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Bridges to Opportunity for Underprepared Adults: A State Policy Guide for Community College Leaders

By Multiple Authors
This guide offers practical strategies and tools for addressing the need to provide large numbers of working-age adults with education and training that will give them access to opportunities for social mobility and enable them to secure jobs that pay sufficient wages to support a family. The guide describes what states can do to break down barriers that stand in the way of success for underprepared adult students; lays out case studies of Louisiana, Ohio and Washington that have changed state policy to encourage community colleges to better serve underprepared adults; provides strategies and tools for states to implement a comprehensive strategy to cultivate state policies that will support the success of underprepared adults; and presents guidelines on getting started for stakeholders within and outside state government. This guide is based on lessons from the Ford Foundation–funded Community College Bridges to Opportunity initiative, a multiyear effort designed to bring about changes in state policy that improve education and employment outcomes for educationally and economically disadvantaged adults.
  • Evaluation of the Community College Bridges to Opportunity Initiative

Download Links

Download report
December 2008
View press release
December 2008

Related Publications

April 2005

Building Pathways to Success for Low-Skill Adult Students: Lessons for Community College Policy and Practice From a Statewide Longitudinal Tracking Study

Additional Resources

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

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