Tag: Community

  • To fill “education deserts,” some states want community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees

    To fill “education deserts,” some states want community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees

    MUSCATINE, Iowa — The suspect moved menacingly toward her, but Elexiana Oliva stood her ground, gun drawn and in a half crouch as she calmly tried to talk him down.

    The confrontation wasn’t real, and neither was the gun. But the lesson was deadly serious.

    Oliva is a criminal justice major at Muscatine Community College in this largely agricultural community along the Mississippi River. She was in a simulation lab, with that scenario projected on a screen as classmates watched, spellbound.

    Just 18, Oliva is determined to become a police detective, a plan that includes earning a bachelor’s degree after she finishes her associate degree here. But she’ll have to go somewhere else to do it — likely, in her case, to a university in Texas.

    Oliva and her classmates here are among the 13 million adults across the country who the American Council on Education estimates live beyond a reasonable commute from the nearest four-year university — a problem getting worse as private colleges in rural places close, public university campuses merge or shut down and rural universities cut majors and programs.

    “It’s not our fault that we grew up in a place where there’s not a lot of big colleges and big universities,” Oliva said.

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    Iowa has joined a growing number of states that are considering letting community colleges like this one offer bachelor’s degrees, or where community colleges have already started adding them, as a way of filling these so-called rural higher education deserts and training workers in rural places for jobs in fields where there are growing shortages.

    “It would be a big game-changer, especially for those who have a low income or a medium income and want to go and further our education,” Oliva said.

    Downtown Muscatine, Iowa. About an hour from the nearest public university, Muscatine could benefit from a proposal to let community colleges offer bachelor’s degrees. Credit: Mike Rundle for The Hechinger Report

    About half of states allow community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees. In Iowa, which is among the half that don’t, lawmakers have commissioned a study to determine whether it should add bachelor’s degrees in some programs at the state’s 15 community colleges. An interim report is due in May.

    A similar proposal in Illinois is backed by that state’s governor, JB Pritzker, who has said the move would make it easier and more affordable for residents to get degrees — “particularly working adults in rural communities.” Three-quarters of community college students in Illinois said they would pursue bachelor’s degrees if they could do it on the same campus, according to a survey released by Pritzker’s office.

    Kentucky’s legislature is considering converting one technical and community college into a four-year institution offering both technical and bachelor’s degrees. Some Wyoming community colleges have also added a limited number of bachelor’s degrees.

    And in Texas, Temple College will open a center in June where students at the two-year public institution will be able to earn bachelor’s degrees through partner Texas A&M University-Central Texas, including in engineering technology with a concentration in semiconductors.

    “When you can offer university classes on community college campuses, that makes a world of difference” to rural students, said Christy Ponce, the president of Temple.

    What’s been blocking many of these students from continuing their educations, Ponce said, “is the sheer distance. There’s not a public university option within an hour or more away. And affordability and transportation barriers are huge issues.”

    Fewer than 25 percent of rural Americans hold bachelor’s degrees or higher, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, compared to the national average of 33 percent. And the gap is getting wider, the U.S. Department of Agriculture finds in its most recent analysis of this.

    Related: ‘Easy to just write us off’: Rural students’ choices shrink as colleges slash majors

    Significantly fewer students in rural places than in urban areas believe that they can get degrees, a Gallup survey for the Walton Family Foundation found, citing the lack of nearby four-year universities as a principal reason.

    In those states that already allow community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees, they’re often limited to certain high-demand fields, such as teaching and nursing. Even as this idea has spread, America’s 960 public community colleges collectively confer only about 1 percent of bachelor’s degrees each year, the American Association of Community Colleges reports.

    In many places, what’s stopping them from giving out more is opposition from four-year universities and colleges, many of which are increasingly hard up for students as the number of 18-year-olds begins to fall — a phenomenon enrollment managers have dubbed the demographic cliff.

    That Illinois proposal, for example, is stalled in committee after several public and private university presidents issued a statement opposing it. Negotiations are continuing.

    While community colleges in California have been allowed since 2021 to offer bachelor’s degrees, several have been blocked from adding four-year programs that the California State University System contends it already offers. An independent mediator has been brought in to resolve the impasse.

    Related: Fewer students and fewer dollars mean states face closing public universities and colleges 

    And while the two-year, public College of Western Idaho will launch a bachelor’s degree in business administration in the fall, it’s doing so only over the objections of Boise State University, which said it “could hurt effective and efficient postsecondary education in Idaho, cannibalizing limited resources available to postsecondary education and duplicating degree offerings.”

    Community colleges also need more students; their enrollment declined by 39 percent from 2010 to 2021, and they face that same impending demographic cliff. Those that add bachelor’s degrees increase their full-time enrollment from 11 percent to 16 percent, research conducted at the University of Michigan has found.

    The Norbert F. Beckey Bridge, seen from the Mark Twain Overlook in Muscatine, Iowa, which links Muscatine with Rock Island County, Illinois, across the Mississippi River. Credit: Mike Rundle for The Hechinger Report

    The principal impetus for the largely bipartisan push to offer bachelor’s degrees at community colleges, however, is to train more workers for those fields in which there are shortages.

    “What I think is misunderstood is that, in general, these are not like the baccalaureates that conventional four-year institutions offer,” said Davis Jenkins, a senior research scholar at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. (The Hechinger Report, which produced this story, is an independent unit of Teachers College.)

    Related: In this tiny and shrinking Mississippi county, getting a college degree means leaving home behind

    Bachelor’s degrees at community colleges, said Jenkins, “meet an economic need for bachelor’s degree graduates that isn’t being met by other institutions.”

    That includes by helping rural workers move up in their jobs without leaving home. “It’s all about serving our workforce needs,” said Iowa state Rep. Taylor Collins, Republican chair of Iowa’s House Committee on Higher Education, who requested the study into whether bachelor’s degrees should be offered at community colleges in that state. “It’s a way to upskill our workforce.”

    In his own district, south of Muscatine, “we’re kind of on an island where we only have the community college” — especially since the closing of nearby private Iowa Wesleyan University in 2023. “There are a lot of students who are place-bound. There are a lot of students who want to live locally” and not move away to get a bachelor’s degree.

    That’s a focus of the ongoing study, said Emily Shields, executive director of Community Colleges for Iowa, which is conducting it. “Sometimes people have ties, responsibilities, jobs, family things, where moving to where there is a degree available isn’t an option for them,” Shields said.

    Sure, she said, rural students can take courses online. But “you’re not getting the student services, you’re not getting activities, you’re not getting the other sort of enrichment support and belonging that a lot of our students, I think, are looking for.” 

    Many also say they’re looking for the kind of individual attention they get in their hometown and at a community college such as the one in Muscatine, which has an enrollment of 1,800.

    Related: Tribal colleges win reprieve from federal staff cuts

    Shiloh Morter stayed in his hometown of Muscatine, Iowa, to go to community college. Among the advantages, he says: “The sunsets here are pretty nice. I can tell you, there’s not a whole lot of other places that have clouds like we do.” Credit: Mike Rundle for The Hechinger Report

    Shiloh Morter bikes to campus on all but the very coldest days. He plans to become an engineer, but “figured I would save the money and go to community college and try and branch out and develop better habits” first, said Morter, who is 20.

    In the automotive technology garage off the main corridor of the small school, cars were lined up neatly with their hoods popped. Nursing students worked on anatomically correct crash test dummy-style “patients.”

    Twenty-year-old Mykenah Pothoff enrolled at the college when it debuted a registered nursing program, saving herself money on tuition and a nearly hourlong drive, each way, to the University of Iowa. She also was worried about “just, like, finding my way around” the university, which has more than 30,000 students.

    Jake Siefers is majoring in psychology at an Iowa community college. If he could stay and get his bachelor’s degree in the same place, “it would be huge,” he says. “There’s a lot of untapped human potential” in rural places that could benefit from more access to higher education. Credit: Mike Rundle for The Hechinger Report

    Jake Siefers, 32, is a psychology major planning to go on to get bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Siefers said he hopes to help other people who, like him, are recovering from alcoholism, and for whom he said there are too few services in Iowa. So he came home to Muscatine to start working toward an associate degree at the community college.

    “I could afford it, and it was close and I actually know a lot of people that work here,” said Siefers. “It’s great coming in here and being, like, ‘Hey, I went to high school with you, and you work in the office.’ I mean, that’s everyone in Iowa, right?”

    If he could stay and get his bachelor’s degree in Muscatine, “it would be huge,” he said. “There’s a lot of untapped human potential” in rural places that could benefit from the kind of access to a higher education that is now more limited, said Siefers. 

    Letting students like them finish bachelor’s degrees near where they live “would make it easier for everybody,” said Jaylea Perez, 19, another psychology major who also plans to earn one.

    Jaylea Perez is enrolled in community college in Iowa but eventually hopes to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Adding bachelor’s degrees at community colleges “would make it easier for everybody,” she says. Credit: Mike Rundle for The Hechinger Report

    Simply having bachelor’s degrees available would make rural students aspire to them who otherwise might not, said Naomi DeWinter, president of Muscatine Community College.

    “Everything opens up to them,” said DeWinter, in a coffee shop across the highway from the Walmart.

    She sees the most potential among people already working, such as paraprofessionals in schools who want to become teachers; a state job board lists nearly 1,000 vacancies in Iowa for teachers.

    DeWinter recalled a graduate so exemplary that he was featured in a promotional video, who after earning his associate degree started substitute-teaching while commuting in his free time to the University of Iowa to get his bachelor’s degree — one course at a time.

    “He said, ‘That’s how I’m juggling my work, my family and the affordability,’ ” she said. “His whole career is going to be over before he’s a [full-time] teacher. I feel as though we failed him.”

    Like the substitute teacher, students said they want to stay in Muscatine, despite those limits. They like the peace and quiet compared to cities — hardly anyone ever honks, they noted — and the sense of community evident among the friends who run into each other at the Hy-Vee.

    “We don’t have the best view of the Milky Way, but we for sure definitely don’t have a bad one,” said Shiloh Morter, ticking down a list of advantages to living on the sweeping plain carpeted with cultivated fields and dotted with barns and silos. “And, yeah, the sunsets here are pretty nice. I can tell you, there’s not a whole lot of other places that have clouds like we do.”

    Contact writer Jon Marcus at 212-678-7556 or jmarcus@hechingerreport.org.

    This story about rural higher education and community college bachelor’s degrees was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter. Listen to our higher education podcast.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn't mean it's free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

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  • Cultivating a Postdoc Community (opinion)

    Cultivating a Postdoc Community (opinion)

    What happens when postdoctoral researchers feel like they truly belong? It is not just a feel-good moment—it is the foundation for success. A strong sense of community in the postdoctoral workplace can transform isolation into inclusion, stress into resilience and short-term survival into long-term thriving. It can help postdocs form the right mindset to face challenges such as career uncertainty, heavy workloads and relocation away from familiar support systems.

    For postdocs, community combats a unique kind of professional isolation. Whether someone is fresh out of graduate school or pivoting from one career path to another, postdoctoral training is a time of both intense focus and high ambiguity. Demanding workloads, career uncertainty, immigration concerns and financial insecurity can weigh heavily on postdocs and increase their levels of stress and feelings of outsiderness, especially for those from historically underrepresented backgrounds. Because of this, for career practitioners, faculty and mentors, focusing solely on the professional development of postdocs no longer seems to be enough.

    Why Community Matters

    Looking to expand our support for postdocs beyond their professional development, we at the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at Washington University in St. Louis embraced the need to prioritize postdoc well-being and the creation of an inclusive, engaged community. We believe postdocs who feel a sense of belonging to a supportive environment are more likely to:

    • Maintain a healthier work-life integration, leading to better research outcomes, productivity and professional growth.
    • Reflect on their career paths, plan their future goals and make informed decisions about their careers.
    • Develop transferable skills such as communication, teamwork and leadership, which are crucial for career success.
    • Stay at their institutions, avoiding disruptions in research projects or the research group’s morale.

    With these objectives in mind, the skill-development side of the postdoctoral experience needs to be complemented with considerations about postdoc well-being, sense of belonging and identification with the institution.

    Initiatives to Cultivate Community

    Building a strong postdoc community and a strong sense of belonging has to be intentional. At WashU, partnerships and a little imagination helped us develop creative, low-cost initiatives to cultivate community, initiatives that any institution could tailor to fit the needs of their postdocs.

    Our community-building work centers on three main strategies: programming, fun giveaways and improved communication methods.

    Programming: Moments that Matter

    From our fall holiday pop-up to year-round celebrations of cultural heritage and history months, we have hosted events that offer postdocs essential touch points for connection outside their academic research and scholarship. We have reached out to internal and local partners (such as libraries and cultural organizations) and found they are often enthusiastic about collaborating with programs that align with their educational and service missions.

    For example, we connected with campus health and wellness programs to offer existing services (like CPR certification, health screenings or nutrition workshops) branded as postdoc-only events. Likewise, during LGBT History Month, we hosted Walk with Pride, a walking tour highlighting a local neighborhood’s LGBT history, in collaboration with the local history museum, which donated items for a raffle. With low investment, these events provide postdocs with opportunities to engage with diverse communities and cultures, enriching their personal and professional lives.

    Fun Giveaways: Small Tokens, Big Meaning

    We regularly ask our on-campus partners for fliers and branded stationery, which we include in a welcome kit we give away during orientation. A welcome kit is a small bag containing a collection of practical campus resources and promotional merchandise from the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs and our partners. We found that elements like stickers and branded lanyards not only boosted morale but also became a way for postdocs to visibly identify other postdocs across campus, sparking lighthearted and spontaneous conversation. We have learned to not underestimate the power of a sticker that says, “I’m a WashU Postdoc. I got this.” These small tokens help postdocs feel valued and connected.

    Communication: Making Sure No One Misses Out

    To ensure postdocs actually know about our programming and services, we leveled up our communications strategy with calendar invites, personalized welcome emails and festive event announcements tied to specific holidays or cultural celebrations. A successful strategy for us has been to share our announcements with the administrative staff in the academic units—they replicate our event invites in their internal departmental communications and thus create another avenue for the information to reach postdocs. Partnerships for proactive, clear communication go a long way in making sure everyone feels included.

    Call for Action

    There is still so much more we are excited to build at WashU. We are developing a postdoc parent network, a postdoc alumni network and a mentor network. We are planning more cultural events that connect postdocs with their identities and local history. We are finding ways to better support postdocs’ financial well-being.

    Community building is essential. We believe every postdoc deserves to feel like they belong, not just as researchers, but as people. And through practical initiatives like the ones we’ve shared, postdocs can develop a wide range of career skills that will serve them well in their future endeavors.

    There is no need for huge budgets or massive teams if we rely on curiosity, willingness to listen and partnerships across the campus and community. Talk to your postdocs. Then try something small, fun and heartfelt. It could be a sticker or a bake-off. Maybe it could be just a well-timed welcome email that says, “We are glad you are here.”

    The difference between isolation and engagement can start with a single gesture. That is a difference worth making. A supportive, connected postdoc community is not just a nice-to-have—it is a must-have for professional growth.

    Elizabeth Eikmann is currently the assistant director of curricular innovation in the College of Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and previously served as program coordinator in WashU’s Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. Paola Cépeda is the assistant vice chancellor for postdoctoral affairs at WashU. They are both members of the Graduate Career Consortium—an organization providing an international voice for graduate-level career and professional development leaders. This article represents their views alone.

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  • How one community college helps adult students get prior learning credit

    How one community college helps adult students get prior learning credit

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    NASHVILLE – Entering college with prior learning credits can be a huge boon to students, cutting down on the time and money required to complete their degrees. But the pathways to earning these credits may favor traditional college students from well-resourced high schools.

    Since 2020, leaders from Salt Lake Community College have worked to improve prior learning credit options for prospective and current students, they told attendees Monday at the American Association of Community Colleges‘ annual conference in Nashville. The college put a special emphasis on pathways for adult learners — those aged 25 and older — as the average student on its eight campuses is 25 years old.

    Over the past five years, the resulting cross-campus collaboration has yielded Salt Lake Community College some promising results, including more students receiving credit for their work experience and lowered financial barriers for prior learning assessment exams.

    Then

    In 2019, the Utah Legislature passed a law requiring the state’s higher ed board to create a plan aimed at boosting public colleges’ issuance of credit for prior learning, work-based skills and competency-based assessments.

    Salt Lake Community College — which enrolls just under 37,000 credit-bearing students across eight campuses — began an evaluation of its process for awarding prior learning credits the following year.

    Rachel Lewis, Salt Lake Community College’s associate provost of academic systems, said the existing process turned out to be hardly a process at all.

    “It used to be, if you knew the one advisor who knew the process and could talk to this person in the registrar’s office, we could get your prior learning,” she said. “Good for the students who found it — not good for all the others.”

    The college’s leaders also uncovered a gap in what kind of credits were awarded.

    In 2019-20, about 80% of the prior learning credits that Salt Lake Community College awarded were through pathways typically used by high school students, said Andrea Tipton, the institution’s director of credit for prior learning. 

    For instance, 807 of the 1,291 students who received prior learning credits earned them through Advanced Placement tests offered by the College Board.

    In comparison, only 13 students that year received credit for their professional certifications or licenses, and just one student earned credit for their previous work experience and portfolio.

    Now

    To address this disconnect, Salt Lake Community College standardized its prior learning credit process. That included a new hire.

    “We made a crucial decision to create a position at the college dedicated to prior learning — one person at the college who could be the point of contact to serve in that role,” Lewis said, nodding to Tipton, who was hired for the new role. 

    Salt Lake Community College now emphasizes credits for prior learning as an option through improved communications to students. The institution also works to inform students that it’s free to have their credits evaluated and added to their transcripts.

    Once a prior learning credit is added to a student’s transcript, it is transferable as if they earned it at Salt Lake Community College, according to college policy.

    “When that student goes to the University of Utah, it’s now considered transfer credit,” Lewis said. “They don’t reevaluate it. They don’t look at it.”

    Roughly three-fourths of Salt Lake Community College graduates, 72%, go on to transfer to a four-year institution.

    The college is also highlighting CLEP tests, an exam option offered by the College Board open to learners ages 13 and older.

    The tests can provide a viable alternative to AP tests. But the registration fee — upwards of $95 in 2025 — proved to be a barrier for many students, Tipton said. 

    This year, Salt Lake Community College began directing students to the Modern States Education Alliance, a nonprofit that will cover test costs for students who complete its free prep courses.

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  • Women in Technology: Why Community is Essential for Progress

    Women in Technology: Why Community is Essential for Progress

    Women in Technology: Why Community is Essential for Progress

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  • 4 ways community colleges can boost workforce development

    4 ways community colleges can boost workforce development

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    SAN DIEGO — How can community colleges deliver economic mobility to their students?

    College leaders at this week’s ASU+GSV Summit, an annual education and technology conference, got a glimpse into that answer as they heard how community colleges are building support from business and industry and strengthening workforce development.

    These types of initiatives may be helping to boost public perception of the value of community colleges vs. four-year institutions. 

    Last year, 48% of surveyed Americans said they had high confidence in community colleges, compared with just 33% who said the same about four-year colleges, according to a Gallup poll. Moreover, policy analysts often view community colleges as an engine to increase workforce development — though some still say these institutions could do more to help their students. 

    Below, we’re rounding up four takeaways from community college experts about how these institutions can take steps to boost workforce development. 

    Bring industry into policy advocacy

    In 2023, Texas enacted a new outcomes-based funding formula for the state’s community colleges — a change that came with a $683 million price tag. Rather than basing funding primarily on enrollment, the state now ties the majority of its allocation to performance-based measures, such as how many credentials colleges award in high-demand fields. 

    As a result of the change, the state’s community colleges saw funding increases in fiscal 2024 ranging from $70,000 to $2.9 million, The Texas Tribune reported last month.

    Ray Martinez, president and CEO of the Texas Association of Community Colleges, said unified advocacy from the state’s community college leaders helped the measure gain widespread support from lawmakers. 

    Community college leaders also drummed up support from businesses to help get the new funding model over the finish line, Martinez said. 

    “We needed business leaders. We needed K-12 leaders,” Martinez said. “We needed other stakeholders to engage with us and to go to their members, to go to the folks that they knew at the Legislature, and say, ‘This is what we need for economic development and for future economic growth of our state.’”

    Look to industry to help create curriculum

    It’s not enough for community colleges to merely have business and industry representatives on their advisory councils, Martinez said. Institutions need to forge deeper relationships with these stakeholders, including by having them help craft curriculum for workforce education programs. 

    Although workforce education programs make up about a quarter of Texas community colleges’ overall offerings, that share is rapidly growing relative to academic programs under the state’s new performance-based funding formula, Martinez noted. 

    “I’m not sure you can single out an industry that is not changing rapidly because of technology or other reasons,” Martinez said. “If you are not engaging with employers in that constant loop of information, you’re missing out as a college.” 

    Focus on stackable credentials

    At Miami Dade College in Florida, leaders are focused on stackable credentials that can be linked together to form an academic pathway.

    Stackable credentials represent the “blurring of credit and noncredit,” said Madeline Pumariega, president of Miami Dade College. 

    “Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I want to go take a noncredit course,” Pumariega said. Instead, they seek out the quickest training available to land a certain job, she said. 

    But after students complete that noncredit training, it’s key for community colleges to return to them and say, “‘Great, we got you that training, but you’re now a quarter of the way there for a college credit certificate,’” Pumariega said. When students finish a certificate, college leaders can then offer them an associate degree before suggesting a bachelor’s program, Pumariega said.

    Don’t try to be a university

    Community college leaders have at times strived for their institutions to be more like their neighboring four-year universities, said Eloy Ortiz Oakley, president and CEO of College Futures Foundation, which aims to boost credential attainment in California. 

    “When I started out at community colleges, we were always looking to our sister university,” said Oakley, who previously served as chancellor of the California Community Colleges system. “Well guess what, folks? They need to be more like us now. Okay? They need to be opening their doors to regular working class Americans.” 

    Community colleges were built to generally serve 100% of students that apply, Oakley noted. 

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  • 30pm film screening about political intimidation and UM (Community Advocates at the University of Michigan)

    30pm film screening about political intimidation and UM (Community Advocates at the University of Michigan)

    Journalist Jelani Cobb recommended looking at how universities
    responded to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s attacks on professors to better understand
    current strategies. The University of Michigan’s caving to political
    intimidation isn’t new. In the 1950s, then President Harlan Hatcher
    fired two faculty members and suspended one who refused to cooperate
    with Senator McCarthy’s red-baiting Committee on “Un-American
    Activities.”

    As another federal government takes aim at universities, join us for a screening of Keeping in Mind: The McCarthy Era at the University of Michigan,
    a 1989 documentary featuring interviews with Hatcher and the three men
    he sacrificed to political expediency: Chandler Davis, Clement Markert,
    and Mark Nickerson. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion
    that includes the filmmaker, Adam Kulakow, who was a UM student in the
    1980s.

    WHEN: Wednesday, April 9, 5-7:30pm (Pizza available starting at 4:30p. Come early!)
    WHERE: Maize and Blue Auditorium, Student Activities Building, 515 E. Jefferson Street
    WHO: All students, faculty, staff, and community members


     

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  • Here’s how Missouri’s largest district rallied its community to boost attendance

    Here’s how Missouri’s largest district rallied its community to boost attendance

    NEW ORLEANS — Between 2020 and 2024, student attendance in Missouri’s Springfield Public Schools dipped from 94.73% to 90.63%. 

    Like many other school districts nationwide, Springfield’s attendance rates took a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

    Data from the American Institutes for Research shows fall 2020 attendance rates nationwide for elementary school at 92%, middle school at 90%, and high school at 89% — down from pre-pandemic averages of 95% for elementary and 92% for middle and high school.

    And because of the global health crisis, the state kept Springfield at its 2019-20 attendance numbers for funding purposes, Superintendent Grenita Lathan told attendees in March at the annual conference of AASA, The School Superintendents Association, in New Orleans.

    But with the state’s hold harmless order on attendance about to sunset, Lathan said, officials in the 24,500-student district knew that they needed to boost attendance during the 2023-24 school year. So they set a goal: By the end of that school year, they would raise attendance to 92%.

    “When it comes to school attendance, 90% is not an A.”

    Springfield Public Schools’ messaging on attendance

    Announcing that charge during her annual state of the schools address in August 2023, Lathan said chamber of commerce members and the community at large needed to understand the impact that a 2 percentage-point attendance increase would have. 

    “That would bring in anywhere from $3 [million] to $4 million in funding that would help us with different programs,” Lathan said.

    Lathan and other district officials laid out a districtwide strategic plan that included a communication timeline, monthly updates to 300 local business leaders, and a promise that Lathan would let herself be publicly doused in Powerade if the district reached its goal. Here are the keys to how officials rallied the community to work toward the attendance goal.  

    Keep it simple and be bold

    “It was important that we had buy-in from everyone in the district so that the messaging would resonate with everyone in the community,” said Stephen Hall, the district’s chief communications officer.

    To that end, the district prioritized making its messaging simple, direct and bold in presentation. This was reflected not only in the attendance campaign’s slogan — “Attend today, succeed forever” — but also in messaging on social media and on signage around the city. 

    In their car pickup lines, each of Springfield Public Schools’ 50 elementary, middle and high school buildings displayed five 18-inch by 24-inch yard signs heralding the directive “Attend daily. On time. All day.” 

    Additionally, the district used digital billboards at three major intersections to get its message out. For only $500, Hall said, the district was able to get more than 250,000 ad placements on the billboards over 20 days. 

    The attendance initiative became an easy, noncontroversial message for media and business partners to get behind. District leaders asked businesses to be creative in incorporating the campaign into their own messaging and also to sponsor PSAs on local TV stations. 

    Furthermore, the district sent monthly news releases to local media showing the district’s progress. One local reporter even made it his mission to try to calculate the progress on his own, because he wanted to beat the competition on getting the story out once the district hit its goal, Hall said.

    On social media, the district boldly declared, “When it comes to school attendance, 90% is not an A.” The school system supplemented these posts with graphics that simplified attendance data. Visuals, for instance, demonstrated how much of an impact each successive absence could have on a student’s performance, as defined using their GPA: Where a student with four absences might average a 3.63 GPA, a student with 35 absences might have a 2.29.

    A graphic shows how prolonged absences correlate to potential impacts on student GPAs.

    A social media graphic from Springfield Public Schools shows how prolonged absences correlate to potential impacts on student GPAs.

    Permission granted by Springfield Public Schools

     

    Don’t sweat the pushback

    Shifting a community’s mindset isn’t without its hiccups, however. If your messaging is working, you should expect to receive pushback, the Springfield officials told AASA conference attendees.

    “Because it was consistent, because it was bold, and because we were holding people accountable, we heard quite a bit of feedback,” Hall said.

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  • L.A. Community Colleges, CSUs Partner on Nursing Initiative

    L.A. Community Colleges, CSUs Partner on Nursing Initiative

    After tussling over proposed legislation to allow community colleges to offer a bachelor’s of nursing degree, Los Angeles County’s 19 community colleges and the California State University system are working together to tackle local nursing shortages. The partnership, spearheaded by Compton College, may signal a new phase of cooperation between the two systems.

    The Nursing 2035 Initiative aims to foster collaboration between community colleges, the CSU system and other stakeholders; conduct research; and devise strategies to graduate more registered nurses in the region over the next decade. The project also includes the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, the Department of Economic Opportunity with the County of Los Angeles and California Competes, an organization focused on higher ed and workforce development in the state.

    Keith Curry, president of Compton College, said the need for more nurses in the region is dire. Lightcast, a labor market analytics firm, projected 6,454 job openings for registered nurses in Los Angeles County annually through 2035, but degree-completion data from 2023 shows local colleges only produced 5,363 graduates with relevant degrees that year.

    Curry described a nearby medical clinic’s emergency room as “flooded” with patients at the same time aspiring nurses face barriers to entering the profession, such as vying for limited spots in nursing programs. Programs, meanwhile, struggle to grow because of challenges with retaining nursing faculty, who can find better wages working in hospitals, and competition for scarce clinical placements.

    The goal is “really trying to address health disparities in the community I’m from, and nursing is just another one of those issues that we have to address,” Curry said.

    Teamwork After Tensions

    The move comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom encouraged more CSU–community college partnerships on nursing last year after he vetoed two bills that would have allowed some community colleges to offer B.S.N. programs as part of a pilot program.

    At the time, community college leaders argued that expanding their nursing offerings beyond associate degrees would make nursing education more affordable and combat nurse shortages in the state. But CSU leaders opposed the legislation, countering that the new programs would be duplicative and force the CSU’s existing programs to compete for resources, like clinical placements. (The two systems have also cyclically battled over community college baccalaureate degrees since the state allowed them a decade ago.)

    Newsom came down on the CSUs’ side.

    “All segments of higher education should continue to focus on building these programs together,” he wrote in one of his veto messages, “and I am concerned this bill could inadvertently undermine that collaboration.”

    The initiative is an attempt to do just that, Curry said.

    “It’s not us versus them,” he said. “It’s about how can we partner together to solve a problem. So, I felt that CSU has to be the table.”

    Jose Fierro, president of Cerritos College and co-chair of the Los Angeles Regional Consortium, a coalition of L.A. County’s 19 colleges, said he and other community college leaders were “disappointed” by Newsom’s rejection of community college B.S.N. degrees because he felt like they would help his place-bound students. He said his campus is nine miles on average from local universities.

    Students “may not be within driving distance because they would have to uproot their families, or because of the high cost of housing, they wouldn’t be able to move to a different city to be able to access these programs,” he said.

    At the same time, he believes the collaborative approach will benefit students.

    “We are bringing county representatives, hospital representatives, state officials, California State and community colleges to look at our programs and our shortage of nurses in a comprehensive manner,” to think about “how can we work together to meet the needs of the community?”

    An Example for Others

    Some nursing partnerships between community colleges and CSUs already exist. For example, California State University, Northridge, has an A.D.N.-B.S.N. Community College Collaborative Program, which allows students earning nursing associate degrees at partnering community colleges to earn a B.S.N. on an accelerated timeline. A program at Cal State Long Beach also allows nursing associate degree students to take B.S.N. classes while in community college.

    Nathan Evans, deputy vice chancellor for academic and student affairs and chief academic officer at the CSU Office of the Chancellor, believes the Nursing 2035 Initiative can serve as an example of how community college and CSU leaders can strategically confront local nursing shortages together.

    “The boundaries of our institutions don’t have to be what they were in the past,” he said. “Our hope is that this is a model of what collaboration looks like between our segments and there’s a lot less friction in terms of the student experience, that there are clear road maps for students, particularly in the nursing field.”

    As a first step, the group plans to research the region’s nursing education and workforce and release a report in the fall with policy and budget recommendations on how to expand nursing programs in the area. The goal is to work on the recommendations through 2035.

    Evans said the initiative is “using data to really drive a needs assessment and then allow that to lead us to, what are the ways we collectively can respond?”

    The hope is that process leads to new, innovative partnerships, said Fierro. For example, he can imagine CSUs offering B.S.N. programs on community college campuses, or partnering with community colleges on collaborative programs, so that students who struggle to commute to universities because of work or family obligations have more options.

    “To me, the main objective is to ensure that we bring that value to the local communities,” he said, “regardless of whose name is issuing the diploma.”

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  • Community Colleges Expand Four-Year Degree Options as Illinois Joins National Trend

    Community Colleges Expand Four-Year Degree Options as Illinois Joins National Trend

    In a significant shift for higher education access, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced his support for new legislation that would allow the state’s community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees in high-demand fields. The move aligns Illinois with a growing national trend that has seen dramatic expansion in community college baccalaureate (CCB) programs across the country.

    “By allowing our community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees for in-demand career paths, we are making it easier and more affordable for students to advance their careers while strengthening our state’s economy,” Pritzker said in his February announcement.

    The proposed bills, SB2482 and HB3717, would make Illinois the 25th state to implement such programs, joining states like California, Washington, and Florida that have already embraced community college bachelor’s degrees as a way to meet workforce demands and increase educational access. The measure appears to be stalled in the state legislature. 

    The Illinois initiative addresses practical challenges faced by many community college students. According to State Representative Tracy Katz Muhl, 78% of community college students work while in school, making relocation to four-year institutions impractical.

    “Community college students are deeply rooted in their local communities—they work here, raise families here, and contribute to the local economy,” says Dr. Keith Cornille, President of Heartland Community College. “By expanding community college baccalaureate programs, we’re meeting students where they are.”

    The proposal has gained support from education leaders including Illinois Community College Board Executive Director Brian Durham, who highlighted the potential to increase access to affordable higher education without burdening students with excessive debt.

    A recent survey revealed that 75% of Illinois community college students would pursue a bachelor’s degree if they could complete it at their current institution—a statistic that demonstrates significant untapped potential in the state’s third-largest community college system, which serves 600,000 residents annually.

    Illinois’ move follows a remarkable expansion in community college baccalaureate programs nationwide. According to a recent report from The Community College Baccalaureate Association (CCBA) and higher education consulting firm Bragg & Associates Inc., 187 community colleges across the country were offering or authorized to offer bachelor’s degrees as of last year.

    This represents a 32% increase from Fall 2021, when only 132 institutions had such authorization. Today, approximately one-fifth of the nation’s 932 community colleges offer bachelor’s degrees, with the number of CCB degree programs rising from 583 to 678—a 17% increase in just two years.

    “It’s a big jump over the last two years,” says report author Dr. Debra Bragg, president of Bragg & Associates Inc. Bragg anticipates “tremendous growth” in coming years as more states recognize the potential of these programs.

    The movement began in 1989 when West Virginia became the first state to authorize a community college to confer bachelor’s degrees. By 2010, several more states—including California, Michigan, Florida, Texas, and Georgia—had followed suit. Some states have embraced the model completely, with Florida, Delaware, and Nevada authorizing all their community colleges to confer bachelor’s degrees.

    Geographic and demographic patterns
    Community colleges offering bachelor’s degrees are not distributed evenly across the country. According to the CCBA report, 62% of CCB colleges are located on the West Coast, where there is “less density” of higher education institutions and longer commutes to traditional four-year schools.

    “Geographic access to college, measured through proximal distance from a student’s home to college, correlates with students deciding whether they will ever participate in higher education,” the report notes. “Research on ‘education deserts’ shows most students choose to attend college within 50 miles of their home.”
    Washington (32), California (29), and Florida (28) lead the nation in the number of community colleges offering bachelor’s degrees. These institutions tend to be concentrated in large city and suburban areas (36%) or rural and town settings (27%) rather than in small cities or midsize urban areas.

    Perhaps most significantly, CCB programs appear to be effectively serving traditionally underrepresented student populations. Approximately half of all community colleges offering bachelor’s degrees qualify as minority-serving institutions (MSIs), with Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) comprising 71% of these MSIs.

    Data from the 2021-22 academic year shows that about half of all CCB graduates come from racially minoritized groups. Hispanic or Latinx students made up the slight majority (52%) of these graduates, followed by those identifying as Black or African American (29%) or Asian (9%).

    Women are also well-represented among CCB graduates, accounting for 64% of degree recipients. This aligns with broader trends in higher education, where women generally attain degrees at higher rates than men.

    The gender distribution varies by field of study. While business programs attract the largest portion of both male and female students (around 40% for each), men are more likely to pursue STEM fields (34%), while women gravitate toward nursing programs (26%).

    The CCBA report highlights that CCB degrees are primarily focused on workforce preparation. Business programs dominate the offerings, followed by health professions, education, and nursing—all areas that align with significant workforce needs.

    This workforce alignment is a key selling point for Illinois’ proposed legislation. The initiative comes as Illinois employers report growing demand for workers with bachelor’s degrees in specialized fields, mirroring workforce gaps seen in other states with successful CCB programs.

    CCBA President Dr. Angela Kersenbrock sees these workforce-focused degrees as central to the community college mission. “To me, this is the community college really embracing its missions,” says Kersenbrock. “I know some folks say this is community colleges stepping over their mission. But I think it’s a full embracing of what they should be doing… closing equity gaps, being the people’s college, setting people up for economic success and mobility, and being very responsive to what a community needs in terms of workers and employees.”

    Despite the growth and apparent success of community college baccalaureate programs, they are not without controversy. Some traditional four-year institutions view them as mission creep or unwelcome competition.

    Illinois’ proposal faces similar scrutiny. Critics question whether community colleges have the resources, faculty expertise, and infrastructure necessary to deliver quality bachelor’s degree programs. Others worry about potential duplication of existing programs at four-year institutions.

    Supporters counter that CCB programs typically focus on applied fields with clear workforce connections rather than traditional academic disciplines. They also emphasize that these programs often serve students who would otherwise not pursue bachelor’s degrees at all, rather than pulling students away from existing institutions.

    Looking Ahead
    If Illinois passes the proposed legislation, it will join a diverse group of states finding success with community college baccalaureate programs. States like Washington, California, and Florida report positive outcomes in terms of both degree attainment and workforce preparation.

    For Illinois’ sprawling community college system—the third largest in the nation—the change could significantly reshape higher education access. Community colleges often serve as entry points to higher education for first-generation college students, working adults, and others who face barriers to traditional four-year institutions.

    “This initiative isn’t about competing with our university partners,” notes one Illinois community college president. “It’s about creating additional pathways for students who might otherwise never earn a bachelor’s degree.”

    As more states consider similar legislation, the community college bachelor’s degree appears poised to become an increasingly common feature of American higher education. With workforce demands continuing to evolve and traditional college enrollment patterns shifting, these programs offer a flexible approach to meeting both student and employer needs.

    For Bragg, the trend represents a natural evolution of community colleges’ historical mission.

    “Community colleges have always adapted to meet changing educational and workforce needs,” she observes. “Bachelor’s degrees are just the latest example of this responsiveness.”

    As Illinois moves forward with its proposal and other states watch closely, the coming years will likely see further expansion of bachelor’s degree options at community colleges nationwide—continuing a transformation that is making higher education more accessible to students who need it most.

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  • AI-Powered Teaching: Practical Tools for Community College Faculty – Faculty Focus

    AI-Powered Teaching: Practical Tools for Community College Faculty – Faculty Focus

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