Objective: We wanted to identify factors associated with pre-nursing student retention and success at a small, rural two-year institution in South Carolina. Method: Transcript analysis generated a dataset for pre-nursing students (N = 125). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze high school and university data. Results:…

Standard assessments of cognitive ability have been the preferred method of assessing the probability of student achievement at community colleges, but there is a growing trend in the use of noncognitive factors to assess student potential. Factors related to a student's race/ethnicity and family income have been shown to be correlated with…

Nursing educators are challenged to find strategies that will develop critical thinking and clinical judgment abilities in students. As technology has advanced, the use of virtual simulation platforms has increased in use in nursing courses. This study examined the effect of a pilot virtual simulation intervention on critical thinking and clinical…

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate self-efficacy as a potential mediator in the relationship between the amount of time students spent during high school participating in the arts and their current science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) motivation levels. The study participants (N = 68) were between the ages of…

Community colleges experience difficulties in effectively placing students in the first college-level, gateway mathematics course. The use of one standardized exam, such as the Texas Success Initiative Assessment (TSIA) has been proven ineffective. The effectiveness of using multiple measures is not known. This quantitative predictive…

Objective: This study sought to determine how aligned community college students' declared majors were with long-term occupational projections. In addition, the study explored whether this link was sensitive to entry-level education. Method: The current study merged two disparate sources of national education and economic data to form a novel…

The purpose of this study is to explore a practical nursing bridging program's education environment and the role transition of internationally educated nurses (IENs) who were enrolled full-time at a community college in Toronto, Canada, during the winter semester of school year 2018-2019. A survey questionnaire consisting of three parts was used…

In two studies, we explored the associations among situational reading-related competence beliefs and task value, inference strategies, comprehension during reading, and foundational skills in college age students. In Study 1, 93 participants from a community college completed assessments of comprehension and two types of inference strategies…

The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to assess to what extent math anxiety and math attitudes predicted math self-efficacy among community college students enrolled in one of two developmental mathematics courses at a metropolitan community college in the Southwest United States. Self-efficacy, math attitudes, math anxiety and…

There is a gap in the literature regarding the association between critical thinking (CT) skills and student success in chemistry. This study sought to fill this gap by evaluating the association between CT skills and student success in chemistry. The purpose of this study was (a) to determine whether there is a positive correlation between CT…

The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between financial aid awards and measures of student academic achievement. Financial aid and academic records for 11,956 students attending an urban California community college were examined and analyzed using simultaneous linear regression and two-way factorial ANOVAs. Findings revealed a…

Objective: Using data from "HEIghten"® Critical Thinking, a student learning outcomes assessment, the purpose of this study was to evaluate what variables are associated with higher critical thinking performance for students enrolled in various community college programs and to evaluate performance differences across demographic and…

Noncredit community college enrollment accounts for approximately 40% of all enrollment in the two-year sector, or five million students (American Association of Community Colleges, 2016). Yet, this population is seldom discussed in the higher education literature due to inconsistent definitions, funding, and data reporting at the state level.…

This non-experimental quantitative study examined the following question: What is the relationship, if any, between COMPASS placement scores and the student success in the first online course during the students first semester? Discriminant function analysis was used to examine the relationship. This study used existing data from new students, who…

The study examined how institutional and student characteristics may influence the earning of student success points by state-supported community colleges under the Texas performance funding system that was fully implemented in the 2016-2017 biennium. Texas has historically funded community colleges based on an enrollment formula; however, the…