A widely cited Emory University study found that while 76% of incarcerated Americans return to prison within five years, that rate drops to 55% for those who take high school classes, 30% for those who complete vocational training, and 13.7% for those who complete an associate degree. Community colleges play a key role in ensuring that people…

Enrichment programs make up a small but significant part of a community college's offerings. In some cases, their impact can be enormous--especially in rural areas where a community college might be the only source of enrichment for residents. Community enrichment programs also can be challenging to administer. For instance, it can be hard to find…

Retaining people no longer credited toward college completion--a group known in academic parlance as "stop outs"--is a core concern among administrators seeking to remove barriers to education. Preventing stop outs from becoming stay outs means re-enrolling students beset by debt, or targeting vulnerable demos close to graduation.…

Guided pathways, a program that aims to improve college completion and student success through remodeling of the student journey, supports learners in choosing a program of study, ideally resulting in transfer to a four-year school or the start of a lucrative career with a two-year degree. Colleges that employ a guided pathways model are seeing…

With enrollment down, competition increasing from company training and university associate degree programs, and people's perceptions of community colleges still lagging the robust reality of what they have to offer. Community colleges need to tell their own stories so that others do not do for them. Community colleges are often a misunderstood,…

The Center for Collegiate Mental Health found that between 2009 and 2015, colleges saw an increase in counseling center use by up to 40 percent, despite only a 5 percent increase in enrollment. The most common concerns among college students are anxiety and depression. Experts point out that this increase could be attributed to students being more…

Community college students are more likely to be low-income, people of color and first generation in their family to attend higher education than their four-year peers. For a combination of these reasons, they are more apt to be housing insecure. This article discusses how some community colleges are providing new solutions for residences for…

The Arizona Advanced Manufacturing Institute (AzAMI) is still a year away from the end of the U.S. Department of Labor grant that expanded the program, but already, AzAMI Executive Director Leah Palmer at Mesa Community College (MCC) in Mesa, Arizona, is fielding calls from companies that have hired her students through the institute. As state…

Digital technologies are an integral facet of human existence, changing how humans find information, the way humans communicate and even human behavior. This transition applies to education as well, with the continued growth of artificial intelligence (AI) reshaping the higher education landscape at two- and four-year institutions alike. AI is…

The federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program, which provided nearly $2 billion over four years to help community colleges meet employers' needs more effectively was a response to the 2008 recession. Distributed by the U.S. Department of Labor, the original TAACCCT funding brought colleges…

Amid the global pandemic, community colleges nationwide found themselves challenged like never before. More than 21 million Americans lost their jobs in March and April. How would this economic collapse affect college revenue streams, or fall semester enrollment? Would campuses even be open in the fall? Would students continue to register for…

How community colleges educate students is an ever-changing proposition, one marked by an increasing number of unfilled leadership positions and an operational landscape even more reliant on labor market outcomes, learning, equity and completion. A growing number of senior leaders approaching retirement has created a wealth of career opportunities…

State community college systems and their two-year colleges have spent the 2010s reexamining and redesigning decades-old developmental education tracks to ensure students get what they need--and only what they need--with an eye toward moving them more quickly into college-level courses and, eventually, the degree or certificate they want.…

As one of the 30 community college presidents taking part in the American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC) Pathways Project, El Paso Community College (EPCC) President William Serrata is learning from coaches and national experts at each of six Pathways Institutes run by AACC. He also has a key state-level resource that allows him to…

Community college students often face more stressors than those at four-year institutions. Many are working adults with families. Some are homeless, food insecure or have financial instability. The pandemic has exacerbated these challenges. Community college leaders are employing a number of strategies to solve the mental health crisis, such as…