The purpose of this case study was to holistically investigate the environmental support needs of community college students as they transition into a research university. Both students and staff were interviewed to gain their perspective on the influences of the student transition process. Western University is a Carnegie classified Doctoral…

This study sought to understand how and why Northampton Community College's Summer Bridge program--The Smart Start program--is highly successful at helping "at-risk" students transition to college-level work. For ten years, the Smart Start program has helped more than 150 incoming students acclimate to college, persist, and graduate…

Although high school completion rates have slowly increased over the past several decades, nearly 30 million adults today still lack a high school credential and, as a result, face a significant barrier to both higher education and employment opportunities. Policymakers and practitioners in the adult education field are searching for ways to…

The study of student transfer has been researched since the inception of the community college. It was not known how community college students interested in transfer and community college administrators perceive the transition into a four-year institution. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand how transfer-interested…

The highest degree awarded by the community college has generally been the associate in arts or the associate in science degree (Cohen & Brawer, 2008); however, an increasing number of community colleges have expanded their missions to award baccalaureate degrees (Levin, 2004; Russell, 2010; Walker, 2005). Although some community colleges have…

A low rate of successful transition and degree completion for community college (CC) students who intend to complete a baccalaureate through transfer to a four-year university has been an unresolved problem in higher education. With more students entering higher education through CCs, successful CC to university transitions have become a critical…

This study examined a linkage program between a secondary school and a community college in Ontario, Canada. The study sought to identify (a) appropriate success criteria to evaluate a high school-community college program and (b) the attributes that promote or ensure a program's sustainability. Though initially successful, the investigated…

The focus of this qualitative study is how community college transition programs and services accommodated students who experienced a major life transition event (job loss) using Schlosberg's (1984) Life Transition Model and the updated model with Anderson and Goodman (2006). Students' perceptions of transition programs and services were…

Scientists, researchers, and educators have promoted the improvement of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education by incorporating an interdisciplinary approach to the study of STEM; but current research offers little guidance about how this change can occur. This study expands on a new body of research examining faculty…

Rural schools face challenges that are often different than nonrural schools. Resource constraints are particularly acute in rural schools, and they struggle to offer advanced courses and extracurricular programs. The purpose of this paper is to present a descriptive, instrumental case study of an inclusive rural science, technology, engineering,…

This study involves nontraditional students attending a community college in west Texas. The purpose of this study was to report initial attitudes of nontraditional students required to enroll in an Effective Learning/Student Success course. Participants included four nontraditional students from the researchers' Effective Learning/Student Success…

The study's main objective was to provide a detailed description of math Assessment and Placement (A&P) policies in the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD). The study was focused on math because a larger proportion of students place into remedial math than remedial reading or English (Bailey, Jeong, & Cho, 2010; Parsad, Lewis,…

Since Breneman and Haarlow (1998) first estimated the national cost of developmental education to be approximately $1 billion dollars, the developmental education landscape has shifted in numerous ways. This paper provides an update to their estimate in light of both these changes and improved data that disaggregates the cost to community colleges…

One program designed to prepare first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students to transition from high school to college are early college high school programs which allow qualified students to simultaneously obtain high school diplomas and associate's degrees. However, little is known about how students and faculty perceive such…

This paper presents a case study in which the authors attempted to understand the impact, on student choice, of reforms in tertiary education in Australia, namely, a shift towards a demand-driven system and the blurring of the distinction between vocational education and training (VET) and higher education. The authors compared the advanced…