{"id":52269,"date":"2025-08-19T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=52269"},"modified":"2025-08-19T13:13:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T18:13:51","slug":"austin-community-college-district-joins-national-network-advancing-high-value-credentials-that-lead-to-good-jobs-bachelors-degrees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/08\/19\/austin-community-college-district-joins-national-network-advancing-high-value-credentials-that-lead-to-good-jobs-bachelors-degrees\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Community College District Joins National Network Advancing High-Value Credentials That Lead to Good Jobs & Bachelor\u2019s Degrees"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ACC joins national network of community colleges working to align programs with good jobs and bachelor\u2019s pathways, addressing local talent needs and changing student lives.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Austin Community College District (ACC) joins the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program\u2019s expanded Unlocking Opportunity network\u2014an initiative designed to help community colleges reform programs in ways that improve student outcomes\u2014ensuring students earn degrees that lead to good-paying jobs.<\/p>\n

ACC, alongside 54 other colleges, will join 10 pilot institutions in a growing national effort to align their programs and student\u200b advising with the two most important goals of community college students: \u200bleaving college with a credential and\u200b\u200b\u200b \u200b\u200ba good job or \u200btransferring and \u200bcompleting a bachelor\u2019s degree. Through three years of focused reforms, these colleges will work with Aspen to assess current programs, set goals, and implement research-based reforms to increase student success. <\/p>\n

“Our students deserve credentials that open doors, not dead ends. Joining the Aspen Institute\u2019s Unlocking Opportunity network moves us closer to ensuring every degree and certificate we award can lead to a great job or a clear path to a bachelor\u2019s degree,” says ACC Chancellor Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart. \u201cI\u2019m grateful for this partnership because it affirms what we already know: when we love our students to success and align our programs with their dreams, we change not just their lives, but entire communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year, millions of students rely on community colleges for a low-cost pathway to what they assume will be a high-value credential,\u201d says Aspen Institute College Excellence Program Executive Director Josh Wyner. \u201cThey rightly assume that the degree and certificate programs their colleges offer will deliver a good job and fulfilling career either directly after community college or after transferring and earning a bachelor\u2019s degree. The leaders at each of the 55 colleges that have signed up for Unlocking Opportunity have made clear that they will spend the next three years working toward the kinds of reforms needed to make that assumption a reality for thousands more students.\u201d <\/p>\n

The multiyear initiative will engage college leaders and teams through a series of virtual and in-person sessions focused on scaling reforms that align their community college programs with available good jobs and bachelor\u2019s degree pathways in their regions. Guided by lessons from successful reforms implemented by the 10 Unlocking Opportunity pilot institutions, the new 55 colleges will set goals to increase student enrollment in and completion of high-value workforce and transfer programs, while reducing lower-opportunity pathways.<\/p>\n

The 10 Unlocking Opportunity pilot institutions are on track to collectively move over 20,000 students into high-value programs of study\u200b that lead to good jobs\u200b. With this expansion, Aspen will (for at least the next three years) track and support progress for 65 participating colleges, including those 55 just selected. Aspen will use insights from this work to inform the broader field through fellowship programs, publications, and state partnerships to provide professional development to college leaders and teams. <\/p>\n

The full list of colleges joining the expanded network is available [here]<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Unlocking Opportunity, developed in partnership with the Community College Research Center, is supported by Arnold Ventures, Ascendium Education Group, Bank of America, ECMC Foundation, and JPMorganChase. The expansion of the Unlocking Opportunity network is made possible by the support of JPMorganChase. <\/p>\n

To learn more about the network, visit https:\/\/highered.aspeninstitute.org\/programs\/unlocking-opportunity<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ACC joins national network of community colleges working to align programs with good jobs and bachelor\u2019s pathways, addressing local talent needs and changing student lives. Austin Community College District (ACC) joins the Aspen Institute College … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3930,"featured_media":52270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,15,17,18],"tags":[1913,3780,2241,2918,115,4235],"class_list":["post-52269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-community","category-facstaff-news","category-news-and-announcements","category-official-acc-press-releases","tag-aspen","tag-aspen-institute-college-excellence-program","tag-bachelor","tag-credit","tag-transfer","tag-unlocking-opportunity"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3930"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}