Austin Community College District (ACC) joins a national network of community colleges to help develop programs that can improve student outcomes.
The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program’s Unlocking Opportunity network was designed to help community colleges reform programs to ensure students earn degrees that lead to good-paying jobs.
Together, these college will align their programs and student advising with the two most important goals of community college students: leaving college with a credential and a good job or transferring and completing a bachelor’s degree.
“Our students deserve credentials that open doors, not dead ends. Joining the Aspen Institute’s Unlocking Opportunity network moves us closer to ensuring every degree and certificate we award can lead to a great job or a clear path to a bachelor’s degree,” says ACC Chancellor Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart. “I’m grateful for this partnership because it affirms what we already know: when we love our students to success and align our programs with their dreams, we change not just their lives, but entire communities.”
“Every year, millions of students rely on community colleges for a low-cost pathway to what they assume will be a high-value credential,” says Aspen Institute College Excellence Program Executive Director Josh Wyner. “They rightly assume that the degree and certificate programs their colleges offer will deliver a good job and fulfilling career either directly after community college or after transferring and earning a bachelor’s degree. The leaders at each of the 55 colleges that have signed up for Unlocking Opportunity have made clear that they will spend the next three years working toward the kinds of reforms needed to make that assumption a reality for thousands more students.”
The multiyear initiative will engage college leaders and teams through a series of virtual and in-person sessions focused on scaling reforms that align their community college programs with available good jobs and bachelor’s degree pathways in their regions.
Aspen will use insights from this work to inform the broader field through fellowship programs, publications, and state partnerships to provide professional development to college leaders and teams.
The full list of colleges joining the expanded network is available [here]. To learn more about the network, visit https://highered.aspeninstitute.org/programs/unlocking-opportunity