Community colleges are an integral part of the postsecondary education system in the United States. Unfortunately, college completion rates continue to decline. Additionally, median income in the United States is also declining. The idea that each successive generation of students will do better than the previous one is quickly becoming a fantasy.…

This multilevel study examined the relationship between school climate and academic achievement. Using the Educational Longitudinal Survey (ELS, 2002), and a sample of 16,258 students and 1954 schools nationwide, we found that student-level perception of school climate--especially the student learning environment--was highly predictive of academic…

[Slides] presented at AERA in Denver, CO in April 2010. In today's education climate, an enormous amount of pressure has been placed on states, school districts, and programs to produce graduates who are prepared to successfully enter, persist through, and graduate from the nation's universities and colleges. However, much of this research has…