Changing Courses: Instructional Innovations That Help Low-Income Students Succeed in Community College

In recent years, interest has grown in the role of community colleges in helping low-skilled and low-income individuals advance toward self-sufficiency. MDRC's Opening Doors Project has both recognized that potential and identified obstacles to realizing it. As part of this project, MDRC asked JFF to look at curricular and program redesign strategies that community colleges are using to speed advancement from lower skill levels into credential programs and to shorten the time needed to earn a credential.

Changing Courses presents a framework for understanding the range of experimentation taking place in community colleges, and it identifies programs that exemplify promising approaches.