Davis Jenkins

An evidence-based approach to community college transformation featuring innovative practices that strengthen offerings and foster student successIn More Essential Than Ever, researchers Davis Jenkins, Hana Lahr, John Fink, Serena C. Klempin, and Maggie P. Fay center US community colleges as critical to upward mobility and workforce development in their communities, highlighting new practices these institutions are using to build high-quality programs and support students’ educational and career success. Drawing on a decade of research on whole-college guided pathways reforms at more than 100 community colleges nationally, they illustrate how colleges have implemented large-scale changes to help students better navigate the journey to completion. They argue, however, that to achieve better and more equitable outcomes—and to recruit and retain more students in a highly competitive market—colleges must not only remove barriers to completion but also strengthen pathways to student goals after graduation, thus making their investment of money, time, and effort worth it. The book provides compelling case studies of how colleges are achieving this along five frontiers: strengthening program career and baccalaureate transfer outcomes, teaching students to be versatile learners, strengthening recruitment and onboarding, ensuring students complete in as little time and at as low a cost as possible, and building on-ramps to high-opportunity postsecondary pathways from high school. The book also gives practical guidance for college leaders on managing and funding these innovations and for state policymakers on encouraging and supporting them.

In the United States, 1,200 community colleges enroll over ten million students each year—nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates. Yet fewer than 40 percent of entrants complete an undergraduate degree within six years. This fact has put pressure on community colleges to improve academic outcomes for their students. Redesigning America’s Community Colleges is a concise, evidence-based guide for educational leaders whose institutions typically receive short shrift in academic and policy discussions. It makes a compelling case that two-year colleges can substantially increase their rates of student success, if they are willing to rethink the ways in which they organize programs of study, support services, and instruction. Community colleges were originally designed to expand college enrollments at low cost, not to maximize completion of high-quality programs of study. The result was a cafeteria-style model in which students pick courses from a bewildering array of choices, with little guidance. The authors urge administrators and faculty to reject this traditional model in favor of “guided pathways”—clearer, more educationally coherent programs of study that simplify students’ choices without limiting their options and that enable them to complete credentials and advance to further education and the labor market more quickly and at less cost. Distilling a wealth of data amassed from the Community College Research Center (Teachers College, Columbia University), Redesigning America’s Community Colleges offers a fundamental redesign of the way two-year colleges operate, stressing the integration of services and instruction into more clearly structured programs of study that support every student’s goals.

“Reinvention is the playbook on redesigning a large urban college system.” — From the forewordReinvention chronicles an unprecedentedly comprehensive approach to community college reform and the leadership challenges encountered along the way. The book addresses cultural clashes over the role and purpose of community colleges and argues for an emphasis on success and access. As chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago, Cheryl L. Hyman implemented an ambitious program of systemwide reform called Reinvention. The program’s impressive achievements included doubled graduation rates, improved transfer rates, and streamlined connections between college and careers. Informed by leading research on effective community college programs, Reinvention emphasized a shift in focus from access to outcomes, putting the priority on student success. Hyman’s background in business led her to a datadriven, goal-oriented approach informed by a strong sense of accountability—a cultural transformation that runs counter to established norms. Much of her work focused on creating collegeto- career pathways linked to industries where there is significant growth in good-paying jobs in the Chicago area. Hyman offers a wake-up call for community college leaders and those concerned with student success, arguing that a significant cultural and operational shift will be required for community colleges to fulfill this mission. The story of Reinvention—its failures as well as its nascent successes—offers an inspiration and a roadmap for those seeking to make change in higher education.

“Reinvention is the playbook on redesigning a large urban college system.” — From the forewordReinvention chronicles an unprecedentedly comprehensive approach to community college reform and the leadership challenges encountered along the way. The book addresses cultural clashes over the role and purpose of community colleges and argues for an emphasis on success and access. As chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago, Cheryl L. Hyman implemented an ambitious program of systemwide reform called Reinvention. The program’s impressive achievements included doubled graduation rates, improved transfer rates, and streamlined connections between college and careers. Informed by leading research on effective community college programs, Reinvention emphasized a shift in focus from access to outcomes, putting the priority on student success. Hyman’s background in business led her to a datadriven, goal-oriented approach informed by a strong sense of accountability—a cultural transformation that runs counter to established norms. Much of her work focused on creating collegeto- career pathways linked to industries where there is significant growth in good-paying jobs in the Chicago area. Hyman offers a wake-up call for community college leaders and those concerned with student success, arguing that a significant cultural and operational shift will be required for community colleges to fulfill this mission. The story of Reinvention—its failures as well as its nascent successes—offers an inspiration and a roadmap for those seeking to make change in higher education.