Here are three reports you should know about this month. Racial workforce diversity is a key driver of America’s economic growth as it is one of the most important predictors of business sales revenue, customer numbers, and profitability, say the authors of a new National Skills Coalition report. However, as more jobs require education beyond […]
Completion Articles
Update on Finish Line Grants
Last year, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper announced that the state had awarded more than $1.8 million in Finish Line Grants to 30 community colleges. The goal of the grant program was to help students cover financial emergencies. Since then, all 58 North Carolina community colleges have launched Finish Line Grant initiatives in partnership with […]
‘Uncomfortable conversations’
Community college leaders are addressing equity issues on their campuses — from disaggregating data to get a better picture of who their students are, to eliminating certain programs that don’t lead to local jobs with family-sustaining wages — but it isn’t easy work. In fact, several college leaders who participated Wednesday in a discussion on the […]
The results are in
It’s one thing to know that a program is saving students money. It’s another thing to have data to back that up. Wisconsin’s Western Technical College is saving students a good amount of money with Transcripted Credit courses — and now there’s proof. These courses saved local students roughly $1.6 million throughout 2018-19, a jump […]
Report roundup
Here are three reports you should know about this month. How are colleges and universities responding to the mental health needs of students? To answer that, the American Council on Education surveyed college and university presidents. Of the 400 presidents who responded, 80 percent indicated that student mental health has become more of a priority […]
First Metallica Scholars grads
Edwin Ponce Juarez went to work in a distribution center warehouse after graduating from high school, but he knew there were opportunities for better-paying jobs in the professional trades. He became a “Metallica Scholar,” gaining in-demand skills through the welding program at Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) in Michigan. “I needed a new direction,” he […]
Credit where credit is due
Kentucky’s goal of increasing education attainment by 55,000 postsecondary degrees by 2020 is being helped along by a reverse degree initiative, which just hit a significant milestone. Since the fall of 2013, the University of Louisville (UofL) and its community college partners — Jefferson Community and Technical College (JCTC), Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, Owensboro […]
An opportunity to succeed
This spring, Paola Arias-Batista became one of the first Passaic County Community College (PCCC) students to receive the New Jersey Community College Opportunity Grant (CCOG), a pilot program that enabled qualifying students to attend classes tuition free. “I was so happy to receive this,” said Arias-Batista, who struggled to pay for her own education by […]
Expanding interest in the humanities
“Jazz and the Music of the African Diaspora” is a popular class at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) this summer. Same with “The Politics of Food.” The courses are part of a residential five-week summer academy for community college transfer students who are committed to pursuing humanities majors at UCSD. Offered at no […]
Report roundup
Here are three reports you should know about this month. 1. Colleges are seeing small gains in student persistence. For students who started college in fall 2017 at two-year public institutions, the persistence rate was 62.3 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from the prior cohort year, and up 1.3 percentage points in comparison to the […]