Research indicates that significant numbers of community college students enroll in quantitative literacy (QL) courses, yet we know little about the quantitative experiences of these students after they complete QL coursework. This qualitative case study was designed to explore with a sample of community college students and science instructors…

This study investigated female students who attended a STEM course with the Arts (STEAM) in comparison to a traditional STEM course and the impact it had on desire to pursue a STEM degree. An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare female to male students' interest in pursuing STEM degrees. In addition, follow up data for registration…

The concept of the associate degree is new to the Hong Kong tertiary education system. Public discussion and research have focused much on the policy and operational aspects of this tier, but empirical efforts to examine associate degree students' learning experiences and how it relates to the policy are relatively sparse. The present study…

Community colleges have evolved a lot over the decades, but as much as they've changed over the years, they've remained true to their core mission of serving their community's needs. They have done so as they always have--by being highly responsive to shifting priorities. This calls to mind the old saying: The more things change, the more they…

This study employed the career capital framework (DeFillippi & Arthur, 1994; Inkson & Arthur, 2001) and the associated three ways of knowing adapted for community colleges: "knowing why" (aspirations), "knowing how" (knowledge and skills), and "knowing whom" (sources of information). The authors constructed an…

Technical education programs in community colleges prepare students for many science and engineering-based jobs in the United States. An increasing number of technical education programs in community colleges are using online learning tools to teach courses. However, little is currently known about the ways these programs are integrating online…

Background: Most community college students from low-income families have ambitious educational degree goals, but only a small fraction attains them. For many decades, sociologists have primarily attributed this problem to a cooling out process in which college practitioners diminish students' educational ambitions using academic reorientation…

Objective: This quantitative study constructed a statistical model to measure family social capital and college social capital among community college students. The authors also examined influences of these two types of social capital constructs on degree aspiration. Method: This study utilized the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and…

This study expanded on previous models that looked primarily at student and support factors related to student retention and examined other stakeholder group functions not previously reviewed in relation to student retention. The research question assumed that greater faculty participation in campus decision-making and faculty satisfaction would…

Community colleges are increasingly important places for language minority students to access higher education. Unfortunately, this group of students is the least likely to persist in terms of re-enrollment, degree completion, or transfer to four-year institutions. In this study, we used structured equation modeling with a sample of 10,637…

In 2009, President Obama called for a simplification of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), resulting in the average family completing the FAFSA in 20 minutes. Yet, during the 2013-2014 college application season, nearly 900,000 Pell Grant-eligible high school graduates did not complete the FAFSA, leaving $2.9 billion in Pell…

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is considered a major respiratory therapy competency established by the profession and essential to the clinical decision-making process. Currently, there is a limited understanding of what factors influence the use of EBP among respiratory therapists. The purpose of this study was to assess the factors associated…

The rural brain drain, an event wherein a rural locale's educated youth out-migrates, is speculated to be the root cause of nonmetropolitan human capital exhaustion. This study promotes the speculation that community colleges hold promise in reversing the brain drain, as they are primed to elevate the human capital level of stayers while offering…

California Community Colleges are instrumental to creating access to higher education for Latino males, a population of students who tend to have lower college completion rates compared to their non-Latino peers. Programs like Promise support males with improving educational outcomes and academic performance. This mixed-method study explores the…

Community college students aspiring to transfer into STEM majors at a four-year institution face a complicated and nuanced admissions process. In some cases, students may be admitted to the four-year transfer institution but face additional requirements to enter a STEM major. This study of community college underserved students of color, women,…