Millions of students leave college every year before earning a degree. At community colleges, only a third of full-time students graduate within three years. How can school administrators help students stay in school and eventually graduate? Higher education institutions commonly offer students advising services to help them develop the academic…

Colleges support students with advising, counseling, or coaching in academics and other skills they need to succeed in school. Some colleges enhance those services through reduced adviser caseloads and more comprehensive, frequent guidance, which can improve students' semester-to-semester retention and average credits earned. This overview…

Community colleges play a critical role in providing access to higher education for over two million Californians seeking an educational foundation that will prepare them to transfer to a four-year university or to participate in the workforce. However, community colleges have not always delivered on that promise--fewer than half of students who…

The Virginia Community College System (VCCS) administration identified the need for adequate and proactive advising programs to foster student success. This paper presents a review of "best practices" in advising to determine commonalities, provides a comparison with current VCCS advising practices, and offers recommendations that…

College Promise programs--initiatives designed to guarantee tuition and fees for eligible students--have swept across the country, unlocking the opportunity of higher education for students in more than 200 communities across 44 states, including 16 statewide programs that have passed through legislation or executive orders. These forward-thinking…

As the price of a public college education has risen at well above the rate of inflation for decades, college affordability has become a key concern in public policy discussions. At the same time, recent high school graduates from lower-income and middle-income families are nearly 20 percentage points less likely to enroll in college the following…

Completion by Design, an initiative sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, seeks to raise community college completion rates for large numbers of students while containing college costs, maintaining open access, and ensuring the quality of college programs and credentials. The goal of this guide is to assist community college…

Federal financial aid serves as a crucial tool to support both access and success for students in higher education. This is especially true at community colleges. Whether they are seeking job training, a certificate, or an associate degree, our students rely on consistent and meaningful sources of support to advance their educational aspirations.…

As community college enrollments continue to rise, the role of the college in the community expands to keep pace. Yet, academic programs designed to meet the needs of an ever more diverse population often lag behind. Traditionally, college has been a place for students to open doors to diverse ideas; here, students bring diversity with them, along…

The Illinois Consortium for International Studies has developed a cost-effective program for community college students to study abroad. Currently, students study in England and Austria, and a program will open in Mexico. Emphasis has been on foreign study, but programs to internationalize the campus and curriculum are being planned. (Author/MSE)

The Metropolitan Campus of Cuyahoga Community College (CCC) in Ohio conducted a survey of 239 institutions belonging to the University of South Carolina's National Resource Center for the Freshman Year Experience (FYE) to identify elements of a model program that could be established at other institutions. The summary revealed five key ingredients…

Reports on a study to: (1) design, implement, and evaluate an undergraduate peer-helping program curriculum with the major objective of facilitating cognitive/affective maturity and (2) test the effectiveness and practicality of using formative research in designing and evaluating the program. Discusses findings and implications. (AYC)

American River College's (California) Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) project is a 2-year project initiated in 1992 to improve the retention and performance of minority students and others in math, biology, and chemistry through increased contact and involvement with their peers. PAL involves a cadre of 24 student Learning Assistants (LA's) who have…

Since 1980, the percentage of ethnic minority students at Golden West College (GWC) has nearly doubled. To meet the English language needs of this rapidly growing student population, a speaking and listening course was introduced into the curriculum in 1982, followed by a pronunciation course in 1985. Both courses were part of the…