The Workforce Strategies Initiative published this update on how community colleges and sector initiatives are collaborating to benefit businesses and low-income workers seeking. As there is a continued demand for workers educated beyond high school, 43 percent of adults between the ages of 25 and 64 in the United States are not educated beyond a high school level.

This report, co-authored by the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices and Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) is based largely on a roundtable meeting conducted in April 2000 by both organizations to discuss expanding postsecondary opportunities for low-income working parents and welfare recipients.

This paper looks at curricular and program redesign strategies being used in community colleges today to speed nontraditional students' advancement from lower levels of skill into credential programs and to shorten the time commitment that earning a credential demands of them. It presents a framework for understanding the range of experimentation with program and class reformatting and redesign, and identifies programs that exemplify promising approaches. The paper concludes with issues and questions that MDRC will need to address in assessing whether to proceed with a research program focused on program redesign efforts geared to working adults' needs.