Research Projects
October 2024–August 2027
This project continues previous research on Dual Enrollment Equity Pathways (DEEP) by producing research-based guidance, tools, and metrics to support efforts by college and K-12 practitioners to plan, implement, and scale practices aligned with the DEEP framework.
July 2024–June 2028
This project examines the 10-year impact of the City University of New York's Accelerated Studies in Associate Programs on education and labor market outcomes, pooling data from six community colleges in New York and Ohio. It is the first study to assess ASAP’s labor market outcomes, including employment and earnings.
March 2024–February 2029
Researchers will conduct a mixed-methods evaluation of the implementation and effectiveness of the fourth round of the Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants Program (SCC4), which seeks to build community colleges’ capacity to equitably support students in obtaining good jobs and meet employers’ needs for skilled workers by enhancing sector-based career pathways programs.
February 2024–January 2028
The Ohio Strong Start in Science project (OhioSSS) will provide colleges and their science faculty support to review placement procedures, redesign curriculum, and institute academic supports in introductory chemistry, biology and human anatomy and physiology courses.
May 2024–April 2027
This project is examining the potential of mobile-enabled learning (or m-learning). The project will also highlight how individual colleges can develop promising innovations that can be rigorously tested in pilot studies before being scaled across additional institutions, leading to systemwide reform.
March 2024–February 2027
This project addresses equity gaps in developmental education reforms and seeks interventions to generate larger and longer-lasting effects for underserved students.
July 2023–December 2024
Working with Complete College America, CCRC researchers will identify colleges closing equity gaps between students of color and their peers. This project is intended to highlight opportunities to integrate student success reforms with culturally sustaining offerings.
September 2022–August 2026
In this project, researchers will use a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate whether a cost-of-living grant for low-income community college students increases college retention and completion.
September 2023–December 2025
To build a sustainable future, community colleges are aligning training programs to the opportunities and demands of a green economy. However, research has yet to document the actions community colleges are taking nationally to prepare students for jobs in the green economy.
September 2023–August 2025
Working with Dr. Lauren Schudde and her team at the University of Texas at Austin, CCRC researchers are examining which types of dual enrollment deliver the strongest educational and economic returns, in which states dual enrollment is more effective, and opportunities for greater impact.
January 2023–December 2024
This project explores the backgrounds and goals of adult education ESL students and the barriers they face navigating long ESL course sequences and complicated performance requirements. It will also examine how City College Chicago campuses are reforming ESL, how federal and state policy related to ESL courses is helping or hindering student outcomes, and the perspectives of adult education ESL instructors.
January 2023–December 2025
Using surveys and interviews with students, faculty, and staff, as well as
administrative data, this project will explore students’ decision-making about programs of study and what perceptions they have about these programs over the course of their college careers.
June 2023–September 2024
This study will identify what topics colleges most want to learn about and what they see as their most pressing challenges. The findings will be used to make recommendations regarding what applied research organizations, intermediaries, technical assistance providers, and funders can do to design and implement applied learning activities that will do a better job of attracting and addressing the needs of underserved colleges.
September 2022–August 2024
In this project, CCRC will partner with the Aspen Institute and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) to update two influential publications on transfer but with a more central focus on improving equity in bachelor’s degree attainment among community college transfer students.
September 2022–August 2025
CCRC is partnering with the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) and the University of Pennsylvania to examine and improve Get A Skill, Get A Job, Get Ahead (G3), VCCS’s pandemic workforce recovery initiative.
September 2022–August 2025
The Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges Network (ARCC Network) is studying strategies that community colleges are using to combat enrollment drops, learning loss, and other negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the three years of the project, the network will work closely with community colleges and college systems to identify and evaluate programs and policies designed to bring students back to college and accelerate their academic progress.
June 2022–November 2025
In this project, CCRC and the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program will collaborate with 10 community colleges or districts to improve their students’ post-college outcomes.
January 2022–January 2027
The Regional Education Laboratory (REL) Northwest, led by WestEd, is creating a toolkit to facilitate the adoption of the recommendations in a practice guide on technology and postsecondary instruction from the Institute of Education Sciences at the Department of Education. In this project, CCRC will evaluate a professional learning component of the toolkit.
January 2022–December 2023
In this two-year project, CCRC will develop additional guidance for state policymakers on how they can support the scaling of dual enrollment equity pathways (DEEP) practices across their states.
August 2021–December 2024
This project will examine community college funding policy and institutional resources allocation in Texas, California, and Ohio.
