A year after President Barack Obama stood up at Macomb Community College in Michigan to highlight the need for more graduates and to announce the American Graduation Initiative, the nation’s publicly funded two-year colleges are playing a significant role in his administration’s education and economic initiatives – for better or worse. Community colleges enroll nearly [...]

Community colleges – typically the country’s cheapest option for higher education – face a new and unlikely rival: the fast-growing industry of for-profit colleges. To understand why students are turning to more expensive options like for-profits, it’s helpful to consider the case of Joseph Carrillo Jr., a 24-year-old who until recently attended American River College [...]

How should “success” be defined and measured at America’s community colleges? It sounds like an easy question that should have an equally easy answer. But the question turns out to be complicated. So does the answer. A common approach to measuring success at most educational institutions – from high schools and community colleges to four-year [...]

For years, community colleges have borne the brunt of state budget cuts nationwide, and they continue to receive the equivalent of poverty wages in federal and state funding. And yet community colleges are much more dependent on state funding than four-year institutions. In Texas, for example, community colleges receive roughly 70 percent of their funding [...]

For far too many community college students, remedial education is where their college careers begin – and end. Their need to take catch-up courses in subjects never mastered in high school remains one of the most intractable obstacles to community-college graduation. Some students repeatedly fail the classes, running up debt or cutting into financial aid [...]

Community college is often sold as a stepping stone to a four-year institution and a bachelor’s degree. Unfortunately, making the transition from a two-year to a four-year school is often frustratingly difficult, and many students wind up with little to show for the time and money they spend pursuing their dream of a bachelor’s degree. [...]

In the past, an adult who lacked basic skills in English, writing or math would simply sign up for some courses at the local high school. But, increasingly, adults who need help find themselves on community-college campuses. And many college leaders hope this will place them on the pathway to a certificate or degree. A [...]

Community colleges are poised to play a critical role in bridging the growing gap between the demand for high-skilled labor and a declining supply of qualified workers. But they won’t be able to fulfill that mission without significant changes in what they offer. The demand The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that from 2008 to [...]

Latino students are far more likely than white students to enroll in two-year colleges. But this isn’t due to a lack of academic preparedness: Among the most able high school graduates, about 60 percent of Latinos enroll in non-selective colleges (including community colleges), compared to 52 percent of their white peers. “For many of them, [...]