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Redesigning America’s Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success

By Thomas Bailey, Shanna Smith Jaggars & Davis Jenkins

Our nation is urgently trying to increase the number of college graduates it produces, and community colleges are under enormous pressure to contribute to this growth. In Redesigning America’s Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success, Thomas Bailey, Shanna Smith Jaggars, and Davis Jenkins argue that to substantially increase student completion, community colleges must engage in fundamental redesign.

Synthesizing findings from CCRC’s intensive study of community colleges over the past eight years, Bailey, Jaggars, and Jenkins argue that improving developmental education, instruction, student supports, and the overall student experience is necessary but not sufficient; targeted reforms must be implemented as part of a broader institutional restructuring.

The authors delineate a set of research-based design principles and strategies to help colleges achieve this challenging goal, and lay out a path for community colleges working to achieve greater success for their students, and for our nation as a whole.

The authors discussed the book at a panel event on May 14, 2015 in Washington, DC. A recording of the event is available below.

Thomas Bailey was also interviewed about the book on WNYC’s Leonard Lopate Show on July 8, 2015. A recording of the discussion is available on WNYC’s website.

Order book from Amazon
April 2015
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April 2015
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April 2015
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July 2015

Related Publications

September 2021

How to Achieve More Equitable Community College Student Outcomes: Lessons From Six Years of CCRC Research on Guided Pathways

April 2021

Investing in Student Success at Community Colleges: Lessons From Research on Guided Pathways

October 2019

The Role of Librarians in Guided Pathways Reforms

Additional Resources

For more policy briefs and fact sheets, visit CCRC’s Policy Resources page.

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