Community College Research Center

The Community College Research Center (CCRC) is a research center dedicated to studying community colleges located at Teachers College, Columbia University. The center was founded in 1996 with a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Lumina Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and others have supported CCRC's work.

Research

CCRC annually publishes numerous working papers, reports, briefs and practitioner packets in a broad range of areas pertaining to community colleges including college readiness and the transition to college; remedial education; student advising, financial aid, and other support services; institutional reform and performance funding; workforce education and training; and the economic returns to higher education.

In 2010, as part of the Lumina Foundation's Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count initiative, CCRC conducted a study [1] examining the progress of community college students through their remedial education “sequence” – which can consist of as many as six noncredit, pre-college courses. The study found that more students exit their remedial sequence because they do not enroll in their first or subsequent remedial course than because they fail or withdraw from courses. The study helped inform a period of ongoing reform in which many community colleges are experimenting with ways to shorten the sequence of courses required by underprepared students before enrolling in college-level courses.[2]

In 2012, CCRC published two studies [3][4] examining the accuracy of the placement exams widely used by community colleges to determine whether students should be placed in noncredit remedial classes or college-level classes. The findings suggested that large numbers of students were inaccurately placed either in remedial courses, or in college-level courses, and that far more students tended to be “underplaced” in remedial courses than “overplaced” in college-level courses. CCRC recommended that community colleges utilize multiple measures, including information from high school transcripts, to more accurately place students. The studies received widespread press coverage.[5][6] Many community colleges around the country have begun to re-think and re-structure their assessment and placement practices for incoming students.

In 2013, CCRC published research[7] examining how well lower-performing and minority students perform in online courses. The study suggested that while all students performed more poorly in online courses, certain groups saw a larger decrease in performance: achievement gaps between lower- and higher performing, African-American and White, and male and female students increased in online courses. The study was the subject of a New York Times editorial[8] and other press coverage[9]

Leadership

CCRC is led by economist Thomas R. Bailey, the George and Abby O’Neill Professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Thomas Bailey also serves as director of the Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment, funded by the U.S. Department of Education Institute for Education Sciences.

In 2010, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan appointed Bailey as Chair of the Committee on Measures of Student Success, which in 2011 released recommendations for community colleges to comply with completion rate disclosure requirements under the Higher Education Opportunity Act.

References

  1. ↑ Bailey, T., Jeong, D.W., Cho, S.W., (2010). "Referral, Enrollment, and Completion in Developmental Education Sequences in Community Colleges", Economics of Education Review, vol. 29.
  2. ↑ National Conference of State Legislatures (February 2013). Hot Topics in Higher Education: Reforming Remedial Education . Washington, DC.
  3. ↑ Scott-Clayton, J., (2012). Do High-Stakes Placement Exams Predict College Success? (CCRC Working Paper No. 41). New York, NY: Columbia University, Teachers College, Community College Research Center.
  4. ↑ Belfield, C., & Crosta, P.M., (2012). Predicting success in college: The importance of placement tests and high school transcripts (CCRC Working Paper No. 42). New York, NY: Columbia University, Teachers College, Community College Research Center.
  5. ↑ Lewin, T., Colleges Misassign Many to Remedial Classes, Studies Find, The New York Times, February 28, 2012.
  6. ↑ A Better Chance to Succeed, The New York Times, March 2, 2012.
  7. ↑ Xu, D. & Jaggars, S.S., (2013). Adaptability to online learning: Differences across types of students and academic subject areas (CCRC Working Paper No. 54). New York, NY: Columbia University, Teachers College, Community College Research Center.
  8. ↑ The Trouble With Online College, The New York Times, February 18, 2013.
  9. ↑ New,J. Online Courses Could Widen Achievement Gaps Among Students, The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 21, 2013.

External links

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