Combining research with firsthand experience, Community College Is College demystifies--and destigmatizes--the community college sector. This practical and accessible resource presents community colleges as an option where students who have been identified as high achieving can receive an excellent postsecondary education, often in preparation for…

Empirical educational research nearly universally tacitly assumes that people attend college only in order to improve their likely earnings. Thus, it ignores the immense cultural importance ascribed to education (and particularly higher education) in modern culture, or at least proceeds as if this cultural valorization is irrelevant to…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how high-achieving African American males attending community college describe how social support contributed to their academic experience in the United States. The theoretical foundations included The Self-Efficacy Theory and The Scholar Identity Model. There were three research…

Despite a multitude of possible explanations for racial and ethnic group differences in collegiate achievement, scholars have continued to call for new research and theories to better explain this ongoing phenomenon. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to investigate the relationship between grit, racialized campus experiences, and college…

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding for the experience of enrolling in a community college through the lived experience of high-achieving, low-income students. Prior research highlighted the disparate enrollment behaviors of HALI students. In particular, HALI students disproportionately attended open-access, for-profit, and…

This qualitative narrative study explored the lived experience of high achieving Black men who recently graduated from very highly selective historically White institutions (HWI). The research was guided by Nancy Schlossberg's (1989) theory of marginality and mattering and Shaun Harper's anti-deficit achievement framework. Building on the work of…

Louisiana's community and technical colleges provide access to educational programs. However, access to opportunity is not enough for individuals such as low-income Black females due to the residual impact of educational practices and structural inequalities. However, provisional changes in federal funding legislation give states the flexibility…

This study aims to evaluate the transfer process of the high achieving student who participates in and graduates from a community college Honors Program. By using quantitative data, the analysis determined whether or not specialized honors programming for the high achieving student allowed the student to complete an associate degree in less time,…

This paper studies the effect of exposure to female and male "high-achievers" in high school on the long-run educational outcomes of their peers. Using data from a recent cohort of students in the United States, we identify a causal effect by exploiting quasi-random variation in the exposure of students to peers with highly educated…

Drawing on a new, national survey of public institutions that serve two-year students funded by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and conducted by Ithaka S+R and Two Year First Year, this research brief describes the ways that these institutions do--and do not--support students during their first year of enrollment. It also highlights the extent to…

Female students continue to lag behind their male counterparts in STEM degree attainment despite performing as well as boys in mathematics and science in high school. Female students who expressed interest in mathematics and science may opt out of majoring in STEM once in college. Given that women may not be perceived as mathematics doers, this…

While much more research has been conducted about African-American college students in recent decades, there still exists a need for further explorations concerning factors related to student success and retention. For example, articles often explore the experiences of African-American students at four-year institutions and often use deficit…

The purpose of this exploratory, qualitative study of the lived experiences of low-income college freshmen (as they relate to their needs and decisions about continuing their enrollment in college) addresses the problem college administrators and faculty members have with determining how best to help high-achieving, low-income students meet their…

The purpose of this study was to explore the college choice and transfer decision-making processes of six high-achieving first-generation Latina/o transfer students who began their postsecondary studies at a community college and later transferred to a four-year Hispanic Serving Institution. Utilizing interpretative phenomenological analysis, four…

The goal of equal educational opportunity remains unrealized at most of America's colleges. The children of wealth and privilege fill nearly all the seats at these institutions, while the children of poverty are almost completely absent. Far too often, a young person's educational path is determined not by intellect, but by parental income. That a…