Community colleges provide a viable arena for workforce development, but it is important that employers and business leaders also invest in employee development. This report identifies steps that employers/business leaders and community college boards can take to promote community colleges as a way to raise the level of skill in the American workforce, including partnering in the development of curriculum and training programs. The authors provide examples from current programs and initiatives.

This longitudinal study, conducted by the National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment to improve the understanding of how learning communities work, compares the experiences of first-year community college students in learning communities and traditional classes. Researchers also conducted a case study on the effectiveness of collaborative learning strategies and identified common themes in students’ experiences that impacted their views of learning and persistence in higher education.

Drawing on data from four large-scale surveys of community college students, faculty, and administrations, the Center explores the benefit potential of 13 promising practices for student success, with a particular focus on students’ early experiences within the college setting (e.g., assessment and course placement, first-year experiences, learning communities). The report includes specific examples of schools’ implementation of these practices and provides guidance on how colleges can design and bring their own programs to scale.

Regularly faced with budget reductions, public colleges and universities are still expected to improve access to education. This report examines various performance measures at higher education systems nationwide against the levels of per-student funding. Measures analyzed include completion rates, degree productivity, and research and development. From this initial study, they find that different institutions can perform at the same level with differing amounts of resources, and therefore, some institutions can maintain or improve performance with fewer resources.

In many industries, opportunities for advancement depend on additional training that employers may be reluctant to provide, seeing it as a disruption that compromises service. This practice guide discusses the Jobs to Career Initiative, a work-based learning model which integrates learning into the job and provides participants the opportunity to earn college credit. This approach is considered most effective for frontline healthcare workers who often earn low wages. While the approach is still developing, the authors highlight two sites where it is being implemented and offer lessons learned and suggestions for site-specific strategies.

MDRC’s Opening Doors Demonstration worked with six community colleges, using a control-trial study to evaluate the impact of various combinations of curricular reform, enhanced advising, and financial aid incentives on student persistence. This qualitative study draws from one-on-one interviews with a sample of students at two Opening Doors sites—Lorain County Community College and Kingsborough Community College—to gain a better understanding of how the Opening Doors services impact students’ college experiences.

Few institutions of higher learning have yet to figure out how to successfully graduate a majority of their students, much less place them in high-wage jobs. This report describes the Tennessee Technology Centers —a statewide system of 27 institutions that provide rigorous technical and occupational education programs at consistently high completion and placement rates. The report provides an overview of the system and examines four integrated components of its institutional framework—program structure; a competency-based, self-paced learning model; contextualized foundation skills; and supportive services—and discusses how each contributes to the effectiveness seen in this new model of student success.

Research shows that the more developmental courses a student takes, the lesser the chances of successfully completing a degree or certificate. This report examines the performance outcomes between students enrolled in an accelerated developmental English course (one semester) and those enrolled in a two-semester developmental sequence at one California community college, where students choose between the two pathways regardless of placement score. Using longitudinal data, the author presents findings showing that students who had taken the accelerated English course completed college English at significantly higher rates than those who had taken the developmental sequence. The author discusses implications of developmental education and the need to reform its traditional, multi-leveled sequence to improve student completion rates.

The Achieving the Dream website offers a national longitudinal database, data notes, and research publications all targeted to improving student outcomes at community colleges. 

Facilitated by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) and a key Lumina Foundation commitment to increasing adult college completion, the Adult College Completion Network, offers opportunities to engage, expand, and explore promising practices.

Because federal financial aid is underwritten by tax dollars, the U.S. Department of Education has verification procedures in place that result in many applications being flagged for review, requiring students to resubmit part or all of their applications, often with supporting documentation. This process, if not completed properly by students, may result in their not receiving aid for which they qualify. Using financial aid data from 13 California community colleges and interviews with students and financial aid administrators, this report examines the verification process as conducted by community colleges, with attention to the communication between schools and students.

An ever-evolving labor market requires that education and training keep up with changing demands to ensure that students and graduates are equipped to pursue and attain available jobs. This report discusses the challenges that postsecondary institutions have staying abreast of current labor market demands and offering courses that prepare students with the skills employers need. The author proposes that community colleges use online job advertisements to identify local hiring trends and skill requirements and use the findings to inform career pathway curricula. Additionally, the author presents three steps for analyzing online job ads, identifies features of actual online job sites that would enable this analysis, and describes five examples from the field.

“Learn-and-Earn” describes a type of educational program that integrates career-oriented curriculum, relevant work experience, and financial assistance. In this summary, the authors provide a brief overview of the characteristics of various program models and the findings uncovered from analysis of existing programs. Among these findings: learn-and-earn programs function better when the organizations involved (e.g., postsecondary institutions, employers, and state policymakers) have functional partnerships with clearly agreed-upon goals.

The Best Practice Web site provides information to help college leaders develop innovative solutions to challenges which face their institutions. The Web site may be utilized to learn about new techniques, improve processes, create new programs, make current programs more effective and enhance outreach. 

Since the future of California’s economy is dependent upon its ability to fulfill workforce demands with highly educated individuals, improving completion and transfer rates at community colleges is key. This report examines the importance of a positive and successful first semester for improving persistence and transfer rates of community college students intending to transfer to a four-year college. The author discusses how actual student retention behavior doesn’t match educational aspirations and that policymakers need to pay less attention to college access and more attention to factors that foster student persistence in college, such as course-taking patterns and grades in transfer-eligible courses, and especially for students who reflect California’s changing demographics.

The new American majority of students on college campuses, especially community colleges, is a population balancing work and school within an outdated system that was designed for full-time, residential students. This policy brief describes how college completion rates can be improved if students took less time to graduate, which could be achieved if schools offered more directed program choices and fewer individual course options. The author maintains that state leaders and policymakers, as well as leaders of higher education, must enact reform efforts that are systemic and replicable toward changing the structure of community colleges, such as those in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee.

The Bridging Research, Information, and Culture (BRIC) Initiative aims to strengthen cultures of inquiry and evidence in the California community college system via three, complementary means: 1. a technical assistance initiative, access to a suite of resources, and dedicated support to institutional researchers and planners. The site includes downloadable resources in several content areas including assessing student learning outcomes.

Our nation’s ability to recover economically and ensure a livable income for low-skilled workers is dependent upon building a more skilled workforce. Postsecondary institutions play a critical role in training and educating individuals for this new workforce, but they need to improve the success rates of these students. According to this policy brief, states need to establish an effective state data system to measure postsecondary student performance and track outcomes, especially for nontraditional students and low-income workers, and to use that data to improve these students’ outcomes. The author examines possible barriers states may encounter, presents ways to assure a K-20 longitudinal data system, and offers recommendations for policy action and next steps for building or reforming a student data system.

Certain false assumptions can undermine the implementation of lasting and effective change. The authors present the realities behind these “myths,” exploring what leadership actions are needed to assess and mitigate the risks involved in major organizational change. While presenting examples primarily from the corporate realm, the major ideas are applicable within an educational setting.

African American students, particularly men, have historically underperformed in postsecondary education. To better serve these students, it is important for community colleges to have a strong understanding of the factors that influence their college experience. This combined quantitative/qualitative study examines the specific institutional factors at one California community college to identify which factors correlate with higher educational outcomes. Findings show that African American men perceive themselves as unsupported by and disconnected from the college community, but positive peer and faculty interactions can build a more supportive environment and relate to higher outcomes.

Key note speech on the pivital role of trustees delivered by Jamie P., Merisotis, President of Lumina Foundation for Education delivered to the Association of Community College Trustees Annual Leadership Congress in Sna Francisco on October 8, 2009.

Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) conducts projects and offers a variety of research-based resources related to the education of English language learners in a variety of settings, including: prekindergarten-Grade 12 programs, universities and community colleges, adult education programs, and workplace programs.

Our nation’s states and colleges are being charged with the task to lead the world in college attainment. With consideration to the certificate as another option for completing higher education, this report describes how postsecondary institutions award certificates and who the individuals are that are earning them. Based on research studies, the author presents findings about labor market payoff from long-term certificates and recommends ways that colleges, states, and federal policymakers can maximize the potential of certificates for helping individuals and improving the economy. Recommendations include setting more aggressive goals for awarding more long-term certificates, aligning certificates to market needs, and focusing on program completion.

This literature review analyzes social science, education, and policy studies from the last 25 years to identify factors that contribute to and inhibit community college success. Focusing on aspects of opportunity structure, institutional policy, and student attributes, the author summarizes past research on issues such as governance, financial aid and economic hardship, developmental education, classroom practices, and academic preparation; offers brief notes on current promising reform initiatives; and outlines suggestions for future research.

A guide to assist community college faculty, staff, and administrators as they begin their work to rethink and redesign their systems, programs, and instruction to improve student completion.

Among first-time community college students, the credential completion rate is low but the rates of completion are even less successful for low-income students. This paper uses quantitative data of a single cohort from the state of Washington to chart the rates at which students, especially socioeconomically disadvantaged students, enter a concentration, take remedial courses in each concentration, earn certificates or degrees, or transfer to four-year institutions. The authors examine the course-taking behavior of low-income students and find that compared to their peers from higher socioeconomic levels, low-income students are more likely to start in adult basic courses and less likely to enter a concentration in a field of study. Of those who select a concentration, low-income students are more likely to enter in career technical education, where completion rates are lower.

This toolkit from the U.S. Department of Education provides guidance for state leadership and policymakers as they work to improve college completion rates. It explores why and how to implement seven targeted strategies to increase student success. These strategies impact all phases of the college-going process and cover topics including aligning high school and college standards and using data to drive decision making.

Communities Learning in Partnership (CLIP) is an online learning community for the seven cities selected for the nine-month planning phase of a new, multi-year initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Participating cities include: Dayton, Ohio; Jacksonville, Fla.; Mesa, Ariz.; New York City; Phoenix; Riverside, Calif.; and San Francisco. Membership is required for participation. 

CCSSE’s survey instrument, The Community College Student Report provides information on student engagement, a key indicator of learning and quality of community colleges. The survey, administered to community college students, asks questions that assess institutional practices and student behaviors that are correlated highly with student learning and student retention. The Community College Student Report is a versatile, research-based tool appropriate for multiple uses.

As community colleges are working to improve student completion rates, it’s not often that college leaders can learn the collective views of their students about what’s working and not working for them at the institution. This report uses focus group data to describe the perspectives of community college students— current students, completers, and non-completers—and their community college experiences. Specifically, the authors identify findings as they relate to three areas: connection to information and supports, connection to instructional services, and connection to career and/or career exploration. In each area, the authors discuss students’ perspectives on the services that met their needs, key challenges they encountered, and suggestions for improving how colleges can be more proactive in anticipating student needs and engaging student learning.

Colleges nationwide are developing structured pathways to help students who would otherwise struggle to complete college to enter credit programs that lead to credentials with high labor market value. States have an important role to play in adopting the right policies to support and sustain colleges’ efforts to build these pathways that offer students the structure and assistance they need. JFF’s Lara Couturier offers 10 high-leverage policy recommendations for states in her latest brief, Cornerstones of Completion . Policy topics range from faculty-led curricular alignment, to building CTE pathways, accelerating developmental ed, supporting college advising, and using real-time labor market information.

According to American employers, our nation’s college graduates are not prepared for the workforce, despite having “served their time” in school. This report describes the history of the “credit hour” and how it has become standard practice for colleges to award degrees based on seat time rather than on learning attained. The author discusses the negative consequences this practice has had on completion rates and student debt. In response, the author recommends how the federal government can use three existing tools that would redefine “credit hours,” award financial aid based on learning and not time, and support innovation and experimentation in this area.

This brief report profiles a young adult returning to school through the support of a Back on Track program, “X-Cel,” aimed at getting disconnected youth on a path toward postsecondary success. Focusing on the journey of this one individual, the report describes how X-Cel provides one-to-one support to low-income, young adults to help them successfully complete high school and navigate the obstacles of college.

Whether a student begins college in developmental education or in college-credit courses is determined by a single, high-stakes assessment. This paper uses data on more than 42,000 first-time students at a large, urban community college system to examine the predictive validity of one of the most commonly used placement assessments. The author analyzes the difference of predicted success in math and English based on placement accuracy and error rates, and suggests that multiple measures for making placement decisions would reduce misplaced students in developmental education and the remediation rate.

Various student ethnic populations are likely to have very different conceptions of the campus community, and these conceptions have a significant impact on their experience of postsecondary education. All schools, but particularly those with increasingly diverse student populations, need to understand this and provide effective targeted supports that address the racial climate on campus. This report offers a detailed review of research on the impact of racial climate on student attitudes and outcomes and provides examples of programs schools have implemented to address the complexities of student diversity.

Reviewing existing literature, this brief identifies four key functions of effective workforce intermediaries—serving both employers and workers, organizing multiple partners and funding streams toward common goals, providing labor market services beyond job matching, and projecting a vision that guides partnerships and activities—and provides expanded explanations for each function. In addition, the authors explore ways community colleges can expand their workforce development training and otherwise improve services for working students.

Students forced to complete a long sequence of remedial or English language classes before they can begin their postsecondary program are less likely to earn college certificates or degrees. This brief highlights six promising programs that show how career pathway bridges help lower-skilled students move farther and faster along college and career paths through programs that link basic skills and occupational certificate courses. The author explains two career pathway bridges models — the paired course approach and the integrated course approach — and describes how six colleges implement either approach to meet the particular needs of lower-skilled adults.

States are considering the use of financial incentives to encourage students to complete a postsecondary credential. In this February 2012 interview with Dr. Richard Freeland, Commissioner of Higher Education for Massachusetts, Freeland discusses how state policy in the Commonwealth is aiming to increase postsecondary completion for low-income students and to close the racial achievement gap in postsecondary attainment. In his interview, Freeland describes the Vision Project, a pilot project in which Massachusetts public institutions of higher education develop a concrete proposal, based on promising practices and recommendations, for experimenting with the use of financial aid to improve college access and success for students in need.

Today’s college student is working while attending school, and as a result, is taking longer to earn a degree or complete courses for transfer — provided they don’t lose momentum and drop out first. In this article, the author examines how the new majority of postsecondary students are balancing work and college, and proposes new policies that boards of trustees can enact to specifically reduce the time it takes for a student to graduate. To save students time, the author advocates for fewer choices in the following ways: 1) Students sign up for a “program” with a set pathway of course requirements rather than sign up for individual courses that may delay progress, and 2) Colleges offer more structured scheduling, enabling students to plan for daily class attendance rather than anticipating an unpredictable schedule semester to semester.

Students often enter community college without having a clear sense of their educational and career goals. However, data show that success rates decline as students delay their entry into a focused program of study. Using data from a sample of nearly 12,000 first- time community college students, this report provides schools with a model tracking process they can use to monitor student progress toward an academic concentration. In addition, the author includes guiding questions that schools can use to evaluate their policies and an overview of practices to consider when undertaking improvement efforts.

One population of postsecondary students who leave school before completion is adult learners. This report describes a six-state project aimed at raising educational attainment levels by focusing on identifying and eliminating barriers that keep adults with prior college credit from completing their postsecondary degrees. The report discusses how these states used data to identify ready adults and formed workgroups to examine and tackle state and institutional policy and practice barriers in five areas:  data, academic affairs, student services, financing and financial aid, and communications and outreach. The authors present a state-by-state profile describing the role that state governance structure and institutional context played in addressing barriers, as well as recommendations and promising strategies each state employed. Overall findings and recommendations conclude the report.

The Governance Institute for Student Success is a national initiative designed to provide a governance leadership model that will identify key policy decisions, actions, and levers for institutional transformation that trustees and presidents can utilize throughout the country to support innovation, accountability, and work to break the logjam of developmental education and improve student success, equity, and completion.

Students receiving financial aid for their postsecondary education can budget their expenses with the anticipation of tuition, books, and living expenses; however, for a low-income student facing an unforeseen financial crisis, the unplanned expenses and lack of funds may lead to dropping out of school. This report evaluates two Lumina Foundation for Education emergency financial aid programs — the Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund — created to assist students at community colleges or tribal colleges and universities who are at risk of dropping out because of unexpected financial crises. The two programs are evaluated for how they are designed and implemented at the participating colleges and universities, focusing on the most frequent reasons students request financial help, eligibility parameters schools use for awarding grants, characteristics of aid recipients, impact on student retention, and fundraising capacities. Based on the data of the 37 Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund colleges, the authors capture challenges that the participating institutions faced and present lessons learned and recommendations for colleges interested in instituting similar emergency financial aid programs.

The Transition Plan for House Bill 3 contains a detailed description of the process the commissioner of education used to develop and implement the provisions of House Bill 3 (81st Texas Legislature, 2009), as required by Section 68 of the bill. The transition plan has sections covering the development of the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR™) program; the development of new performance ratings for Texas public schools; federal requirements for assessment and accountability; accreditation, sanctions and interventions; and financial accountability.

Recognizing college as an important aspect of their lives improves students’ chances of persisting, but community college students often have difficulty prioritizing it as such. This literature review examines how four non-academic supports—creating social relationships, clarifying aspirations and enhancing commitment, developing college know-how, and making college life feasible—can help students integrate into college-going culture and provides guidance for ensuring students have knowledge of and access to non-academic supports.

Postsecondary institutions are faced with the tremendous challenge of how to improve student persistence. Open access institutions, which serve greater proportions of high-risk students, see even lower rates of retention and graduation than do selective institutions. Based on a study of four for-profit schools in Texas that had high graduation rates and low student loan default rates, this report describes what those institutions did to achieve such positive outcomes, particularly for these high-risk students. This study finds that among these institutions, a combination of key institutional practices aimed at retaining and graduating students along with establishment of a culture that emphasizes completion and job placement contributed to these schools’ abilities to support postsecondary student success.

Far too many community college students, especially developmental education students, are at risk of failing, and thus at greater risk of not earning a living wage or advancing through job opportunities. This policy brief examines the challenges of developmental education and the efforts that states can pursue to increase the success of students enrolled in remedial courses, leading to improved rates of transition to credit-bearing courses. The authors recommend that state policymakers consider policy changes affecting data systems, assessment and placement, concurrent developmental and college-level course taking, financial aid eligibility, support services, and funding for new models of delivery. These recommendations are discussed along with brief examples of what a few states have done to increase student transition out of developmental education.

Low-income, minority, and adult students’ lower rates of passing introductory courses reduce their chances of earning a degree. Introductory courses are often generic and lecture-based, failing to meet the learning needs of students, but some institutions have effectively redesigned instructional approaches to increase rates of course completion. In this monograph, researchers identified six characteristics integrated into the student learning experience in the effective approaches, including student-centered learning, computer-based learning and testing resources, and on-demand help. Examining the implementation of redesigned courses in colleges with large populations of underserved students, the authors found improved outcomes for underserved students.

This Internal Stakeholder Engagement toolkit is designed to support cadres’ and colleges’ efforts to more effectively engage key internal stakeholders (faculty, staff, and administration) during the final quarter of the Completion by Design (CBD) planning year. While the short- term goal of this toolkit is to help the managing partner directors, senior partners, cadre team leads, co-leads, and trained facilitators engage internal stakeholders to inform the design of the cadres’ model pathway plans, it is important that cadres also take a broader view of this work and plan accordingly. 

As the costs of college increase and the amount of financial aid awarded students decreases, low-income students are impacted in ways that are critical to their college enrollment and success. This report examines how barriers to financial aid access are as a result of systemic issues at the federal, state, and institutional levels, but how especially for low-income adult students, these trends lessen the opportunities for postsecondary success. Based on conversations with practitioners, policymakers, and other experts on financial aid, the authors offer key recommendations to funders on improving financial aid access toward the goal of increasing college access and completion for low-income young adults: Support the leveraging of existing aid channels, innovate aid access and delivery, and expand the amount of aid in the system.

Effective education reform constitutes an adaptive challenge; that is, it is complex, and even when effective solutions are found, little authority exists to impose their universal implementation. In this article, the authors draw on an example of foundation and school district partnership in Pittsburgh to examine the role of foundation leadership in helping stakeholders respond to adaptive challenges.

Community colleges serve diverse student populations that have a wide range of reasons for attendance. As such, it’s challenging to assess the specific needs that could lead to improving student progression and retention. Based on survey results, this report discusses the challenges community colleges face in using assessment data to inform decision making on issues ranging from improving instruction to allocating resources. The authors provide examples of promising practices in assessment and offer guidance and cautions for community colleges in using and identifying new assessments for greater transparency and accountability and for improving student outcomes.

As educational innovation is meant to create improved outcomes for students, it’s important to understand how students actually experience their education. This essay discusses the efforts of Strengthening Pre-Collegiate Education in Community College participants in gathering student feedback and integrating it into the evaluation of improvement efforts.

As decision makers in education are required to make evidence-based decisions, they would benefit from a high-quality longitudinal data system. This document presents the five key factors from a pilot project in Arkansas to support end-users to make effective use of the data stored in the state’s longitudinal data system. Also included are appendices with sample charts, an example of a professional development syllabus, and a data analysis framework.

This memo is first in a series of eight memos responding to questions regarding student service delivery methods and structures.

Memo 1 addresses the question: Is there research on the value or benefit of mandating orientation, assessment, and counseling to improve student success and completion in community college? If so, what has the research found? If not, are there example(s) of colleges that are testing out those practices?

This memo is third in a series of eight memos responding to questions regarding student service delivery methods and structures.

Memo 3 addresses the question: What research is there on the effectiveness of student success courses in helping to improve community college student outcomes? What are the elements of an effective student success course?

This memo is fifth in a series of eight memos responding to questions regarding student service delivery methods and structures. 

Memo 5 addresses the question: Does the research provide information on the effectiveness of automated degree audits and online education plans to improve student outcomes (e.g., persistence, degree/certificate completion)?

This memo is seventh in a series of eight memos responding to questions regarding student service delivery methods and structures.

Memo 7 addresses the question: Are some student support services demonstrated to be more effective for high-need, high- touch students and for low-need students? If so, what services are most effective for each group of students?

Our nation has increasing labor market demands and is relying on community colleges to help educate more students to fill the workforce gaps. In order to provide a successful education for a broader population, community colleges need to expand what’s working on a bigger scale; however, they need to do it in a sustainable way. After examining common barriers to scaling up institutional practices using traditional, less effective approaches, this guide suggests a framework—a different organizational approach—that community colleges might consider for scaling up existing programs. The guide offers a systematic approach to assessing institutional readiness for change, followed by a detailed, five-step process for moving forward that includes helpful tools, case examples, and discussions on what to anticipate.

This resource explains the organization of the National Career Development Guidelines, a career knowledge, skills, and decision-making framework. For each of three domains—Personal Social Development, Educational Achievement and Lifelong Learning, and Career Management—the framework identifies competency goals and, based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, identifies a developmental sequence of the knowledge and skills needed to achieve the goal.

With businesses in Ohio facing a growing need for skilled employees but a lack of qualified candidates, it became clear that the state needed a way to quickly prepare low-skilled adults for the workforce. This report presents the “Stackable Certificate” framework developed by Community Research Partners, which was to designed shore up adult students’ basic skills in math and reading while simultaneously providing them with for-credit career training.

Based on survey data of more than 600 young adults, this final report of three examines the perspectives of students who completed college, students who didn’t finish college, and those who never attended to better understand the supports and barriers that influenced their higher education choices and outcomes. The report discusses key findings that reveal a group of young adults who may not understand the growing importance of an education for a changing workforce and are unaware of financial resources available to them. The authors present implications and questions for policymakers, especially related to financial aid. 

The authors present two contrasting case studies of Chicago elementary schools to show the impact of strong leadership on the reform process and building a dedicated community of educators. The cases highlight the importance of not only dedicated administrators and faculty, but also of a coherent plan for improvement that is clearly communicated to stakeholders.

In an effort to increase overall degree completion rates, there is a greater focus on helping non-traditional students access and complete postsecondary education. However, this student population is incredibly diverse, making it difficult to understand exactly what support they need. This report presents transcripts and analysis of a September 2011 Advisory Committee hearing in which state and institutional experts examined access and persistence barriers faced by non-traditional students, as well as promising practices and policies to mitigate these barriers. In particular, recommendations focused on possible ways of creating more flexible, student-friendly learning environments and improving the financial aid application and award process.

Implemented in 2007, the Washington State Student Achievement Initiative provides incentive funding to schools that show improved student achievement. Designed to inform and support policymakers in other states, this policy brief examine the choices Washington State policymakers faced in determining exactly how to foster buy-in and engagement in the initiative, define and measure achievement, and source and allocate funding.

As states are looking into how to strengthen their student data and performance measurement systems to track student progress and success, they are in need of best practices that are taking root in other states. Based on a set of indicators identified by seven Achieving the Dream states focused on developing and improving their data systems, this policy brief describes the essential features that a state should consider when building or modifying its performance measurement and data systems, as well as the research capacity to support data-driven improvement strategies. Goldberger describes 10 performance measurement features, seven data system features, and four research capacity features along with examples of how other states are effectively demonstrating each particular feature.

The Carnegie Foundation’s Statway project networks the knowledge base of researchers and practitioners working to reform developmental math education pathways leading to statistics. This presentation represents one piece of that work: a research and implementation cycle focused on identifying and responding to the drivers inhibiting student engagement.

Through the Opening Doors Demonstration, MDRC found evidence that performance-based scholarships could improve educational outcomes for adult students, leading the organization to initiate a wider evaluation of the potential benefits of supplemental, performance-based financial aid on the persistence and attainment of adult students. The study reported here focused on adult students enrolled in remedial courses in New York City community colleges, with early results showing positive impact on both GPA and credits earned.

To improve our nation’s economy, we need to create more coherent and effective education and workforce development systems, especially targeting disadvantaged youth and adults. This paper proposes new federal competitive grants to states that fund training partnerships between education institutions, employers from key industry sectors, workforce agencies, and other intermediaries at the state level, as well as fund support and services. The author discusses predicted costs and benefits of the grants and purports that over time, these activities will create more effective education and workforce systems, and that these investments will help reduce the nation’s unemployment rate.

Since higher education funding is based on student enrollment rather than student success, there is little incentive for colleges and universities to improve, much less measure, student outcomes. Aware of the need for higher education to change its focus, this study analyzed the higher education accountability systems of all fifty states to uncover the kind of information a state gathers about its colleges and students, and how it uses the information to make colleges and students more successful. The report describes the current state of higher education accountability — highlighting best practices already in use — and offers a set of guidelines for designing a model state higher education accountability system.

Community colleges are currently faced with the challenge of raising their graduation rates while dealing with budget cuts. To increase student achievement without requiring large amounts of additional funding, schools need to be particularly attentive to their organizational practices. Drawing postsecondary, K–12, and non-education sector research, this report examines the practices commonly seen in high-performing organizations, including functional alignment, use of data in improvement efforts, and employee engagement and training. The author focuses his recommendations on those practices that support a continuous cycle of improvement.

As community college systems undergo major transformations to advance the student success agenda, leadership from the college president and the board of trustees has become more important than ever to guide this reform. In this collection of six essays, community college chancellors and presidents provide insight into the challenges and possibilities encountered as they lead their institutions through transformations aimed at improving outcomes and equity for students. The leaders describe efforts to leverage the role of the board of trustees, provide access to all students, reform developmental education, and engage all stakeholders in their commitment to lead change.

Transferring from a four-year to a two-year institution is not considered part of the student success agenda, yet this movement does exist among students and is worth exploring. This report uses longitudinal data to examine the behavior and outcomes of first-time students who transfer from four-year to two-year institutions. The authors discuss enrollment behaviors, subsequent enrollment outcomes, student pathways and completion, and six-year outcomes for all reverse transfer students who returned to their institution of origin.

Unlike traditional merit scholarships that reward students for past academic successes, performance-based scholarships provide financial aid on the contingency of the student maintaining satisfactory grades after receiving the award. Using existing data from three community colleges in Ohio, this paper looks at the effectiveness of using this type of financial aid as an incentive for low-income students without a strong academic history.

Although California enjoys high enrollment rates, it has state policies that act as barriers to completion, resulting in poor completion rates. This policy brief describes how available data on demographics and course-taking behavior of California community college students could inform new policy focused on increasing college completion rates. Knowing that certain enrollment patterns are related to higher completion rates, the authors discuss how new policy could be aimed at encouraging those behaviors to lead to increased student success.

Community colleges serve a diverse population of students who have varying interests and goals. This summary presents the results of an online survey involving 1,205 community college students. It reports on who today’s community college students are, factors that contribute to success, and how technology is used by this group of students.

As funding for financial aid diminishes, states need to leverage their resources to best support student success. Prepared for Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s Vision Project, this report examines existing financial aid policies currently in place in various states to improve college access and success. The author categorizes financial aid policies into three distinct models — entitlement programs, programs targeted to low-income students, and programs that reward certain behaviors — and describes them for Massachusetts’ consideration in its desire and effort to improve college success and degree completion through student financial aid reform.

Currently, community college outcomes are measured by student enrollment or degree completion rates, but not milestones on the pathway to a degree. This report offers a framework for using available knowledge and data to measure student progress using two factors: the intermediary educational achievements students reach while attaining their degree, and indicators of success or academic patterns that correlate with forward progress and completion. The authors demonstrate how analysis of California community college data using the framework yields information about which students are not reaching each milestone toward degree completion, and how this data could inform colleges on how to better improve college completion for students most in need.

In order to meet the postsecondary degree and certificate target goals set by the Obama administration, numerous states, and some foundations, our nation will need to engage nontraditional students, such as adults, to help meet these goals. Based on conversations held by the Adult College Completion (ACC) Network, this brief discusses the strategies that Network members are using to target adult students, in particular those with prior college credit as a key strategy to improving the completion agenda. From these conversations, five topics emerged: data availability on the returning adult population, partnerships, communication and marketing campaign for outreach, transfer credits, and prior learning assessment. The author discusses and provides promising strategies for each.

This Student Focus Group Resource Guide was developed by WestEd and Public Agenda for CBD to support cadres in their efforts to learn from students. It is intended to be a user-friendly tool to help with the planning, execution, analysis and reporting of student focus groups. It includes tips for each phase of the process--planning for the focus groups, conducting focus groups, and post-focus group work such as using a de-brief form for facilitators. The guide includes a sample set of questions to ask students (also called a protocol) and a sample facilitator de-brief form or protocol. 

PowerPoint presentation accompanying WestEd/Public Agenda's Student Focus Group Training Webinar, January 10, 2012.

Student success courses are designed to orient new students, giving them a stronger foundation of study skills and introducing the support services the school offers. Originally accompanying a presentation at the 2010 AERA meeting, this one-page summary provides an at-a-glance evaluation of the impact of these courses on student achievement within the Virginia Community College System.

The income gap between individuals with and without a postsecondary education is wide and increasing rapidly. This brief discusses the learning needs that ESL adult learners have when transitioning from ESL programs to postsecondary education. The author describes research-based strategies ESL teachers can use to support students’ transitions in academic programs as well as recommended ESL program features for administrators to consider when designing supportive transition programs from ESL to college-level coursework.

This report examines how schools can use intermediate milestones to inform and improve student completion rates. The authors describe frameworks for examining milestones, highlighting key differences and features. They then review 11 cases of organizations using intermediate measures, describing the types of data gathered and principal use.

Currently, the federal approach to measuring community college completion assumes that students will earn a credential within three years, but this assumes a college-attending behavior similar to a traditional full-time student, and does not account for older or part-time students who work and raise families while attending school. This policy brief discusses how the current federal method for measuring community college performance is too simplistic, and describes a modified approach to defining and measuring student success with more accuracy. Based on the pilot project of the Achieving the Dream Cross-State Data Work Group, the author reports on the group’s methodology for analyzing postsecondary data, the results of their testing process, and how the findings can lead to changes in state policy concerning increased community college success.

Funders, organizations, and colleges want new models for how to improve postsecondary success rates, but working alone, they are limited by their own capacity, knowledge, and existing systems. This report describes the successful collaboration between a community-based organization (CBO) and a New York City community college focused on improving the college success rates of underrepresented, postsecondary students. Bringing their resources and strengths, the two partners provided a comprehensive support system to the underperforming students that helped in their academic, and social and developmental preparation for college. The authors describe how the collaboration began, key components of the initiative, and lessons learned for future endeavors between CBOs and postsecondary institutions.

In 2009, the College Board’s Commission on Access, Admissions and Success in Higher Education issued a set of 10 comprehensive education reform recommendations designed to improve student achievement and degree attainment. These recommendations, spanning issues from preschool access to college costs and financial aid, are designed to support the Commission’s goal of raising college completion to 55% of young adults (ages 24–35) by 2025. In this follow-up report, the authors examine the progress and challenges in each area, summarizing the reasoning for the recommendation and any current policy issues surrounding it.

Current metrics used to track enrollment and matriculation of college students are insufficient for informing colleges of when students fail along the way, making it difficult for institutions to know how to help with new programs or interventions. They also differ between states and systems. In response, this report offers The Completion Arch, a five-part framework that can be commonly used as a nation and by states to measure student progress and success. The Completion Arch spans five areas, encompassing enrollment to workforce entry. For each area, the authors discuss what the research says, the multiple measures related to that area, and the indicators within each measure.

This publication compiles research from various authors on eight subtopics regarding financial aid, including loans, tax issues, and persistence rates. Authors used existing data to evaluate the effectiveness of policies, defining effectiveness as it relates to an increase in enrollment rates without compromising the quality of the institution. Bringing these works together is meant to encourage the design of more effective student aid policies and reform of the federal student aid system.

Community colleges play an important role in helping to meet our nation’s goal of increasing its population of postsecondary educated adults, but community colleges are challenged by low retention and completion rates. This report discusses the hidden costs of almost $4 billion in federal, state, and local taxpayer funds that go toward educating first-year, full-time community college students who do not return for a second year. The authors report the costs on a national and individual state level, and purport that there is a tremendous need for higher education reform that will improve retention and completion rates in community colleges, reduce costs, and increase student success.

Employers need skilled workers, but there needs to be new and clearer career pathways for adults to get the education and training they need to become such workers. As part of a technical assistance effort, this report presents a framework — comprising six key elements — that workforce investment systems can use to develop and implement successful career pathways, especially for adult learners. For each element, the report offers examples of specific approaches and models in place among states. The authors also discuss how key state and local workforce investment systems can strategically partner to improve career pathways toward educating a more prepared generation of workers.

The structure hypothesis argues that community college students are more likely to succeed when offered a highly structured program of study that makes clear the path to completion and reduces bureaucratic barriers. Using existing research this report examines the decision-making processes that students must go through to successfully navigate college and the psychological impacts of making these decisions in a low-structure context. The author then reviews several methods that schools might consider implementing to provide students with a more structured, easier to navigate college experience, including revised curriculum design and improved access to information.

While there may be multiple reasons for why students delay earning their degrees, there are some factors that college governing boards or legislatures can affect that would reduce costs and length of time spent in school for students. This brief identifies three strategies that are related to causes of extended time and examines how state and institutional leaders can implement these strategies or change policy to support state or systemwide agreement. Johnson discusses the need to control credit requirements and limit program length to no more than 120 hours, to provide model semester-by-semester road maps for four- or two-year completion, and to guarantee transfer of credits for general education curriculum. Further, Johnson shows how specific colleges and universities have implemented these strategies.

Fast Facts about postsecondary complied from various reputable sources.

Success in college unquestionably requires the academic skills and knowledge to complete rigorous coursework. This report argues that the non-academic challenges of postsecondary education (e.g., navigating the bureaucratic hurdles and building new interpersonal relationships) can also be significant barriers to success. The author reviews existing research on the support services available to students, focusing on the major processes within commonly implemented programs that help students cope with non-academic stressors.

Currently, students who transfer institutions before earning a degree are reported as dropouts by their first institution, reinforcing an assumption that there is little mobility among college students. Using student-level enrollment data, this report examines the transfer behavior over five years of all students who began postsecondary education in the U.S. in 2006, and reveals that, in fact, postsecondary student enrollment, transfer, and persistence across all sectors of higher education is complex. The authors discuss the transfer patterns and findings, suggesting that with the realization that one-third of all students transfer before earning their degree, new approaches and metrics can be used to better support students on their educational pathway to degree attainment.

Among states, there is growing interest in providing new incentives to community college systems for improving college completion, but there are few resources available. This brief presents a set of tools that can help states design performance-based funding systems to influence student and institutional behavior. The first tool is a set of reflections based on Ohio’s new performance-based funding system that shifted its focus from course enrollment to course completion. The second tool is a set of recommendations to guide state leaders through design and implementation issues, especially related to challenges of equity, sustainability and political buy-in. The last tool is a matrix that summarizes similarities and differences among the Achieving the Dream states that have performance-based funding for their community colleges.

Some would believe that the playing fields are leveled when California students leave their intensely segregated high schools and enter their local community colleges. This report explores the student pipelines to and from Southern California’s 51 community colleges and describes the varying levels of segregation and educational opportunity for the students among these institutions. The authors examine the relationship between high school performance and racial and ethnic segregation in the 51 community colleges, as well as the transfer outcomes among all racial and ethnic groups. The authors conclude with recommendations for improving access, affordability, and excellence, especially for students faced with the greatest needs.

As demand for an educated workforce increases, effective high school-to-college pathways are needed to improve college and career readiness. This policy brief describes dual enrollment initiatives that seven states are enacting to provide more high school students — high- and low-achieving students — with opportunities to take college courses while completing high school. The authors introduce a web tool and offers six design principles for helping state leaders shape research-based policies on this key strategy.

Institutions of higher learning need trustworthy sources informing them of the current labor market in order to offer relevant education and training programs that will prepare their students for the workforce. Based on the assumption that real-time labor market information (LMI) tools and systems are developed by private companies required to provide little transparency about their data collection and analysis, this report examines six for-profit vendors that specialize in providing this information. The authors describe findings about the products and services available, as well as the methodologies and quality of data sources used, followed by recommendations that institutions of higher learning should consider before adopting any real-time LMI technology.

Community colleges continue to explore innovative approaches to increasing the graduation rates of their students. This report examines one such program: CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), a multifaceted and long-term program with the goal of graduating 50 percent of its students within three years. Aimed at helping community college students graduate, ASAP provides supports and incentives for overcoming barriers to student success throughout the three years. Presenting promising early findings, the authors discuss the effects on full-time enrollment, credits earned and completed developmental coursework, and semester-by-semester retention.

Improving the success of college completion and transfer rates requires new innovations aimed exactly at those efforts. This report profiles five California community colleges that have implemented practices or programs focused on completion and transfer to a four-year university or the workforce. Additionally, this report presents four commonalities, based on the work of these community colleges, that serve as a framework for any effort to improve student success: information matters, working together, supporting students outside the classroom, and college leaders are key.

This report explores “degree productivity” improvement through a synthesis of research, an analysis of systemwide datasets, and detailed studies of high-performing institutions. Based on these sources and observations, the authors suggest the following five practices, in conjunction with essential elements, for increasing productivity without reducing the quality or access to education:

1. Systematically enabling students to reach graduation through reforms such as structured pathways to graduation, effective student supports and placement, and preparing students for post-study work.
2. Reduce nonproductive credits by improving developmental education and tutoring, implementing policies for tracking and intervening to support student progress and completion, and aligning transfer policies.
3. Redesign the delivery of instruction by leveraging technology to become more cost-effective, providing course mentors to augment online teaching materials, and including a full summer semester to the academic calendar year.
4. Provide more efficient core supports and services by implementing cost-saving measures such as converting from a paper-based to an electronic system and providing self-service online systems for administering financial aid.
5. Optimize non-core services and maintaining only mission-critical, non-core services.

For all institutions to increase their degree of productivity to the levels achieved by the highlighted high- performing institutions, the authors suggest the following steps for institutions as well as policymakers:

1. Honest self-assessments conducted by higher education institutions to compare their overall productivity and performance on the five identified practices to those of highly productive institutions. Moreover, institutions must assess the will and skill of leadership and management to pursue systemwide change.
2. Improve statewide performance measurement, data gathering, and benchmarking to improve the tracking of institutional progress. Without this in place, states and institutions cannot be held accountable for their progress.
3. Make productivity in higher education a priority in state and federal policy. While they should not dictate how to increase productivity, grants and policies should support innovative strategies and the sharing of best practices.

With national interest focused on increasing college completion rates, decision-makers and the public need to understand some of the barriers to completion from the perspective of the students themselves. Using survey data of more than 600 young adults, this first of three reports compares the reasons why students leave college before completing a degree or certificate with those of students who had successfully completed a two- or four-year college program. The authors discuss the myths about why students drop out of college and the actual findings as reported by the students. The report also presents solutions that students believed would have made a significant difference in successfully completing their postsecondary education.

In order to succeed in the current economy, states need to develop and retain a strong workforce with the education and skills for today’s job market. Unfortunately, many states lack a coherent approach to policymaking to bring about increased postsecondary access with high levels of success in workforce development. This report discusses the challenges that states face in linking policy and practice; identifying barriers within K–12 and postsecondary education, adult education, and workforce development programs; and strategies state policymakers can use to align policies and improve outcomes for students at all levels.

Students arrive to college needing more than just academic supports, but they don’t always know how to look for the help they need to be successful. This paper uses student interview data to examine how the academic confidence of community college students — both apprehensive students and self-assured students — is shaped by their prior academic experiences as well as the new experiences gained in their postsecondary career. The authors discuss how academic confidence can impact student success over time, and as a result of the study, use data to suggest classroom and on-campus strategies for creating opportunities that may contribute to improving student success.