Archives of Community College Practice

The $1 million Aspen Prize, awarded every two years, honors community colleges that achieve exceptional levels of success for all students, while they are in college and after they graduate.

The Excellence and Equity in Community College STEM Award is designed to elevate community college programs that produce strong and equitable student outcomes in science, tech, engineering and math (STEM) fields and to recognize the diverse scholars in those programs.

The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program (Aspen) and its partners at the Community College Research Center (CCRC) seek 10 institutions to participate in a first-of-its-kind initiative that reflects the next wave of the community college student success movement: a bold focus on excellence and equity in post-completion outcomes.

The Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program is exploring how community colleges can meet the challenges of the changing labor market and create robust pathways to economic opportunity for all students.

The Frontier Set was a diverse network of high-performing two-and four-year colleges, universities, and state systems all committed to significantly increasing access, advancing student success, and eliminating racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in college attainment.

Four of five U.S. school districts report equity gaps in dual enrollment. Aspen supports K-12 and community college leaders in expanding this pathway to a college degree or workforce credential to the many students who are missing out.

Students are more likely to complete a degree on time if they have a clear academic road map and receive strong support to help them get on a path early in their college careers and stay on the path through graduation. The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program is a partner in the American Association of Community Colleges Pathways Project, a collaborative effort to help community colleges design and implement structured academic and career pathways at scale for all students.

The College Excellence Program at the Aspen Institute has created Leading for Community College Excellence, a set of curricular resources complete with case studies, videos, discussion questions, and recommended activities designed to help existing graduate education and community college professional development programs produce exceptional leaders who can improve student success.