Community Colleges (CCs) in the U.S. provide open access to education for an extremely diverse student body, with large numbers of emergent bilingual students enrolling in CCs. This paper describes the rationale behind offering professional development to instructors across CCs on teaching Language Across the Curriculum (LAC). In order to meet the…

In 2019, Nebraska Indian Community College (NICC) joined the National Student Clearinghouse Postsecondary Data Partnership (PDP). This technical brief will discuss an approach to prepare Postsecondary Data Partnership (PDP) data collections that consist of the development of both term cohort files and course files. The process utilized course and…

The "Current Term Enrollment Estimates Report Series" is published every December and May by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. It provides national enrollment estimates by institutional sector, enrollment intensity, age group, gender, major field as well as state-level enrollment estimates. The average age for different…

For this study, researchers from Pathways Research and Training Center at Portland State University explored the perspectives of college students with foster care histories and self-identified mental health conditions. Researchers aimed to better understand how the relationship between students' foster care identity and their newly forming student…

Most public colleges and universities rely heavily on state financial support. As state budgets have tightened in recent decades, appropriations for higher education have declined substantially. Despite concerns expressed by policymakers and scholars that the declines in state support have reduced the return to education investment for public…

In this study, the difference in the number of initial credits between incoming transfer and first-year students entering a land grant university in a professional education program was examined (N = 488). A multivariate analysis of variance revealed that transfer students transferred significantly more total credits and more credits that counted…

One significant function community colleges serve is the provision of training programs for today's jobs. Students in job training programs are pursuing valued industry credentials and occupational skill sets to prepare themselves for new employment opportunities. Others are interested in retraining and professional development. Historically,…

This study compared the effectiveness of courses taught in a five-week intensive hybrid format with courses taught in an 11-week traditional classroom format in order to explore options for expanding access to higher education in a community college setting. Course effectiveness was measured quantitatively with student academic performance…

The study examined how institutional and student characteristics may influence the earning of student success points by state-supported community colleges under the Texas performance funding system that was fully implemented in the 2016-2017 biennium. Texas has historically funded community colleges based on an enrollment formula; however, the…

The purpose of this study was to identify the latent variable structure of a measure of cultural capital in the community college field. The community college was used based on its emergence as both a gateway and a gatekeeper to higher education, and as a power structure that can afford both social and economic opportunities through degree…

Community and technical colleges serve a vital function in STEM education by training workers for medium- and high-skilled technical careers and providing employers the labor necessary to operate and maintain thriving business ventures. A curriculum developed with the elements of a systems-based approach results in a program more relevant to the…

According to Cohen and Brawer (2008), there are four curricular functions of community colleges. Students who enroll at community colleges may seek academic transfer, vocational or technical education, developmental education, or continuing education, which includes community service. Community college faculty and administrators face a wide range…

This research study examined the lived experiences of two faculty members who facilitated embedded-level English courses at Middlesex Community College (MxCC), a two-year public institution in the Connecticut State College & University (CSCU) system. The following central question guided this research study: To what extent, as perceived by…

The individual context and life course of women returning to higher education places them on a unique student development arc--one that does not necessarily align with the residential, youth-culture tradition of large public research universities. With this in mind, the aim of this study was to better understand the personal experiences and…

The purpose of this journal-format dissertation was to investigate the condition of community college policy at the state-level as well as the effects of state-level policies on community college institutions and students. Three separate studies were conducted in this dissertation. Study 1 entailed a systematic literature review centered on…