In 2003, the Illinois Education Research Council (IERC) began to follow the members of the Illinois public high school class of 2002 (the Class of 2002) on their journeys through postsecondary education. There is a wealth of higher education information on these students, including enrollment and the completion of certificates and degrees. Also, a…

"Fundraising Strategies for Community Colleges" is a hands-on, step-by-step guide to building a million-dollar-a-year development office. Community colleges educate nearly half the undergraduates in America yet receive as little as two percent of all gifts to higher education. Private philanthropy is now essential to the mission of community…

A three-year study tracking outcomes for approximately 3,000 students across California shows that career-focused dual enrollment programs can provide important benefits for those who are underachieving and underrepresented in higher education. Dual enrollment, which allows high school students to take college courses and earn college credit, was…

Over the past two decades, the number of community colleges independently offering baccalaureate degree programs has steadily risen. Though still confined to a very small number of institutions and limited degree programs, this phenomenon continues to generate widespread attention and controversy. This occurs because the trend challenges…

In the United States, public higher education finance policy is primarily decided at the state level, and policies can vary dramatically across state lines. Data was used from 1989-1990 and 2008-2009 to describe these differences and how they have changed over time. Numerous aspects of each state's higher education system were examined--average…

This is the 11th paper in AGB's series summarizing federal and state public policy issues affecting higher education. We hope that governing boards, institutional and university-system leaders, and senior staffs will find it useful for board discussions and retreats and in formulating institutional responses to these issues. For the next two…

At Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, freshmen were placed in groups of up to 25 who took three classes together during their first semester: an English class, usually at the developmental level; an academic course, such as health or psychology; and a one-credit orientation course. The program also provided enhanced counseling and…

The authors have systematically investigated the state of undergraduate learning in contemporary colleges and universities. Following several thousand traditional-age students as they enrolled in coursework from Fall 2005 to Spring 2009, across a wide range of four-year colleges and universities, the authors found a set of conditions suggesting…

In many countries, colleges and universities are where the majority of innovative research is done; in all cases, they are where future scientists receive both their initial training and their initial introduction to the norms of scientific conduct regardless of their eventual career paths. Thus, institutions of higher education are particularly…

Low rates of college completion have long been a major deficiency in the performance of American higher education. Over the last decade, the extent and importance of the problem was documented by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education in the "Measuring Up" national and state report cards on higher education, and by…

This "Policy Alert" summarizes an earlier report, State Policy and Community College-Baccalaureate Transfer, which examined the role of state policy in influencing community college-baccalaureate transfer. The "Policy Alert" looks at the importance of two-year to four-year transfer, and offers recommendations for improvement to state policymakers.

This report is the result of a national conference convened in December 2005 by the American Association of Community Colleges in partnership with the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) and supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This event, the Teaching by Choice Leadership Summit on Community College…

This issue of "The Progress of Education Reform" will look at recent research on transfer and articulation in light of the new movement to increase degree attainment by addressing the following three questions: (1) Do articulation agreements ease the transfer process and lead to degree attainment; (2) what are the factors that facilitate or impede…

"Torchlights in ESL: Five Community College Profiles" grows out of the Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy's (CAAL's) recent two-year study of adult ESL service in community colleges. The five college programs at the heart of the study offer high quality ESL instruction and are considered exemplary. This publication is a supplement to the…

The creation of the massive open online course (MOOC), a new form of digital learning, has enthralled some, infuriated others, and changed the conversation about higher education in the United States and abroad. To some, MOOCs herald the dawn of a new era in human capital, one that will mean the end of college as we know it. Enthusiastic observers…