Community college scholars and practitioners consistently seek ways to support vertical transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions. An emerging practice to streamline coursework transfer is the use of tailored, intrusive pre-transfer advising to increase information access for students still enrolled at the community college. In…

Interactive, text message-based advising programs have become an increasingly common strategy to support college access and success for underrepresented student populations. Despite the proliferation of these programs, we know relatively little about how students engage in these text-based advising opportunities and whether that relates to…

The value of academic advising has been increasingly emphasized in higher education. In this study, attention is given to the most significant types of advice that a sample of cybersecurity faculty and advisors from the Commonwealth of Virginia recommend giving to cybersecurity students. The results show that faculty and advisors recommended that…

Underemployment, which occurs when baccalaureate degree holders are employed in occupations that do not require or fully use a college-level degree (Lederman, 2018), challenges the notion that a college degree alone adequately prepares a student for a satisfactory level of employment based on education level. During 2018 and 2019, the higher-ed…

This study's purpose is to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international students who were studying at U.S. community colleges at the onset of this public health crisis. While previous work has explored the impact of the pandemic on international students generally, we argue that community college international students deserve…

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, state education leaders have been developing numerous innovative approaches to supporting high school students who are pursuing career pathways and preparing them for successful outcomes beyond secondary education. This topical brief summarizes state needs and strategies related to supporting…

Underrepresented students have less knowledge of research experiences available on campus and are less likely to feel supported by faculty than represented students. To address these issues and increase the number of underrepresented undergraduate researchers, faculty at the College of William & Mary created the William & Mary Scholars…

As the number of available cybersecurity jobs continues to grow, colleges strive to offer to their cybersecurity students an environment which will make them sufficiently prepared to enter the workforce after graduation. This paper explores the academic and professional needs of STEM-students in various higher education institutions across…

In this article we explore the level of motivation held by students engaged in a specially designed leadership program -- Emerging Leaders in Technology, Science and Mathematics (Elites). Elites was developed as part of a NSF S-STEM grant awarded to Radford University in 2014 that provides scholarships for meritorious students with financial need,…

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…

As a success coach, it can be challenging in identifying and referring students to the resources that can aid, and that can assist with each student's success during their first year. It is vital to use modern technological resources that are available at no additional cost to institutions, and which students are currently using, to aid in…

In December 2020, Complete College America (CCA), in partnership with the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, launched a rigorous 12- to 18-month project designed to increase student success and completion rates at small liberal arts institutions. The focus was on building and enhancing support systems for first-generation and Pell-eligible students, and…

This paper outlines current trends, progress, and possibilities for fostering more authentic ways to assess students' competencies and mastery of skills needed for college, work, and civic life in the 21st century. It provides an introduction to performance assessments and their value. The authors highlight efforts to develop such assessments in…

The report on which this brief is based describes performance assessments and their value for guiding and evaluating high school students' learning, as well as informing colleges and universities about what students know and can do. It explores state and local policies that support the use of such assessments, along with emerging higher education…

Far too often, today's college students find themselves wandering through their academic experiences, choosing from a dizzying array of majors, courses, and out-of-classroom learning experiences. And while this smorgasbord of options is often portrayed as beneficial to the student experience, more than a decade of research suggests that too many…