The efficacy of the CTE curriculum and program delivery can be affected by both internal and external factors. In an effort for community colleges to improve graduation and retention rates, institutions are developing enrollment and retention strategies that involve scheduling options. The purpose of this causal-comparative quantitative study was…

Although the traditional 16-week schedule is widely used in higher education, time-compressed courses are increasingly being recognized as an approach to improve student success rates and expedite credential completion, thereby facilitating entry into the workforce. However, there is limited research to establish that the reported advantages of…

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between community college department chairs and their adjunct faculty. Methods: This was a descriptive phenomenological qualitative study that used individual semi-structured interviews of 14 department chairs from a purposive sample drawn from a midwestern community college.…

CCRC recently conducted two major studies to shed light on the feasibility of implementing guided pathways reforms at scale and on the association between implementation and improvements in student outcomes. The first is an evaluation of the AACC Pathways Project, which involved 30 colleges from around the country that were committed to making…

Innovative time allocation and timetable organisation can support the aim of providing students with individualised learning opportunities and deeper engagement with learning. Traditionally, time within schools is maintained and distributed through Western approaches to administration and organisation, which are socially and culturally produced…

This is the first brief in a series on learnings from career education (CE) opportunities in the California Community Colleges (CCC). The series begins on learnings from CE opportunities in the CCC system by highlighting what students described as most helpful in contributing to their success. These CE programs were aimed at helping students find…

This qualitative case study aims to better understand the institutional impacts of implementing Competency-Based Education (CBE) at a large, multi-campus community college through the perspectives of college staff and administration and non-academic units. Recent United States Presidential Administrations have put community colleges at the…

During the Fall of 2015, faculty and staff at a large community college district with an enrollment of 55,000 in the Southwest United States were encouraged to apply for Innovation Challenge Grants. The goal of these grants was to allow faculty and staff an opportunity to create, innovate, and share ideas, so that the college could strive to be…

Online education has become a major component of higher education providing flexibility to traditional and non-traditional students and a pathway for academic achievement. Online course offerings have increased over the decade and course lengths have begun to shorten. Traditional length semester courses of 15- or 16-weeks are now being offered in…

Much research has demonstrated an inverse relationship between appointment delay and one-shot appointment-keeping behavior. In the present study, we investigated whether such relationship is observed with recurrent behavior, such as class attendance and retention within a college course. When a 4-week remedial arithmetic course at an urban…

This study focused on the policy impact of SB 1456 (2012) on students enrolled in rural community colleges in California. SB 1456 (2012) was signed into law with the intent to increase student success rates that ultimately resulted in the completion of educational goals for students in California Community Colleges (CCC). In order to examine the…

While the Pell Grant covers a substantial proportion of college tuition for low-income students, it has covered only two full-time semesters per year and has not included any support for summer courses through most of its history. As research has shown that continuous enrollment throughout the year increases college persistence and completion, the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between when in the fall semester a first year experience (FYE) course was taken to fall-to-spring retention of first time students at a large, Chicago suburban community college. Since most of the students' attrition has been in the first year in college, FYE programs have been designed to…

This report for Success Boston, The Boston Foundation and the Boston Opportunity Agenda explores the many reasons why students at two institutions, Bunker Hill Community College and UMass-Boston, "stopped out" of their learning without a degree, and the reasons they did (or did not) return. The report also discusses ways in which other…

This single descriptive embedded case study examined the process of implementing a four-day work/school week at a community college and investigated post-change faculty/staff work-life balance. All of the students attending this college live at home. The change was implemented due to state funding shortfalls, increasing college utility expenses…