Many Californians face difficulties connecting to good jobs because of limited education. This is especially true for poor families who receive cash assistance from the state's CalWORKs (California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids) program. Few CalWORKs parents have more than a high school degree, and many struggle to balance family and…

Think College Reports present descriptive data in narrative or tabular form to provide timely information to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers for review and use. This report provides program- and student-level data reported by Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities (TPSIDs) during the…

In this paper we estimate the impacts of the "pathways" chosen by community college students--in terms of desired credentials and fields of study, as well as other choices and outcomes along the paths--on the attainment of credentials with labor market value. We focus on the extent to which there are recorded changes in students' choices…

Many things have not changed since Esther Hugo's 2006 article on community colleges. For the most part, "open-door" means just that: "apply and you're in." The lenses community colleges use to see students are still complex; the purposes of community colleges are still many. Students of all ages come for transfer, career and vocational training,…

In this article, the author discusses the disparate reality of full-time academic labor in public institutions of higher education in the United States. As more and more reports on US higher education point to deteriorating conditions for faculty members and threats to their professional status, those who teach in colleges and universities need to…

This article explores the general education needed by newcomers to higher education that will enable them to contribute in multiple ways in the twenty-first-century workplace. In an effort to become more precise about the kind of general education that Midwestern community colleges need to create, this article approaches two questions: (1) In what…

Research often focuses on how students fail to meet college expectations, but it rarely asks how colleges fail to meet students' expectations. This study examines students' expectations of college and their institutional confidence--their level of certainty that college will meet their expectations. Drawing on 65 pilot interviews and a survey of…

This report provides information on retention, graduation, and transfer rates for students entering Maryland community colleges as first-time, full-time students between 1993 and 2013. This edition of the report includes analysis of student outcomes two, three, and four years after matriculation. The first section contains analysis of student…

Community colleges are an integral part of the postsecondary education system in the United States. Unfortunately, college completion rates continue to decline. Additionally, median income in the United States is also declining. The idea that each successive generation of students will do better than the previous one is quickly becoming a fantasy.…

Unlike Generation 1.5 or adolescent ESL students, Generation 1 students do not attend U.S. K-12 English as a Second Language (ESL) and often lack linguistic capital necessary for college success, thereby stalling their pursuit of the American Dream. This qualitative research examines a previously understudied group's transition from ESL.…

This study explored pre- and post-admission characteristics of retained first-year students enrolled in non-proximal distance learning programs within public, 2-year colleges. Five pre-admission and six post-admission characteristics were explored. The sample for this study consisted of 197 first-year students enrolled in non-proximal distance…

This article describes a qualitative inquiry that explored the phenomenon of online learning on a community college campus within the paradigm of Community of Inquiry (CoI). The learning experience of 15 community college students taking fully online courses was examined in-depth for evidence of social, cognitive, and instructional domains…

The research on students with disabilities has focused primarily on transition programs and the accessibility of information in the classroom environment. There is a dearth of studies that examine the accessibility of disability services information on community college websites for prospective students with disabilities. A researcher-developed…

Nationally, about two thirds of community college students are referred to developmental education. Thus far, research on the effectiveness of developmental education has focused on students' academic outcomes; in this paper, we examine the economic consequences of developmental education for students. Using longitudinal student-unit record data…

Computerized testing may be one solution to enhance performance on the curricular Health Education Systems Inc. (HESI) exam and the National Council Licensure Exam for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). Due to the integration of improved technological processes and procedures in healthcare for computerized documentation and electronicmedical records,…