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Leadership Colleges
Breaking Through Leadership Colleges have dedicated themselves to enrolling and advancing 900 to 1,200 adults in career pathways, while engaging in significant institutional change initiatives. With funding and technical support, these colleges are creating and implementing new or expanded program models that promote the success of low-skilled adults in occupational and technical degree programs.
Map of Breaking Through Colleges
Central New Mexico Community College
Albuquerque, New Mexico
High-Leverage Strategy: Integrating institutional structures and services.
Breaking Through Focus: Central New Mexico Community College (formerly Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute) is aligning its programs and services to create a pathway into apprenticeships in high-demand construction trades for low-skilled adults, with access to a two-year degree in these fields.
Breaking Through Occupational Fields: Construction trades (electrical, carpentry, plumbing, welding)
To see snapshots from the 2006 CNM Learning Tour of a student construction site, click here.
To read more about CNM's collaboration with Breaking Through to create integrated pathways into and through pre-college and degree-level programs, click here.
CNM Breaking Through update.
Community College of Denver
Denver, Colorado
High-Leverage Strategy: Accelerating the pace of learning, with a focus on developmental education
Breaking Through Focus: Community College of Denver is piloting three approaches to accelerating the pace at which low-skilled adults (eighth grade and below) are ready to enter college-level programs in high-demand occupations and industries.
Breaking Through Occupational Fields: Clinical health care, public safety, allied health, pre-engineering (light rail technology, energy, logistics/warehousing)
Cuyahoga Community College
Cleveland, Ohio
High-Leverage Strategy: Assure a payoff
Breaking Through Focus: Building on its “FastTrack” training programs, Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) is strengthening its pipeline into health care careers for low-skilled adults and increasing the skills and credentials of nursing assistants to help them advance.
Breaking Through Occupational Fields: Clinical health care, allied health professions
Durham Technical Community College
Durham, North Carolina
High-Leverage Strategy: Integrating institutional structures and services
Breaking Through Focus: Durham Technical Community College is establishing clear and streamlined career pathways from its Basic Skills (adult basic education) programs into three college-level technical degree programs.
Breaking Through Occupational Fields: Early Childhood Education, Medical Assisting, and Industrial Systems Technology
Owensboro Community and Technical College
Owensboro, Kentucky
High-Leverage Strategy: Comprehensive support services
Breaking Through Focus: Owensboro Community and Technical College is developing a replicable student engagement model and piloting innovative support services to students in the college’s three career pathways for low-skilled students.
Breaking Through Occupational Fields: Industrial maintenance, health care, business management
Owensboro Community and Technical College and Owensboro Medical Health Join Forces to Promote Advancement and Hospital Expansion
Portland Community College
Portland, Oregon
High-Leverage Strategy: Comprehensive support services
Breaking Through Focus: Portland Community College is piloting the provision of intensive, wraparound support services to students in developmental education to test whether such services increase students’ persistence, retention, and advancement to professional and technical education programs.
Breaking Through Occupational Fields: Career pathways training in 20+ occupations in demand in the Portland job market
Southeast Arkansas College
Pine Bluff, Arkansas
High-Leverage Strategy: Accelerating the pace of learning, with a focus on developmental education
Breaking Through Focus: Southeast Arkansas College is developing and piloting a contextualized “Fast Track” developmental education pathway into the allied health occupations and a new Practical Nursing curriculum that incorporates college-level math and science prerequisites.
Breaking Through Occupational Fields: Allied health and nursing
Learning Colleges
Through peer learning and technical assistance, NCWE, in collaboration with JFF, is assisting the efforts of the Learning Colleges to launch initiatives that help low-skilled adults advance through degree programs. The colleges are:
Cerritos College
City College of San Francisco
Community College of Southern Nevada
Davidson County Community College
Forsyth Technical Community College
Houston Community College
LaGuardia Community College
Mott Community College
Northampton Community College
North Shore Community College
Pamlico Community College
Piedmont Virginia Community College
Pitt Community College
South Piedmont Community College
South Seattle Community College
St. Philip's College
Tacoma Community College
Tallahassee Community College
York County Community College 
