Resource Library

The Taos Education Collaborative (TEC), a partner in the Rural Learning Systems cohort, is spotlighted in this article by CivicLab. TEC brings businesses, educators and community organizations to the table to develop a homegrown workforce. Other rural communities can learn from TEC’s work to build stronger educational pipelines and clearer, better aligned pathways for postsecondary attainment and socioeconomic mobility.

In their first report, the University of Washington describes key components of a successful STEM transfer program that centers student success through an interconnected system, rather than several siloed systems. Using data from the first six months of their STEM Transfer Partnerships program, they are hopeful this resource will begin a dialogue on how practitioners and researchers think about STEM and student transfer.

Community college systems and individual colleges have made considerable investments in corequisite supports, and these supports have been implemented in myriad ways. Yet, despite overall favorable evidence of improvements, we know remarkably little about how to design corequisite supports to maximize students’ success. This report from Strong Start to Finish examines corequisite designs of math and English courses across the Colorado Community Colleges System to identify the features of corequisite support courses that are most strongly associated with students’ short- and long-term outcomes.

Place-based learning is an outside-the-box approach to curriculum design. It integrates local and regional cultures, history and resources into educational curricula, making it a good fit for rural learners. It encourages them to be more engaged in postsecondary education by making it relevant to their lives and their communities. This resource includes case study profiles of rural institutions and how they utilize place-based learning programs.

In addition to the many structural barriers that impede the success of learners from low-income backgrounds, there are also cultural barriers — those that make learners feel isolated and overwhelmed and like they don't belong. A new report from the Community College Resource Center shows how community colleges can confront these barriers and increase retention by intentionally engaging nonacademic staff to build a culture of belonging. Specifically, the report discusses the early promise of Caring Campus/Staff, a program designed and administered by the Institute for Evidence-Based Change to enlist nonacademic staff in these efforts.

Rural communities face different labor market challenges than urban areas. However, there are opportunities for significant change as the U.S. emerges from the pandemic. This brief from The Conference Board looks at labor market challenges and solutions for rural America, using rural Utah as a case study.

No Middle Ground provides a guide for incorporating equity into Complete College America’s evidence-based strategies for college completion. The report outlines the importance of language and intentionality in creating programs and policies to disrupt dysfunctional systems and pave the way for all students to complete college.

Informed Self-Placement is a placement system in which students decide their math and English placement level based on information provided by colleges. This report from CAPR provides an opportunity for institutions to evaluate their placement systems relative to the degree of choice and guidance provided, and to consider changes that may boost student progression and success.

The final installment in a six-part series, this Rural Matters podcast episode highlights place-based education programs, particularly how they can benefit rural learners and communities. Place-based learning involves engaging the community, which can help make college learning more accessible, relevant and motivating to first-generation learners and learners from low-income backgrounds.

Created by The Community Colleges of Appalachia, the Rural Educator Academy (REA) is a unique, two-pronged approach to professional development for rural postsecondary educators. Through REA, a community of practice has formed to identify ways leaders can improve student success for learners from low-income backgrounds while also focusing on equity. A curriculum for training will be produced from the REA professional development program.

New research behind a framework aimed at enriching learners’ experiences as they choose and plan a program of study has been shared by the Community College Research Center (CCRC). This brief describes the motivation, research evidence and equity implications that allow CCRC’s Ask-Connect-Inspire-Plan framework to serve as a useful strategy for colleges to engage learners and encourage completion.

The fifth in a six-part podcast series, this Rural Matters episode features a discussion with leaders of two organizations working with rural community colleges to prepare students for the digital economy. These organizations focus their work on helping rural college leaders to understand and use data so that they can identify barriers faced by learners from low-income backgrounds and create equitable pathways to career success.