Reports Detail Metrics of States’ Community Colleges, Collaborations with One-Stop Centers

The network of community colleges throughout the U.S. has an integral and increasing role in preparing the nation’s workforce for career and technical training. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 6.2 million full-time and part-time students attended public two-year colleges in 2005 – about 41 percent of the nation’s total undergraduate population. Two reports released earlier this month provide a deeper look into U.S. community colleges, one highlighting metrics for community colleges within each state and another exploring community colleges’ relationships with one-stop centers for workforce needs.

In The States and Their Community Colleges, David Shaffer of The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government finds great differences in the enrollment and affordability of community colleges between states. The report illustrates a variety of measures to compare states, including:

* Two-year colleges’ share of full-time students among each state’s postsecondary institutions (Wyoming was ranked first with 47.3 percent, Vermont was last with 7.6 percent, and the U.S. average was 27.7 percent);

* Percent of the state’s population 18 and older enrolled at two-year colleges (California was highest at 5.29 percent, Nevada was lowest at 0.91 percent, and the U.S. average was 2.77 percent);

* Ratio of full-time two-year tuition to the state’s median family income, labeled the “tuition burden” (California lowest at 1.1 percent, New Hampshire highest at 6.5 percent);

* Percent change from 2000 to 2005 in full-time enrollment at public two-year colleges (West Virginia ranked first increasing 66.7 percent, four states decreased by more than 5 percent, and the U.S. average was at 11.5 percent); and,

* Tuition and fees at public two-year colleges vs. those of public four-year colleges (California’s was the least comparatively expensive at 15 percent, South Dakota’s had the closest costs at 69 percent, and the U.S. average difference was 35 percent).

In the second report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates 11 percent of one-stop centers are operated solely or jointly by a community college, with 34 percent of one-stop centers housing staff of a local community college. One-stop centers, the product of federal legislation, bring together various training programs offered by the Departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development. Some community colleges have teamed with the centers to improve their ability to assist regional employers and industries.

Through interview and survey work, the GAO further explores the circumstances by which community colleges’ integration with one-stop centers is promoted or impeded, examining the potential for other collaborations such as the Department of Labor’s WIRED program. Challenges identified by the GAO that may inhibit successful joint workforce development efforts between community colleges and the centers include:

* Federal performance measures designed to assess accountability that, as currently designed, can create incentives for one-stops to offer services to clients who are easier to serve than others;

* Inconsistent performance measurements across the programs from different federal agencies; and,

* Overall declines in federal funding for certain workforce development programs.

The GAO report, Community Colleges and One-Stop Centers Collaborate to Meet 21st Century Workforce Needs, can be accessed at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08547.pdf

The state-by-state comparisons within The States and Their Community Colleges can be found at: http://www.rockinst.org/WorkArea/showcontent.aspx?id=14870

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