How Do Community Colleges Produce Credentials of Value?

A new research brief released by the Brookings Institution Monday takes a hard look at the best practices used by the community colleges that provide the most credentials of value.

Researchers used Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System data to rank community colleges based on their ability to produce workforce credentials of value—defined as students earning certificates worth at least $45,000 and associate degrees worth $50,000 in annual salary. Then they collected qualitative data about what “excelling” colleges were doing to achieve those outcomes. These studies were published by the American Institutes for Research in May 2026.

The brief offers community colleges a series of recommendations based on these findings. It notes, for example, that leaders of “excelling” colleges were more likely to intentionally align program offerings with local, high-demand jobs that pay family-sustaining wages. These institutions also tended to provide a wider range of work-based learning opportunities for students including apprenticeships, internships, clinical rotations, work-site visits and service learning. The brief suggests that colleges offer robust academic advising, wraparound supports and job-preparation courses or work skills embedded into coursework—other common practices of colleges that produce the most credentials of value.

Researchers also recommend that state policymakers consider ways to help community colleges produce more credentials of value, such as by instituting performance-based funding models, providing funding for technical assistance analyzing labor market data and requiring more intensive advising and student supports, like individualized learning plans.

In addition, the brief argues that federal lawmakers have a role to play, providing additional funding for work-based learning or career guidance at community colleges and helping them build up the data infrastructure they need to meet the requirements for Workforce Pell as the policy kicks off this summer.