Program Areas

One of the objectives of Community Colleges CAN! is to share the stories of innovative community college programs that offer promise for improving academic preparation, participation, and success of students. Programs in a variety of areas will be spotlighted and explored, including those involved with building academic and career pathways, providing academic and student support services, and implementing innovative programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as developmental education.

For more information about these topical areas, please see the following descriptions or click on the resources tab to take you to a bibliography of these topics.

Academic Pathways

Academic pathways programs facilitate students' access and passage from secondary education to college, increase the number of underrepresented and disadvantaged students prepared to enter college, help students learn how to succeed in an educational setting, and encourage students to complete their high school requirements. These programs seek to build a strong and sustainable bridge between secondary and postsecondary programs. They include programs such as dual enrollment/dual credit, bridge programs, pre-college outreach programs, career academies, tech prep consortia, and early and middle college high schools.

Adult Education and Career Pathways

Career pathways programs promote transitions to and persistence in high skill, high demand, career-oriented postsecondary programs. What strategies improve access to career pathways for students in ABE and ESL programs? Of particular interest are colleges that practice innovative approaches that open multiple pathways – from multiple entry points – that adults with low basic or pre-college skills can navigate in their effort to enter and succeed in a degree program. These might include programs that integrate adult education, workforce development, and credit and non-credit programs.

Community Based Partnerships for Building Pathways

Community and regional business and education partnerships pursue the dual goals of economic development and improving student success in college. Of interest are those community colleges which are innovative in building broad-ranging, unique, and effective strategic partnerships that implement strategies that may be of national interest. These programs prepare students to work in an industry in ways that promise career longevity, as opposed to programs such as contract training, which focus on preparing students for specific transitory positions with local employers.

Credit Transfer and Articulation Agreements

There are many complexities and challenges associated with the transfer of course credit between institutions. Some institutions have found ways to ease the barriers to credit transfer for students; this is often an important factor for successful completion of a postsecondary degree. The types of transfer situations under consideration include: high school student with college credit to a community college, community college student to a four-year institution, four-year college student to a two-year community college, student attending a high school and a two-year college concurrently, and student attending a two-year and a four-year college concurrently.

Developmental Education Programs that Integrate Career Education

What strategies are making a difference in addressing the dramatic failure rate of students in developmental programs and helping students to persist and succeed to a certificate or degree? These would include initiatives that address challenging issues facing developmental education, including: the types of support services provided by institutions; the elevation of this population to priority level; incentives and training for faculty to work with under-prepared students; and the extent to which institutions offer integrated courses that build career-specific knowledge and academic skills. Efforts of particular interest are those that integrate Career Technical Education (CTE) with context-specific developmental instruction as a path to improving the chances for under-prepared students to succeed.

Integrating STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and Academics

STEM initiatives are viewed as holding significant importance for the development of the nation's workforce and economy. Which community colleges are using pioneering approaches to integrate STEM and academics, both through the infusion of rigorous STEM curricula into CTE programs and the infusion of CTE curricular elements into academic STEM courses?

Student Data Sharing and Consortia

Student-centered data systems have the potential to help colleges anticipate the needs of incoming students, identify the circumstances of student departure, and evaluate the effects of program interventions. While many states have initiated student longitudinal data systems that allow analysts and planners to track students through their education, very few educators take advantage of this management tool. Even if a state system is not available, individual colleges have the ability to develop an internal student unit record system that allows them to track students as long as they remain in the college. Regardless of how such a student tracking system is designed, it needs to service the planning and operational functions of the college. Such a system is critical to the evaluation and improvement of college programs.

Student Support Services

Many students need support services to persist in postsecondary programs. Such support services vary, and include financial aid opportunities, advising, counseling and tutorial services, guidance on career development, learning communities and activities that engage students with faculty and peers, partnerships with employers that connect educational programs to jobs, preparation and support for transfer students, and special services for first generation and low-income students and for those with low-skills and limited English proficiency. Student support services are aimed at traditional, re-entry or special needs students. 		 
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