Beyond the College Walls

A provocative guide to the future of community college reform and the transformative partnerships necessary for success

Beyond the College Walls is a forward-looking volume for community college presidents, trustees, faculty, and staff leaders who are ready to build powerful ecosystems of support for students and their communities. Grounded in two decades of completion-focused reform, the disruption and reset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and emerging models from across the country, the contributors argue that community colleges must dramatically expand and transform their relationships with employers, community organizations, and civic and political allies to achieve meaningful economic mobility for low-income and underserved learners.

This accessible, practice-informed collection weaves together research, institutional case studies, and first-person perspectives from the field. Opening chapters take stock of the community college reform movement since the early 2000s, examining the gains and limitations of the completion agenda, the mounting pressures facing colleges, and how the pandemic both exposed the precariousness of students' lives and revealed colleges' capacity for rapid, large-scale innovation. Later chapters, paired with short "Essays from the Field," highlight innovative models of external partnership that move beyond episodic collaboration toward long-term, mutually beneficial alliances. Field leaders and community college presidents explore place-based engagement with underserved communities, new frameworks for co-designing pathways to good jobs with regional employers, and strategies for building durable coalitions that can secure resources and advocate for broader social and economic reforms.

From lessons and innovations like these, the editors distill a set of five principles to guide the next phase of community college reform. Presenting an ambitious vision for the next decade of learner-centered community college improvement, this volume will help leaders forge lasting partnerships that improve outcomes for a broader group of current and future students.