Dive Brief:
- A one-year "design challenge" will partner community colleges with four-year colleges to work together on best practices to develop stronger pathways for transferring and degree completion.
- Funded by the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, the new program is seeking "a transformational difference, not just an incremental one," toward getting more community college students to a bachelor's degree, Education Design Lab founder and president Kathleen deLaski told Inside Higher Ed.
- Data show that while 80% of students who enter community college desire to receive a bachelor's degree, only 14% actually obtain one in six years, and only 38% overall earn either an associate or bachelor's degree.
Dive Insight:
Stronger collaboration between education sectors is desperately needed. Whether it is two-year and four-year institutions working together to create stronger articulation agreements to make transferring easier or stronger collaboration between both types of institutions and K-12 schools around curricular development and dual enrollment initiatives, today's students depend on the entire academic enterprise to break down silos and work together. Data show that nearly one in four students will transfer institutions at least once in six years, while a recent survey of community college presidents found barriers to transfer are still hindering a large number of students from completing their degrees.