Second chance: The impact of intervention programs
Open access is a cornerstone of community colleges, but it also can deter students who are academically unprepared for college-level work. A new MDRC report examines the impact of two intervention programs at a California community college on improving academic outcomes and moving students off academic probation. Findings from Getting Back on Track: Effects of a Community College Program for Probationary Students show one program increased the average number of credits earned, the proportion of students who earned a grade point average of “C” or higher, and the proportion who moved off probation.

‘Swirling’ changes path to college degree
Students do not always follow straight lines in their higher education journeys. Some start at four-year institutions, step back to a community college, and then re-enter a four-year institution after completing additional coursework. Students also transfer among technical colleges and four-year colleges and universities. This phenomenon, known as “swirling,” is examined in Transfer and Articulation in Higher Education, from the Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board.

A recession aid plan for Maine community colleges
Investing in higher education serves as a critical economic recovery tool, and the state of Maine is taking that sentiment to heart. Beginning next fall, the Maine Community College System will help its own by covering the cost of tuition and fees for full-time dependent students whose parents lose their jobs. The Graduation Protection Assistance Program will allow students 24 and younger to remain focused on earning their degrees.

Community colleges & distance ed growth
Distance-education enrollment is on the rise at community colleges, although not at the same pace as in previous years, says a report by the Instructional Technology Council. Results of Tracking the Impact of eLearning at Community Colleges show an 11.3 percent increase for distance learning enrollments in 2008, while increases in overall campus enrollments averaged less than 2 percent. Last year, survey respondents reported an 18 percent increase in distance-education enrollments from fall 2005 to fall 2006.

Better communication on learning outcomes still needed
A survey from the Association of American Colleges and Universities indicates a key shift in focus from measuring progress by students’ seat time and accumulation of credits toward more clearly clarifying what students are expected to learn. Trends in Undergraduate Education says one area for improvement is communicating the importance of these learning outcomes to students. The survey’s findings also show that external learning assessments, which could allow national performance comparisons among institutions, are used too infrequently.

Cost, commitment, attainment examined in new report
U.S. postsecondary education is the nation’s workforce-development system. A Making Opportunity Affordable project report shows that the United States is losing its international competitive edge, because it is not producing enough two-year-degree holders. The report advocates a focus on community colleges to ensure degrees that the labor market values. It recommends more attention to student success at both two- and four-year institutions and shows how enrollment increases can moderate costs per student and improve productivity. Read Cost, Commitment, and Attainment in Higher Education: An International Comparison.

Degree attainment past and present
A new report calls U.S. higher education an “engine of division” where race and income impede college access and degree attainment. College Completion Rates: 1947 to 2007, from Postsecondary Education Opportunity, uses federal data to track trends and patterns of college degree completion rates by race, gender and income over the past 60 years.

Curbing the drop-out crisis
A high school diploma is a stepping stone to further education and training. In the United States, however, only 53 percent of young people in the nation’s largest cities graduate from high school on time. For those who don’t graduate, the future is bleak. High school dropouts are the only group of workers whose income levels have declined over the past 30 years. Learn more in Cities in Crisis 2009: Closing the Graduation Gap, prepared by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center for America’s Promise Alliance.

Achievement gaps and the economy
» The U.S. economy could have gained $310 billion to $525 billion in 2008 if the achievement gaps for African Americans and Latinos had been closed between 1983 and 1998.

Source: The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools

The ‘swirling’ factor
» While nearly 15,000 Washington students transferred from a community college to a four-year institution in 2005-2006, more than 11,000 students transferred within the two-year system, and 5,000 transferred from four-year to two-year institutions.

Source: Transfer and Articulation in Higher Education

Education, attainment trends
» In 2008, 29 percent of adults 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree, and 87 percent completed high school. That compares with 24 percent of adults with a bachelor’s degree, and 83 percent who had completed high school in 1998. Workers with only high school diplomas earned an average of $31,286 in 2007; those with bachelor’s degrees earned an average of $57,181. View the latest education trends from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Source: Educational Attainment in the United States: 2008

Cities in crisis
» Nationwide, nearly one in three U.S. high school students fails to graduate with a diploma. Every year, approximately 1.2 million students drop out of high school, which is an average of 7,000 students per school day or one student every 26 seconds. Among minority students, nearly 50 percent of African American and Hispanic students are not completing high school on time.

Source: Cities in Crisis 2009: Closing the Graduation Gap

Higher education & learning outcomes
» Nearly 80 percent of colleges currently have a common set of intended learning outcomes for all their undergraduate students and more than 70 percent assess outcomes across the curriculum beyond the use of course grades.

Source: Learning and Assessment: Trends in Learning Outcomes

The expanding community college
» Seventeen states currently allow community colleges to award associate’s and bachelor’s degrees. Florida heads the list, with 14 community colleges authorized to offer bachelor’s degrees.

Source: Community College Baccalaureate Association