Community colleges are the connective tissue of the US postsecondary education system. For communities across the country, these institutions train the skilled technical workforce, anchor partnerships with local industries, and act as hubs for students and workers in transition. By offering diverse education and training pathways to students at all stages of their academic and professional careers, community colleges are well positioned to support social, economic, and educational mobility.
But measuring these contributions poses challenges. Data on community college outcomes are collected at the state level, by the federal government, and by a number of private organizations. Yet with few exceptions, these datasets operate independently of one another, and their levels of public accessibility vary. The resulting data ecosystem is rich but fragmented, and the remaining gaps and blind spots constrain researchers’ abilities to measure all the community college outcomes that matter. These information gaps hinder institutional action, as well as legislative and consumer decisionmaking.
The authors of this article analyzed the community college data ecosystem to better understand the existing sources, gaps, and opportunities to build a more useful collection of evidence for decisionmakers. Constructing a more robust and student-centered data ecosystem will require sustained investment from all stakeholders, especially the federal government. But such a system is needed to inform policies that better leverage community colleges’ roles in workforce development and regional economic growth. Furthermore, more granular and widely accessible data will enable researchers to ask more nuanced questions, which can lead to better services and support at every level of education.