Below is a list of AACC's current programs, projects and partnerships. Please click on a link to explore the Web site for each program. To the right on the green sidebar are links to past AACC programs.
Current Programs:
Access to the Baccalaureate
The American Association of Community Colleges and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities partnered in a national project to help more students continue their higher education and earn a bachelor's degree.
Access & Inclusion
AACC promotes increased access and success for the diverse community college population by securing increased federal and private support, and provides opportunities, resources, and information to colleges to improve student success, including persistence, retention, program completion, and transfer.
Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count
Lumina Foundation for Education launched this initiative to address a national imperative: increasing success for the growing number of students for whom community colleges are the point of entry into higher education, particularly low-income students and students of color.
Advanced Technological Education
The National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program provides grants to improve and expand educational programs that prepare skilled technicians to work in the high-tech fields that drive the U.S. economy. The program is Congressionally mandated and focuses on undergraduate and secondary school education. AACC hosts an annual ATE grant-project directors' conference and sponsors an ATE Mentoring Program for community colleges.
Center for Workforce and Economic Development
The Center for Workforce and Economic Development was established to help community colleges better collaborate with workforce boards, economic development entities, labor market intermediaries, and other community organizations to improve the prosperity of business, workers, and communities.
Health Professions
In collaboration with policymakers and hospital and business leaders, AACC and its member colleges are working to meet a critical and growing national need for increased numbers of nurses and allied health professionals.
International Programs & Services
AACC actively advocates an international role for community colleges in all dimensions of worldwide education and training.
Market-Responsive Community Colleges
The Center for Workforce Preparation (CWP), in partnership with AACC, is developing a comprehensive guide for community colleges and chambers of commerce to create effective workforce development partnerships.
MentorLinks
The MentorLinks program, developed with the support of the National Science Foundation, is designed for community colleges that could benefit from technical assistance and networking opportunities to improve undergraduate education that prepares technicians in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.
Pathways to College Network
The Pathways to College Network, an alliance of national organizations including AACC, has issued a challenge to leaders and stakeholders in education to increase their efforts to make a college education a realistic goal for all Americans.
Plus 50 Initiative
The AACC Plus 50 Initiative is a 3 1/2 year effort to identify a pilot group of two-year institutions that will create or expand campus programs to engage the 50+ population in learning: training/re-training programs; and/or volunteer, civic, service activities.
Project Reach: Service Inclusion for Community College Students
Project Reach was funded through a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service and its Engaging Persons with Disabilities, New Special Initiatives Program. Between 2005 and 2009, 14 community colleges developed opportunities for students with disabilities to participate in service learning and to learn life skills that will have an impact on their employment, careers, and personal development. Eight of the colleges explored ways to provide service opportunities for veterans and students in developmental education courses.
Service Learning
AACC's Community Colleges Broadening Horizons through Service Learning project seeks to integrate service learning across the curriculum through model programs, workshops, publications, and technical assistance.
Sustainable Development
Community colleges are working to improve the energy efficiency of their campuses, infuse sustainability into curricula, and train much of the nation's renewable energy workforce.
Voluntary Framework of Accountability
The Voluntary Framework of Accountability (VFA) will provide opportunities for colleges to benchmark their student progress and completion data against peers and to provide stakeholders with critical information on the colleges.