In the United States, postsecondary educational attainment positively correlates to the probability of a person being employed and the amount of money they earn (U.S. Department of Labor, 2018). Financial aid programs attempt to help students afford, remain in, and finish their postsecondary pursuits, but Levin (1989) asserted some forms of…

Consolidation has been practiced in governments, school districts, and business for many years and in higher education since the early 1900s with the primary focus on the efficiency and financial savings found in the process. The nine consolidations in the University System of Georgia (USG) were driven by six principles which sought to achieve…

Despite evidence suggesting that standardized tests are an imperfect measure of academic readiness, many community colleges across the country rely on them alone to determine student course placement. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced campuses to transition to remote operations in spring 2020, proctoring in-person placement tests became…

Prior to the passing of California Assembly Bill 20 (AB20) and the implementation of the California Model Agreement (CMA) in 2015, the proposal and award process for the California public university systems and the state of California was slow-moving, administratively burdensome, and inconsistent in contracting for research, training, and public…

In 2013, the state of Florida passed Senate Bill 1720, which reformed developmental education and gateway courses across the state of Florida. There was a gap in the research regarding how the institutions planned and implemented the changes necessary to comply with the bill. This basic qualitative study examined the strategies used by leaders to…

In the United States today, more jobs than ever before require at least some postsecondary education. Yet too many young adults are either not enrolling or not succeeding in college. This scenario exists across many different types of communities, but schools in rural areas, particularly those with large populations of low-income students, face…

In 1998, the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, with assistance from the Developmental Assessment and Placement Advisory Committee, adopted an assessment policy that set standards for college placement testing at Massachusetts public colleges and universities. The purposes of the policy were to place students more adequately suited for…

Achieving a shared vision is often cited as a prerequisite to successful organisational change. What change strategists do not take into consideration is how this concept applies to complex systems such as those found in higher education. This paper explores and identifies the divergent perspectives and meanings found among the multiplicity of…

A growing number of community colleges and four-year universities are seeking to improve student outcomes by redesigning academic programs and student support services following the guided pathways approach. These institutions are mapping out highly structured, educationally coherent program pathways for students to follow by starting with the end…

The Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative is a statewide policy that mandates college placement testing of 11th-graders who meet high school graduation criteria but are unlikely to meet college readiness criteria. Students who score below college-ready on the Postsecondary Education Readiness Test (PERT) are required to take math and…

Northwest Missouri State University nearly became the first public university to deliver all of its textbooks electronically. Last year the institution's president, Dean L. Hubbard, bought a Kindle, Amazon's e-book reading device, and liked it so much that he wanted to give every incoming student one. The university already runs an unusual…

This study examines whether non-need, merit-based scholarship programs are effective in encouraging students to enroll in postsecondary education and, more specifically, attend an in-state college. National residence and migration data from 1992 to 2004 (alternating even years) were used within a fixed effect regression framework. This approach,…

In 2006, six community and technical colleges in Washington State joined the innovative national reform initiative called Achieving the Dream (ATD). This report describes the progress each college made in implementing ATD's "culture of evidence" principles for institutional improvement, examines strategies implemented by the colleges to…

Education has changed as a result of technological advances. Distance learning, particularly online learning, has rapidly increased its presence in higher education. Millennials, a new generation of students who have grown up with the Internet, are college-age. They expect access to the Internet to manage their daily lives. However, as they enter…

The Kalamazoo Promise was announced in the fall of 2005, offering free college tuition at any public state college or university for graduates of the district who have gained acceptance to a postsecondary institution. This program was funded through the generous support of anonymous donors, and a federally-funded evaluation is underway to examine…