Reimagining Community Colleges
A multi-year design challenge that helps community colleges create and implement strategic transformation plans so they can become future-ready, learner-centered institutions aligned with evolving workforce needs.
How might community colleges reimagine their programs, structures, and supports so New Majority Learners can move through clear, stackable, skills-based pathways into good jobs and economic mobility, while colleges serve as adaptive regional talent hubs?
OVERVIEW
The Reimagining Community Colleges Design Challenge is the next phase of Education Design Lab’s vision for leveraging America’s community college system as a driver of regional economic growth and learner success. This multi-year initiative supports selected colleges to develop and implement strategic transformation plans grounded in the Lab’s Future of Learning Framework, reorienting offerings around New Majority Learners and the future-proof skills they need to thrive in the workforce.
FUTURE OF LEARNING FRAMEWORK
The Reimagining Community Colleges model combines the Lab’s Future of Learning Framework with our human-centered design approach to create the community college of the future.
Future of Learning Framework
This framework and thought paper focuses on five intentional design questions grounded in Education Design Lab’s decade of experience working with community colleges, employers, and learners along with examples and resources to support community colleges through this transformative moment.
Read the 5 Design Questions to Shape the Future of Learning →
IMPACT
We don’t just design programs — we design for system-level impact.
We change systems by centering New Majority Learners in a collaborative process that results in a ripple effect of transformation across multiple levels, from individual programs and colleges, to regions and state systems.
We measure progress through four elements of change that signal system transformation:
Students come to us with a vision of a brighter future and the belief that education can help them get there. It is our job to deliver on that belief by developing programs that help learners achieve an economic advantage and access meaningful careers. Together with Education Design Lab, we are seizing a once-in-a-generation chance to transform the way we meet students’ needs and shore up faith in community college as a pathway to greater opportunity.
Dr. Michael A. Baston
President of Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), part of the Reimagining Community Colleges Design Challenge
DESIGN TOOL SPOTLIGHT
Photovoice makes learner experiences more visible.
Photovoice is a participatory research method that invites learners to talk about their lived experiences through photography and guided reflection. For the Reimagining Community Colleges initiative, Lab designers used this tool to surface student experiences related to learning, skills, and systemic barriers in a way that felt personal and tangible. For example, prompts such as “Show a skill you’ve learned that you’re proud of” and “Where do your skills show up but get overlooked?” help reveal informal learning and transferable skills that are often overlooked in traditional academic systems.
Reimagining Day gave our students and faculty a real seat at the table. You could feel the shift when learners started naming challenges that weren’t even on our radar and that helped us reframe them as design opportunities.
RCC college team member
MEDIA
Press coverage, op-eds, and external stories highlighting this project and its impact.
JULY 2026
How Community Colleges and Business Leaders Can Co-Design the Future of Work in the Age of AI
Phoenix Biz Journal