Evaluations of Community Colleges Training Grants to Expand Workforce Pathways and Build Lasting Systems

WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility has evaluated Strengthening Community Colleges Training (SCCT) grants, funded by the Department of Labor, across multiple rounds, using evaluation approaches that support real-time improvement while building sustainable data infrastructure for community college systems.

The Challenge

To fill critical worker shortages in area like healthcare, IT, and advanced manufacturing, community colleges must quickly expand job training programs and align them with employer needs. The SCCT grants program challenges consortia to develop innovative career pathways, expand hands-on learning opportunities, and underserved students earn credentials—all while coordinating across multiple institutions.

These complex projects require constant adjustments based on what employers say they need, what students require, and how labor markets change. Employers need evaluations that help them learn and improve in real time—not just an after-the-fact assessment.

How We’re Taking Action

The Center for Economic Mobility has established itself as a premier evaluator of SCCT consortium grants across three funding rounds. We work with the lead consortium institutions, including Los Rios Community College District’s American River College (Round 1), Bunker Hill Community College (Round 2), Ozarks Technical College, Ocean County College, and Columbia College (Round 5).

Our developmental evaluation approach embeds continuous learning throughout the grant period through monthly check-ins and quarterly reviews with consortium partners, annual site visits to all participating colleges, mixed-methods data collection, and real-time feedback loops. We conduct interviews and focus groups with students, faculty, staff, and employer partners. We also support consortium colleges in building sustainable evaluation infrastructure by developing activity tracking systems, performance measurement tools, and capacity-building initiatives that align local program monitoring with federal reporting requirements.

Through our work across multiple rounds, we’ve identified several critical success factors:

  • Implementation takes time and unfolds nonlinearly, requiring dedicated coordinators at each site to maintain momentum.
  • Data infrastructure bottlenecks, particularly for noncredit and hybrid pathways, can be addressed through early development of customized tracking tools.
  • Real-time feedback mechanisms, including one-pagers and regular leadership meetings with evaluators, significantly improve program adaptability.
  • Cross-site variation reveals implementation patterns that help identify scalable strategies while respecting institutional autonomy.
  • Sustainability planning must begin early to document critical success elements for institutionalization beyond grant funding.

What Makes Us Different

Cross-consortium expertise – Experience evaluating multiple SCCT grants enables us to facilitate knowledge sharing about effective practices while respecting each consortium’s unique context and goals.

Developmental evaluation focus – Unlike traditional summative evaluations, we provide iterative feedback throughout implementation, helping consortia adapt strategies based on emerging evidence.

Sustainability emphasis – We build evaluation infrastructure and local capacity that extends beyond the grant period, ensuring colleges can continue data-informed improvement.