Across the country, community and technical colleges are navigating profound shifts in enrollment, workforce demands, and student expectations. Trustees sit at the center of these changes. As stewards of mission, strategy, and public trust, governing boards have both the opportunity and responsibility to ensure that institutional decisions are grounded in evidence and responsive to the communities they serve.

To support that critical work, the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) and Achieving the Dream (ATD) have partnered to launch a new asynchronous online course: Data-Informed Policy and Decision-Making for College Trustees. Designed specifically for trustees who wish to deepen their dialogue with their senior leadership team, the course offers practical tools to interpret data, ask sharper questions, and make decisions that advance student and community success.

The development of the course by ACCT and ATD drew on the complementary strengths of both organizations. ACCT has long equipped trustees with the governance knowledge and leadership skills essential to their roles. ATD, a national leader in community college transformation for more than two decades, brings field-tested expertise in student-success data, institutional capacity building, and workforce-aligned strategies. Together, the two organizations created a learning experience that reflects the real challenges and opportunities facing boards today.

Why a Data-Informed Course for Trustees Is Needed Now

Community colleges are increasingly expected to deliver strong outcomes for learners while responding to rapidly shifting economic conditions. Yet the data trustees receive — enrollment trends, student momentum metrics, completion indicators, and labor market signals — often come in formats that can be difficult to interpret or contextualize. ATD Chief Learning Officer Susan Mayer explains:“Trustees are being asked to expand the use of data from local, state, and national sources to create a more complete picture of what the future might look like if colleges reach the potential to serve more students in better ways. This course is designed to help them take that step.”

Community college trustees are eager for the guidance that will prepare them for the tasks ahead. Results of a recent survey of community college trustees (Association of Community College Trustees & Center for the Study of Community Colleges, 2025) revealed a keen interest among trustees in further training and leadership development in areas such as strategic planning, budget management, external partnerships, and student needs, all grounded in data.

Fortunately, the need for expanded understanding coupled with trustees’ desire to learn foretells positive results. Previous research from the University of Texas at Austin suggests that when trustees are equipped to ask data-driven questions, they support presidents more effectively, promote accountability, and champion strategies that lead to stronger student outcomes (Malcolm, 2013). Strengthening trustees’ data fluency, therefore, benefits not only the board but also the institution and the region it serves.

The course acknowledges that trustees’ backgrounds vary widely. Some arrive with deep experience in higher education or data analysis; others come from business, public service, or community leadership roles. The goal is not to turn trustees into institutional researchers but rather to help them understand the story behind the numbers — and how that story should shape governance.

According to Mayer, trustees versed in data contribute to stronger partnerships with senior leadership. “Data-informed trusteeship enables the development of shared evidence-based institutional goals, a hallmark of effective collaboration and leadership by presidents and their trustees,” she notes.

What Trustees Will Learn

The Data-Informed Policy and Decision-Making course introduces core concepts that help trustees better interpret and engage with student-success and workforce data applicable to a range strategic priorities, such as affordable access, strategic enrollment management, successful completion of credentials with labor market value, and assurance of academic program relevancy. The learning modules cover:

• Key student-success metrics, including enrollment pipelines, momentum indicators, and completion trends
• Workforce and labor-market data, focusing on aligning local and regional economic needs with institutional programs
• Key questions that move strategy forward, such as clarifying goals, probing root causes, and identifying opportunities for progress
• Governance practices that enable effective oversight, including the board’s role in monitoring progress, supporting sustainable change, and aligning policy with evidence
• Data insights that can promote community vitality, connecting institutional goals with regional workforce needs and broader economic well-being

Mayer summarizes the course’s benefits: “It helps trustees apply frameworks, questions, data, resources and examples of innovation to the local context; inform discussions with college leadership to guide strategic planning, resource allocation, and institutional policy and practice development; and catalyze increased community engagement and collaboration around common goals and objectives.”

The asynchronous format allows trustees to learn at their own pace while giving presidents and senior leaders a tool to support shared learning across the board.

Building a Shared Commitment to Student and Community Success

At its core, this new course acknowledges a truth trustees know well: community colleges are the hubs of learning and credentialing in their communities. When institutions make decisions grounded in evidence — about academic pathways, student supports, workforce partnerships, or resource allocation — they create conditions that help learners succeed and strengthen economic mobility across the region.

ACCT and ATD developed the Data-Informed Policy and Decision-Making course because trustees are essential partners in that work. Mayer says that because of their deep knowledge of their communities, trustees’ leadership is a crucial component of shaping the direction, priorities, and resilience of the institutions they govern. “While presidents play a key role in identifying opportunities, building stronger partnerships, strengthening the college’s value proposition, and shifting the mindset to community vitality, trustees play an important complementary role because they understand better than anyone what will have impact in the community,” she explains.

Trustees who complete the course will be better prepared to engage with the data that define institutional performance — and to participate in the conversations that drive stronger outcomes for students and communities.

Enroll in the course through ACCT Connect.

Learn more about Achieving the Dream.

Association of Community College Trustees & Center for the Study of Community Colleges. (2025). Community college trusteeship in 2025: A commitment to serve (2025 Survey of Community College Trustees).https://acct.org/sites/default/files/documents/2025-10/2025%20Survey%20of%20Community%20College%20Trustees_0.pdf

M. B. Malcolm (2013). The expanding role of community college trustees in student success (Doctoral dissertation). Texas ScholarWorks, University of Texas at Austin.https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/22240

Jennie Aranovitch is the senior writer on Achieving the Dream’s marketing and communications team. 

Photo Credit: https://mis.tech/blog/4-cornerstones-of-every-successful-it-project-management-strategy/