Understanding and appropriately measuring the role that community colleges play in rural areas is important to how we evaluate policies and funding for workforce and community development throughout the rural Fifth District.
Community Colleges

Explore our research on community colleges and their role in workforce and economic development.

North Carolina has taken dual enrollment/dual credit one step further with its Cooperative Innovative High Schools: high schools that are specifically designed for co-enrollment at a university or community college.
HEERF dollars helped community colleges and their students withstand pandemic disruptions. But schools that used the money for revenue replacement or other recurring items may have difficulty operating in a post-HEERF world.
A recent study suggests that admission restrictions for certain college majors are pushing some students into lower-earning career paths. What could this mean for students transferring from community colleges to four-year institutions in the Fifth District?
Demand for non-credit programs at community colleges is growing. What does this mean for the future of community college offerings?
Community college graduation rates lag those of their four-year counterparts in the Fifth District. Is this evidence of failure or mismeasurement?