Hurricane Katrina reshaped college workforce development programs as thoroughly as it did the coastline--but in this case, the changes were for the good of students, employers and the community. This article discusses the effects and changes made by 4 community colleges who were effected by Hurricane Katrina: (1) Louisiana Community and Technical…

Every year, Lone Star College in Texas hosts a "Men of Honor" program to provide assistance and programming to male students, but particularly those who are Hispanic and black, in hopes their academic performance will improve. Lone Star might have kept directing its limited resources toward these students--and totally missed the subset…

This brief article describes how Alamance Community College, a mid-sized community college sandwiched between two of North Carolina's largest metropolitan markets in Raleigh-Durham and Greensboro-Winston-Salem, has developed several new study programs and initiatives to better service business and industry. Among other things, Almanac has…

The road from teenage resourcefulness to a real-deal corporate operation was paved by the Bucks Business Association, a student led group at Bucks County Community College (BCCC) that hones student leadership, money management and organizational skills. Community colleges throughout the country are sharpening the startup-minded acumen of their…

A few years ago you could not attend a higher education conference without a session on green technology, and the sustainability movement. Emerging job training programs in wind and solar were equipping a new generation of energy workers with skills needed to secure high income jobs in clean energy markets. Campuses were doing their part to become…

The skills gap--the disparity between job openings and job seekers in an employment category--is wider in some sectors and parts of the country than others. The disconnect between community colleges and employers perpetuates the skills gap. Despite the current push among educators, politicians, and employers to increase completion rates, that…

Good leaders need to develop and improve their skills. That's why the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) created a set of competencies for community college leaders that has served as the foundation for informal and doctoral-level training programs. When the original competencies were revised in 2012, AACC sought input from a number…

In recent years and especially over the past 12 months, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the unrest after the death of George Floyd, community colleges have been making efforts to view and rethink their missions through an equity lens. These efforts have included turning this prism toward institutional operations like student services, human…

It's been a rough year for the City College of San Francisco (CCSF). After working to emerge from strict sanctions leveled by its accrediting board in July 2012, the college was notified earlier this summer that its accreditation would be revoked, effective in 2014. Though community college leaders and state officials vowed to return the…

In October 2013, nearly half of U.S. community colleges--46.2 percent-- said upgrading their campus networks is a "very important priority" within the next three years, according to The Campus Computing Project, a survey of 94 community colleges. More robust networks are needed to support a host of new wireless access points and the…

Immigrants and others who didn't grow up speaking English are often at a disadvantage when entering the workforce. One of the best ways for non-native English speakers to level the playing field is to enroll in targeted courses and job-training programs offered through their local community colleges. The best of these programs combines important…

As recently as seven or eight years ago, three quarters of the high school graduates in Florida's Seminole County had to take a remedial math class when they got to college, says Seminole County Public Schools Superintendent Griffin. Thanks to a partnership between the school district and Seminole State College of Florida, however, that figure is…

As community colleges work to improve completion rates, these institutions are also developing homegrown metrics that better represent how they are really doing--and, in many places, these metrics are driving the reforms necessary to improve. Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) defines student success as the number of full-time…

After years of working in the background to build the capacity of two-year college science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) faculty and the skills of technicians, the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program is gaining recognition as a source of STEM workforce expertise. The ATE program's effective mentoring of STEM educators and its…

As community colleges strive to meet President Obama's call to graduate 50 percent more college students by 2020, there is no shortage of promising ideas. But, as educators are learning, not all programs scale. Bringing completion programs to scale requires a fundamental shift in the culture of the college, away from enrollment and toward success.…