Community colleges are in trouble. Their enrollment has fallen by 37 percent since 2010, and their completion rates are dismal — nearly half of students drop out within a year. Scant advising, labyrinthian financial aid and unclear career pathways are among the challenges facing the two-year schools and their students.
Seven newsrooms joined together to explore the crisis facing these institutions, and ways to solve it.
For some students, certificate programs offer a speedy path to a job
More community colleges are offering the short-term programs, but to be successful they must jibe with local employment needs and provide students marketable skills
How success coaches anticipate and tackle college students’ challenges
Dallas College is implementing more intensive advising in efforts to get students to the finish line
‘Waste of time’: Community college transfers derail students
Transferring from two- to four-year colleges is complicated and costly, but some schools are finding ways to make it easier
Community college students get double the support through unusual dual-teacher program
I-BEST, a Washington community college program that pairs two teachers in the classroom to help students master academic fundamentals while training for a career, has a record of success
Trade programs — unlike other areas of higher education — are in hot demand
Many young people choose to pursue short-term credentials over traditional college because they see them as a quicker and a more affordable path to a good job
Many community college students never earn a degree. New approaches to advising aim to reverse that trend
In Alabama, two-year colleges are investing in “success coaches” and other strategies designed to ensure more students graduate
‘The reckoning is here’: More than a third of community college students have vanished
Among those who do enroll, red tape and a lack of support are crushing their ambitions