scale of adoption and estimating the causal effects of guided pathways within states and across colleges that have adopted the approach.

Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study and a propensity score matching approach, this paper compares outcomes of four-year college students who earned either 1–10 credits or no credits at a community college.

This CAPR brief provides a taxonomy of various informed self-placement (ISP) systems, shares descriptive data from three colleges using ISP, and identifies important equity and access considerations for implementation.

Based on fieldwork at six institutions, this report describes how colleges are implementing Caring Campus/Staff, a program designed to engage nonacademic staff in improving interactions with students and fostering a culture of caring at community colleges.

This brief describes the motivation, research evidence, and equity implications that underlie the Ask-Connect-Inspire-Plan framework as a useful strategy for community colleges.

Using data on students enrolled in two- and four-year colleges of the City University of New York, this essay assesses the distribution of benefits of the scholarship program in terms of who qualifies for, receives, and renews awards.

Using administrative data, this report examines early college outcomes of students placed into corequisite reading courses at the 13 community colleges in the Tennessee Board of Regents system.

Based on fieldwork at eight institutions, this report describes how community colleges are responding to workplace technology innovation by adapting their workforce programming, diversifying pathways to certificates and degrees, and addressing equity concerns.

This paper provides the first causal evidence on a system-wide corequisite reform, using data from all 13 community colleges affiliated with the Tennessee Board of Regents.

This policy fact sheet discusses revenue streams for community colleges, disparity in resources relative to public four-year colleges, and federal spending, including COVID-19 relief funding.

Based on interviews with educators who are rethinking and revising secondary math coursework, this report describes the role of higher education in influencing high school math reform nationally and in three particular states.

This article describes how lesson study—a structured, collaborative professional development intervention—encouraged developmental mathematics faculty at three community colleges to implement new approaches to instruction.

This CAPR brief describes two recent experimental studies of multiple measures assessment, in which colleges use measures beyond placement test scores to determine students’ college readiness.

This essay discusses how students and community colleges responded to the pandemic and what their experiences reveal about inequities in higher education.

This report describes findings from a random assignment study examining the implementation, cost, and efficacy of multiple measures assessments for placing students into college-level or developmental courses.

Drawing on findings from a study of postsecondary college transcript and degree records, this brief describes metrics that may be useful in assessing efforts to improve STEM transfer outcomes.

Based on fieldwork at four guided pathways colleges, this report introduces a cross-sector pathways model and highlights emerging practices and strategies that community colleges are using to build stronger connections with employers, universities, and K-12 schools.

This brief describes results from a nationally representative survey of American workers aged 24–64 to learn what training providers they have used and what their experiences have been with these providers.

This report describes a project undertaken by CCRC, Education Northwest, and three Oregon community colleges to adapt lesson study for use among faculty teaching a precollege (developmental) quantitative literacy course.

This report describes how CCRC’s thinking about guided pathways has evolved since the publication of Redesigning America’s Community Colleges in 2015.

CCRC’s 2020-2022 Biennial Report tells the story of CCRC’s impact on the field through quotes from community college leaders and statistics about our outreach efforts. It also talks about the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the research process. The report marks CCRC’s 25th anniversary, discusses other major areas of research, and provides a snapshot of the center’s finances.

This article argues that by tying instructional improvement efforts to ongoing reforms, colleges may be able to take advantage of structures and mechanisms employed by the reform to make teaching an institutional priority.

This fact sheet describes the importance of academic and nonacademic services, particularly for underserved students, and how students that receive targeted, intensive support experience improved outcomes.

This fact sheet describes how traditional developmental education may have unintended consequences for students and the growing body of research evidence on promising reforms.

This fact sheet outlines how the Federal Work-Study program works, its effects on academic and labor market outcomes, and why so few community college students receive Federal Work-Study aid.

CCRC offers a short primer on the multiple missions of these institutions, what kinds of students they enroll, what outcomes they produce, and some of the major issues they face.

This article establishes the importance of adjunct faculty in supporting student success, describes the experiences of adjunct faculty, and offers suggestions for disciplinary societies that seek to meet the needs of adjunct faculty.

This report examines how Ohio community colleges—which have been engaged in guided pathways reform for several years—are innovating within the model to provide scaled, personalized support to help students gain early academic momentum.

This set of three studies examines what states and community colleges can do to address the needs of racially minoritized adult learners who are pursuing postsecondary education and training as a path to re-employment, better jobs, and higher incomes.

This brief discusses why whole-college, guided pathways reforms hold promise for improving student success on a large scale, what they cost, and how the federal government can support their adoption.

This brief discusses the experiences, achievements, and challenges of 26 broad-access two- and four-year colleges that, in 2015, began steps to adopt or enhance technology-mediated advising practices to improve the way they support students.

This brief describes the substantial role community colleges play in workforce education, what innovative colleges are doing to improve programming and labor market outcomes for participants, and how the federal government can support these efforts.

Using administrative data from a large state community college system, this paper examines whether being exposed to a higher percentage of dual enrollment peers influences non-dual enrollment enrollees’ performance in college courses.

This brief describes the importance of nonacademic staff to the student experience and presents initial findings related to the Caring Campus initiative’s capacity to affect college culture and ground further change efforts.

This paper estimates the patterns and sources of White–Black and White–Hispanic enrollment gaps in Advancement Placement (AP) and dual enrollment programs across several thousand school districts and metropolitan areas in the United States.

Using descriptive methods as well as a quasi-experimental approach, this report examines the early college outcomes of Florida high school students who enrolled in a dual enrollment college algebra course.

This brief discusses how community college systems in four states—Indiana, Virginia, Texas, and Washington—supported large-scale changes to student placement practices in reaction to challenges associated with the COVID pandemic.

Drawing on interview data, this report discusses strategies that three guided pathways colleges use to help adult students enter programs of study, stay on path, and enhance learning.

This report summarizes enhancements to technology-based advising at three institutions and their effects on students' academic outcomes for four semesters after study entry.

This brief examines the relationship between BCC’s ASAP expansion and institutional change to illuminate how scaling a discrete reform can impact other areas of the college and change the way an institution serves all students.

This paper examines challenges embedded within the prevailing high school mathematics course sequence, which prioritizes algebra, and explores innovations that aim to provide curricula and pedagogy more aligned with students’ academic and career goals.

This paper examines the equity implications of existing reforms to developmental math and explores the potential of more targeted reforms to address factors such as stereotype threat, math anxiety, instructor bias, and tracking.

Drawing on research at six institutions, this guide is intended to help community college leaders understand the costs involved in implementing guided pathways reforms and develop plans for funding and sustaining them.

Drawing on data from 12 community colleges, this paper analyzes the resources required to implement guided pathways reforms and examines their feasibility and affordability, as well as their value for students.

This report describes impact findings from an evaluation of multiple measures assessment and placement at seven State University of New York (SUNY) community colleges.

This report presents findings on the implementation of technology-mediated advising reforms at California State University at Fresno, Montgomery County Community College, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Using data on two cohorts of Florida students who started public high school in 2007 and 2012, this report analyzes dual enrollment course-taking and outcomes by racial/ethnic group (Black, Hispanic, White) and course modality (face-to-face on-college-campus, face-to-face off-campus, and online).

Based on research conducted in three states, this report identifies five principles that undergird the strategies and practices of equitable dual enrollment partnerships between high schools and colleges.

Using state administrative data and propensity score matching, this study examines the characteristics and academic outcomes of community college students who switch majors.

Using administrative data from Florida, this article examines the effect of changing the grading scale from whole-letter grades to plus/minus grades on STEM major choice.

This paper examines returns to terminal associate degrees and certificates up to 11 years after students initially entered a community college in Ohio. The authors use an individual fixed-effects approach that controls for students’ pre-enrollment earnings and allows the returns to credential completion to vary over time.

This report describes findings from a study of a two-year initiative led by Achieving the Dream to develop and implement strategies to support adjunct faculty in improving student outcomes.

This guide presents a set of example data analyses colleges can replicate to examine whether underserved groups of students are equitably represented in programs that lead to higher opportunity outcomes for employment and/or baccalaureate transfer.

Based on a forthcoming book chapter, this paper discusses how the development of an overall framing vision for student success, the implementation of evidence-based practices, and the establishment of a culture that is conducive to innovation can help colleges improve student outcomes.

Drawing on interviews with 96 first-year community college students, this journal article compares the roles of students' on- and off-campus relationships in providing information and support.

This practitioner packet provides guidance to colleges seeking to redesign their new student onboarding practices to better help students explore, choose, and plan a program of study best suited to their interests and aspirations.

This paper describes the professional development model used in CUNY Start, a program developed at the City University of New York to support entering students identified as academically underprepared in literacy and mathematics.

This paper discusses what is known about humanities coursework in community colleges, outlines key challenges facing humanities education in this sector, and considers approaches to addressing these challenges

This report builds off previous research on American Honors to look at the unintended consequences of college promise programs for the economic mobility of high-achieving, low-income students.

This study compares the out-of-sample predictive power of early momentum metrics—13 near-term success measures suggested by the literature—with that of metrics from machine-learning-based models that employ approximately 500 predictors for community college credential completion.

This journal article explores similarities and dissimilarities of higher education policies in England and the United States with an eye to what each country can learn from the other regarding the reduction of social class and racial/ethnic differences in higher education access and success.

This report examines the efforts of six state higher education systems to improve student outcomes and close opportunity gaps in mathematics as part of a three-year project led by the Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin.

In this Innovative Higher Education article, the authors examine the development and dissolution of a partnership between a privately held firm and six community colleges, which had established honors programs with the goal of facilitating students' transfer to selective institutions.

Drawing on data from six community colleges, this paper estimates the effects of part-time faculty versus full-time faculty on students’ current and subsequent course outcomes in developmental and gateway courses and explores potential explanations for these effects.

This paper explores the dynamics in and around an institution that influence how advisors and students experience technology-mediated advising reforms, along with the opportunities and challenges these dynamics create for colleges.

This book chapter describes key principles of CCRC's evidence-based framework for advising redesign, which emphasizes a sustained, strategic, integrated, proactive, and personalized (SSIPP) approach to advising.

This report describes trends in key performance indicators among the 26 two- and four-year institutions that participated in the Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success (iPASS) grant initiative from 2011 to 2017.

This study uses a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of multiple measures assessment programs at five colleges in Minnesota and Wisconsin and also examines the implementation and cost of the programs.

This article discusses the origins, implementation, and impacts of neoliberal policies by examining the case of performance-based funding for higher education in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere. It provides recommendations for how to improve performance funding and how to construct policy models that go behind the narrow imaginings of neoliberal theory.

This paper examines the labor market gains for students who enrolled at for-profit colleges after beginning their postsecondary education in community college.

This CAPR report examines how four Texas community colleges implemented Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) and the impact of DCMP on student outcomes over as many as four semesters. Costs of the initiative and student perspectives are also discussed.

This CAPR report documents developmental education practices used in broad-access two- and four-year colleges across the country based on a 2016 survey of public two- and four-year colleges and private, nonprofit four-year colleges as well as interviews with institutional and state leaders.

This handbook presents a wide range of research on adults who have low literacy skills. It looks at the cognitive, affective, and motivational factors underlying adult literacy; adult literacy in different countries; and the educational approaches being taken to help improve adults’ literacy skills.

In this short essay, Shanna Jaggars (coauthor of Redesigning America's Community Colleges) and Amanda Folk (head of teaching and learning at the Ohio State Libraries) discuss how librarians' expertise could be harnessed to support guided pathways reforms.

This research brief describes findings from a survey about mathematics course offerings at institutions in six states implementing mathematics pathways.

CCRC’s 2018-2020 Biennial Report highlights major findings from the center’s research, including on multiple measures assessment, personalized advising, guided pathways, ...

This essay compares broad academic and vocational program goals, embodied skills, tasks, and jobs, with a focus primarily on community college students.

This short report provides a rationale for implementing Lesson Study, a collaborative and structured professional development approach, in the community college context.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this CAPSEE working paper examines nonpecuniary labor market outcomes associated with different levels of postsecondary educational attainment.

This report and the five case studies that accompany it describe how institutions are managing the broad-based transformation of programs, student services, and related support systems using the guided pathways model.

This report shares the stories of four community colleges that participated in the Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success (iPASS) initiative, which provided support for institutions as they redesigned their advising processes and adopted and implemented new technologies.

This study examines if students participating in Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) developmental courses enroll in and pass college-level math courses at higher rates than students who take traditional developmental math courses.

This study, conducted in partnership with MDRC, examines the effects of three institutions’ efforts to expand the use of advising technologies and to use administrative and communication strategies to increase student contact with advisors.

In this brief, the authors examine how well nine measures of students’ progress in their first year predict student completion in subsequent years, and thus how suitable these early momentum metrics are as leading indicators of the effectiveness of institutional reforms.

This paper explores how technology is integrated into developmental education programming and considerations for institutional leaders when deciding whether and how to integrate technology in developmental education.

Using transcript-level data from two community college state systems and a nationally representative survey, this short report examines how course-taking in humanities and liberal arts at community colleges affects transfer and outcomes at four-year colleges.

This short report provides a systematic accounting of the provision of humanities and liberal arts education at public colleges in the United States, including community colleges.

This paper describes key features of CUNY Start mathematics and how it differs from traditional developmental education.

This brief examines the expansion and adaptation of the City University of New York’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), using Bronx Community College as an illustrative case study.

This paper examines factors within the community college context that affect the experiences and academic outcomes of the English learner population broadly and students who enroll in ESL courses in particular.

In 2012, Quad Learning partnered with two community colleges to pilot American Honors, a program designed to help academically talented community college students overcome the challenges of transferring to more selective four-year destinations. This paper traces the components of the program's socially conscious theory of change, its for-profit business model, and the tensions between the two.

In this piece for the Teachers College Record, CCRC Director Thomas Brock describes how mixed methods may be used in education research and offers advice to researchers who are seeking funding from IES for mixed methods studies.

Using Florida as a case study, this Change Magazine article describes the complexities of implementing effective college readiness reforms and offers insights for policymakers looking to improve student success.

This paper describes how community colleges became a major resource for the nation's workforce development requirements and discusses how this role continues to evolve to meet the needs of students, employers, and local communities.

This working paper describes the idea of demography as opportunity, which marries the racial and ethnic shifts underway in the country and in higher education with equity perspectives on historically disenfranchised populations.

Written in conjunction with the Education Commission of the States, this brief provides an overview of multiple measures assessment and placement and describes how several states are implementing the approach.

This paper illustrates student responses to Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) requirements as well as the tradeoffs faced by a social planner weighing whether to set performance standards in the context of need-based aid.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this paper compares the academic and labor market outcomes of high school graduates who delay college enrollment and those who enroll in college immediately up to 13 years after high school completion.

Based on interviews with stakeholders in 11 states and other data, this brief describes the design, implementation, and effectiveness of math transition courses and identifies major trends in course development.

High schools across the country are implementing transition curricula to boost college readiness. This short publication offers an overview of course design options for educators thinking about implementing transition courses.

This paper employs a difference-in-difference approach to examine the credit, credential completion, and labor market outcomes resulting from the year-round Pell using a state administrative dataset from a community college system.

Based on interviews and other data, this brief describes key elements of English transition curricula in seven states and highlights ways this type of intervention may help prepare students for college.

Using interview, focus group, and survey data, this brief explores the experiences of part-time faculty at six Achieving the Dream leader colleges working to engage adjunct faculty in student success initiatives.

This report describes the Mathematics Pathways to Completion project developed by the Charles A. Dana Center and the condititions that facilitate the statewide implementation of math pathways reforms.

This paper, published in Social Sciences, examines the idealizations and illusions of student choice and marketization in higher education policy in England.

This brief, written in collaboration with the Education Commission of the States, describes three math pathways models, lays out the evidence for their effectiveness, and gives recommendations for the effective implementation of math pathways.

This CAPSEE working paper compares credential production patterns of minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and non-MSIs by field of study and examines the extent to which they correspond to employment industry clusters in Alabama and California.

This report evaluates the implementation and impacts of Enhancing Programs for IT Certification (EPIC), a program that aims to expand access to computer and medical information technology credentials at six Kentucky community colleges.

This report from the Center for the Analysis for Postsecondary Readiness (CAPR) examines implementation of a multiple measures placement system at seven State University of New York community colleges and presents results on first-term impacts.

This report describes the guided pathways reforms taking place at the 13 community colleges in the Tennessee Board of Regents, along with promising trends in first-year momentum among entering students.

This report describes the early findings of a random assignment evaluation and implementation study of CUNY Start by CCRC, MDRC, and the City University of New York.

Drawing on lessons from 10 Minnesota and Wisconsin colleges that piloted multiple measures systems for placing students into developmental and college-level courses, this guide provides recommendations for other colleges interested in implementing or testing their own multiple measures systems.

This report describes how three institutions—the University of North Carolina, Charlotte; California State University, Fresno; and Montgomery County Community College in Pennsylvania—are approaching comprehensive, technology-based advising reforms.

This brief published by Education Commission of the States discusses state approaches that systematically broaden dual enrollment access and provide pre-collegiate experiences to middle- and lower-achieving students.

This Brookings Institution report uses data from the U.S. Department of Education to examine whether disparities in student loan default rates by race/ethnicity and institution sector can be explained by other factors, along with what happens after a default and whether this also varies across student subgroups.

This paper identifies the effects of licenses on a set of labor market outcomes for the college-educated workforce using newly available national Current Population Survey data merged with data from the U.S. Department of Labor on state-level, occupation-specific licensing requirements.

This paper looks at baseline key performance indicators (KPIs) for 26 two- and four-year institutions that received grants to implement technology-mediated advising reforms.

Using National Student Clearinghouse data, this paper introduces a two-stage, input-adjusted, value-added analytic framework for identifying partnerships of two- and four-year institutions that are particularly effective in enabling students to transfer and earn bachelor’s degrees.

This CCRC working paper examines the perspectives of college personnel engaged in the consideration, launch, and use of predictive analytics tools for targeted advising.

This paper released by the Centre for Global Higher Education at the University of London examines how the process of making higher education choices in the United States—whether to enter higher education, attend a particular college, or follow a particular route—reproduces and legitimates social inequality.

Using student transcript records and detailed college instructor employment information from one state, this CAPSEE working paper examines whether adjunct faculty have different impacts on student academic outcomes than tenure-track and tenured faculty.

In this article for Change: The Magazine for Higher Learning, CCRC Founding Director and Teachers College President Thomas Bailey outlines the tradeoff between degrees and short-term credentials offered to community college students and describes how the colleges themselves may be able to help resolve this conflict.

This chapter discusses the importance of scrutinizing the outcomes of developmental education reforms across race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, and level of developmental need.

In this article, the authors posit that a reframing of academic preparedness is warranted, and they outline three potential strategies for addressing academic underpreparedness beyond the structural and curricular reforms to developmental education taking place in many colleges.

This chapter in Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research reviews the structure and effectiveness of traditional developmental education and provides a history of first-, second-, and third-wave reforms and research on those approaches.

This practitioner packet describes the guided pathways reform model; presents case studies of how colleges are approaching key pathways practices, with promising evidence on student success from early adopters; and outlines steps and a timeline for implementing guided pathways reforms.

In CCRC's 2018 newsletter, Thomas Bailey discusses issues colleges should attend to as they implement guided pathways in order to ensure that these reforms help close equity gaps.

This paper assesses the degree to which community college websites present challenges for students looking for information on how to transfer to a four-year institution.

This paper describes how degree-seeking students at the City Colleges of Chicago make choices about their programs in their first year of enrollment, focusing especially on how they interact with advisors and how they use college-based resources in program selection and program planning.

Using detailed administrative data from Virginia, this journal article examines whether community college “vertical transfer” students who resemble “native four-year” students in their accumulated college-level credits and performance at their point of entry into the four-year sector perform equally well in terms of both academic and labor market outcomes.

This ECS/CAPR brief discusses the importance of and challenges surrounding developmental education and suggests ways in which policymakers can address these challenges.

This CCRC working paper uses data-mining techniques to analyze student transcripts from two states and identify variables associated with excess credits among bachelor’s degree completers who started at a community college.

In this Brookings report, the author analyzes new data on student debt and repayment released by the U.S. Department of Education in October 2017. The author then provides five key findings based on this analysis.

This brief describes the availability of transition courses across the country and offers insights into curricular design and goals, subject-area focus, how students are selected to participate, and whether completion of transition curricula guarantees placement into college-level courses.

This guide aims to help state entities organize workshops for two- and four-year institutions to improve transfer and graduation outcomes for their students through data analysis and self-reflection of institutional practices and the development of action plans.

This paper examines the impact of one transition course model, the At Home in College program, offered to selected high school students in New York City by the City University of New York (CUNY).

This article examines a study on the effectiveness of remediation for community college students who are identified as having the lowest skills in math using transcript data from a state community college system.

This guide provides instructions for community colleges that want to use National Student Clearinghouse data to assess their own effectiveness and that of particular transfer partnerships in helping students to transfer and complete bachelor’s degrees.

This paper discusses the organization, roles, and contributions of community colleges, and it analyzes reforms that have been proposed and enacted to meet ongoing challenges.

Using national, survey, and college-system-level datasets, this paper estimates the association between stackable credentials and earnings, finding weakly positive and inconsistent gains from these award combinations.

This journal article offers a set of essential transfer practices culled from national fieldwork to two- and four-year institutional transfer partnerships identified using NSC data as highly effective in supporting transfer student success.

Using student data, this report provides information on the outcomes of students who attended Macomb Community College and then transferred to one of 14 four-year destination colleges.

In this Brookings report, the author examines the policy landscape and reviews available evidence to assess the potential benefits and costs of thinking beyond the box in college admissions. The author then offers six key findings that have emerged from this review.

This report uses student enrollment and degree records from the National Student Clearinghouse to examine who enrolls in community college dual enrollment courses and what happens to them after high school.

With the goal of informing federal higher education policy decisions, this brief for the Urban Institute suggests federal student aid reform that simplifies the eligibility and application process.

This report describes how Ohio’s two-year colleges are approaching guided pathways reforms, focusing on innovations they have implemented in recent years that can serve as building blocks as they seek to transform their policies, practices, and culture following the guided pathways model.

This CAPR working paper provides an overview of the history of college placement testing, with a focus on nonselective colleges. The authors discuss the limitations of placement tests, the consequences of placement errors, and the movement toward changing systems of placement; a typology of approaches to assessment and placement is also described.

This set of tools aims to help community colleges and broad-access four-year colleges assess their work on technology-mediated advising and student support, sometimes referred to as Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success (iPASS).

Using interview, focus group, and case study data, this paper documents the perceptions and experiences of faculty members in the midst of statewide reform efforts in Virginia and North Carolina to integrate developmental reading and writing courses.

Using interview data from students at three community colleges, this paper examines shifts in confidence that students experience early in their college careers.

This study explores the influence of different types of leadership approaches on the implementation of a technology-mediated advising reform at six colleges, and assesses which types of leadership are associated with transformative organizational change.

This review draws from the experiences of colleges awarded the Kisco Foundation’s Kohlberg Prize to highlight the practical and philosophical challenges involved in creating integrated services for student veterans.

Based on a mixed-methods study at six colleges, this brief examines the domestic population served by American Honors; its key programmatic features; and community college student, faculty, and staff perspectives on the program.

This Brookings report discusses what role the Federal Work-Study program might have in a modern “college completion and career readiness” agenda.

Using interview data from first-year students at City Colleges of Chicago (CCC), this brief describes students’ reactions to important components of CCC’s recent guided pathways reform efforts.

Using data from two state systems, this paper examines whether it is more efficient for bachelor’s degree seekers to start at a two-year college.

This chapter argues that substantially increasing college completion rates requires comprehensive institutional reform with a focus on measurable student success, an intentional and cohesive package of programmatic components, and a culture of evidence.

This paper addresses empirical challenges in identifying stackable credentials, distinguishes three types of stackable awards, and estimates the number of persons who earn such awards. It then discusses the utility of these awards in meeting labor market demands and needs of students.

This report provides insight into how colleges are planning and implementing “guided pathways” reforms based on the early work of 30 colleges participating in the American Association of Community Colleges’ (AACC) Pathways Project.

In CCRC's 2017 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey discusses how CAPSEE research has contributed to the understanding of the value of investing in a college education.

This report examines the consequences of ending free college in England, and considers what lessons may be drawn for the U.S. policy conversation.

This paper provides an overview of undergraduate financial aid to inform discussions of the future of undergraduate education in the United States and the role of financial aid within it.

This CAPSEE working paper reviews results from fixed effects models of the earnings gains from completing an associate degree and compares them with ordinary least squares model estimates.

This CAPSEE working paper and accompanying brief review recent evidence from eight states on the labor market returns to credit accumulation, certificates, and associate degrees from community colleges using large-scale, statewide administrative datasets.

Based on recent CAPSEE studies in two states, this brief discusses the motivations for satisfactory academic progress requirements for federal aid, examines how community college students are affected, and assesses the implications for program efficiency and equity.

This brief discusses current research, including CAPSEE analysis, regarding both the effectiveness of the Federal Work-Study (FWS) program and its equity in terms of the distribution of funds.

Using an administrative data set from one state, this paper examines the effects of receiving a modest Pell Grant on financial aid packages, labor supply while in school, and academic outcomes for community college students.

This practitioner packet summarizes CCRC’s research on technology-mediated advising reform and discusses how institutions are attempting to transform advising systems so that they can support a more intensive and personalized case-management model.

Using site visit data from three community colleges and four high schools, this paper explores how the institutional context of the high schools compared with that of the colleges in ways that may have affected the implementation and efficacy of computer-mediated mathematics.

In this brief, the authors propose three measures of early academic momentum that colleges can use to gauge whether institutional reforms are improving student outcomes

Based on three sets of analyses, this report to the Greater Texas Foundation recommends ways that state policy could help to improve outcomes for community college transfer students in Texas.

This CAPSEE working paper uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to provide new, nationally representative, non-experimental estimates of the returns to degrees, as well as to assess the possible limitations of single-state, administrative-data-based estimates.

This book explores the how and why of the federal regulatory policymaking process as it pertains to higher education, financial aid, and student loan debt.

This journal article examines the impacts of different levels of developmental reading and writing on students’ academic outcomes.

This CAPSEE working paper examines the prevalence and consequences of Pell Grant recipients’ failure to meet the standards for satisfactory academic progress required for grant renewal.

This NBER working paper uses state administrative data and unemployment records to construct a variety of possible institution-level labor market outcome metrics to explore how sensitive institutional ratings are to the choice of labor market metric, length of follow-up, and inclusion of adjustments for student characteristics.

This chapter examines the use of technology and other structural changes to encourage comprehensive advising reforms.

This chapter describes the structure and implementation of a redesign of developmental education in the Virginia Community College System, discusses preliminary descriptive findings from an evaluation of the redesign, and shares lessons for the field.

Using proximity to the closest four-year college as an instrumental variable, this CAPSEE working paper analyzes public higher education data from an anonymous state to examine how enrolling in summer credits can impact college and labor market outcomes.

This practice guide presents six evidence-based recommendations for college and university faculty, administrators, and advisors working to improve the success of students academically underprepared for college.

This report investigates the national landscape of computer science students at community colleges in order to better understand student behaviors and institutional characteristics that support or hinder community college students’ efforts to attain a computer science bachelor’s degree.

This review describes the early experiences of five colleges that received the Kisco Foundation’s Kohlberg Prize, a grant aimed at making community colleges more welcoming and better able to meet the needs of veteran students.

This book chapter replicates and extends analyses completed in other statewide studies and estimates returns to credentials and credit accumulation for first-time college students who enrolled in the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) in 2004–2005 using a classic Mincerian approach.

This book is the culmination of a three-year study of performance funding in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee. Based on interviews with state officials and staff at 18 public institutions, the book delves into the policy implications of performance funding, which ties state financial support of colleges and universities to institutional performance.

This brief discusses four colleges’ STEM-focused iPASS implementation, including their reasons for undertaking reform, their plans for piloting and scaling up iPASS, and early evidence of change.

In this report for Brookings, Judith Scott-Clayton lays out a new analysis that shows that the gap in student debt between Black and White bachelor's degree earners triples in the four years after graduation.

This paper examines the current state of the literature on Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success (iPASS), an increasingly popular approach to technology-mediated advising reform.

Building on Karp's 2011 framework of nonacademic support, this article explores the evidence that holistic support can encourage community college students’ success.

This paper utilizes two complementary quasi-experimental strategies to identify causal effects of the WV PROMISE scholarship, a broad-based state merit aid program, up to 10 years post–college entry and examine important outcomes that have not previously been examined, including homeownership, neighborhood characteristics, and financial management.

This chapter in the book Matching Students to Opportunity examines the matching process between students and college programs or majors, primarily in community colleges.

This paper examines technology-mediated advising reform in order to contribute to the understanding of how colleges engage in transformative change to improve student outcomes.

Using national data on baccalaureate recipients in 1993 and 2008, this CAPSEE working paper examines labor market and debt outcomes four years after students graduate, with a focus on exploring heterogeneity by institution type and major, as well as trends over time.

Using student-level data from the Tennessee Board of Regents, this paper explores the academic and economic consequences of taking higher or lower credit loads in the first semester and first year of college.

This CAPSEE working paper provides a classification scheme for sub-baccalaureate STEM programs and, using data from Virginia, analyzes short-term earnings returns to community college STEM credentials.

Using data from a study of the Ford Corridors of College Success initiative, this brief examines how postsecondary institutions have attempted to develop multi-sector partnerships within a collective impact context.

This study documents the specific ways that community college career-technical programs are structured to support student success, and it provides a framework for examining structure to inform practice and guide future research efforts.

Using longitudinal student-unit record data linked to wage record data, this paper estimates the labor market returns to developmental credits versus college-level credits in two states.

This report for The Century Foundation's College Completion Series lays out the open questions on how to reform developmental education.

This CAPSEE working paper examines the effects of four-year to two-year college transfer on “struggling” students, or those who earned less than a 3.0 grade point average in the first term.

Based largely on an examination of college proposals for the Kisco Foundation’s Kohlberg Prize, this review (summary available) presents key insights and policy recommendations about services for military veterans attending community colleges.

This playbook is a practical guide to designing and implementing a key set of practices that will help community colleges and their four-year college partners improve bachelor’s completion rates for students who start at community colleges.

This NBER working paper outlines tax-based student aid programs and assesses their impact on student behavior

This paper discusses the implementation of modularized developmental mathematics reforms in North Carolina and Virginia, presents student outcomes for two distinct course structures, and considers the opportunities and challenges they present.

Using detailed administrative data from Virginia, this CAPSEE working paper examines how and why the community college pathway to a baccalaureate influences students’ degree attainment and short-term labor market performance.

In CCRC's 2016 newsletter, CCRC Director Thomas Bailey writes about the growth and influence of the guided pathways model.

In addition to drawing on the existing body of research on performance funding, this journal article reports data from a study of the implementation of performance funding in three leading states (Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee) and its impacts on three universities and three community colleges in each state.

This brief examines the corequisite remediation model as it was implemented in Tennessee community colleges in fall 2015 and finds that it is more cost-effective than the prerequisite remediation model the colleges formerly used.

This study uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the effect of participation in a mathematics transition course on college-level math outcomes in West Virginia for the 2011–12 and 2012–13 high school senior cohorts.

Based on a qualitative and quantitative study at Bronx Community College, this paper provides findings on students who take First Year Seminar, a recently redesigned student success course.

This paper introduces an online course quality rubric addressing four quality areas, and it examines the relationship between each quality area and student end-of-semester performance.

This Corridors of College Success brief highlights challenges involved in collective impact work and provides a lens for understanding why well-intentioned collective impact efforts may not take root.

This Jobs for the Future publication proposes research-based milestones of student momentum from twelfth grade through the first year of college, and suggests ways that local high school and college partners can collaborate to support student success.

This brief, the second in CCRC’s Corridors of College Success series, describes the challenges that early-stage collective impact communities face as they work to identify potential backbone organizations and establish a backbone structure.

Based on research as well as discussion among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers from seven states, this overview summarizes the state of knowledge on transition courses.

Based on a qualitative study, this report describes the implementation of transition courses in English and math in California, New York City, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

This paper introduces a piecewise growth approach to analyzing labor market outcomes of students, and it discusses how insights gained from the approach can be used to strengthen econometric analyses of labor market returns.

This report uses five metrics to measure the effectiveness of two- and four-year institutions in enabling community college students to transfer to four-year institutions and earn bachelor’s degrees.

Based on administrative data from two state community college systems, this paper explores the relationship between earning a certificate and students’ post-college earnings and employment status.

This paper reports findings from a researcher-practitioner partnership that assessed the readiness for postsecondary reading and writing demands of 211 students in developmental reading and English courses in two community colleges.

In this National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper, the authors describe the barriers that students face during the transition to college and review the evidence on potential policy solutions.

This CAPSEE working paper examines the returns to education for large numbers of young workers in Arkansas over the period before, during, and after the Great Recession.

This CAPSEE working paper examines the returns to math courses relative to the returns to other courses for students who started their postsecondary education at community college.

Collective impact is a place-based model of educational and social intervention that aims to shift responsibility for improvement in outcomes from ...

Using data on students who entered community college and then transferred, this paper examines the impact on bachelor’s degree attainment of earning an associate degree before transferring to a four-year college.

Using data on students at nine community colleges, this paper examines enrollment patterns and outcomes of students who take noncredit courses, including those who intend to transition to the for-credit sector.

This CAPSEE working paper examines student outcomes at six community colleges in North Carolina that had co-located American Job Centers on their campuses.

This article uses qualitative data from a multi-campus study of instructional reform in developmental education to present a typology of questions raised by community college faculty teaching in reformed contexts.

Using focus group data from students at six colleges, this paper examines student preferences concerning technology-based advising tools and in-person advising sessions for different kinds of advising tasks.

This practitioner packet summarizes CCRC’s research on remedial placement at community colleges and considers how including students’ high school transcript information in the assignment process could improve placement accuracy.

Using two waves of the Beginning Postsecondary Student survey, this paper provides the first national estimates of the effect of the Federal Work-Study program on students' academic and labor market outcomes.

Based on research at six colleges, this guide provides lessons for colleges that want to use increasingly common technology tools to reform advising practices.

This paper reviews how an increase in contingent faculty and an increase in class size might affect efficiency at community colleges.

This report provides an overview of the developmental education redesigns in Virginia and North Carolina, presents preliminary findings, and discusses lessons for states, districts, and colleges pursuing developmental education reforms.

This publication presents findings on the costs of remedial placement testing at three colleges, and it provides guidance on how other colleges could undertake similar analyses.

The authors of this book argue that to substantially increase student completion, community colleges must engage in fundamental redesign and outline research-based strategies to help colleges achieve this goal.

In this book, the authors explore the various forces, actors, and motivations behind the adoption, discontinuation, and transformation of performance funding systems.

In CCRC's 2015 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey argues for comprehensive reform using a guided pathways approach.

This practitioner packet summarizes evidence supporting the guided pathways reform model, describes how one college implemented guided pathways, and offers tips for getting started on guided pathways reforms.

Based on interviews with over 200 college personnel in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee, this paper identifies and analyzes the deliberative structures used by colleges and universities to respond to performance funding demands.

Using matched college transcript and earnings data on over 80,000 students entering community college during the 2000s, this CAPSEE working paper examines the returns to math courses.

This chapter addresses structural systems reform and college completion, as well as the role of dual enrollment in ensuring equitable postsecondary outcomes.

Emerging early college models are providing opportunities for high school students to accrue college credits and experience themselves as successful ...

This report looks at the role of two-year Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) in improving postsecondary access and degree completion for disadvantaged students in the United States.

Using a novel method for linking non-completers with completers, this paper calculates the labor market returns to programs of study, accounting both for those who obtain an award and those who do not.

This research overview reviews findings on transfer from community colleges to four-year colleges, including student outcomes, barriers to transfer, the economic benefits of transfer, and potential benefits to four-year colleges.

This brief reviews what states can do to support public colleges and universities so they can effectively respond to the new demands placed on them by performance funding policies.

In this study, the authors examine medium-term returns to diplomas, certificates, and degrees for first-time college students who enrolled in the North Carolina Community College System in 2002–03.

This paper identifies and analyzes the types and numbers of unintended impacts—actual or potential—of state performance funding policies on higher education institutions in three states: Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee.

This paper examines the major obstacles that hinder higher education institutions from responding effectively to the demands of performance funding programs in three states: Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee.

This paper examines the ways that universities and community colleges in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee have altered their policies, practices, and programs to respond to the demands of performance funding programs.

This study examines the primary policy instruments through which state performance funding systems influence higher education institutions in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee.

This paper summarizes findings from a large study on the implementation and impacts of performance funding in three states that are regarded as leaders in that movement: Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee.

This study provides one of the first estimates of the returns to different types of community college credentials across different fields of study.

This article provides an overview of sociology’s approach to understanding community colleges. It describes sociological theories and their contributions to the field and discusses recent debates on community colleges.

This study examines three developmental acceleration programs—two in English and one in math—and finds that accelerated students were more likely to complete the relevant college-level course within 3 years.

This chapter describes a promising approach to teaching developmental arithmetic and prealgebra and presents findings on a faculty support network that helped instructors adopt new teaching strategies.

This study examines how well students adapt to the online environment in terms of their ability to persist and earn strong grades in online courses relative to their ability to do so in face-to-face courses.

This chapter reports on a major college-wide effort to smooth students’ paths as they enter the college, choose a program, and progress to a credential.

This article reviews the forms, extent, origins, implementation, impacts (intended and unintended), and policy prospects of performance funding.

This paper introduces a model that uses transcript data matched to credit-level cost data and funding formulae to calculate the implications for efficiency of reforms intended to improve completion rates.

Using detailed data from three community colleges, the authors of this study employ the ingredients method to estimate the costs to colleges and students of remedial placement systems at community college.

Using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, this CAPSEE working paper evaluates the postsecondary and labor market outcomes of students who attended for-profit colleges.

This report reviews research evidence on college policies designed to facilitate on-time degree completion among students by encouraging them to enroll in at least 15 credits per semester.

This paper uses administrative data and a rich predictive model to examine the accuracy of remedial screening tests, used either with or instead of high school transcript data to determine remedial assignment.

Based on CCRC’s Readiness for Technology Adoption framework, this self-assessment tool provides rubrics to help colleges identify issues that may need to be addressed to facilitate successful reform.

This study uses a difference-in-differences approach to identify the impact of ESL compared with developmental writing at an urban community college system.

This article uses economic, human, and cultural capital theories to frame and then describe access to undergraduate engineering degree programs and bachelor's degrees.

This practitioner packet aims to help colleges identify areas where students struggle due to complexity in the academic decision-making process and devise low-cost solutions.

This working paper presents a case study of how one large, suburban community college planned and implemented a relatively low-cost redesign of its student intake and information provision processes.

Based on interview data, this discussion paper explores whether faculty and college leaders are considering or undertaking reforms of developmental education informed by the Common Core State Standards.

This report presents a framework that identifies characteristics associated with colleges’ readiness to adopt technology-based reforms, emphasizing the need for both technological and cultural readiness.

In light of cost-cutting practices used by community colleges today, this article argues that the emphasis of policy and practice should be on improving efficiency: the cost per completion of a high-quality credential.

This paper compares the academic outcomes of students at Chabot College who participated in an accelerated, one-semester developmental English course and those who enrolled in a two-semester sequence.

This brief examines changes in entry-level college math enrollment and completion rates in Virginia's community colleges after the introduction of a new math placement test and placement policy.

In CCRC's 2014 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey argues that comprehensive reform has the potential to move the needle on college completion.

Drawing on interviews with students, faculty, and staff at three community colleges, this paper aims to clarify the role of community college student and the behaviors that must be enacted for students to succeed.

This article discusses community college students’ experiences with online and face-to-face learning and implications for community colleges.

This paper estimates technical efficiency scores across the community college sector; it finds that the colleges have become more efficient over time but finds no evidence of economies of scale.

This journal article examines the impact of acceleration on access, performance, credit accumulation, and degree attainment at CUNY.

This practitioner packet provides tools to help community college administrators effectively implement reforms to developmental education at their colleges.

This issue of Inside Out identifies and explores the implications of three faculty orientations toward reform that consistently manifest when an innovation is introduced: ready to act, ambivalent, and reluctant to change.

This paper examines the political forces supporting the enactment of performance funding 2.0 programs—in which performance funding is embedded into base state funding for higher education—in three leading states.

This brief summarizes the research on the impacts of performance funding and suggests ways policymakers implementing performance funding programs can address obstacles and avoid unexpected outcomes.

This paper employs a novel graphical technique to illustrate the diverse enrollment patterns of community college students and examines the relationship between these patterns and successful student outcomes.

This paper argues that policymaking has been impaired by neglect of the fact that returns to college are high and by acceptance of the myth that the college affordability crisis is due to colleges' wasteful spending.

This publication describes efforts by a growing number of colleges and universities to create “guided pathways” designed to increase the rate at which students enter and complete a program of study.

Based on interviews with stakeholders in California, New York, Tennessee, and West Virginia, this report compares initiatives in these states related to early college readiness assessments and transition curricula.

This two-page policy brief summarizes research on early assessment and college readiness "transition courses" and makes recommendations for states considering the approach.

Using an instrumental variable technique, the authors estimate the impact of online versus face-to-face course delivery on student course performance, as indicated by course persistence and final course grade.

Based on survey and focus group data from four community colleges, this research brief discusses why many students who go on to enroll in developmental math are unlikely to prepare for the math placement exam.

This brief examines characteristics and course-taking patterns of students who accumulate a substantial number of college credits but do not earn an award by their fifth year of enrollment.

Findings from this paper suggest that while Pell recipients at community colleges have a stronger academic focus than non-Pell recipients, they may be taking more time to complete a credential than is prudent.

This journal article reviews the evidence for contextualization, an instructional approach that connects foundational skills and college-level content.

Using data from a qualitative investigation of online courses at two community colleges, this paper examines how expectations about the roles of online student and online instructor differ among these two groups.

In this discussion paper, the authors argue that the time has come to comprehensively redesign the Pell program, and they propose three major structural reforms to the Pell Grant program.

This practitioner packet summarizes the research on nonacademic student supports and suggests ways to implement a system of nonacademic supports that will have more sustained impacts on student success.

This study reviews the theories of action that advocates of performance funding have espoused for higher education in three states that are leaders in performance funding: Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee.

Melinda Mechur Karp reviews Higher Education in the Digital Age and argues that the author ignores the potential stratifying effects of online learning in higher education.

This issue of Inside Out describes how community college faculty are working to increase rigor within reformed developmental education classrooms.

This publication examines the diversity of enrollment patterns among community college students and demonstrates a novel graphical technique for displaying large numbers of enrollment patterns.

This monograph reviews the national and state literature on the forms and impacts of performance funding, and it includes policy recommendations and suggestions for further research.

This journal article describes two experiments conducted with developmental students that investigated the impact of a contextualized intervention focused on written summarization and other reading and writing skills.

Using data on credit accumulation, award receipt, and earnings, this paper examines whether it is better for students to earn an associate degree before transferring to a four-year college.

This CAPSEE working paper reviews current research on the effectiveness of interventions and reforms that seek to improve the math preparedness and success of high school students entering college.

Drawing on a scan of remedial reform efforts and fieldwork at 11 colleges, this paper examines trends in reform implementation and provides a framework for strengthening reform efforts and institutional capacity.

This article reviews studies published from 2000 to 2012 on the literacy skills of underprepared postsecondary students and identifies reading and writing processes that have been overlooked in the literature.

This introduction summarizes the purpose and key findings of the four articles in a special edition of the Community College Review.

This publication compares how long it takes students to reach important progression milestones based on their level of academic readiness upon entry.

This article reviews research on what community colleges and less selective public universities can do to graduate more students at a lower cost without sacrificing access or quality.

This article reviews the evidence on various student aid programs and their effects on college enrollment, persistence, and completion and discusses the implications of these findings for aid policy.

This short paper identifies states in which local and statewide efforts have been made to implement early college readiness assessments and transition curricula.

Based on a case study of the City University of New York's six community colleges, this publication identifies the conflicting motivations that shape developmental education reform efforts.

This literature review examines the evidence on student decision making in the community college, focusing on the activities most relevant to students’ entry into programs of study—academic and career planning.

In CCRC's 2013 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey discusses CCRC’s recent research on online education and nonacademic skills and argues that to maximize the potential of online learning, community colleges need to bolster supports for students and instructors.

This publication, the second in CCRC’s Analytics series, examines the progression of community college students in transfer-oriented programs through the general education core curriculum.

This report examines the use of data on students by faculty, administrators, and student services staff at six Washington State colleges that joined Achieving the Dream in 2006–2007.

This report introduces an approach to examining students’ college experiences, identifying factors that catalyze or impede their progress, and using these insights to improve student outcomes.

This publication examines the hidden complexity of completion outcome data and offers an approach to teasing out the complex factors that affect student completion in order to boost student success.

This publication presents eight core ideas to help community college leaders and practitioners address the fundamental challenges to student success.

This practitioner packet summarizes CCRC findings on online course outcomes and presents insights and recommendations for administrators and instructors seeking to improve online student performance.

Based on findings from a three-year study of Washington State’s Student Achievement Initiative, this policy brief offers lessons for state leaders seeking to design effective higher education performance funding systems.

In response to a journal article questioning CCRC’s claims about the effectiveness of developmental education, this essay discusses methodological concerns and other issues that may be a source of confusion.

This NCPR working paper outlines the development of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the CCSS-aligned assessments and argues that they can be used to support the mission of community colleges.

Using administrative data from the Virginia Community College System, this paper examines the associations between student success course enrollment and short-term student outcomes.

The first in CCRC's analytics series, this publication examines characteristics of students who drop out of college after only one semester.

This report discusses the development of FastStart, its program features, and student perspectives, and it presents findings from a quantitative analysis of the FastStart math program.

This report makes a series of policy recommendations for strengthening dual enrollment in Tennessee to ensure that the program contributes to Tennessee's college completion goals.

The Developmental Education Initiative provided funding to 15 colleges to implement or scale up developmental reform strategies. This report examines the implementation of these strategies.

This article discusses political forces that shaped performance funding policies in eight states: Florida, Illinois, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington, California, and Nevada.

This chapter reviews the literature on online learning in community colleges, focusing online course-taking patterns, performance in online versus face-to-face courses, and factors affecting online course performance.

This issue of Inside Out explores how developmental education reforms can create opportunities for faculty to engage in professional learning related to instruction.

This report assesses how and to what extent the Student Achievement Initiative has encouraged two-year public colleges in Washington State to take steps to improve student achievement.

This report describes the progress of six colleges in implementing Achieving the Dream’s “culture of evidence” principles for institutional improvement and charts trends in student outcomes over time.

This NCPR working paper documents the implementation of capstone courses in English and mathematics at more than 20 high schools across Virginia.

This report seeks to understand those aspects of the Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) program that best support student learning, progression, and completion.

This paper presents the findings from a follow-up quantitative analysis of the Community College of Baltimore County’s Accelerated Learning Program (ALP).

Thomas Bailey and Clive Belfield consider the role of community colleges, with particular attention to the benefits to workers (as measured by earnings) of certificates and degrees by field of study.

This paper offers methods for identifying introductory courses that are obstacles to college completion, and the relative extent of the obstacle each poses.

This paper describes a range of approaches to improving poor course placement accuracy and inconsistent standards associated with traditional assessment and placement practices at community colleges.

A study of College 101 courses at three community colleges in Virginia suggests that these courses could have long-term impacts if they focused more on the application and practice of learned skills.

This study examines the structure of community college career-technical programs and its association with program completion.

This chapter discusses instructional approaches intended to prepare initially low-skilled college entrants for the reading, writing, and mathematics skills they need to learn from the postsecondary curriculum.

This paper finds that remediation does little to develop students' skills but does not discourage initial enrollment or persistence, except among students identified as potentially misassigned.

This NCPR working paper compares outcomes of students who participated in dual enrollment courses through the Concurrent Courses Initiative with those of similar students who did not participate.

The three-year study examined the outcomes of almost 3,000 students participating in eight dual enrollment programs across California.

This book chapter discusses community college graduation goals that have been set by the Obama administration, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Lumina Foundation for Education.

This NCPR report presents findings from an experimental study of eight developmental summer bridge programs offered in Texas during the summer of 2009.

This study examines 37 college readiness partnership programs in Texas and the partnerships that created them, identifying their key characteristics as well as benefits and challenges related to their implementation.

This article reviews previous studies on dual enrollment and discusses the results of an evaluation of College Now, the dual enrollment program of The City University of New York.

Using qualitative data from California's Concurrent Courses Initiative, this article explores how teaching in a dual enrollment program can foster new approaches to classroom pedagogy.

This chapter provides a theoretical framework through which to understand the experiences of dual enrollment students as they "try out" the role of college student.

This study examines the effects of student employment on academic outcomes, using a dataset that combines students' transcripts with earning records from the Unemployment Insurance system.