The introduction of SB-1440 in 2010, also known as the Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act, appeared to be an opportunity for California educators and policy makers to address the achievement gap among community college students with the introduction of the streamlined associate degree for transfer (ADT) (Padilla, 2010). If implemented…

Community colleges are disproportionally over-enrolled with both low income students and students of color, while four-year institutions are under-enrolled with the same groups. The vast majority of these students enter the community college with a goal of transferring to the four-year institutions they were unable to access from high school, yet…

In the United States, community colleges serve nearly half of the 18 million students enrolled in postsecondary education. However, it has only been the last decade or so where these public, two-year institutions have claimed substantial attention from the research community. This dissertation consists of three essays that focus on aspects of the…