Two-year public colleges educate more than 50% of all U.S. undergraduates, yet graduation rates (29%) fall far below their 4-year counterparts (63%). It is critical for students of 2-year public institutions that their faculty have the appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) to effectively guide students toward graduation. This study…

The RP Group's Multiple Measures Assessment Project (MMAP) produced this technical report as part of a series on how California's community colleges can ensure more English learners (ELs) successfully complete "gateway" English coursework -- courses that satisfy the English writing requirements for completion of an associate's degree as…

This article describes the content validation of the Transitioning Learners to Calculus in Community Colleges Institutional Self-Assessment Tool. The instrument comprises five content areas, each with an associated set of items representing practices to promote the success of underrepresented racially minoritized (URM) students as they transition…

In the fall of 2020, ACT and the Mississippi Community College Board (MCCB) entered into a data sharing agreement in order to examine the validity of ACT's® WorkKeys® Assessments. WorkKeys Assessments measure students' foundational workplace skills. The focus of this technical brief is to summarize the results of several validity studies using a…

In this article, we report on the development of two latent soft skills progress variables using the Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research (BEAR) Assessment System (BAS). The Social Evaluative Reasoning in the Workplace (SER-W) instrument uses comic strip scenarios to depict interactions between employees and customers in entry-level…

Colleges across the country struggle with determining the most appropriate means of placing students into math and English coursework. Most colleges utilize a single high-stakes standardized placement exam to assess incoming students and use strict cut-scores to determine students' placement. However, the ability of these tests to accurately place…

While many tools exist to assess student content knowledge, there are few that assess whether students display the critical listening skills necessary to interpret the quality of a speaker's message at the college level. The following research provides preliminary evidence for the internal consistency and factor structure of a tool, the…

This article describes the development and validation of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT), a metacognitive self-assessment for use with undergraduate researchers. It was developed as a teaching and learning tool with the intent to help students recognize and engage the metacognitive domain as a step toward developing personal agency…

The current study assesses the utility of the University Belongingness Questionnaire (UBQ) in community college settings. Utilizing item response theory (IRT), the UBQ was evaluated with a sample of 1155 community college students at one large community college on the west coast. In addition, other constructs were measured to ascertain the…

Online surveys are an efficient and relatively affordable way to collect data. However, there are issues associated with it, including potential fraudulent data due to accidental or deliberate duplicate entries. In this brief we describe a case study of deliberate duplicate entries in an ongoing study of community college students. Students from…

Implementation of AB 705 in fall 2019 required California community colleges to use high school grade point average (HSGPA) as the main measure of placement and maximize the likelihood of students being placed into transfer-level English and math courses. Since that time, research has shown that with the vast increase in access to transfer-level…

The Evaluating the Quality of Instruction in Post-secondary Mathematics (EQIPM) is a 14-item instrument that uses videos of teaching to investigate the quality of instruction in college algebra courses taught at community colleges. We hypothesize that quality of instruction can be characterized along three distinct factors, the interactions…

In recent years, scholars have focused intently on improving success rates for men of color (notably Black, Latino, Native American, and Southeast Asian men) in community colleges. To address outcome disparities, many colleges have sought to employ targeted interventions (e.g., programs, policies, and practices); however, many of these efforts are…

Purpose: The current study examined several aspects of validity evidence for the Faculty Readiness to Teaching Online (FRTO) scale. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 307 faculty in higher education. Construct validity was evidenced through an exploratory factor analysis and a reliability coefficient. Differential validity was…

Objective: First-generation community college students face unique risks for mental health distress, which can place them at risk for attrition and a myriad of other negative consequences. The aim of the present quantitative investigation was to test the utility of the REDFLAGS model, a mental health literacy based tool for supporting mental…