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News and Updates

News and Updates

The Community College Baccalaureate in Washington: Who Enrolls?

This second Data Note, on the Scaling Community College Baccalaureate Degrees: The Equity Imperative research project, provides a look into the factors that contribute to baccalaureate degree expansion, particularly in associate degree-granting institutions in a growing number of states.

Our Community College Research Initiatives (CCRI) group at the University of Washington has partnered with New America’s Center on Education and Skills (CESNA) to refresh and expand understanding of AB and CCB degrees nationally, looking again at state adoption and implementation of these degrees in the two- and four-year institutional contexts. With generous support from the Joyce Foundation and Lumina Foundation, our two-year project documents policies and processes; develops a set of consensus design principles and frameworks featuring evidence-based and equity-focused promising policies and practices on state adoption and institutional implementation; and disseminates lessons from past successes and failures.

Read Data Note 2

 

Non-Degree Credentials Provide Value for Adults in the Labor Market

Our current Director, Debra Bragg, had her research used in conjunction with a number of other researchers who carried out seven independent but coordinated analyses involving 49 community and technical colleges across 8 states.

The report examines labor market outcomes for adults who obtain non-degree credentials and provides a few key findings suggesting:

• Non-degree credentials are associated with increased employment

• Earnings gains are larger and more consistent for non-degree credentials that take 6 months or more to complete

• Labor market benefits to non-degree credentials are present in both health and manufacturing fields, though absolute earnings of non-degree credential holders tend to be larger in the (male-dominated) manufacturing sector compared to the (female-dominated) health sector

Read the Report

CCRI in U.S. News!

CCRI Director Debra Bragg was mentioned in a recent article by U.S. News & World Report! The
article discusses the rise of bachelor’s options at community colleges nationwide and three
reasons why international students should consider community college as an option.

Read the Article

What Works for Adult Learners?

Millions of adults in the United States are trying to support themselves and their families without a high school education. Millions more have finished high school but still lack some of the basic reading, writing, and math skills needed to succeed in the current labor market. To address this, the nation needs to scale evidence-based strategies that increase adult learners’ skills which assist them in securing living-wage employment and career advancement opportunities.

Debra Bragg, director of CCRI, collaborated with Barbara Endel and other Jobs for the Future (JFF) colleagues, Nate Anderson, Lisa Soricone, and Erica Acevedo to prepare a brief on lessons learned about career pathways for adult learners. The brief summarizes the results of 16 experimental and quasi-experimental design studies conducted to date on career pathways.

Findings show that most rigorous research and evaluation focus on the early stages of adult preparation, the entry and integrated training phases of the career pathway, and far less is known about adult career progression. Policy and program solutions that prepare adults for all phases of their trajectory into and through careers are needed to support the economy. The brief concludes by calling for more strategic policy, practice and research to help advance career pathway opportunities for adult learners nationwide.

What Works for Adult Learners: Lessons from Career Pathways Evaluations, by Debra Bragg with Barbara Endel, Nate Anderson, Lisa Soricone, and Erica Acevedo, Jobs for the Future. This research is mostly funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and Department of Health and Human Services.

Read the Report

CCRI goes to Florida!

CCRI Advances Coaching for Change (C4C) Efforts

As a national partner of Jobs for the Future (JFF), CCRI supports the Student Success Center Network (SSCN) Coaching Program with strategy development. Since 2017, CCRI has collaborated with Student Success Center (SSC) executive and assistant directors from around the country to advance statewide coaching initiatives. Building on lessons learned from the Coaching Pilot, CCRI is partnering on Jobs for the JFF’s (SSCN) Guided Pathways Coaching program to support SSCs in operationalizing and developing their state designed coaching plans for guided pathways implementation at scale and other reform efforts. Five SSCs from around the country received grants to participate in this two year program. 

These five SSCs convened for a half-day workshop to learn from and about each other’s coaching program and tools we created for them to advance their coaching work. The discussion we facilitated allowed SSCs to share and learn from one another on the following topics; strategic planning, college readiness for coaching, and advancing racial equity. Throughout the discussion, we introduced drafts of our tools and resources related to each of these topics that are grounded in organizational change, coaching principles, equity-mindedness, and Center for Urban Education’s Equity by Design principles.

Read about Coaching for Change

Designing Destiny: How to Engage in Equity and Inclusion

CCRI’s Dr. Lia Wetzstein and Katie Kovacich joined Oregon’s SSC Executive Director Elizabeth Cox Brand and New York’s Rockland Community College President Dr. Michael Baston in leading a working session at Jobs for the Future’s (JFF) Postsecondary State Network Bi-Annual Meeting in Fort Lauderdale. 

In our session, Designing Destiny: How to Engage in Equity and Inclusion, we used frameworks based on Reflective and Critical Reflective Practice and the Collaboration Continuum to give attendees the tools and strategies they need to navigate and facilitate the sometimes difficult conversations that people must have in order to truly engage in the critical work of improving diversity, equity, and inclusion. We highlighted practices at both the system and institutional levels, and offered examples from the coaching model being used in the Oregon Pathways cohorts and the engagement strategy that Rockland Community College uses to build campus-based support with and through stakeholders.

Three Keys to Launching Bachelor’s Programs at a Community College

We’re pleased to share a recent article on expanding community college baccalaureate programs written by Ivy Love, a policy analyst with one of our partners, the Center on Education & Skills, New America (CESNA), published by the online higher education newspaper, EvoLLLution , June 12. We found these insights informative and hope you and your colleagues at colleges who are looking to launch bachelor’s programs do as well.

 

AERA Annual Meeting 2019

CCRI researchers enjoyed presenting research on high performing transfer partnerships and faculty as change agents at the American Education Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting in April. It is great to engage and learn from our colleagues at these events – especially those who show up ready to ask questions at 8 a.m. sessions! 

Continue reading “AERA Annual Meeting 2019”