Issues surrounding the new FAFSA form have led to a sharp decline in form completions for the coming academic year. This could result in overall enrollment declines across higher education, but it is likely to hit some groups of students and institutions harder than others.

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.

Laura Ullrich and Jacob Walker review data they have gathered from the Richmond Fed Survey of Community College Outcomes about high school students who take dual enrollment classes. They also discuss differences in how these classes are funded.

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.

The Richmond Fed Community Conversations team visited two South Carolina counties that are partnering with schools to prepare a skilled workforce.

The Richmond Fed hosted two programs on November 15 that unveiled a new approach to measuring the success of community colleges.

Laura Ullrich provides an update on the Richmond Fed Survey of Community College Outcomes, which aims to provide more accurate and detailed data on the performance of community colleges and their students. Ullrich is a senior regional economist at the Charlotte branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

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.

Upcoming Event: The general public is invited to join the Richmond Fed on Wednesday, Nov. 15 for an enlightening conversation on the evolving role community colleges play in workforce development. Registration required.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond has developed the Survey of Community College Outcomes to better define student and institution success and to provide insight into the wide variety of programs offered and students served across the Fifth District. After a successful initial pilot in 2022, The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond moved into an extended pilot phase in 2023. Join Richmond Fed leaders Laura Ullrich and Jason Kosakow, along with two community college administrators, to learn more about the survey and its goals, and to view results from the extended pilot.

Over the past year, we surveyed 63 community colleges in states across the Fifth District to better understand community college performance in our region and to offer a fuller, more representative metric for measuring the success of these important institutions.

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.

A recent Community Conversations visit to southern West Virginia revealed efforts underway to transform the economy from coal-based to one sustained by natural resources.

Funding formulas for higher education have traditionally been based primarily on full-time equivalent enrollment. This creates disparities between funding for four-year institutions and community colleges that may worsen over time.

The STEM East initiative aims to show students in eastern North Carolina how they can stay and thrive in their home communities.

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.

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?

The calculation of college graduation rates is complicated, and many community college students are left out of the formula altogether.

A large number of high school students attend community college in the United States, with higher rates observed in rural areas. While this enrollment trend has grown over the past twenty years, data on these students' success has not.

Non-credit programs provide community college students an opportunity to obtain shorter-term training and credentials. These programs are becoming more popular, but we currently know very little about non-credit students.

Many students use two-year colleges to determine whether they should go on to a four-year college.

Hispanic postsecondary enrollment has nearly doubled in the Fifth District over the past decade, contributing to increased diversity across college campuses. Organizations work to engage Hispanic youth throughout the college application and attendance process to ensure their success as college students.

The Richmond Fed's Survey of Community College Outcomes presents a new way to measure success that includes previously underrepresented cohorts of students, including those receiving Pell grants.

Laura Ullrich and Jason Kosakow discuss how community colleges contribute to their local economies, especially rural communities, and how their new survey addresses knowledge gaps about these important contributions. Ullrich is a regional economist based at the Richmond Fed's Charlotte office and Kosakow is the Bank's survey director.

This new system for measuring community college outcomes better reflects how the institutions are serving their students and communities than current data collection methods.

Laura Ullrich and Urvi Neelakantan discuss trends in enrollment at community colleges and the role of these educational institutions in the economy.

While all sectors of higher education have experienced declines, community colleges have been hardest hit: this fall, community college enrollment declined significantly for the second consecutive year.

Vance-Granville Community College's early college high schools and workforce programs are improving education and job opportunities for area residents.

Community college enrollment declined significantly across the country in fall 2020, breaking the typical pattern of increased enrollment during a recession.

Tom Barkin travelled to Hickory, N.C. to take part in a video roundtable with industry leaders. These included five area furniture manufacturing companies, textile suppliers and more.

Richmond Fed president Tom Barkin discusses how community colleges can help workers affected by COVID-19 job loss.

COVID-19 has disrupted traditional higher education institutions and is forcing institutions to make substantial changes to their plans for the coming academic year.

Community colleges serve a larger share of minority students than public or private four-year schools.

Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin highlighted themes for rural communities — education, jobs, de-isolation, and participation — at the Virginia Governor's Conference on Agricultural Trade.

Fifth District businesses have expressed concerns over a growing skills mismatch in the local labor force. As a result, some have turned to apprenticeship programs.