AACC Resources
- AACC College Completion Toolkit includes facts, resources, and sample news releases to help your college or organization speak about the importance of college completion on campus, in the media and in your community.
- The Road Ahead: A Look at Trends in the Educational Attainment of Community College Students (Policy Brief, October 2011)
- A Sound Investment: The Community College Dividend (Policy Brief, March 2011)
- Rebalancing the Mission: The Community College Completion Challenge (Policy Brief, June 2010)
- Improving Student Learning Outcomes with Service Learning (Research Brief, January 2010)
- Minority Male Student Success Programs at Community Colleges Database
- Engaging Adjunct and Full-Time Faculty in Student Success Innovation (Public Agenda 2011, Achieving the Dream Cutting Edge Series, No. 1)
- The Completion Agenda: A Call to Action summarizes the key points emerging from the focus groups conducted at the November 2010 meeting of AACC's board and commissions (April 2011)
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Special Spotlight Session: Inside the Completion Agenda: Challenges, Opportunities, and Action (Video and presentation from the 2011 AACC Annual Convention). Review and purchase the 2011 virtual annual meeting.
Making the Case
- A Guide to Major U.S. College Completion Initiatives by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities is a new policy brief that provides an overview of projects related specifically to improving postsecondary attainment across the country.
- College Dropouts Cost America Billions in Lost Earnings, Researchers Report (Daily Finance, August 22, 2011)
- President Obama's call for 5 million additional community college graduates by 2020
- Lumina Foundation “Big Goal 2025”
- Lumina Foundation Big Goal Strategic Direction
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Why College Completion?
- White House Summit on Community Colleges: AACC Statement on Completion
- “Meeting the Challenge,” Community College Journal, April-May 2010
- U.S. Department of Education College Completion Tool Kit (2011)
- Meeting the Nation’s 2020 Goal: State Targets for Increasing the Number and Percentage of College Graduates with Degrees (U.S. Department of Education, March 18, 2011)
- Project Win-Win (Institute for Higher Education Policy)
- Achieving the Dream - a national nonprofit dedicated to helping more community college students succeed, particularly students of color and low-income students.
- Completion by Design - a five-year Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiative that works with community colleges to significantly increase completion and graduation rates for low-income students under 26.
- GradTX - a new program from the State of Texas to encourage adults to return to college and finish their bachelor’s degrees. The eight participating universities are Texas public universities with established reputations for high quality education and student service.
- Charting Pathways to Completion for Low-Income Community College Students (CCRC Working Paper No. 34) by: Davis Jenkins & Madeline Joy Weiss — September 2011. New York: Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University: This paper uses administrative data from Washington State to chart the educational pathways of first-time community college students over seven years, with a focus on young, socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
- American Association for Women in Community Colleges Position on Community College Completion
Community College Approaches
Achieving the Dream Leader Colleges - Promising Practices
- Developmental Education (Alamo Community Colleges: Developmental Education Improvement Plan * North Central State College: Tutor Resource Center * Northampton Community College: Parallel Courses * Zane State College: College Student Inventory Review)
- Retention-Support Services (Broward College: Holistic Advising * Norwalk Community College: Student Success Center * Tallahassee Community College: Individual Learning Plans)
- Use of Evidence (Brazosport College: Expansion of Learning Frameworks Course * Danville Community College: Student Success Course * Southwest Texas Junior College: Building IR Capacity)
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Broad Engagement (Brazosport College: Student Success Summit * Durham Technical Community College: Communities of Learning, Inquiry, and Practice * Patrick Henry Community College: Cooperative Learning Professional Development)
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Committed Leadership (The Alamo Colleges: Developmental Education Improvement Plan * Broward College: “Finish What You Start” Campaign * Zane State College: Coordinated Team)
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Curriculum-Instruction (Cuyahoga Community College: Paired Math Course * Houston Community College: Learning Communities * Patrick Henry Community College: Active Cooperative Learning)
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Equity (Capital Community College: Black & Latino Male Resource Center * Guildford Technical Community College: SOAR * Hillsborough Community College: Black, Brown, and College Bound)
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First-Year Experience (El Paso Community College: College readiness Initiative and PREP *Northern Virginia Community College: FYE Program, *Yakima Valley Community College: Mandatory New Student Orientation)
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Systemic Institutional Improvement (Mountain Empire Community College, Cooperative Learning Professional Development for Faculty * Valencia Community College: Expansion of Supplemental Learning)
Virginia Community Colleges
Miami Dade College
Leah Meyer Austin Institutional Student Success Leadership Award (Achieving the Dream Honors)
Harper College: completion as a focused priority across campus
Baton Rouge Community College
Broward College: Student progression over time
Snead State Community College
Tallahassee Community College, FL