About the Survey

Community colleges play an important role in workforce and economic development. Because community colleges are fundamentally different from four-year institutions, traditional higher education metrics collected across states do not fully capture the breadth of students who community college serve or the broad set of ways these students achieve success.

The Survey of Community College Outcomes (SCCO) is an annual institution-level data collection effort focused on community colleges' unique role in higher education. The SCCO evolved from a 10-school pilot in 2021 into a collaborative data collection effort covering more than 180 colleges across 10 states in its most recent year (2025).