In recent years, policymakers and academics have become increasingly interested in the returns to sub-baccalaureate degrees. This interest arises from surging demand for such programs over the 2000s, especially in the wake of the 2008 recession, as well as from President Obama's charge to dramatically increase the number of students with a college…

The Michigan Center for Student Success commissioned this study to determine whether strategies employed to improve adult students' success at 41 Breaking Through colleges nationwide have taken root at Michigan's original colleges and spread beyond them. A statewide survey revisited four of the colleges profiled in previous publications, and the…

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between participation in federally mandated college and career-preparatory programs--known as programs of study (POS)--and high school achievement outcomes. POS are an organized approach to college and career readiness that offer an aligned sequence of courses spanning secondary and…

Customer focus groups at Lakeshore Technical College, Wisconsin, were hindered by inadequate levels of participation. A study explored the effectiveness of using network meeting management software to increase focus group participation and the number of ideas generated as well as reduce the amount of time spent on conducting the focus group…

A model project at Indian Hills Community College, Ottumwa, Iowa, provided a degree-bearing second-year course of vocational study to a nontraditional audience seeking high-technology training. The flexible, competency-based program offered three paths of study: a course in personal computing resulting in a diploma or an associate degree, an…

To assess the relationship between the competencies taught in ten Wisconsin two-year Associate Degree Electronic Technology programs and the competencies needed on the job, a study surveyed program graduates and employers of graduates regarding the effectiveness of the curriculum. The survey instruments were based on the 120 broad competencies…

This document consists of the materials presented at a one-day workshop dealing with a new concept in articulation between secondary and postsecondary institutions that involves two years of pretechnology education at the secondary level and two years of training in any one of a number of technical and high-technology fields at the postsecondary…

A survey of companies employing graduates of Lorain County Community Colleges's (LCCC's) Engineering Technologies programs was conducted to determine: (1) skills or technical areas that needed strengthening; (2) additional skills or knowledge needed by LCCC graduates; (3) employer attitudes toward LCCC placement practices; (4) attitudes toward the…