Strategic enrollment management (SEM) initiatives benefit when SEM committees are inclusive and collaborative. When financial aid professionals are excluded, the risk that certain initiatives will fail increases, especially if those initiatives involve academic changes. Here, the authors explore the reasons financial aid offices and academic…

Across the country, postsecondary education leaders are striving to increase graduation rates. Among a variety of evidence-based strategies to boost those numbers, perhaps the most prominent are multifaceted student support programs. These programs use multiple components over two to three years to address students' barriers to success.…

Public schools across the United States are charged with engaging all students in learning to improve academic performance. Recent studies (Apugo et al., 2023; Sutton et al., 2018) show an unexpected reduction in the achievement of Black girls, specifically, a decline in their graduation rates. For many years, the focus has been on Black males but…

In community colleges in the United States, graduation rates remain frustratingly low. Students face many challenges, including the financial costs of attending college; the demands of school, work, and family; complex institutional systems; underfunded student support services; and insufficient preparation for college-level work. To address these…

Youth and young adults experiencing homelessness face many challenges while pursuing postsecondary credentials. Low education attainment is occurring in higher education institutions across the county, with more than a quarter of first-year college students not returning for their second year in community college. This National Center for Homeless…

For many educational organizations, ensuring students have a positive experience and feel cared for by their degree program faculty is necessary for recruitment and retention, which can be especially important in challenging doctoral programs. Making information easily accessible and up-todate on the website, including the necessary forms, is a…

Students enter postsecondary institutions to change their lives in some way, with degree pursuits providing opportunities to grow academically, socially, and professionally. However, significant numbers of students are unable to meet the goals they had set for themselves when they entered college. Developed by the What Works Clearinghouse™ (WWC)…

At its most effective, advising is a collaborative process between a student and an advisor designed to help the student realize their educational potential. Most postsecondary institutions have historically used advisors to help students select and register for courses, but postsecondary institutions are increasingly asking advisors to play an…

The T Level Transition Programme is a study programme targeted at students aged 16 to 19 years (or young people with Education and Healthcare Plans to age 24) who are not ready to start a T Level but have the potential to progress onto one following a tailored preparation programme. The Transition Programme is expected to be a full-time study…

Increasing international student enrollment has been a key priority for many institutions of higher education in the United States. Such recruitment efforts, however, are often carried out without much consideration for providing sufficient support services to these students once they arrive to campus. This article proposes a model for structuring…

Many adult education providers are developing career pathways (CP) programs, which are viewed as an important workforce development and poverty alleviation strategy in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, by state and local governments, and by private funders. Based on a three-year researcher-practitioner partnership, this paper uses…

In this chapter, we describe efforts by growing number of colleges and universities to redesign academic programs and support services to create "guided pathways" designed to increase the rate at which students enter and complete a program of study.

This paper provides information about noncredit instruction in the California Community Colleges and updates the 2009 paper "Noncredit Instruction: Opportunity and Challenge" to incorporate subsequent changes from the last decade. Since the passage of SB 361 (Scott, 2006), noncredit instruction has seen significant changes, including the…

Since the College Cost Reduction and Access Act ([CCRAA], 20 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq.) was signed into law in September of 2007, the issue of college access for youth experiencing homelessness has garnered increased attention. Among other provisions, the CCRAA confers independent student status on unaccompanied homeless youth. This status allows…

Peer educators have a critical role to play in the delivery of a wide variety of important programs on college campuses. Nowhere is this more evident than in learning assistance programs. These programs, typically housed in a learning center or learning assistance office, include tutoring and mentoring and often take the form of individual and…