A primary focus of our work at the Belk Center is to support community college leaders and educators in making evidence-based decisions that advance equitable student outcomes. The purpose of this guide is to curate a hub of information for community colleges interested in valuable resources that can continue to inform decisions that support student success in North Carolina.
Our partners at the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program provide a useful framework for defining student success. Based on their work with community colleges, they have observed that excellent community colleges demonstrate high-quality outcomes in learning, completion and transfer, labor market outcomes, and equity. In North Carolina, research and practice points to areas of strength and opportunities to address the leaks in our education pipeline. The Belk Center believes that community colleges are critical to the social and economic mobility of North Carolinians and the economic competitiveness of their regions.
If you have additional resources to share for this guide, please complete our form here.
This section provides resources related to supporting students from traditionally underserved backgrounds in higher education including Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students. We encourage utilizing equity related to strategies to support your action plans across multiple areas including the K12 to community college pipeline, partway home students, retention/persistence, and completion.
North Carolina Leaky Pipeline Report
Tomorrow’s jobs increasingly demand a highly trained workforce. To meet projected demands, at least 60% of North Carolina workers will need a postsecondary degree…
Our mission is to identify barriers to economic opportunity and develop scalable solutions that will empower people throughout the United States…
Explore the Opportunity Insights with the real-time Economic Tracker. Track the economic impacts of COVID-19 on people, businesses, and communities across the United States in real time.
This page provides lecture materials and videos for a course taught by Raj Chetty and Greg Bruich at Harvard University entitled, “Using Big Data to Solve Economic and Social Problems.”
With the release of our two reports, “Deep Rooted: A Brief History of Race and Education” and “E(race)ing Inequities: The State of Racial Equity in North Carolina Public Schools,” we hope to initiate…
This report calls attention to patterns of inequity at the system and college levels by documenting gaps in access and academic progress across demographic populations, specifically race/ethnicity and gender…
“Big-Picture Thinking & Partnerships That Improve Community College Student Outcomes”: Community colleges play a vital role in creating a more equitable society through educational opportunity…
Race and Ethnicity in Higher Ed
This page provides a data-informed foundation for those working to close persistent equity gaps by providing a glimpse into the educational pathways of today’s college students…
Meeting the Needs of Underserved Students
The 21st century college student population is the most diverse in our nation’s history, characterized by the intersection of race, gender, sexual orientation…
Messaging to Underrepresented Populations
Based on focus groups and survey results, Aspen gained insights into how to message the value of community college programs to opportunity youth, unemployed adults…
Mission: Established in 2009, Complete College America is a bold national advocate for dramatically increasing college completion rates and closing equity gaps by working with states, systems, institutions, and partners…
Mission: The Education Trust is a national nonprofit that works to close opportunity gaps that disproportionately affect students of color and students from low-income families. Through our research…
Mission: To lead and support a national network of community colleges to achieve sustainable institutional transformation through sharing knowledge, innovative solutions and effective practices…
The Frontier Set is a diverse set of high-performing two-and four-year colleges, universities, and state systems, all committed to significantly increasing student access and success and eliminating…
Mission: Achieving racial equity in education across North Carolina through building connections and engagement across fields of research, policy and practice. We seek to achieve this mission by increasing…
Center for Racial Equity in Education
Mission: Through research, coalition building, and technical assistance, the Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED) works to close opportunity gaps for all children in P-20 education, especially children of color…
This section provides resources related to recruitment of high school students upon graduation, specifically pertaining to those who intend to go to college but do not enroll. We encourage utilizing these resources to support strategies related to K-12 partnerships and increasing enrollment.
This section provides resources related to partway home students, or adult learners who have accumulated some college credit. We encourage utilizing these resources to support strategies related to increasing enrollment, retention/persistence, and completion.
In order to ensure that students are being placed upon completion, it is vital to use labor market outcomes to predict the institution’s geographic labor needs and support programs, certificates, and continuing education in those areas. We encourage utilizing these resources to support strategies related to transfer, workforce, and completion.
This section provides resources related to retention and credential completion for community college students. We encourage utilizing these resources to support strategies related to completion, retention, and persistence.
Guided Pathways
Retention
Completion
Part-time Students
Student services play a vital role in providing holistic support for students including academic advising, financial aid, and identity based programming. We encourage utilizing these resources to support strategies related to retention/persistence, the K12 to community college pipeline, partway home students, and completion.
Advising/Success Coaching
Emergency Aid
Financial Aid
FAFSA Completion
Health Services
Holistic Student Supports
ASAP (Accelerated Study in Associate Programs)
Student Parents
The need for equitable and efficient transfer practices and policies has never been more urgent in the state of North Carolina. With the statewide attainment goal of increasing the number of North Carolinians with high-quality credentials by 400,000 people in the next 10 years, transfer pathways that support students to earn degrees and enter the workforce are essential. We encourage using these resources to support strategies related to transfer, completion, and retention/persistence.
This section provides organizations that typically fund community colleges and related projects. We encourage sharing your institution’s action plan and strategies to build connections and potentially receive funding.
