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Jobs for the Future (JFF) is developing this state policy framework to outline the steps states can take toward fully adopting each of the Big Blur's four key components and creating a more effective system for grades 11-14. The Big Blur argues for the need to erase the arbitrary boundaries between high school, college, and careers and create one new system for grades 11-14. The model opens the opportunity for all students to start earning a postsecondary credential and preparing for career success in 11th grade. The framework describes a continuum of four types of state policy environments that states currently have or will experience on the road toward a fully reimagined system of education-to-career pathways that work for all students. The four policy environments are: (1) fragmented; (2) coordinated; (3) integrated; and (4) transformed. In the framework, JFF provides examples of how each of the key components of the Big Blur (incentives, alignment, governance, and staffing) evolves from a fragmented to a fully transformed state policy environment.

The current U.S. secondary education, postsecondary education, and workforce training systems are failing to serve the needs of many of today's students. Securing a good job with a family-sustaining wage increasingly requires workers to possess industry certifications, degrees, and credentials, but U.S. education systems are not set up to help enough students secure them. In addition, there are significant economic disruptions on the horizon that are going to have big implications for the future of education and work. Jobs for the Future's Big Blur vision calls for entirely new educational institutions and systems to better prepare 16-to-20-year-olds for college and careers. This paper examines new structures for teaching and learning to help states create more effective grade 11-14 schools and systems, with examples of promising state-level instructor models. This paper outlines new types of instructor preparation, accountability systems, and learning management structures that are needed to effectively serve the developmental needs of young people in grades 11-14 and the unified system envisioned in the Big Blur.

A collaboration between The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) and the Student Senate for California Community Colleges (SSCCC), this policy brief examines the costs of attending California Community Colleges (CCCs) for low-income students and the roles that financial aid resources, work hours, and student loan borrowing currently play in meeting those costs. The report sheds light on the college affordability challenges that CCC students face and the need for state and CCC leaders to consider strategies that support CCC students' ability to afford and complete their education. Key recommendations from the brief include, among others, supporting equitable financial aid reform and encouraging more students to apply for financial aid. [This report was co-produced with The Student Senate for California Community Colleges.]

"Free college" programs are widespread in American higher education. They are discussed as addressing college access, affordability, inequality, and skills shortages. Many are last-dollar tuition guarantees restricted to use at single community colleges. Using student-level data spanning the transition to college, we investigate how two similar local community college tuition guarantees in Pennsylvania affected college-going outcomes. The Morgan Success Scholarship has large impacts on community college attendance and associate degree attainment. The program diverts students away from four-year colleges, though much of this effect is temporary. Meanwhile, we find little evidence that the Community College of Philadelphia's 50th Anniversary Scholars program has any impact on college-going behavior. We suggest reasons for divergent findings and offer suggestions for practice.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented numerous challenges to students across the United States, particularly those who are parents enrolled in community colleges. California's community college system serves a diverse student population, including a significant number of non-traditional, working adults who are also parents. These students have faced unprecedented challenges due to the pandemic, including the difficulties of balancing childcare responsibilities with academic and professional obligations. This paper summarizes the preliminary findings of a study that intends to contribute to the crucial conversation around childcare needs among community college students. The focus of this study was understanding the experiences of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) mothers with young children and the impact of COVID-19 on their educational experiences in community colleges across the state of California.

The Octavius V. Catto Scholarship launched in spring 2021 at Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) to help Philadelphians achieve college success. Inspired by 19th-century civil rights leader Octavius Catto's belief in education for all, the scholarship goes beyond tuition assistance, providing wraparound supports including academic coaching, monthly direct payments, bookstore credits, and referrals to community resources. This initiative, created by former Mayor Jim Kenney, aims to combat poverty by making college more accessible and affordable. RFA conducted a mixed-methods evaluation of the Catto Scholarship aimed at identifying early successes and recommending areas for improvement. The report highlights the role of Success Coaches and other staff in building meaningful connections with Scholars and supporting them in overcoming barriers to retention and completion. The evaluation also presents findings suggesting that persistence and completion are higher among Catto Scholars than non-Catto CCP peers. The report emphasizes the importance of dedicated resources and staff in sustaining the scholarship's success. Recommendations from the evaluation include enhancing support for staff to prevent burnout, creating more community-building opportunities for scholars, and building additional community partnerships to support housing, mental health, transportation, and childcare needs.

Drawing on qualitative data collected in a sample of colleges as part of a larger study on the implementation and impact of Assembly Bill 705 in California, this paper explores the rollout of corequisite reforms, focusing on the use of embedded tutors in introductory math and English courses as a strategy to meet to the needs of students. This paper highlights promising practices identified through extant research and fieldwork at study institutions, provides additional evidence on the value of the reform, discusses challenges, and makes recommendations for the field.

Many public workforce training programs lead to industry-recognized, third-party awarded credentials, but little research has been conducted on the economic benefits of these credentials in the labor market. This paper provides quasi-experimental evidence on the labor market returns to industry-recognized credentials connected to community college workforce noncredit training programs. Based on novel data that includes approximately 24,000 working-age adults enrolled in noncredit workforce training programs at the Virginia Community College System, we employ a comparative individual-level fixed effects model to estimate earnings premia net of fixed attributes and earnings time-trends. Our results indicate that earning an industry-recognized credential, on average, increases quarterly earnings by approximately $1,000 and the probability of being employed by 2.4 percentage points, although there is substantial heterogeneity in economic return across different program fields. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the earnings gains associated with the industry credential obtained through the noncredit workforce training would exceed program costs in just over half a year on average.

As part of its broader Student Parent Success Initiative, Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) conducted original research focusing specifically on Black single mother students. This report summarizes findings from 25 interviews IWPR conducted with Black single mother community college students, consisting of both students who were enrolled at the time of the interview and those who had been enrolled in the prior five years. These interviews provide insight into how college settings promote or inhibit the success of Black single mother community college students, how Black single mother students engage with institutional resources, which of these resources they find beneficial, and how institutional resources can better serve their needs.

Informed by interviews with administrators, faculty, and students at LaGuardia Community College, this case study explores how a vibrant two-year institution and designated Minority-Serving Institution (MSI), centers the needs of a diverse student body to achieve their academic and professional goals. The case study delves into LaGuardia's innovative practices to create an inclusive and supportive learning environment for all students. These insights offer key strategies for institutions nationwide dedicated to equitable access, success, and postsecondary value: (1) Prioritize a student-centered culture: Building and maintaining a student-centered culture requires leaders who explicitly commit to and embody this mindset in every facet of their work. Where an institution invests its money, time, and energy shapes students' experiences. Leaders at LaGuardia encourage collaboration between administrators, faculty, and staff to explore the impact of policies and practices through a student lens. (2) Leverage data to drive change and innovation: LaGuardia utilizes data analytics to identify areas for improvement and implement targeted interventions. As one example, data on enrollment trends helped pinpoint students in nondegree programs who were potential candidates for degree programs and provide the students with additional support. (3) Proactively identify barriers and take opportunities to smooth student pathways: At LaGuardia, this includes establishing connections between nondegree and academic programs, developing articulation agreements with four-year institutions, and ensuring that students have targeted supports before, during, and after transition points.

This technical appendix accompanies the report, "Preparatory Pathways and STEM Calculus Completion: Implications of the AB 1705 Standards." The appendices contain a full methods section and multivariate analyses that augment the descriptive analyses presented in the report. Together, these analyses examined a cohort of more than 37,000 STEM majors who began in a transfer-level course in a calculus pathway at a California community college between 2012-2013 and 2019-2020 to determine -- based on their high school math preparation and high school GPA -- the implications of AB 1705 standards in practice. The law sets standards for students' placement and first math enrollment to ensure STEM students begin in transfer-level coursework that best positions them to complete calculus requirements for their programs.

A bachelor's degree is increasingly necessary for securing a job that pays a family-supporting wage, yet while most community college students aspire to transfer and complete a bachelor's degree, too few make it through to this goal. As is clear from the companion report on community college transfer outcomes, some responsibility for this lies with community colleges. But four-year institutions--which tend to have more financial resources to invest in student success--also need to do more to serve students who transfer from community colleges. These students make up a substantial proportion of four-year enrollments and tend to be more diverse in terms of family income, race, and age than students who start college at a four-year institution. Yet, as this report shows, although more than 80% of community college transfer students are retained into their second year, only about half complete a bachelor's degree within four years after transferring, and completion rates are even lower for low-income, Black, Native American, and older students. This report, which provides first-of-its-kind data on four-year institution outcomes for community college transfer students, is designed to be used by university and state-system leaders to set clear goals for eliminating disparities and expanding transfer opportunity for all students who start at a community college with the dream of earning a bachelor's degree. The analysis in this report offers insights into how effective four-year institutions are in enrolling and supporting community college transfer students. Using data on students who entered four-year institutions in 2015-16, we report on the prevalence of transfer, the retention and bachelor's completion outcomes of community college transfer students, and the extent to which they are represented among graduates in various majors. We disaggregate findings and examine differential outcomes for low-income, Black, Hispanic, and older students (those 25 years old or older). [The authors acknowledge research for this report was conducted through a partnership between the Aspen Institute's College Excellence Program; the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, Columbia University; and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Additional funding was provided by Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research.]

A bachelor's degree is increasingly necessary for securing a job that pays a family-supporting wage, yet while most community college students aspire to transfer and complete a bachelor's degree, too few make it through to this goal. This report, along with the companion report on four-year institutional outcomes, is designed to be used by college, university, and state-system leaders to set clear goals for eliminating disparities and expanding transfer opportunity for all students who start at a community college with the dream of earning a bachelor's degree. The analysis in this report offers several insights into whether transfer pathways from community colleges to four-year institutions are effective for all students. We discuss overall transfer rates and bachelor's completion rates of the 2015 entering cohort of community college students, and further investigate disparities in outcomes for low-income, Black, Hispanic, and older students (students 25 years or older) in comparison to national averages. We also provide a state-by-state look at these outcomes. In a companion report, "Tracking Transfer: Four-Year Institutional Effectiveness in Broadening Bachelor's Degree Attainment," we examine what happens to community college students after transferring to a four-year institution by reporting disaggregated measures on the enrollment, retention, and bachelor's completion outcomes of transfer students in the 2015 four-year entering cohort. [The authors acknowledge research for this report was conducted through a partnership between the Aspen Institute's College Excellence Program; the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, Columbia University; and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Additional funding was provided by Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research.]

The Maine Community College System provides this letter in accordance with 20-A MRSA §10013. This law requires the Maine Community College System (MCCS), University of Maine System (UMS), and Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) to provide the following information about first-generation college students by January 15th of each year: (1) Data regarding enrollment of first-generation college students and educational outcomes, including graduation rates for first-generation college students compared with other college students; (2) A summary of strategies used, and activities undertaken to increase enrollment and graduation rates of first-generation college students and any available data indicating the effect of those strategies and activities; and (3) Plans for or recommendations regarding new strategies or actions designed to increase enrollment and graduation rates of first-generation college students. To meet the requirements of the legislation, MCCS worked with the University of Maine System and Maine Maritime Academy to coordinate data collection and reporting to promote a common framework for determining enrollment and educational outcomes of first-generation college students. Additionally, the three institutions agreed that for the purpose of this report, a first-generation student would be defined as one with neither parent having completed a college degree. Each institution determined the level of college completion appropriate to its mission. For MCCS, a student is first-generation if neither parent has earned an associate degree. For UMS and MMA, a student is first-generation if neither parent has earned a bachelor's degree. For consistency, data on MCCS students with neither parent having earned a bachelor's degree is provided.

"How Clear Is Their Path? Guided Career Pathways and Community College Students" explores how prepared community college students are to meet their career goals. Over 90 percent of students responding to the 2023 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) indicated they had chosen a career path. But many of those respondents were missing vital information about what that path would entail. This report contains data from 83,189 students across 199 community colleges who responded to CCSSE in spring 2023.

Wyoming community colleges provide dynamic lifelong learning environments through higher education, workforce development, innovative partnerships, and civic and global engagement that lead to responsible citizenship and economic, social, and cultural prosperity. Planning for the future of Wyoming's community colleges and fulfilling the mission of the Wyoming Community College Commission (WCCC) includes providing coordination, advocacy, funding, and accountability. Wyoming Statute 21-18-202 (h)(iii) mandates that the WCCC develop performance benchmarks, outcome measures and other performance indicators which serve as the basis for annual reporting to the Wyoming Legislature and the Governor. The annual reporting must include, but is not limited to, the following measures: (A) Student goal attainment and retention; (B) Student persistence; (C) Degree and certificate completion rates; (D) Placement rate of graduates in the workforce; (E) Licensure and certification pass rates; (F) Demonstration of critical literacy skills; (G) Success in subsequent, related coursework; and (H) Number and rate of students who transfer. The Wyoming Community College System Strategic Plan for 2020-2025, adopted by the WCCC in October 2020, has identified four primary goals and related objectives that center around the Commission's mission. They are: Goal #1 Educational Attainment -- Facilitate postsecondary educational attainment to the betterment of all Wyoming citizens. Goal #2 Affordability -- Facilitate community college system sustainability, funding, and affordability while keeping higher education as nearly free as possible. Goal #3 Program Alignment -- Facilitate alignment of post-secondary programs with the University of Wyoming (UW), the workplace, and the workforce to provide a seamless pathway for Wyoming citizens to pursue their employment goals while benefiting the state. Goal #4 Economic Development -- Facilitate initiatives leading to the diversification and growth of Wyoming's economy. This report aligns the Wyoming statutorily required performance indicators with the four goals in the WCCC's strategic plan.

This report provides a look at the Fall 2023 term enrollment in categories such as student load, location and demographics of the community college student population. The content and format of this report have been developed through a collaborative effort between the Wyoming Community College Commission (WCCC), the Executive Council, and the Data Governance/Institutional Research Council members representing the seven community colleges. Effective with the Summer 2016 reporting term, data were extracted from the Central Station Instance (CSI) using one report rather than consolidating individual customized reports from all seven colleges.

The California Community Colleges (CCC) College Attendance Survey was designed to understand the factors influencing prospective and previously enrolled community college students' decisions to attend a California community college in fall of 2023. This report summarizes the second administration of this survey in late summer/early fall 2023 and includes responses from 117 institutions, including 115 community colleges and two continuing education institutions, by 29,463previously enrolled and new/prospective (as of fall 2023) students. The 42-item survey included a mix of fixed-choice and open-ended items to understand what influenced students' decisions to attend college in fall 2023 and items focused on reasons affecting the decision to enroll in fall 2023, prior college experiences, and perceived value of education. The survey link was distributed to students with assistance from the institutional research offices at each college. [For the 2022 report, see ED628128.]

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how triangulating responses from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) with information from the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) exposes data incongruency, specifically when considering the population of students with disabilities at 2-year institutions. Data from 503 CCSSE institutions were aggregated to calculate the average proportion of respondents who use services for students with disabilities, and then were compared to the percent of undergraduates who are formally registered with the institution's Office of Disability Services, as reported to IPEDS. Pearson correlation coefficients indicated statistically significant relationships, that are yet moderate in strength, between these measures of disability services use (0.274 < r < 0.331), compared to strong correlations of measures of gender, race, and enrollment (0.618 < r < 0.955). These effects indicate an incongruency between measures of disability, compared with other aspects of demography. Accounting for coverage of survey data using a multiple linear regression model did not improve convergence. These findings have implications both for institutional staff to triangulate their data to see if there is a need to review reporting procedures, and for higher education scholars who work with these data to understand the proportion of disabled students in the 2-year sector.

This report examines the success of students with lower levels of high school performance who began in transfer-level math as a result of Assembly Bill 705 (Irwin 2017). AB 705 is historic legislation that transformed placement and eventually ended developmental education in California's community colleges. Since community colleges are open access institutions, it is particularly important to monitor the impact of such reforms on students who are perceived to be underprepared--particularly in math, which has historically been a persistent barrier to academic progress for many students. In this report, the authors focus on students in the lowest placement band of the placement rules (i.e., default placement rules), that were developed by the Multiple Measures Assessment Project (MMAP) to support colleges in operationalizing AB 705. The authors compare the predicted versus actual success rates of students in the lowest placement band who were placed into, and began in, transfer-level math courses post-AB 705. If the predictions overestimated the success of these students, California community colleges may have grounds to revisit the efficacy of developmental education as a means for meeting AB 705's mandates.

Large numbers of students entering community colleges are deemed not academically prepared for college-level math. These students have historically been assigned to one or more non-credit-bearing courses for remedial, often called developmental, math instruction before they can take college-level courses. Research has found that most students assigned to traditional developmental math course sequences never complete those sequences or attain a credential. The Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) model was created in 2011 to better support the needs of these students. It diversifies developmental and college-level math course content, separating it into distinct pathways that better align with students' career interests. It also streamlines the developmental math sequence so students can move into college-level courses more quickly. This brief highlights the findings from a rigorous long-term follow-up study of an early version of the DCMP model. The study found that the model had a sustained impact on students' successful completion of their first college-level math course of 5.6 percentage points after five years. This impact on college-level math completion did not lead to discernible effects on credential completion, however. Since the launch of this early version of DCMP, the Dana Center has continued to refine and update the model over time and the findings in this study do not reflect the effects of the current version of the DCMP model. The findings do offer some insights that may inform the current implementation of math pathways and other developmental math reforms.

At community colleges and open-enrollment universities, most first-year students take placement exams in English and mathematics to determine whether they are ready for college-level courses. But large-scale studies have indicated that these test scores misplace substantial numbers of students--in other words, for many students, the test score does not accurately reflect their ability to succeed in college-level courses. This fact means that many students are taking these courses when they do not need them, using up valuable time and money. To improve placement accuracy, hundreds of colleges across the country have begun implementing a strategy called multiple measures assessment (MMA), a placement approach that uses alternative indicators including high school grade point average instead of or in addition to a single test score to improve placement accuracy. Both corequisite remediation and MMA have been shown to get more students into college-level courses quickly and to help more students pass those courses. This brief summarizes findings from two surveys that show both corequisite and MMA practices are on the rise nationally, making it even more important to understand how best to implement these two practices together. This brief also introduces a study that will provide rigorous evidence related to that question.

Following up on a previous impact and cost study of the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) model, which used an individual-level randomized controlled trial, this study assesses the costs and cost-effectiveness of the program on longer-term college progress and college attainment. The version of DCMP included in this study diversified the developmental and college-level math course content, separating the content into distinct pathways that better aligned with students' career interests. It also streamlined the developmental math sequence into a one-semester developmental course for all students, regardless of placement level, and implemented an evidence-based curricula and pedagogy to engage students in active problem solving pertinent to real-life situations. The study, which included 1,411 students across four Texas community colleges and ten campuses, found that DCMP saves students money and may be cost-effective when used as part of a larger strategy to improve student success.

To better understand the challenges and opportunities facing community colleges that want to expand apprenticeship opportunities to their students, New America conducted a year-long study. We created an advisory committee to guide this work and spoke to apprenticeship, workforce development, and community college leaders about the community colleges role in expanding apprenticeship. Based on these conversations, we chose case studies and conducted in-depth interviews with leaders from the Community College System of New Hampshire's ApprenticeshipNH, Arapahoe in Colorado, San Jacinto in Texas, and Howard Community College in Maryland's programs in IT and cybersecurity, and Coastal Alabama Community College's nursing apprenticeship. Each of these colleges found a different way to fill the role of intermediary, taking on funding from different sources, using a mix of strategies for sponsorship, and finding place-based approaches to strengthening workforce partnerships. In a variety of sectors, these five colleges found ways to fill the intermediary role that worked for their context, and in doing so provided excellent programming that filled their community's needs. This mosaic of case studies demonstrates that there are some common challenges and successful strategies that colleges looking to serve as apprenticeship intermediaries can learn from.

For far too long in California, remedial courses in California Community Colleges meant costly barriers to student success. Fortunately, recent legislation -- Assembly Bill 705 signed into law in 2017 -- requires these colleges to eliminate remedial courses and instead use research-backed strategies like corequisite support to help students complete transfer-level courses. Ed Trust-West's latest "bright spot" looks at Ventura College (VC) and its implementation of Assembly Bill 705 (AB 705), outlining the successful strategies the college is leveraging to place students into coursework that gives them the best chance of completing transferable, college-level math within a year of their first attempt. The report describes VC's strategies for increasing access to transfer-level math courses and supporting students to complete those courses.

In 2022-2023, The RP Group surveyed over 7,000 African American/Black students across the California Community Colleges (CCC) system to further explore their transfer experiences. This report offers a selection of highlights from this comprehensive, statewide survey and specifically elevates findings related to the four core student experiences: gateway English and math completion, academic counseling, Umoja participation, and academic probation. The report begins by reviewing prior research by The RP Group that informs this current effort. Then, the authors describe the survey participants and summarize new insights from the students themselves on the four core student experiences. Student quotes from the open-ended questions in the survey appear throughout in callout boxes. The report concludes with recommendations to individuals working within the CCC system and beyond for how they can act on this information to better support transfer-motivated African American/Black students and ensure they make progress toward their educational goal: a bachelor's degree.