“Community colleges are more vital than ever to the future of higher education, and we are proud to partner with faculty and administrators across the country in exchanging best practices through the LEAP Connections Resource Hub,” said AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella. “Our shared objective is to meet the equity imperative, not only by ensuring access, but by inspiring and accelerating educational excellence as a means of enhancing both completion and student success.”
Through participation in Advancing Roadmaps, community colleges are creating robust and proactive programs of academic support—tied to expected learning outcomes—that engage students at entry and teach them, from the outset, how to become active partners in their quest for educational success. It builds on the research sponsored as part of AAC&U’s Liberal Education and America’s Promise initiative, including research on high-impact educational practices that are proven to increase persistence, completion, and achievement of key learning outcomes, especially for students who have traditionally been underserved in higher education.
While designed with contributions and insights from the community college sector, resources and dialogues on LEAP Connections will also be valuable to all college educators, especially those working to ensure that students succeed—including students who start their educational journeys at community colleges but seek to transfer to four-year institutions.
The site also features resources from other important community college organizations including the American Association of Community Colleges, Jobs for the Future, and Achieving the Dream, Inc.
“AAC&U has provided our team from College of the Canyons with incredible resources and connections that have been invaluable in the work we’re trying to accomplish related to student equity, success, and completion,” said Audrey Green, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at the College of the Canyons. “The LEAP Connections Resource Hub puts all of these resources and more in one place and allows us to continue the dialogue related to our work and challenges via the Hub. Our team is excited to be active participants on the Hub.”
Material from a press release was used in this report.
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