Job training funds run low
Community colleges are running out of money to train laid-off workers, warns Jobs, Jobs, Jobs: Challenges Community Colleges Face to Reach the Unemployed from the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama. Few states now offer free retraining at community colleges, say members of the National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges Unemployment, [...]
CC enrollment flattens out
The enrollment boom may be over at community colleges: Enrollment declined by 1 percent in the last year, according to a report (pdf) by the American Association of Community Colleges and the National Student Clearinghouse. However, there are few empty seats. Compared to 2007, community colleges are serving 22 percent more students. While full-time enrollment [...]
Performance funding may not change outcomes
When states link higher education funding to performance measures, colleges change academic and student services to improve student outcomes, conclude Kevin Dougherty and Vikash Reddy in a research review for the Community College Research Center. However, there’s no solid data showing that performance funding improves retention, completion of developmental education, and graduation rates.
Boomers are back in college for retraining
Baby boomers are heading to community colleges for job retraining, reports USA Today. While people over 50 make up 5 to 6 percent of community college enrollment, according to the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), the numbers are increasing. AACC’s Plus 50 Initiative encourages colleges to create programs geared to older students. When Plus [...]
CC grad rates under civil rights scrutiny
Federal civil rights investigators are expanding their reach, reports Education Week. For the first time, the Office of Civil Rights is looking at a community college with low graduation rates as a possible violation of students’ rights. In the 21 months since U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stood on an iconic bridge in Selma, [...]
Rethinking federal student aid
Let’s Rethink Federal Student Aid, writes Jeff Selingo in a Chronicle of Higher Education commentary. The higher-ed establishment in Washington spends most of its time trying to protect the status quo on student-aid programs, all the while arguing for more money to help pay higher tuition prices. But if we’re headed for an age of [...]
‘Dual’ students learn IT skills
A Florida magnet school is graduating students with information technology certificates and college credits, reports U.S. News. Crooms Academy of Information Technology offers college-level courses in computer networking, software programming, and web design, earning Crooms the title of Most Connected Classroom in U.S. News‘s inaugural ranking of tech-focused high schools. Crooms offers 16 courses developed at Seminole [...]
Colleges greenlight data mining
Data-mining is helping Rio Salado College predict online students’ likely success and failure, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Arizona community college is a pioneer in online education. By the eighth day of class, Rio Salado College predicts with 70-percent accuracy whether a student will score a C or better in a course. That’s [...]
Texas billboards hit low graduation rates
8% of DCCCD students graduate in 3 yrs. Is that fair to the students? asks the Texas Association of Business in a billboard hitting the Dallas County Community College District. In October, the group criticized Austin Community College for a 4 percent graduation rate on a billboard asking: “Is that a good use of tax [...]
Nursing graduates can’t find jobs
California nursing graduates are having trouble finding their first job, reports the Sacramento Bee. As experienced nurses delay retirement and hospitals try to avoid training expenses, nursing graduates are working unpaid internships to break into the profession. Barbara Elwell earned an associate degree in nursing in May from the College of Marin, but she’s still [...]
