Community colleges struggle with enrollment and student success challenges to enhance student experiences and improve completion through various initiatives. Despite efforts, many lack long-term sustainability efforts, leaving colleges seeking solutions. The Guided Pathways framework leverages a college's existing practices and restructures…

The COVID-19 pandemic created lingering challenges related to enrollment and made transparent the need for institutions to examine processes and remove enrollment barriers. Higher education may be perfectly poised to implement deep and lasting change that could result in increased access and improved retention. As student populations become…

Four years after the onset of COVID-19, enrollment and persistence at community colleges is rebounding, although still not to prepandemic levels. Community college leaders report that a key strategy in encouraging enrollment and persistence is a drive toward more flexibility in course formats, including modes of delivery modality, materials, and…

In this qualitative study, undergraduate and graduate students (n = 21) who identified as foster care alumni (FCA) were interviewed about the factors that influenced their academic persistence and retention as they pursued a degree at a 4-year public university in California. Several themes emerged from the study: (a) systemic barriers, (b) a…

The purpose of this phenomenological case study was to explore the perceived effectiveness of a restructured developmental education program at one campus of a large, multi-campus community college in North Texas. The restructuring process was guided by the mandates of Texas House Bill 2223 passed in 2017. One of the components of the bill allowed…

California community colleges have a completion crisis problem, with over 70% of students failing to graduate. This study was conducted to identify effective support services in the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) program, which serves marginalized community college students. This EOPS program study surveyed almost 2,000 EOPS…

The purpose of this quantitative, ex post facto study was to determine if there was a significant difference in course pass and withdrawal rates between online community college synchronous and asynchronous introductory English composition (IEC) courses. The community of inquiry provided the theoretical foundation for the study. The research…

Educational disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth across Canada, as is true across the United States, pose challenges to education systems to examine and alter professional practices in ways that support closing these gaps. Calls for more Indigenous school psychologists who might bring skills and perspectives to bear are…

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted educational systems, leading to significant learning loss and credit deficiencies among high school students, particularly in California's comprehensive high schools. This research addressed these challenges by exploring innovative strategies through a social-ecological model and ecological systems theory to improve…

Food insecurity, housing insecurity, and homelessness are pervasive issues within the United States. Research conducted to understand the extent to which college students specifically experience food and housing insecurity indicates a relationship between unmet basic needs and negative educational outcomes. Both higher education institutions and…

California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB) has been implementing a Title Vb grant, "Promoting Excellence in Graduate Education and Increasing Hispanic STEM Related Degree Completion," to continue "strengthening the STEM program support" for students of Latino origin and "developing a Graduate School-Going…

This qualitative phenomenological study aimed to explore community college graduate lived experience as it relates to retention and persistence. Data was collected from 15 California community college graduates from multiple community colleges who earned an associate's degree and were 18 years of age or older. Collecting participant data provided…

The purpose of this study was to estimate the effects of a theoretical model encompassing psychological theories underlying student retention in postsecondary education. New conceptual operationalizations were applied to elaborate Bean and Eaton's theoretical model of student retention. The influences of student entry characteristics,…

Student retention has been an issue that has plagued college institutions for decades. Many researchers have conducted studies to investigate the challenges associated with students staying enrolled at their institutions. Although challenges in student retention exist, for-profit colleges have fared better in student retention than community…

This study examined whether the physical location of student support services on a college campus influences the utilization of those services, and if so, whether access to those services relates to student retention. The primary purpose of this study was to better understand whether service utilization, based on location, can and should be…