Structural barriers, including poverty and a lack of access to high-quality secondary education, have created disparities in education and career outcomes for Black and Latinx students. Community colleges can help close these gaps, but to do so effectively and equitably, they need to be able to identify disparities and implement strategies that respond to students’ needs.
To support this work, community colleges can join communities of practice, which are “groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.”
These groups provide community college practitioners, such as provosts, faculty, directors of student services, and vice presidents for workforce development, with a place to hear from peers and experts about innovative strategies and evidence-based practices for helping all students succeed in and beyond the classroom. Practitioners can also receive support for their efforts to drive institutional change.
The Urban Institute and Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) have each supported communities of practice for community colleges working to advance equitable career and employment outcomes for students. Our teams came together to share three insights into how to best support and sustain a community of practice.
Establish goals and metrics
Data can be a critical tool for driving change. The Career and Technical Education (CTE) CoLab, Urban’s research-informed community of practice focused on advancing racial equity in online career and technical education, supports community colleges in developing and implementing data-informed plans to advance more-equitable student outcomes.
The Urban research team collects data from colleges in the community of practice to see how they’re progressing toward improving student outcomes, especially for students of color. Urban is also supporting the colleges in conducting their own research, including helping shape student surveys and advising on focus groups. These activities and metrics are important for developing a shared language across different college divisions, departments, and staff efforts to close gaps in student outcomes.
CSW’s community of practice, Advancing Community Equity and Upward Mobility (ACE-UP), is also helping community colleges establish goals and strategies for diversifying the workforce and increasing economic mobility. The process started with the colleges completing a self-assessment to analyze their strengths, identify areas for improvement, and set priorities. Promoting equity within the organization, building employer partnerships, and enhancing student services were key focus areas in the process.
Setting success metrics and measuring outcomes provide individual community colleges with opportunities for continuous improvement while generating evidence that can advance the broader field.
Build capacity
Capacity building is integral to sustaining communities of practice, and funding plays a key role. Through the CTE CoLab, Urban provides small grants to each member college. The grants help sustain colleges’ engagement in the community of practice, support their institutional capacity throughout their participation, and help the colleges build off and connect to similar efforts within the college.
In ACE-UP, participating colleges align institutional equity priorities with external grant-funded initiatives. This approach ensures that participation in the community of practice complements and enhances ongoing efforts to drive change.
Another important aspect of capacity building is cross-functional teams. In both ACE-UP and the CTE CoLab, college teams include senior leadership, decisionmakers, and staff responsible for key areas like workforce initiatives, employer engagement, and equity goals. These interdepartmental teams foster collective accountability and support while providing a clear structure for internal staff collaboration. By breaking down silos and embedding responsibility across multiple levels, this team structure also enables sustained progress even during staff transitions or after the community of practice has concluded.
Adapt to member colleges’ needs
Community colleges will inevitably need to adapt to changing policies, contexts, and staffing, making flexibility and responsiveness essential for communities of practice. Both CSW and Urban have adjusted their coaching approaches to better support community colleges.
The CTE CoLab used a team-based coaching model, where a coach, researcher, and junior staff member supported each college, but later shifted to individualized coaching. This has allowed for tailored guidance and trust-building while separating coaching from data collection. Similarly, CSW determined that it needed more-frequent coaching calls and technical assistance to help colleges apply insights gained from large-group meetings. As a result, CSW implemented quarterly calls between ACE-UP member colleges and subject matter experts.
In addition, CSW complemented its virtual-only community meetings with an in-person convening. The convening prioritized facilitating peer exchange and collaboration among ACE-UP members, providing direct support for data collection, and sharing insights from earlier phases of the community of practice. One ACE-UP college staff member noted, “The pace of change is increasing and community colleges are struggling to keep up, so meaningful convenings that include best practices are critical.”
The CTE CoLab also recognized that engaging students was critical to improving education and employment outcomes. Rather than CoLab researchers conducting surveys and focus groups themselves, they supported colleges in leading this work. This helped build internal capacity and empowered the colleges to gather insights directly from their learners. These approaches reflect the value of adapting to students’ diverse needs.
How can convening organizations and community college practitioners implement these approaches?
With intentional and robust support and responsiveness to changing needs, communities of practice help community colleges achieve desired outcomes for students. As Anne Kingsley, dean of educational technology and learning resources at Diablo Valley College in California, shared:
“[Our] participation in the CoLab has allowed us to plan, build, implement, and reflect on equity practices. From keeping track of our program plan, building capacity as a team, and moving this work into the institutional fabric of the college, we have been able to transform how students will experience [our program].”
The Urban Institute and CSW teams have created several resources and opportunities to learn more about communities of practice. View the resources developed to support the CTE CoLab community of practice on the CTE CoLab website. To see how ACE-UP members have implemented their goals and strategies, see the Urban briefs that document these efforts, read CSW’s action guide, or attend the action guide webinar on December 11.
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