Student food insecurity is associated with lower grades, depression, higher perceived stress and lower graduation rates. Campuses across the country are responding to the problem in a variety of ways, including distribution of food directly to students through food pantries. This research is based on a national survey of campus food pantries to…

In 2015, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) announced the AACC Pathways Project, a national initiative designed to support a cohort of community colleges to implement and scale whole-college guided pathways reforms. When the project launched, guided pathways was still a new idea. Yet, momentum was building around a set of…

Institutions in many jurisdictions are in the process of implementing Open Educational Resources (OER). This short paper is based on a report commissioned by Contact North/Contact Nord as part of their Pockets of Innovation series to better understand the impact of OER implementations at diverse institutions. The investigation looks into 13…

A challenge that community colleges continue to face is how to strengthen the education they provide in ways that lead to increased college completion and equity in student outcomes. Information gleaned from the Center's survey research and student focus groups over nearly two decades has produced the awareness that substantial improvement in…

This intrinsic case study explored organizational readiness to implement a campus-wide technology initiative. Specifically, this research examined a rural community college's implementation of an "iPad campus" initiative in which all students, faculty, and staff were required to adopt iPad technology. We apply a heuristic for…

As community colleges across the country look for ways to promote student success, the need for scaling effective approaches is critical. This guide builds on a framework of four phases of scaling developed in Job For the Future's (JFF's) previous publication, "Thinking Big: A Framework for States on Scaling Up Community College…

Community colleges continue to grapple with low rates of degree completion and transfer issues, with a national three-year completion rate of 22 percent (Community College Research Center). However, through the implementation of high-impact practices, many schools and programs have found levels of success. The City University of New York's (CUNY)…

This article seeks to provide a school perspective on the nature and quality of the partnerships which schools form with businesses in order to deliver work placements and workplace learning in Australia. It found that the ability of schools to engage with external partners depended on the ability of school leaders to define and communicate the…

The study introduced a very important issue for the development of labor market in any developing country. The rapid changes in technology and communication imposed challenges on education institutions for the development of labor market to meet local communities. These institutions have more responsibilities to provide professional and skilled…

Bridge programs, in which underprepared students gain the academic and technical skills necessary for college level courses and entry-level employment, are a promising initiative for expanding access to, and success in, community college education. For career pathways related to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM), bridge…

This report describes the origin and development of CESAME (The Center for Science and Mathematics Education) at Stony Brook University. The analysis identifies key ingredients in areas of personnel, funding, organizational structures, educational priorities, collaboration, and institutionalization. After a discussion of relevant issues in…

In 2006, six community and technical colleges in Washington State joined the innovative national reform initiative called Achieving the Dream (ATD). This report describes the progress each college made in implementing ATD's "culture of evidence" principles for institutional improvement, examines strategies implemented by the colleges to…

This article describes the League for Innovation in the Community College which will be celebrating throughout 2008 its 40th anniversary as one of the oldest and most significant organizations in the community college world. Created in 1968, when community colleges were being established at the rate of one per week, the League became a beacon for…

People do not want to know the history, minutiae of policy, or operations, or even the political intrigues of a virtual consortium. People want to know if the consortium has value, whether it can help them, and if it is a threat. In this article, the author focuses on the operating principles and policies that have proven successful in the…

In 1994 and again in 1997, AACC selected groups of institutions, known as Horizons colleges, to work together in collaborative mentoring relationships to build campus-based service-learning programs. While the number of service learning programs has grown significantly, not all of those programs are sustained by colleges for the long term. This…