“I don’t want to know what worked in Chicago or New York. I want to know what works in a college like mine.”
Sound familiar? If you work in one of the nation’s hundreds of rural community colleges, you might have even said this yourself.
Yet if you are looking for evidence-backed programs and practices known to improve retention and completion rates in rural community colleges, you may find very little. The majority of community college-focused research studies that show positive impacts on students’ academic outcomes take place in urban and suburban locations.
MDRC, ACCT, and a large group of colleagues nationwide are working to change that, and we are inviting you to join us in this effort at the 2026 ACCT Leadership Congress. On Wednesday, October 21, ACCT and the National Rural Higher Education Research Center are holding a pre-conference session titled “Current Issues and Emerging Evidence in Rural Higher Education”
Funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, the National Rural Higher Education Research Center is a nationally designated research center that conducts multiple studies focused on postsecondary transitions, persistence, and completion in rural areas. Collaborating with state higher education agencies across two regions, the South and the Mountain West, the Center houses research projects spanning 10 states and 25 colleges. Most importantly, every project is designed to give college leaders and state policymakers actionable guidance focused on rural community colleges as a priority, not as an afterthought.
In a long under-researched area of higher education, the Center seeks to answer important questions arising directly from rural-located college leaders. During the pre-conference session on October 21, we’ll be featuring hot-off-the-presses research findings on several topics vital to community colleges:
- Dual enrollment expansions in rural high schools
- Mapping career and technical education (CTE) workforce alignment
- How rural youth choose postsecondary institutions to attend
- Rural nursing program models for community colleges and four-year partners
In addition to these findings, we’ll have conversations about regional workforce development needs, changing community college demographics, and how rural community colleges are responding to federal changes like Workforce Pell. Anyone interested in discussing and hearing from others tackling these topics should register to attend this session.
While long-term research findings will continue to roll out from the National Rural Higher Education Research Center over time, we are committed to sharing preliminary results early and getting your feedback on priority areas that will inform future research efforts.
Please click here to sign up for the session. We can’t wait to see you in Chicago.
If you can’t make it, we’d still love to hear from you about what is working in your rural community college. You can contact the author directly at alyssa.ratledge@mdrc.org or reach the team at MDRC’s National Rural Higher Education Research Center and join our listserv atRuralHigherEd@mdrc.org.
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The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305C240065 to MDRC. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.
