For the purposes of this study, criteria for non-traditional students were: adults ages 25 and older, race/ethnicity, gender, entry date or transfer to a community college in Middle Tennessee during fall 2015 through summer 2021, and Pell/Grant eligibility. The problem is that non-traditional students have lower completions than traditional…

Whole-school reforms have received widespread attention, but a critical limitation of the current literature is the lack of evidence around whether these extensive and costly interventions improve students' long-term outcomes after they leave reform schools. Leveraging Tennessee's statewide turnaround reforms, we use difference-in-differences…

Each year from 2018 to 2020, roughly 16,000 students participated in Tennessee Reconnect at community colleges across the state. However, fewer than half of those Reconnect students persisted to the following year as grant participants. To promote Reconnect students' reapplication and persistence, Nashville State and Southwest Tennessee Community…

In this study I deployed quasi-experimental methods to explore enrollment responses to a unique statewide college promise program for adult students attending college within the two-year public postsecondary education sector in Tennessee. State policymakers implemented Tennessee Reconnect in 2018 to encourage adult students without a college…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were achievement and behavior differences between three groups of students: (1) African American males from single-parent homes who had a mentor, (2) African American males from single-parent homes who did not have a mentor, and (3) African American males from a two-parent home that includes…

The landscape of developmental education has experienced significant shifts over the last decade nationwide, as more than 20 states and higher education systems have transitioned from the traditional prerequisite model to corequisite remediation. Drawing on administrative data from Tennessee community colleges from 2010 to 2020, this study…

Peer-mediated interventions (PMIs) are evidence-based practices that improve outcomes for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Determining whether peers also benefit substantively from their involvement in these widely used practices is key to establishing the reciprocity of PMIs. This study examined the breadth and…

The purpose of this study was to explore the difference participating in career and technical (CTE) dual enrollment courses made on the college and career readiness of recent high school graduates. The research also explored if CTE dual enrollment participation changed high school students' perceptions about education. Participants in this…

The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental study was to explore a possible relationship between the number of students in grades 9-12 classified as chronically absent and the inclusion of the Chronically Out of School indicator in Tennessee's accountability model for schools and school districts. Using publicly available data from the…

In order to assist higher education institutions and their students during the pandemic, the federal government established the Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) Fund, which directed over $75 billion to institutions of higher education--including nearly $25 billion to community colleges--over a three-year period. The U.S. Department of…

In response to the high cost of textbooks and other course materials, "Inclusive Access" automatic billing programs allow the cost of a discounted eTextbook and/or courseware to be automatically added to a student's tuition bill at the time of course registration. Touted for their ability to lower costs and provide students with access…

Since the Tennessee Promise's 2014 launch, "free college" or "Promise" programs have proliferated rapidly and converged on design features: a "last-dollar" award and community college applicability. Researchers who study these programs' effects generally presume they are tuition-reducing endeavors. In contrast, we…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine the impact of Riverside Middle Prep's Newcomer Program on academic achievement by using quantitative test scores and a case study design to analyze teacher and student perceptions about the newcomer program. The researchers wanted to determine whether there was a difference between EL…

We utilize a difference-in-difference design to examine the effect of adopting a statewide promise program on the enrollment of community college students across socio-economic status. Limited by a small sample size for treated units, we find inferential evidence that the adoption of a state-wide, last-dollar promise program for community colleges…

Identification and validation of effective Tier 2 interventions that address a wide range of student-level factors is critical to the sustainability of positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS). Within the context of Check-in Check-out (CICO), function of behavior affects outcomes for many students, especially for those who engage in…