The Huffington Post – Joshua Wyner
“Nearly half of all U.S. undergraduates are enrolled in community colleges. As a nation, we must both support these institutions and challenge them to improve their record of student success if community colleges are to fulfill their potential as drivers of economic growth and social mobility. The Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence was created to both recognize and challenge community colleges. A year-long process of research and analysis has enabled our expert selection committees to identify powerful examples of how the best community colleges are helping reinvent the delivery of higher education. Today we celebrate the 10 finalists for the 2015 prize…The 2015 winner, Santa Fe College in Gainesville, FL, shows how completion and transfer outcomes can be transformed. When students first enroll in community colleges, the degree they most aspire to is one the community college typically cannot deliver: a bachelor’s degree…The 2015 Aspen Prize winner Santa Fe College, in Florida, shows how a community college can help students transfer to a four-year school and receive a bachelor’s degree at a rate more than double the national average. Santa Fe has created clear, rigorous pathways to degrees at nearby University of Florida (UF). In addition to receiving strong advising and experiencing a highly visible UF presence on the Santa Fe campus, students are aided during class registration by unique technology that enables them to align their course choices with transfer requirements (and avoid missteps along the way).”(more)