SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A new survey of community colleges and technical schools in the United States shows their courses and programs that promote job skills are gaining in popularity.

The survey found 35% of students are taking non-credit courses that lead to industry certifications and credentials, instead of strictly academic courses designed to transfer to a four-year school.

"Community colleges educate more people than coding boot camps, apprenticeship programs and government job training combined," said Tamar Jacoby, president of the nonprofit Opportunity America, which did the survey.

According to the survey, of the nation's 10.5 million community-college students, 3.7 million adults are enrolled in non-credit programs, and about three-quarters are older than 25.

Many students in non-credit programs later decide to pursue four-year degrees, but the survey found only 20% of community colleges allow students to leverage their non-credit learning for college credit, either "most" or "all" of the time. Texas' Commissioner of Higher Education Harrison Keller said that needs to change.

"Let's make those credentials more readily convertible to the credit side," he said, "so these short-term credentials can be 'stackable,' on the way to other kinds of degrees and credentials."

Of the colleges surveyed, many said cost is the biggest barrier for adults going back to school. Anne Kress, president of Northern Virginia Community College, said her state has a program known as "Fast Forward," which subsidizes two-thirds of the cost for students in certain non-credit courses. She said she thinks it could serve as a national model.

"Fast Forward is a way for the state to incentivize community colleges to offer these in-demand, non-credit pathways that lead to industry-recognized credentials," she said.

The survey also looked at the partnerships community colleges form with local employers - and found only about 36% of employer partners offer workplace-based learning opportunities.

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Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - As the pandemic continues to pose challenges for college students across the state, research by the Lumina Foundation shows that a set of more engaged and active teaching and learning approaches - called high-impact practices - implemented at 13 Tennessee community colleges benefit students, especially adults and students of color.

Heidi Leming is Vice Chancellor for Student Success at the Tennessee Board of Regents. She said the extra supports help ensure students stay on their degree track.

"Students who participate in high-impact practices not only are earning higher GPAs," said Leming, "but they're persisting at higher rates because they're again more engaged with faculty and the institutions and their learning."

Leming said Columbia University's Community College Research Center found Tennessee's community colleges are the furthest along in implementing these reforms of any community college system in the nation.

Leming said one of the most common high-impact practices colleges have relied on are first-year seminars.

"And many of our institutions require students to take this course, which teaches them effective learning strategies," said Leming. "How the college operates, resources that can assist them - whether it's tutoring or counseling - other wrap around supports."

She added that in addition to high-impact practices, colleges have increased coaching and developed guided pathways to help students navigate coursework toward degrees based on their academic or career interests.

"And making the connection of what's being taught to real-life experiences, they see the purpose of being there," said Leming. "So that motivates them to keep moving forward to the next course that they need to take to complete."

More Tennessee students enroll in community colleges than any other public and private college and university sector in the state.

In fall of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, 54% of Tennessee public high-school graduates heading to a public higher-education institution enrolled in a community or technical college.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

PIERRE, S.D. -- South Dakota is in the process of updating social studies standards for public schools. It comes amid national conversation about 9/11 curriculum ahead of the 20th anniversary of the attacks.

South Dakota's plan isn't getting a lot of attention concerning the events of 9/11, but instead has been met with controversy over the removal of Native American references.

On a broader scale, education researchers say incorporating more lesson plans about the attacks has been slow in most states.

Cheryl Lynn Duckworth, professor of conflict resolution at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, said there are some barriers, including teachers needing to stick with what is required, to keep test scores up.

"The whole life of the school is testing and student scores," Duckworth explained. "So, if a subject like 9/11 is not embedded in the curriculum -- and more often than not it isn't -- it can be very, very difficult to carve out any time."

Only 14 states have the subject as part of their required materials.

The proposed update from the South Dakota Department of Education does mention 9/11 among events for high-school students to learn about. The draft plan said officials want higher grade levels to be more exposed to the more recent decades of U.S. history.

Duckworth said even though it has been 20 years since the attacks on New York and Washington, it still can be emotional for teachers who lived through the experience. For those who do find time to approach the subject, they're navigating a complex and sometimes controversial topic.

"It can be very difficult to do any kind of justice to teaching about 9/11 without talking about some political events, right?" Duckworth acknowledged. "Our response to 9/11, Islamophobia."

Other researchers have noted 9/11 teachings are sometimes oversimplified and only come up around the anniversary.

Duckworth emphasized despite the obstacles, it is important for middle and high-school students to dive deeper into the topic.

"They need to be able to develop those democratic skills of critical thinking and debate," Duckworth contended.

She added the events surrounding 9/11 can help shape those skills. Public comment on South Dakota's proposed standards will begin on Sep. 20 with a hearing in Aberdeen.

FAIRFIELD, Maine -- Rural communities in Maine are shrinking, as young people move to cities for work opportunities, but a new report found expanding access to youth apprenticeships in rural areas could allow many people to stay in their communities while pursuing a promising career.

It looked at four apprenticeship programs, including one in Fairfield, Maine, operated by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1253.

Zach Boren, senior policy manager for the Urban Institute and co-author of the report, said apprentices with IBEW earn great money right out of high school, starting at $17 an hour, and within four years can earn roughly $66,000 a year, with full benefits and health care.

"Young people who decided to go into this apprenticeship program were earning double the per capita income in Maine, while being able to stay where they were, and not having to leave their hometowns," Boren outlined.

More than 540,000 Mainers live in rural areas, and Boren noted there are barriers to apprenticeship programs. Many 17- and 18-year-olds in rural areas don't have access to reliable transportation, and especially with more remote work, high-speed broadband connections.

Boren added apprenticeships can reach young people before they take on high student debt at U.S. colleges and universities. And he pointed out the U.S. might be served by following the example of countries in Europe with robust apprenticeship systems such as Switzerland, Germany and the U.K.

"The U.S. government has really under-invested in registered apprenticeship," Boren contended. "Less than $200 million annually, where these European countries are really spending billions to support their systems, offsetting the costs for businesses that want to operate these apprenticeship programs."

The report recommended measures for making sure youth apprenticeship programs can endure, from establishing apprenticeship coordinators to addressing the digital divide and increasing access to public transit and other transportation options.