March 25, 2014
Sample press release
Background
There is an opportunity for your community college to send out a local press release that highlights the main changes you are implementing in order to promote student success. The following press release is meant to serve as a customizable template for local use.
[Community College] to Implement New Changes as Part of National Movement to Increase Graduation Rates
New degree completion pathways adopted to promote student success in 21st century
[CITY, Month Day, Year] – Today, [Community College] announced the launch of a series of new strategies aimed at increasing college completion rates and ensuring student competitiveness in the 21st century. While degree completion and student success has long been the focus of [Community College], the launch marks the beginning of a more aggressive approach modeled after the set of recommendations released earlier this year by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC).
[Insert your college’s strategies in place of this paragraph.] Some of the new strategies include implementing stronger reverse transfer agreements with local institutions and revised structured pathways to certificate and degree completion. Now [Community College] students who transfer to [Baccalaureate Institution] with at least [XX]% of an associate degree completed will be tracked and notified when they have earned enough credits to be awarded an associate degree. Students will also be grouped in academic cohorts and will have consolidated schedules in the morning, afternoon and evening. This will encourage student collaboration and will include focused staff support as well.
“Hundreds of higher education leaders from across the country have explored what it will take to deliver student success in the 21st century, and we are thrilled to be taking these bold steps to help our students achieve degree completion,” said [Community College President]. “Implementing an improved tracking system and a reverse transfer agreement will be key to ensuring that our students’ hard work is always counting towards their degrees.”
The new strategies respond to an implementation guide released earlier this year by AACC that outlined recommendations and resources to help community colleges better serve the 13 million diverse students in search of the American Dream. AACC’s recommendations include:
1. Increase completion rates by 50% by 2020
2. Dramatically improve college readiness
3. Close the American skills gap
4. Refocus the community college mission and redefine institutional roles
5. Invest in collaborative support structures
6. Target public and private investments strategically
7. Implement policies and practices that promote rigor and accountability
“The American Association of Community Colleges is calling on community college leaders to re-imagine and re-design their students’ experiences,” said Walter Bumphus, AACC’s president and CEO. “We must transform our colleges so that students have a clear pathway to college completion and success in the workforce.”
The recommendations are a result of AACC’s 21st-Century Initiative. The overall goal of the initiative is to educate an additional five million students with degrees, certificates or other credentials by 2020. The initiative has received support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, ACT and the Educational Testing Service.
About [Community College]
[Fill in your college’s boilerplate language.]
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