Over the past decade, educators and policymakers have sought to increase the number of students pursuing and completing postsecondary credentials. Community colleges play an important role in efforts to increase the percentage of Americans with postsecondary education. Community colleges play an important role in educating the early childhood…

The Montana University System Strategic Plan is the primary planning document of the Board of Regents. The Plan sets forth an agenda for higher education in Montana by delineating the strategic directions, goals, and objectives that guide the Montana University System (MUS). It is comprised of three primary goals that contain a series of sub-goal…

As community colleges across the country strive to improve completion rates and serve a growing number of students returned home from war, the need for programs that meet the unique needs of veterans--including job training, social acclimation, referral programs for mental health counseling, and academic tutoring, to name a few--is more pressing…

This chapter reviews a four-year university's role in developing and implementing a transfer-receptive culture. In particular, it focuses on the first element of a transfer-receptive culture by highlighting a series of visits by the chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, to community colleges within California. Strengthening a…

In this manuscript, the guest editors of the EPAA Special Issue on "Democracy's College: The American Community College in the 21st Century": a) introduce the background, history, and context of community colleges in the larger higher education landscape; b) summarize the three research papers and two video commentaries that were…

Just as good community colleges pivot to mirror the needs of their local communities, the multistate Auto Communities Consortium (ACC) continues to evolve to counteract the challenges encountered by employers in its service region. Established in 2010 to address pervasive economic losses faced by communities whose major employers were auto…

Although students' final course grade expectations have been the focus of several studies, none have looked systematically at students' expectations for grade distributions for the whole class across institutional types, student year in school, and course levels. This study examined such differences as a function of gender, course level, and year…

"Teaching English in the Two-Year College's" series "What Works for Me" is a unique artifact in the development of composition as a field. In this article, the author claims "What Works for Me" as a valuable genre, a hybrid of new and old disciplinary forms. In the spirit of Derek N. Mueller's "Views from a Distance: A Nephological Model of the…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a relationship exists between new first- time students enrolled in a career exploration course and retention during the academic years of 2009 to 2011 at a public Midwest community college. Change of major after the first semester was also investigated. The study utilized quantitative, archival data…

Students enrolled in associate degree programs face social and personal challenges that can affect their learning and assessment skills. Social and personal challenges such as unemployment rates, race, age, and gender may affect their employability. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the mock and national…

African-American males are disappearing at alarming rates before our eyes through racially driven practices that secure their position in the penal system and special education. Though many scholars in the field of education have highlighted alarming rates of incarceration and overrepresentation in special education for African-American males,…

This study explored variables that impacted college choices of traditionally aged new freshmen who chose to attend two-year colleges in central Wisconsin with the intention of completing bachelor's degrees. Participants in this study were traditionally aged 18 and 19 years-old first-time freshmen who attended one of five two-year schools in…

For the first time in the history of America, there are four different generations living, working and learning together in a society that is more technologically advanced than ever before. However, could it be that technology has become a need? The primary purpose of this qualitative case study was to utilize Maslow's hierarchy of needs as the…

Student college loan default rates have nearly doubled in recent years. The three-year default rate exceeds 13 percent nationally. Tracking and reporting default rates is a crucial means of monitoring how well higher education dollars are spent. Yet, the way default data is gathered, measured, and reported by the federal government clouds…

Academic department chairs serve as front-line managers and leaders who perform a wide variety of tasks. These tasks may include mundane chores, such as ordering office supplies, or important ones, such as changing the department culture to one that embraces assessment. Too often, however, individuals take on the chair position with little to no…