While the United States has made strides in increasing college access among low-income students, college completion has remained low. Graduation rates are particularly low at the nation's community colleges, which enroll a disproportionate percentage of low-income and nontraditional college students. Seeking to address this problem, in 2014 three…

Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York, is a leader in the learning community movement. The college has run learning communities for many years, and more than half of its incoming freshmen were enrolled in one as of 2010. This Brief summarizes findings from an evaluation of the same title of Kingsborough's "Career-Focused…

One of the original purposes of student financial aid was to ensure fairer access to post-secondary education to those least able to afford it and to those traditionally underrepresented. Various federal and state programs were put in place to achieve this goal, including the federal Pell Grant and state aid programs. Yet policymakers and…

The expense of attending college is one factor that may explain why low-income students often drop out of school. In California, despite generous state aid and relatively low fees at community colleges, many low-income students still have substantial college-related costs that they cannot cover. To compound matters, federal support for students…

Across the United States, community colleges offer millions of students an open-access, low-cost postsecondary education. However, of the students who enroll in community college hoping to earn a credential or transfer to a four-year institution, only about half achieve their goal within six years. For students who enter college needing…

The Learning Communities Demonstration is a national research project that is testing the effectiveness of learning communities in six community colleges across the United States: Merced College in California; The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) in Baltimore, Maryland; Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida; Houston…

Many adult students struggle to finance their educations, often contending with work and child care expenses in addition to the extra cost of remedial courses. Moreover, there is little need-based grant aid to help. This report presents early findings from an evaluation of a program in New York City targeted to low-income adults (ages 22 to 35)…

Describes a model program for dislocated workers undertaken by a Job Training Partnership Act contractor, the College of the Mainland, which is a community college. (CH)

Project HIRE is a special program conducted by Middlesex Community College since October 1978 to help people 55 years of age and older find paid employment. The specific goals of the project, as it was originally conceived, were to: (1) open three intake centers; (2) register clients at the centers; (3) provide career counseling; (4) offer…

The Molokai Farm Project at Maui Community College grew out of a grant for a Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurship Demonstration Program. The program, which can lead either to an associate degree or to a certification of completion for any number of smaller units of course work, is designed to develop students' managerial proficiency and the…

The Colorado Workplace Learning Initiative was organized for the following purposes: (1) to design and implement a process for public/private partnerships to address workplace literacy; (2) to establish an effective method for curriculum adaptation and development based on specific workplace needs; (3) to provide accessible, relevant, and…

A pilot academic/vocational Tech Prep program was developed between three rural regional vocational systems and Illinois Eastern Community Colleges (IECC) to encourage more students to complete a two-year associate degree in industrial technology and obtain employment in industry. Working with three high schools/regional vocational systems and…

This Vocational Education Resource Package (VERP) was developed to provide materials useful in replicating an exemplary vocational education program for special student populations in the California Community Colleges. This VERP provides information on an intensive computer training program for the physically disabled, originally developed at…

This Vocational Education Resource Package (VERP) was developed to provide materials useful in replicating an exemplary vocational education program for special student populations in the California Community Colleges. This VERP provides information on a basic food service training program for physically disabled, learning disabled, and…

A model manufacturing training program was created for Oregon's precision metals industry. The program, a cooperative venture among private industry, education, and government, focused on two main goals: to train entry-level employees and to upgrade the skills of current employees in response to technological changes. The program at Clackamas…