As a disciplinary program, dance falls between the arts and physical education. As a result, it can often be overlooked or sidelined by either program, to the determent of its great value for community college students. Dance and its attention to movement, mental focus, and physical control provide important neurological benefits that affect both…

This case study examined the perceptions of scholarship recipients participating in Southwest Virginia Community College's (SWCC's) S-STEM scholarship program which examined whether the program helped remove barriers to students' educational goals and STEM career aspirations. The study used a focus group and a survey to elicit responses from…

A full-scale oral communication assessment was conducted by the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) during the academic year 2013-14. Key components of this assessment included faculty involvement at all stages of assessment and collaboration with assessment coordinators and lead staff personnel. The VCCS Office of Institutional Research and…

In fall 2013, Career and Technical Education (CTE)-focused composition classes were piloted to accommodate Leeward Community College's requirement for college-level composition for students in the CTE majors. The first CTE-focused class was an accelerated developmental education reading and writing course for students placing two steps below…

The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore staff members' perceptions of student-veterans college experiences at a 2-year and a 4-year institution. This study was guided by Schlossberg's Theory of Adult Transitions. Purposive sampling was used to identify 640 participants for the study. Respondents indicated that their campus should add…

Data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 were used to examine the effect of academic and career or technical education course taking in high school on deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) youth's postsecondary enrollment in 2-year, 4-year, and career or technical education (CTE) institutions. The analyses included a nationally…

"On the Verge: Costs and Tradeoffs Facing Community College Students" documents California community college students' struggles to cover college expenses beyond tuition, their experiences with financial aid, and the troubling tradeoffs they face when available resources do not stretch far enough. Consistent with a growing body of…

This dissertation illustrates how admission policies shape access to postsecondary education. Evidence comes from two sectors, each with a distinct type of admission system: highly selective institutions that practice holistic admission (chapters 2 and 3) and less selective public four-year colleges that use admission thresholds (chapter 4). The…

As a supplement to "Completing College: A National View of Student Attainment Rates -- Fall 2009 Cohort," hereafter "Completing College," this report takes a state-by-state look at the various pathways that students take to complete a college degree or certificate. This report focuses on six-year student success outcomes and…

Higher education institutions across the nation enroll a uniquely, diverse student body that possesses different perceptions of the campus environment. It can be expected that African Americans, Asian, Latino/a, and White students have differing perspectives regarding campus climate and culture based on their distinctive background, cultural…

"Teachin' It!" is a hands-on guide to cutting-edge research and classroom strategies that redress the graduation gap in community and open-access colleges. Drawing from the author's 30 years in the education field as a math and college skills instructor, teacher educator, and researcher, this book describes an asset-based model that…

Higher education leaders are looking for high impact ways to improve retention and graduation rates in a climate of austere budgets. Increasingly, higher education sees the interplay of finances and academic performance as a key driver of student success. Across the nation, measurable improvements in student success outcomes are observed when…

This article examines the intersection of the scholarship on ePortfolio and history pedagogy through an analysis of the success of the integration of Digication's Conversations feature into history courses at Bronx Community College (BCC). History professors at BCC have used the feature, which allows people to highlight and comment on text and…

Despite evidence that mental health burden is associated with lower academic success and non-completion in college students, and the high incidence of combat-related trauma exposure in returning veterans, few studies exist regarding the intersection of these issues in student veterans. This paper presents findings from a study on the mental health…

Although minority-serving institutions (MSIs) educate nearly one fifth of the nation's college students, there is to date little research on MSI's return on investment (ROI). To address this, the University of Pennsylvania and Educational Testing Service commissioned four papers focusing on the ROI for MSIs, which were presented originally in…