Completion rates in higher education have historically been low. Colleges and universities have tried many different programs, offerings, degrees, schedules, and more to encourage their students to stay enrolled, complete their programs, and graduate. One such offering is the learning community, a grouping of incoming students into cohorts with…

The findings from this multiple case study research project on the use of cooperative learning (specifically affinity groups) among developmental college students demonstrate that students benefited from from building community and becoming interdependent. Four themes that emerged from this study, (a) accountability, (b) building…

The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study was to illuminate the prevalence and configurations of peer mentoring programs at Central California Community Colleges with emphasis on how the programs impacted student retention. The study's sample was drawn from ten campuses and five centers that operate within five California Community…

The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed methods study situated at a large community college in the midwestern United States was to examine faculty attitudes, knowledge, and use of open educational resources (OER) and to identify institutional initiatives that would support OER adoption. The goal of the first, quantitative phase of this…

Students starting at a two-year college are much less likely to graduate than similar students who start at a four-year college, but the sources of this attainment gap are largely unexplained. This paper investigates the attainment consequences of sector choice and peer quality among recent high school graduates. Using data on all Preliminary SAT…

This research focused on identifying and exploring the significant current and emerging community college non-academic support service issues. These auxiliary services, not unlike academic or student affairs, support the community college mission and vision as well as students' academic success. Since December 2007, Americans have been…

This article describes a focus group research study that examined the experiences of community college students who initiated study groups for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses based on self-identified needs for learning support. Results indicated that students identified early in the semester that they needed…

This paper presents research that explores similarities and differences across six randomized controlled trials of learning communities in community colleges that were conducted by MDRC and the National Center for Postsecondary Research. Five of these studies track students' progress in the program semester and two follow-up semesters, and one…

This qualitative study investigated the opportunity recognition process of Wyoming BRAVO! Entrepreneur (WBE) Award winners or nominees, in order to better inform the learner analysis and organizational strategy components of instructional design, specifically with respect to entrepreneurship courses. This study may be of significance to post…

As states slash funding for education and other services in the face of shrinking budgets, the question is not how to find students, but how to help them once enrolled. Linda Hagedorn, director of the Research Institute for Studies in Higher Education at Iowa State University, states that instead of being concerned about where community colleges…

The majority of California's students seeking higher education are enrolled in a community college and approximately a third are Latino. Yet as the number of Latinos in community colleges has risen, their degree completion and transfer rates lag in comparison to other major ethnic groups. To investigate the academic aspirations and barriers of…

This article provides suggestions that can help community-college leaders reach the top and stay there. One way is to distinguish oneself in a positive way. It requires a record of making a positive difference in the lives of students, faculty members, and members of the community. Another way is to develop and maintain a peer network who can give…

Ten African American men, who began their college career in Basic Skills courses at an urban community college in California and successfully transferred to a four-year college or university, share their life stories through that process in this case study. Their experiences differed from the literature in peer group interaction and definition, in…

Community colleges operate under much scrutiny these days, and these institutions have experienced a growing emphasis on performance indicators as paths to institutional accountability. California's system of 109 community colleges recently developed and implemented an innovative accountability program that used peer group comparison as one of its…

Rural America is characterized by decreasing populations, increasing poverty, limited economic growth, and limited access to cultural events. The context of the rural environment makes leading colleges in these locations different than in larger, more urban regions. The research reported here investigated the experience of rural community college…