With Spark Grant funding from the Michelson 20MM Foundation, ISKME conducted a study to explore planned Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) degrees and certificates across the Bay Area’s community colleges, and the overlap with projected high wage, high demand fields. The study offers insights to support community college ZTC planning, particularly at the regional level through an analysis of community college districts’ (CCD) perceived differences in high wage, high demand fields. The study also identifies perceived gaps in available Open Educational Resources (OER) in these fields which, if filled, would enable the provision of ZTC degree programs that more reliably boost graduate incomes, particularly for underrepresented groups. Recommendations will be presented to support Bay Area community colleges in ZTC/OER decision making through a collaborative network focused on shared data and evidence.
While this study was designed prior to California’s $115M community college ZTC legislation, its results are timely as community colleges across the state begin to grapple with how best to invest public ZTC dollars for maximum student benefit, with particular consideration on equity and access.
This document begins by presenting data analyzing projected high wage, high demand occupations across the Bay Area, and includes caveats for community college districts to consider when analyzing their local data. In the second section, we present the results from ISKME conducted interviews with OER leads at 10 Bay Area community colleges that sought to understand perceived OER curriculum gaps that if addressed would better support the region’s students in pursuing high-paying careers, including where the costs of learning materials create a financial burden on students that could be removed through the identification, use, or creation of OER.
The document then outlines the rationale for and obstacles identified by colleges to ZTC conversion for each field. Lastly, Bay Area wage and demand projections for occupations that fall within each field identified by the colleges are presented and discussed. The report concludes with a set of recommendations/action steps for community colleges and cognizant statewide officials to consider as they plan for future investments in ZTC degrees and certificates.
Read the full report here.