Bringing Adults Back to Community College Playbook: Strategies and Recommendations to Increase Adult Enrollment

Community college enrollment has significantly declined since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between the spring 2020 term and the spring 2022 term, community college enrollment declined by nearly 17 percent nationwide. This alarming trend has posed a threat to the well-being of community colleges and the students they serve, which includes more than half of all undergraduate students from low-income families. Community college enrollment declines threaten to worsen educational inequities. The Center on Education & Labor at New America partnered with six community colleges to reenroll adult students who had stopped out of college since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This playbook contains findings and recommendations stemming from this project and is designed to help community colleges across the country better engage, recruit, enroll, and serve adult students.