Direct Service to High School Students

Performance Indicator

College Career Pathways enrollment in Connecticut public schools. How many students participate while in high school? How many of these students later enroll in Connecticut Community Colleges?

Performance Improvement Goal

For the system, the performance goal is to enroll at least 5,000 Connecticut high school students in College Career Pathways programs annually.

Data Analysis

The Connecticut Community Colleges are involved in numerous partnerships with colleagues in the state’s K-12 system. The largest of these is participation in the College Career Pathways (CCP) grant program with funding provided by the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998, Public Act No. 105-332, Title II. The purpose of the grant is to encourage the development of 4-year and 6-year career and technical education programs that combine secondary and postsecondary programs which lead to a minimum of a two-year associate degree, two-year certificate or credit towards a bachelor's degree.

CCP consortia in Connecticut include the Community Colleges, which serve as the lead agent, local and regional high schools, CT Technical High Schools, business and industry and other educational systems serving the out-of-school youth population. Programs with the Community Colleges are predicated upon articulation agreements between a specific high school and/or a CT Technical High School and Community College.

The pathway toward the degree or certificate, beginning in high school, is a coherent sequence and does not require repetition of the same learning outcomes. A complete Tech Prep high school curriculum is comprised of courses in high school math, communications, science, and a career pathway course. Where learning outcomes can be established as being identical, college credit may be awarded for these courses. Each year Connecticut’s Community Colleges enroll over 4,000 high school students in Tech Prep consortia programs.

During the 2006-2007 academic year, 5,781 public high school students were served by the Community Colleges under CCP agreements. Also during the 2006-2007 academic year, 598 former high school CCP participants were enrolled in occupational programs at Connecticut Community Colleges.