Community college transfer students represent a diverse and talented group to recruit to PhD and other graduate programs. Yet, little is known about practical strategies to support community college transfer students' access to graduate training. Focusing specifically on transfer students in computer science and guided by social cognitive career…

This dissertation is composed of three studies linking general education astronomy to student performance, course-taking, graduation, and identity. The first study examined demographic and academic predictors of astronomy performance among a cohort of N=1,909 community college students enrolled in astronomy courses in a large suburban community…

This study contributes to a line of research that examines the relationship between study abroad participation and academic success among students attending two-year institutions. We offer a multimodal narrative that comprehensively accounts for both student-level characteristics and indicators associated with students' geographic origins in…

As institutions cope with the difficult task of managing scarce resources to support student learning, college writing centers, like other student services, need to be able to articulate and, at times, quantify the benefits they offer the populations they serve. This study examined outcomes associated with visiting the writing center at one…

Using rich administrative data from the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office that tracks each student longitudinally, this analysis examines how the onset of the pandemic affected student enrollment duration. Data are disaggregated by student characteristics and college campuses in order to understand variable impacts and equity…

Objective/Research Question: How do student- and school-level factors measured in the final year of high school contribute to the odds of a student being assessed to need remediation in Math during the students' first community college enrollment? Methods: The present study draws on five years of linked secondary and post-secondary administrative…

This research aims to explore the relationship between reverse transfer and degree attainment by addressing the following questions: (1) What are the predictors of reverse transfer? (2) Does reverse transfer affect degree attainment within six years of initial enrollment or college attendance and cumulative loan debt in the sixth year? and (3) Is…

Objective: This study examined the statistical association between net tuition and changes in degree aspirations among community college students. In addition, the study explored the moderating influence of unmet financial need. Method: Analyses relied on data from the most recent iteration of the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal…

This nonexperimental, longitudinal panel study was designed to test the predictive capacity of a grit intervention within a first-year seminar course that targeted academically underprepared students at a Mississippi community college. Extant pre- and post-grit scores for developmental students enrolled in the first-year seminar were analyzed for…

Objective: This study sought to determine how aligned community college students' declared majors were with long-term occupational projections. In addition, the study explored whether this link was sensitive to entry-level education. Method: The current study merged two disparate sources of national education and economic data to form a novel…

Although community college students have historically been at the forefront in utilizing some distance education across their degrees due to their own employment, parenting, or transportation circumstances, COVID-19 forced all college instruction online for much of the 2020-2021 year in Alabama. Given the economically and technologically…

Research has shown that academic momentum is a key factor in degree completion for students attending 4-year institutions. The characteristics of 2-year students (also called community college students) often lead them to engage in behaviors contrary to the theory of academic momentum, and these behaviors theoretically reduce their likelihood of…

Using transcript-level data from two community college state systems and a nationally representative survey, this short report examines how course-taking in humanities and liberal arts at community colleges affects transfer and outcomes at four-year colleges. Key findings: (1) Transfer students typically complete only a few courses in humanities…

Objective: The purpose of this study is twofold. First, this study explores individual student characteristics, specifically those related to demographics, financial need, academic characteristics, and social and cultural capitals, related to study abroad participation among community college students. Second, this study identifies when over the…

The need to improve student success in community colleges has resulted in a growing interest in developmental mathematics. Yet there remains a need to understand the motivations and beliefs of developmental mathematics students in order to cultivate their success. Self-efficacy has been identified to be a predictor of student success. Little is…