NPR Examines CTE Opportunity at Community Colleges

As the Policy Watch Blog heads into the holidays, we wanted to share a series of National Public Radio stories following the recipients of the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence that examines the ways community colleges are uniquely approaching education to ensure their students are ready for the 21st century workforce and personal success. The awards program’s goals, according to Josh Wyner, the Executive Director of the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program, are twofold – first, to elevate the sector to help shift public perceptions around community colleges as a viable, leading form of postsecondary education; and second, to identify strategies and programs that are achieving excellence to encourage other schools to follow.

These postsecondary education stories come from across the country and tackle issues that relate specifically to their communities. However, a common thread runs throughout their stories – the students consistently cite their motivation to build their skills to achieve their career goals, and understand how their local community college fit into that pathway. From careers in fields from winemaking to law, these students have found an educational pathway through CTE at their community college that helps them achieve their goals.

The programs can be streamed online here:

• Community College: The New Frontier
• Walla Walla Community College: Budding enologists and prisoners: how does one school help two strikingly different sets of students succeed?
• El Paso Community College: Raising expectations and creating a college-bound culture.
• Valencia College: A shining example of first-rate education.
• Lake Area Technical Institute: A small town technical college that delivers big results.