Community College and High School Partnerships

This policy brief, prepared for the White House Summit on Community Colleges, reviews partnerships between community colleges and high schools that can help students succeed in college. These partnerships tend to focus support in the following areas:

• Enrollment in college: Colleges work with high schools on programs, such as dual enrollment, that help students view college matriculation as an option.
• College readiness at enrollment: Colleges and high schools work together to ensure students are prepared and have both the academic and nonacademic skills necessary to succeed in college.
• Persistence in college: Colleges and high schools work together on programs that can smooth students’ transition from high school to college and diminish withdrawal rates in the first year.

The policy brief describes the various college–high school partnership models and concludes with a short discussion of policy and funding considerations.