Survey of Community College Trustees, United States, 2022-2025 (ICPSR 39866)
Version Date: Aug 4, 2026 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Carrie B. Kisker, Center for the Study of Community Colleges;
Robin Matross Helms, Association of Community College Trustees
Series:
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39866.v1
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Summary View help for Summary
This study is the largest survey of community college trustees to date. It was conducted jointly by the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) and the Center for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC).
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Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
State / Territory
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
- For additional information about the survey, please visit the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) website.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
To conduct a comprehensive survey of community college board members to determine who trustees are and what concerns and interests they have. The survey is the primary basis for understanding community college boards, and their priorities, challenges, and other trends across the community college sector over time.
Study Design View help for Study Design
CSCC researchers initially piloted the survey in 2022, recruiting trustees through state trustee organizations, the League for Innovation in the Community College, and internet searches for public board-related trustee emails. The pilot was accessed by 367 trustees, resulting in a total of 287 usable responses from trustees in 29 states.
In fall 2024 and winter 2025, CSCC researchers collaborated with ACCT to administer the survey to roughly 6,000 community college trustees whose institutions are ACCT members. Trustees received invitations to participate in the online survey via ACCT newsletters and emails. Those attending ACCT's 2024 Leadership Congress and 2025 Community College National Legislative Summit were also able to take the survey in person.
Survey questions were adapted with permission from Iris Weisman's 1997 survey and updated to reflect contemporary challenges and opportunities, as well as modern demographic information and institutional type classifications.
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Universe View help for Universe
Community college trustees whose institutions are ACCT members.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
The ACCT/CSCC Community College Trustee Survey was organized into five sections about the trustees':
- institutions, roles, and composition of their boards;
- experiences;
- perceptions of their board and its functioning;
- perceptions of community college priorities, challenges, and opportunities; and
- individual demographic characteristics.
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
31 percent (1,857 usable responses from a universe of roughly 6,000 community college trustees whose institutions are ACCT members)
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2026-08-04
Version History View help for Version History
2026-08-04 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Created online analysis version with question text.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.