Chattanooga State Community College continues to affirm its ongoing commitment to its students. On Tuesday, the College announced it was chosen among 54 other institutions to join a cohort of community colleges investing in student outcomes alongside The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program.
As a new member of the institute’s Unlocking Opportunity network, ChattState will commit to implementing reforms that help ensure its students earn degrees that lead to good-paying jobs.
The incoming cohort of colleges will join 10 pilot institutions in a growing national effort to align programs and student advising with the two most important goals of community college students: leaving college with a credential and a good job or transferring and completing a bachelor’s degree. Through three years of focused reforms, these colleges will work with the Aspen Institute to assess current programs, set goals, and implement research-based reforms to increase student success.
“ChattState has a 60-year history of transforming our community through education” said Dr. Rebecca Ashford, ChattState President. “Through our work with Unlocking Opportunities, our College will fulfill our vision of ensuring our students have pathways that will lead to prosperous futures for themselves, their families, and our community.”
“Every year, millions of students rely on community colleges for a low-cost pathway to what they assume will be a high-value credential,” said Josh Wyner, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program. “They rightly assume that the degree and certificate programs their colleges offer will deliver a good job and fulfilling career either directly after community college or after transferring and earning a bachelor’s degree. The leaders at each of the 55 colleges that have signed up for Unlocking Opportunity have made clear that they will spend the next three years working towards the kinds of reforms needed to make that assumption a reality for thousands more students.”
The multi-year initiative will engage college leaders and teams through a series of virtual and in-person sessions focused on scaling reforms that align their community college programs with available good jobs and bachelor’s degree pathways in their regions. Guided by lessons from successful reforms implemented by the 10 Unlocking Opportunity pilot institutions, the new 55 colleges will set goals to increase student enrollment in and completion of high-value workforce and transfer programs, while reducing lower-opportunity pathways.
The 10 Unlocking Opportunity pilot institutions are on track to collectively move over 20,000 students into high-value programs of study that lead to good jobs. With this expansion, Aspen will (for at least the next three years) track and support progress for 65 participating colleges, including those 55 just selected. Aspen will use insights from this work to inform the broader field through fellowship programs, publications, and state partnerships to provide professional development to college leaders and teams.
View the full list of colleges joining the expanded network.
Unlocking Opportunity, developed in partnership with the Community College Research Center, is supported by Arnold Ventures, Ascendium Education Group, Bank of America, ECMC Foundation, and JPMorganChase. The expansion of the Unlocking Opportunity network is made possible by the support of JPMorganChase.
To learn more about the network, visit https://highered.aspeninstitute.org/programs/unlocking-opportunity
