The Colorado Re-Engaged (CORE) initiative, created under House Bill 21-1330, allows a four-year institution of higher education (IHE) to award an associate degree to former students who meet eligibility requirements -- including having already earned at least 70 credit hours before stopping-out of a bachelor's program. Under HB21-1330, each…

More than half of states have implemented tuition-free college policies aimed at reducing attendance costs and incentivizing enrollment. We review the academic literature on the design features and impacts of these tuition-free policies, and we analyze an initiative Virginia implemented in 2021 called Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead (G3), which…

Over the past 15 years, significant advances have been made in public health education in the United States, creating new opportunities for community colleges, especially in terms of clarifying career and general transfer pathways for students. In 2014, a national taskforce published two curricular models for public health education in community…

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…

Purpose: The military medic/paramedic population has desired to seek further education in healthcare with a program that provides earned credit for their prior learning and experiences. The population specifically wants to become a registered nurse (RN). As the nursing shortage continues, these military medics and paramedics are an untapped…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of receiving an associate's degree via reverse credit transfer on retention and bachelor's degree attainment for students in Hawaii and Minnesota who transferred from a community college to a university before earning an associate's degree. Results showed mostly positive evidence with some…

The flipped classroom has been implemented within the nursing curricula to promote increased student classroom satisfaction, student engagement in the classroom, and improve retention of complex nursing concepts. This research study evaluated how the implementation of the flipped classroom contributed to the overall perception of a new…

While the United States has made strides in increasing college access among low-income students, college completion has remained low. Graduation rates are particularly low at the nation's community colleges, which enroll a disproportionate percentage of low-income and nontraditional college students. Seeking to address this problem, in 2014 three…

Each year millions of Americans make the decision to pursue a college education to improve their skill sets, boost their earning potential and transform their life circumstances. Yet almost 1 in 5 students leaves empty-handed after investing precious time and valuable resources. And many who amass student loan debt are crippled by the burden of…

The growing cost of college is one of the most significant barriers to completion. However, research shows that frequent, intensive advising, combined with financial and other support, can make a tremendous difference in helping students complete. For two years, TICAS has worked with a group of rigorously evaluated organizations across the country…

Community colleges that are exploring ways to dramatically improve outcomes for their students frequently seek a better understanding of the relationship between two "branded" approaches receiving significant publicity: Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) and guided pathways. ASAP was created by the City University of New York…

At a time when the nation is focusing so much attention on college completion, what do we know about how students are completing their community college programs? Does the open-access mission of community colleges translate into equitable outcomes? Pathways to Results (PTR) engages practitioners in using data to close equity gaps for student…

States are taking several distinct approaches to implement reverse transfer policies. Although contextualized by state-specific factors, approaches to policy implementation commonly include determination of a group or regulatory body responsible for policy oversight, technology, funding and identification of students eligible to participate in…

As states have begun to fully implement reverse transfer policies, their reported student-level outcomes data varies widely. Given the infancy of most reverse transfer policy, it is premature to pinpoint any single state action that has served to accelerate or hinder successful degree conferrals. However, taking a deeper look at exemplar state…

Our new report, "Keeping the Promise: Going the Distance on Transfer Reform," has found significant improvements in the creation of a seamless transfer pathway between California Community Colleges and the California State Universities (CSU) since the passage of historic transfer reform legislation, SB1440, six years ago. This report…