After graduating from a Title I high school with strong STEM preparatory programs, David enrolled in his local community college. He was able to quickly complete an associate degree, thanks to significant high school dual-enrollment and AP credits. Upon successfully transferring to the state flagship university, he was disappointed to learn that some STEM majors […]

Most Likely to Succeed. It’s more a phrase bandied about in high school yearbooks. Getting students to a place where they can succeed is critical to community colleges’ funding and mission. And now, it’s also the focus of a new ranking tool created by the Brookings Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. The tool, “Beyond College […]

The pledge to provide innovative ways to deliver instruction, along with affordable access, is inscribed in the mission statement of Columbia Basin College, in Washington state. One of the college’s most recent moves toward fulfilling that promise is to take on the role of lead institution in a statewide pilot program using competency-based education (CBE). Launching […]

SAN ANTONIO—The theme of measuring student and institutional progress continued to garner attention at this year’s American Association of Community Colleges’ (AACC) annual convention. Data are key to helping colleges calculate completion rates and better gauge student success. But as community colleges know all too well, not all data systems in use translate for community […]

Editor’s note: The American Association of Community Colleges’ (AACC) Annual Convention is underway in San Antonio. This article is part of a series on the Community College Daily by Tabitha Whissemore that profiles nominees of AACC’s 2015 Awards of Excellence. This piece focuses on the four finalists in the category of advancing diversity. The winner, Sylvia Jenkins, president, Moraine […]

When the majority of students in a community college system have their sights set on obtaining a bachelor’s degree, it makes sense to encourage them to explore every avenue to reach that goal — even if it means leaving the state. Leaders at California community colleges saw a prime opportunity to help more students of […]

A couple of weeks ago, in response to President Barack Obama’s proposal for free community college for striving students, Tom Hanks wrote a New York Times op-ed about his two years at Chabot College in Hayward, Calif.: I Owe It All to Community College. Hanks credits his community college with offering him an open door […]

Here’s an argument you can take to your next meeting with state funding officials: According to new research from Columbia University and the Career Ladders Project, female students who obtain long-term certificates increase their wages by 15 percent, compared with women who attend college but don’t earn a credential or degree. Women who earn associate degrees see wages rise […]

Community college leaders know their institutions’ degrees and credentials offer wide-ranging value to the students who obtain them. But proving that value can be difficult. The Post Collegiate Outcomes (PCO) Initiative aims to help. This framework, developed by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and other higher education groups, is designed to help college and university leaders quantify the public, […]

Hopefully, community college leaders who attended the College Opportunity Day of Action at the White House on December 4, 2014, left the event feeling encouraged about their mission to improve student success. “Anytime you have the president of the United States and the vice president of the United States involved in an event that engages […]