Community Colleges Help Low-Skilled Adults Succeed

Around the country, innovative community colleges are playing a role in helping low-skilled adults gain the skills and credentials to succeed in good jobs. A new report by Jobs for the Future finds that successful approaches use four key strategies to achieve the common goal of postsecondary credentials:

* Integrated Institutional Structures and Services: Innovative community colleges integrate adult education, workforce development, developmental education, and non-credit programs to create multiple paths for students with low basic skills.

* Accelerated Learning: Colleges are using diagnostic assessments to create individualized instruction; instituting short-term, intensive learning programs that enable adults to progress rapidly; and providing contextualized course content with an occupational focus.

* Labor Market Payoffs: Innovative colleges focus on high demand occupations; actively engage employers; and tie reading, writing, math and English skills to occupations.

* Comprehensive Supports: Innovative institutions are implementing various approaches to providing supports, such as career counseling, tutoring, and personal case management.

The report also highlights the importance of state policy on the capacity of community colleges to promote advancement:

* How states define the mission of community colleges is important. Kentucky, North Carolina, Washington and Oregon make community colleges a major focus of state economic and workforce development strategies.

* Governance of adult education affects the capacity to create pathways from basic skills to community college degree programs. Adult education is governed by K-12 departments of education in 32 states, by department of higher education in 13 states and by the department of labor in five states.

* The extent to which states have systems and structures to integrate adult education, workforce development, and community colleges varies. Oregon has integrated the community college and workforce development systems into a unified Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development. Kentucky governs the programs separately but uses incentives and performance measures to promote interagency collaboration.

* The funding policies for community colleges matter. The capacity of colleges to create pathways from low skills into college degree programs is shaped by the level of funding they receive for students in non-credit and developmental courses. Oregon, California and North Carolina are unique in providing FTE (per student funding) funding for all non-credit programs. Washington and California have allocated TANF resources to help community colleges design and implement programs to meet the need of welfare recipients and other low-income students.

Related Links:

* Jobs for the Future Report, ”Breaking Through: Helping Low-Skilled Adults Enter and Succeed in College and Careers”

http://www.jff.org/jff/PDFDocuments/BreakingThrough.pdf