Dive Brief:
- The Aspen Institute, Columbia University's Teachers College and Public Agenda have joined forces on a campaign to focus on transfer, emphasizing the role of four-year schools.
- Inside Higher Ed reports the Community College Research Center at Teachers College will kick off the campaign with a report, set to be released next month and produced in conjunction with the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center that reveals, among other things, that an inadequate transfer pipeline contributes to higher ed’s equity problem.
- While many students find transferring from a community college to a four-year school comes with little support in either direction, there is variation, with exemplar partnerships like the one between Valencia College and the University of Central Florida, and the forthcoming report will break down student outcomes at four-year institutions by state, following 1.2 million students.
Dive Insight:
The push to improve the transfer pipeline out of community colleges is well-timed for multiple reasons. Inside Higher Ed points out the spread of performance-based funding formulas at the state level are providing new motivation for four-year institutions to get better outcomes from transfer students and financial pressures mean transfer students can play a role in boosting enrollment revenue.
What's more, the rise in Promise programs that offer tuition-free access to community college programs is going to shift even more attention on transfer student outcomes to a new group of students, many of whom may not have chosen the two-year programs without the scholarship incentive. States must fix their "leaky" transfer pipeline to fulfill the true promise of the program.