Veterans in the United States generally favor community colleges as an option. Although community colleges serve the most significant number of veterans, there is little research on the transitional experiences of female veterans (Wheeler, 2012). This narrative study utilized semi-structured interviews to discover and shed light on three women's…

TBR--The College System of Tennessee received a grant from Ascendium Education Group to conduct a mixed methods study on the impact of 7-week courses on colleges with a team of academic researchers. This executive summary provides high-level overview of Policy Brief #2, which presents results from quantitative analyses that estimate relationships…

The American higher education industry is undergoing severe changes, including financial exigency, decreased state/federal assistance, and increased tuition. While the former changes are relatively apparent, one other change deserves more attention -- the growth of adult learners, specifically females. The seeming lackluster response by…

This paper draws upon questionnaire data from 126 mature, female alumni students and interviews with a subset of 20 participants who completed education foundation degrees in three English universities in the South West. Three illustrative cases from interviews are chosen representing three models of progression: 'success', 'version of success',…

This study centers the experiences of nontraditional aged women who are 24 or older and the usefulness of Pell Grant funding to increase outcomes for attainment at the certificate, bachelor's, and associate's degree level in higher education. Critical feminist policy analysis guided the research structure, centering of women, and recommendations…

California has embraced transfer between the state's community colleges and universities as a key mechanism for ensuring a diverse and qualified workforce while simultaneously closing equity gaps and promoting economic mobility for its residents. Yet the RP Group's "Through the Gate" transfer study finds that each year, nearly 60,000…

In this article, the author discusses a study that she launched to open up conversations about age. She set out to collect and record the "opinions" of older women. She had been a returning student, and as a teacher at a community college with nontraditional-age students, she found herself perpetuating the cycle of silence about age in…

This research is an exploratory study that focused on describing the experiences of adult students who identify themselves as women enrolled in male-dominated Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) career pathway programs at a large Midwestern multi-campus community college. The study was undertaken to build on the research of women in…

This article describes process and outcome evaluations of a blended Cyber ESL program for native Spanish speakers in Chicago who could not use regular ESL classes. The outcomes measured against before and after scores and several comparison groups showed large gains in English language proficiency. 58% percent of students from the cohorts which…

This qualitative study explores the experiences of ten nontraditional women who reenter a community college after a prolonged departure. Experiences are examined through the lens of Tinto's Theory of Institutional Departure, as well as Deci and Ryan's Self Determination Theory. While there is strong desire for educational attainment, early college…

Female adult learners, the fastest growing subpopulation in community colleges, face challenges navigating domestic, professional, and academic roles and take time off from school to reconcile issues with multiple role navigation; thus, their education is disjointed and staggered, creating barriers to persistence. This interpretive design…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how adult college women attending rural community colleges experience being an online student. A study of this nature was warranted as enrollment in online courses continues to increase (Allen & Seaman, 2010) and as women are more likely to enroll in online courses (Kramarae, 2001; van…

The primary purpose of this study was to identify adult African American women undergraduate students' motivations for enrolling in college as measured by Boshier's (1982) Education Participation Scale (EPS). The secondary purpose was to determine if there were differences in motivations based on choice of institutional enrollment and if…

The purpose of this study was to describe, interpret, and analyze the educational experiences and factors contributing to the decision to persist for adult, female, part-time students currently enrolled at a community college in the Midwest. This study sought to expand the research on student retention by describing the perspectives of adult…

To explore the influence of theorized motivational properties of possible selves on participants' perceived likelihood of achieving their most hoped-for self and avoiding their most feared self, the authors surveyed 198 low-income rural women attending either adult basic education classes (DHS, n=95) or community college developmental classes…