Community College Insights

The motivations behind the new gainful employment policy are noble, but community colleges, especially in rural areas, could be disproportionately harmed by the earnings premium test.

In this article, we discuss the history and motivation of federal gainful employment legislation and what the new rules entail.

Dual enrollment programs can play an important role in creating a strong, educated workforce, but they need to make sure the funding policies are available and effective.

Community colleges offer non-credit workforce training programs that prepare students for high-demand jobs. Data on these programs and their students are limited. The Richmond Fed's Survey of Community College Outcomes aims to bridge the data gap.

Pell Grants make community college more accessible for low-income students, but those enrolled in non-credit coursework aren't eligible. Expanding eligibility would be significant for both institutions and students.

Data on dual enrollment programs is limited, but through the Richmond Fed's Survey of Community Colleges Outcomes, we now have a better understanding of how Fifth District community colleges serve high school students and how these students perform.

Community colleges started out as junior colleges and meant to restrict access to higher education. However, they have evolved to increase access to higher education and the workforce.

In order to observe Fifth District community college outcomes, we decided to collect consistent data that would enable us to calculate a new success metric: the Richmond Fed Community College Success Rate.

Between the webinar on the Survey of Community College Outcomes and the District Dialogues event, we hope you can join us on Nov. 15.

Community colleges differ from four-year institutions in important ways, but they are often measured by the same metrics.