Community College Research

Community colleges have moved to the forefront of nationwide efforts to retrain unemployed workers and improve education levels of all citizens. SRI International is launching a new program to bring a diverse team of researchers together to support community college improvement.

Researchers with backgrounds in instructional design and assessment, educational psychology, neuroscience, technology development, policy, economics, English as second language (ESL), and special education are joining forces to assist community college professionals in meeting the challenges of rapid workforce retraining and accelerated developmental education.

SRI's research team on community colleges will build on past work that focused on the following themes:

- Developing tools to support online professional development communities and the assessment and monitoring of Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)
- Evaluating the effectiveness of Early College and dual enrollment programs preparing secondary students for college and career readiness
- Partnering with states and regional agencies to identify promising future areas of economic and workforce development
- Developing workplace standards to guide adult education and literacy instruction

See information on current projects and key researchers.