Community colleges have long served the nation and its workforce by playing a significant role in providing the necessary education and training for individuals. And in light of the nation’s economic turn of events, community colleges are experiencing even more growth and facing greater demand to serve as an educational and training hub.
But with this great opportunity, community colleges are also facing different and higher expectations. An obstacle to their growth may be their inability to demonstrate accountability – comparable evidence that community colleges are meeting the desired goals. A recent report, Counting the Hidden Assets: First Steps in Assessing the Impact of Community College Noncredit Education Programs on the Workforce and Local Economies, by the Community College Resource Center explores the issue.
The report notes that “there is no standard national measurement of the direct educational and economic benefits of noncredit courses to their communities, so they are not systematically evaluated.†That means despite the demand for community colleges by individuals and the growing requirement by employers for workers with postsecondary education, policymakers and other funders may lack the valid information to understand the need to support community colleges, the report said.
The report provides recommendations on how to measure success of community colleges as a first step to address the very large issue of data collection and measurement, and relating the information to accountability and standards.
Tags: accountability, postsecondary