Prior to the Guided Pathways movement, a litany of research in community colleges showed that course placement was inaccurate and ineffective. This article argues that placement might be redesigned, addressing erroneous assumptions about student success in service of pathways. This new placement would integrate three main areas of student success…

The purpose of this study was to implement a redesign of developmental education at Delaware Technical Community College and to evaluate its effectiveness in improving overall First Time Ever in College (FTEIC) student success through gateway English and math completion, fall-to-fall persistence, and narrowing or closing of opportunity gaps…

In today's labor market, students increasingly need greater levels of postsecondary education and training to enter or advance in many industries. Meanwhile, employers are calling for the education system to better align with industry needs, as their demands for a skilled workforce continue to rise. In response to the increasing emphasis for…

The objective of this study was to describe the relationship between stress, weight-related health risk behaviors (e.g., eating behaviors, physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep, cigarette smoking, and binge drinking), and weight status using cross-sectional data on 2-year community college students enrolled in a randomized controlled weight…

Background: Young adults are at risk for weight gain. Little is known about how to design weight control programs to meet the needs of young adults and few theory-based interventions have been evaluated in a randomized control trial. The Choosing Healthy Options in College Environments and Settings (CHOICES) study was funded to create a…

There is little discussion in the Design-Based Research (DBR) literature on how to design an intervention that has the potential to be highly effective. The act of designing is usually viewed as engineering something from theory or research on best practices. This paper challenges that universal belief and presents successful design as an…

Achieving the Dream colleges engage in a process of institutional improvement to increase student success. A central component of this process is engaging internal and external stakeholders to help develop and implement interventions or changes in programs and services that improve student success. To determine whether these interventions do…