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: 

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

in over 25 years.

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

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​​​​Collaborating with Center-Affiliated Scholars at Iowa State University quantitatively analyze data from the ACCT-CSCC Survey of Community College Trustees..

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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:

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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.​

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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.

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

Provide Leadership Development for Transformative Change

In 2025 the Center became the    fiscal home of the Transformative Education Leadership Institute (TELI), an organization dedicated to cultivating the skills, practical experiences, and global networks necessary for community college leaders to ethically and effectively guide their institutions through changing educational and policy landscapes. 

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Through innovative, just-in-time curricula, case studies, and the fostering of deep connections across institutional and international borders, the TELI Fellows Program empowers leaders to become more creative and transformative change agents in their colleges and communities.