Jobs for the Future is a partner in Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, a national initiative to help more community college students succeed (earn degrees, earn certificates, or transfer to other institutions to continue their studies). The initiative is particularly concerned about student groups that have faced the most significant barriers to success, including low-income students and students of color. Achieving the Dream focuses colleges and others on understanding and making better use of data. It acts on multiple fronts, including efforts at community colleges and in research, public engagement, and public policy.
JFF
coordinates the effort to improve policies in the nine states
that are participating in the initiative—Connecticut, Florida,
New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, and Virginia. JFF also
co-leads the national policy effort and participates in engaging
the public and developing knowledge around the role of community
colleges. In this role, JFF selects a lead organization in each state, makes
grants to those organizations, and helps leadership teams from
each state to set agendas for policy change.
Achieving the Dream and State Policy
While Achieving the Dream primarily
focuses on institutional change among participating community
colleges, public policy innovation is integral to the initiative. Achieving the Dream is organized
on the premise that participating colleges will find obstacles
to their strategies for improvement that are due in part to the
particulars of education policies, primarily in their states but
also at the federal level. The policy component of Achieving
the Dream is designed first to promote policy innovations
that can make it easier for participating colleges to improve
student outcomes. Second, this work is intended to help move lessons
from the institutional change efforts of participating colleges
into state—and national—policy so that they can be
broadly institutionalized and sustained.
Achieving the Dream states
have identified the following policy priorities:
- Develop visible public policy
commitment to student access and success;
- Strengthen state data systems
to measure student outcomes and encourage higher performance;
- Better align community colleges
and other levels of education;
- Provide incentives for improved
services for academically under-prepared students; and
- Expand access to financial aid
and other financial incentives that increase persistence.
Lumina Foundation for Education provided funding for the initiative's startup, funds the 2004 colleges, and is providing ongoing funding for other participating colleges as well as other elements of the initiative.
Additional funding is provided by College Spark Washington (Washington state), The Heinz Endowments (Pennsylvania), Houston Endowment, Inc. (10 Houston-area colleges), KnowledgeWorks Foundation (Ohio), and Nellie Mae Education Foundation (Connecticut).
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A Supporting Role: How Accreditors Can Help Promote the Success of Community College Students 
