Conduct National Community College Research

As a stand-alone nonprofit research organization, the Center is uniquely positioned to conduct and advise on national investigations of community college leadership, practice, policy, and student success. The Center frequently engages in research-to-practice partnerships with national community college organizations

to maximize the impact of its scholarship and institutional improvement initiatives. Recent and ongoing projects include: 

​

Partnering with ACCT to conduct the most comprehensive survey of community college trustees

in over 25 years.

​

​

​

Collaborating with AAUP to administer the first-ever community college shared governance survey.

​

​

Partnering with the League for Innovation in the Community College to improve connections to wraparound services and the workforce at four Arizona community and tribal colleges.

​

​

​

Collaborating with Center-Affiliated Scholars at Mississippi State University to develop a landscape analysis of community college civic programs and practices.

​

Support, Promote, and Disseminate Community College Scholarship

Since 1974, a core aspect of the Center's mission has been to increase awareness and utilization of community college scholarship. 

The Center supports, promotes, and disseminates exemplary research on

community colleges by:

​

Serving as the fiscal home of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC), an AACC-affiliated scholarly association comprised of university researchers,  community college practitioners, and others  who further scholarship on the community college enterprise.​

​

​

​

Collaborating with the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research at NC State University and ICPSR to develop and maintain the Community College Data Hub,

a collection of datasets and data-related publications associated with community colleges and their students, administrators, faculty,

staff, and communities.

​

​

​

Engaging established and emerging scholars and scholar-practitioners in research leading to institutional improvement through the Center-Affiliated Scholars Program.

Administer Multi-College Institutional Improvement Initiatives

Drawing on relationships with community college leaders, state agencies, philanthropic organizations, and community college member associations, the Center convenes and administers large-scale institutional improvement initiatives involving multiple community colleges, researchers, evaluators,

and other organizations.

Depending on the project, the Center may play a direct role, act in an advisory capacity, and/or provide administrative services to facilitate the receipt and distribution of grant dollars across multiple institutions.

The Center's low indirect cost  rate and nonprofit status ensure

that the vast majority of each

grant can support institutional improvement on college campuses as well as associated research

and/or evaluation.