Community College Insights

Non-credit workforce training can provide community college students with a pathway to the workforce, but data are limited. This post explores non-credit students, including how the Richmond Fed defines these students and their credentials in the 2025 Survey of Community College Outcomes.

We collected a unique set of data from community colleges in the Carolinas to track degree-seeking high school students — a population excluded from the traditional graduation rate and the Richmond Fed success rate.

This week's post details the aggregate success rates across a wide range of student characteristics from nearly 300,000 students across 189 institutions.

A recent webinar from the Richmond Fed's Center for Rural Economies showed how three leaders from rural community colleges are tailoring their programs to better serve the needs of their students and communities.

Last week, we released results from the 2025 Survey of Community College Outcomes. This post explores the characteristics of Fifth District community college students and the community college pathways that are often overlooked by traditional graduation rate metrics.