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Background
Community colleges are pivotal in meeting the nation's expanding needs for postsecondary education. As students and adult learners adapt to a more competitive economy and workforce, access through community colleges to advanced training and lifelong learning opportunities becomes critically important. Access to at least two years of postsecondary education increasingly is recognized as the ticket to social mobility and "the good life."
Growing numbers of policymakers support two-year colleges playing a greater role in postsecondary education. State policymakers are looking to the colleges to provide access to increasing numbers of students, retraining for displaced workers and those leaving the welfare rolls, preservice and inservice training for K-12 teachers, support for K-12 reform efforts, and leadership in state and community economic development efforts.
But with this prominence comes new challenges. Community colleges face escalating expectations and demands in a policy environment that increasingly fails to address the needs of communities. Myths and misperceptions about two-year college education have contributed to a lack of understanding and an undervaluing of the unique mission of the community college. A one-size-fits-all postsecondary paradigm built around a university model is the reality. There are few sources of timely, objective information to which policymakers can turn.
Exacerbating the problems are significant differences among states on such critical issues as governance (where existing structures and processes often are out of sync with current needs, and funding policies (which in many cases may discourage colleges from focusing on their communities' unique needs). Mechanisms are needed to create an environment in which public policy supports rather than hinders solutions to pressing problems.
The Center for Community College Policy
It is clear that state policymakers need much more information than currently is accessible if community colleges are to reach their potential in helping meet the country's postsecondary education needs. To meet the demands, the Education Commission of the States (ECS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Education, has established the Center for Community College Policy. The Center, based at ECS in Denver, will undertake the following types of activities:
- Conduct research and analysis
- Establish a web-based electronic database on issues of community college policy
- Serve as a clearinghouse for state officials, college leaders and the media on issues of community college policy at the state level
- Publish and disseminate policy papers
- Organize national, regional and state-level workshops around issues of community college policy
- Provide technical assistance to states.
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