Despite declines in the number of liberal arts bachelor's degrees awarded by four-year colleges, the growth in liberal arts at community colleges has made up the difference, countering a national narrative that the field is in crisis. As designated by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act, the liberal arts cover a range of…

John Pulley begins this article by sharing the story of Richard Quiroga, a shining example of what can happen when an at-risk student in an economically disadvantaged region gets the right training at the right time. As a young man, Quiroga was living on his own and at risk of getting sucked into the whirlpool of poverty and despair that often…

"The Road to Recovery: Projecting U.S. Job Growth and Higher Education Demand through 2020" (this issue, p26-29) presented six key indicators that highlighted the latest in education and employment needs for the success of the future jobs market. While the U.S. economy is growing, questions still remain: What skills do employers value…

Argues that, despite national data showing a limited role for associate-degree-only graduates in information technology (IT) occupations, the high levels of enrollment, low graduation rates, and large numbers of older students suggest that community colleges are functioning as retraining institutions rather than primary training institutions.…

It is the 20th anniversary of the release of Dale Parnell's landmark book "The Neglected Majority". In this book, Parnell pointed out that for too long America's educational system has focused on the highest and lowest achievers. He made the case that most of those students in the middle two high school quartiles neither prepare for nor aspire to…