This guide presents examples and instructions for data analyses colleges can conduct to better understand student enrollments and completions in particular programs. Such analyses can help colleges scrutinize representation of historically marginalized groups in programs leading to greater opportunity after graduation. There is an equity…

The City University of New York's (CUNY) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) provides wraparound services for eligible students, including financial, academic, and personal support. First piloted in 2007, ASAP has been shown to substantially increase three-year completion rates at CUNY's community colleges. To build on the program's…

Beginning at a local two-year college and then transferring to a four-year institution has been one of the most affordable ways for students to earn a bachelor's degree. Yet transfer pathways from two- to four-year institutions are often complex and confusing, and too many students who begin at a community college and aspire to earn a bachelor's…

North Central State College provides a case study of how a small college can increase revenue by strategically realigning its existing staff resources for improving student retention and success, even in a period of stagnant enrollment. The college implemented a series of major reforms with the aim of improving student retention and completion on…

A primary focus among colleges implementing student success reforms has been to increase overall rates of completing any credential and to reduce racial and socioeconomic equity gaps in such completion rates. The focus on general completion may overlook inequities in the type of program students complete, which is particularly significant given…

Since the publication of "Redesigning America's Community Colleges" (Thomas Bailey, Shanna Smith Jaggars, and Davis Jenkins) in 2015, guided pathways reform has become a national movement in community colleges. As of spring 2018, more than 250 community colleges have committed to undertaking large-scale guided pathways reforms as part of…

Corequisite remediation, which mainstreams students deemed academically underprepared into college-level courses with additional learning support, is rapidly being adopted by colleges across the nation. This paper provides the first causal evidence on a system-wide corequisite reform, using data from all 13 community colleges affiliated with the…

In this brief, the authors propose three measures of "early momentum" for two reasons: Research is beginning to show that these near-term metrics predict long-term success, and the metrics focus attention on initial conditions at colleges that are particularly important for solidifying the foundation for student success. While these…

The number of students taking college courses while they are in high school has grown dramatically over the past two decades--particularly at community colleges--but many colleges and states do not track participants' outcomes. Using student enrollment and degree records from the National Student Clearinghouse, this report is the first to look…

In fall 2012, a public-minded privately held firm, Quad Learning (QL), partnered with two community colleges to pilot a new program dubbed "American Honors" (AH), which was designed to help academically talented community college students overcome the challenges of transferring to more selective four-year destinations. By fall 2018, QL…

In 2011, working groups from across the eight campuses of Miami Dade College (MDC) conducted a wide-ranging examination of why many students were not completing their programs. These groups identified a number of reasons for student attrition. Students were unclear about how to progress through programs--they had too many course and program…

The idea behind guided pathways is straightforward. College students are more likely to complete a degree in a timely fashion if they choose a program and develop an academic plan early on, have a clear road map of the courses they need to take to complete a credential, and receive guidance and support to help them stay on plan. However, most…

A growing number of community colleges and four-year universities are seeking to improve student outcomes by redesigning academic programs and student support services following the guided pathways approach. These institutions are mapping out highly structured, educationally coherent program pathways for students to follow by starting with the end…