Completion News Archive

The goals of the Completion Agenda in the community college—to double the number of students who complete a one-year certificate, an associate degree or who transfer to another college or university to complete a credential—is the reform movement of this decade and perhaps the next.

Dazzled by the potential of free online college classes, educators are now turning to the gritty task of harnessing online materials to meet the toughest challenges in American higher education: giving more students access to college, and helping them graduate on time.

Research has identified several ways for colleges that enroll lesser-prepared students to improve their graduation rates. But college leaders are often wary of those solutions, because they can take a whack at the bottom line and challenge a tradition of open doors.

Helping students complete their two-year college education or obtain a certificate for career entry or upgrade always has been implicit to the mission of community colleges. Yet, the impetus to move this goal to a higher priority may not have taken place until several years ago when national leaders, along with local and federal government officials, focused on the issue.

Anthony Carnevale, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, shares his views on the importance of middle-skill jobs to the U.S. economy, and the role community colleges play in putting students to work.

Want a solid, middle-class salary straight out of college? Skip the last two years. A site that analyzes state-level data of how much people earn a year after graduating college found some counterintuitive results: Certain students who earn associate's degrees can get higher salaries than graduates of four-year programs — sometimes thousands of dollars more.