The U.S. college-going population has diversified significantly in the past five decades. That fact, combined with a large community college capacity, an increased need for highly skilled workers, and the knowledge that higher education means social and economic mobility, makes improving student success at community colleges essential. All 116…

One of the key commitments of the Community College Research Initiatives (CCRI's) STEM Transfer Partnership (STP) program is to transform STEM transfer pathways and improve outcomes for students from low-income backgrounds using student input. Student input is an essential element in institutional transformation for student success but the process…

In this paper we present the Advancing Racial Equity in Community College Model which maps out the organizational conditions shaping institutional transformation. Focused on two dimensions, the level of "organizational support" and "shared responsibility" to enact equity, we describe four quadrants with distinct organizational…

The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) launched Leading from the Middle (LFM) in 2013 to develop and support middle leaders in community colleges across California. Each year LFM produces an internal evaluation report that presents participants' perspectives about what they learned from their experience and…

This is the executive summary for "Middle Leaders in College Redesign: Leading from the Middle 2019." The report focuses on the roles middle leaders play in Guided Pathways. This summary is organized by the three overarching outcomes of Leading from the Middle (LFM), moving from the broadest institutional level to the individual…

Forty-one percent of U.S. adults ages 25 and older have no more than a high school education, and 26.5 million people in that age bracket--12 percent of them--lack even that. Today, many adult basic education (ABE) programs are run by the local K-12 school district, but academic courses and career training are frequently lumped together with…

Lorain County Community College (LCCC) was designed for access, however, not necessarily completion. The college was unprepared for students who wanted to earn a degree but then often didn't make it to graduation. In 2011, LCCC retained fewer than six in ten students. Its three-year graduation rate was 8 percent. For African American students, it…

Community colleges are not immune to the challenges faced by the education sector as they try to continue providing quality learning experiences during the ongoing pandemic. Some might argue that COVID-19 exposed vulnerabilities that have long needed attention, such as the 16-week semester model, a heavy reliance on in-person learning, a lack of…

Dual credit coursework has become a popular strategy to bolster the college completion agenda, yet research on program implementation is scarce. This qualitative interview study uses complexity theory to investigate how 103 teachers enacted dual credit at eight high schools partnered with a community college system in Texas. Findings demonstrate…

This study examines the efforts of higher education systems in six states to implement large-scale changes to improve student outcomes in mathematics in community colleges and four-year colleges and universities as part of the Mathematics Pathways to Completion (MPC) project. The three-year project was launched in 2015 to help Arkansas,…

The Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the developer of the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) model, initiated the Mathematics Pathways to Completion (MPC) project to support each of six states in developing a broad statewide vision for mathematics pathways and a plan for institutional implementation of the DCMP…

The State of Maryland has always prided itself on being a leader in higher education. In 2012, the Career and College Readiness and College Completion Act (CCRCCA) set an ambitious goal: that 55% of Marylanders would have at least one degree by 2025. Reaching this goal requires increasing college access and completion across a wide variety of…

Community colleges are beginning to build on guided pathways reforms in partnership with employers, universities, and K-12 schools to create cross-sector pathways to college and career opportunities for students--particularly those students traditionally underserved by higher education. The aim is to improve economic mobility for community…

"Breaking Barriers" shows how to redesign high schools so that all students can move on to college and successful careers. In a negation of the American Dream, a child's zip code is currently a far better predictor of success than hard work, intelligence, or resilience. This book tells the story of a school model that focuses on equity…

The Central Ohio Partnership for College and Career Readiness Expansion (CCRE) is a collaboration led by Columbus State Community College in partnership with Jobs for the Future (JFF), the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio (ESC), the SERVE Center at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and seven school districts that aims to…