Community colleges are vital and valued members of the College Board. As community colleges serve almost half of America’s college students, their voice is important in guiding the College Board’s efforts in supporting student success in higher education. In addition, collaboration with community colleges is crucial to the College Board’s work as a national leader and advocate for cross-sector education issues.
The Office of Community College Initiatives works across all College Board departments – Global Policy and Advocacy, Governance, Membership, and Research, among others – to advance this critical partnership. The Community College Advisory Panel, a standing committee of community college and other education leaders, helps guide the College Board's work with community colleges.
In 2007, the College Board convened the National Commission on Community Colleges whose 2008 report, Winning the Skills Race and Strengthening the Middle Class, outlines a state and federal policy agenda to strengthen community colleges. More recent projects include The Completion Arch: Measuring Community College Student Success, an online repository of data that assists practitioners and others in understanding community college students’ progress and barriers (The Arch was funded by the College Board and now resides with RTI International); the Community College Counselor Sourcebook, a resource that highlights the pivotal role of community college counselors; as well as an important series of reports on transfer.
Contact [email protected] for additional information on these and other community college-focused initiatives.
For the Community College Practitioner
As a community college educator, you help your students succeed in college. Whether they want to earn an A.A. or A.S. degree, prepare for transfer to a four-year college or university, or complete a career/technical certificate, your students rely on you for advice and counsel. The College Board offers a variety of programs and services to help you serve your students and their families.
- College counseling support: The College Board offers information and programs that help you advise your students about becoming successful college students as well as how to prepare them for transfer to a four-year college or university.
- Financial aid services for higher education: We know that one of the most pressing concerns of community college students and their families is how to pay for college. Fortunately, the College Board's website, College Board services, and a number of publications provide clear and up-to-date information about college costs and financial aid.
- College advising and placement tools: Community college professionals nationwide use College Board assessments to help pinpoint students' strengths and weaknesses and to help students advance academically.
- Recruitment and admission services: The College Board has extensive experience helping colleges and universities recruit and enroll students using the latest web-based technologies in cost-effective ways.
- College Board data, reports, and research: Each year the College Board conducts research studies that explore a broad range of educational issues such as college success, student academic preparation, college placement, and education policy.
- Professional development opportunities: The College Board offers community college educators a variety of opportunities to strengthen skills and advance their careers as well as to network with and learn from education professionals across the education sectors.