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 pushes for increased accountability in higher education continue, postsecondary institutions are interested in identifying early on students who are at-risk of leaving their institution. With this in mind, this study sought to identify incoming first-year student information (such as that available on the ACT student record) that postsecondary…

We measured student performance on the concept of limit by promoting reflection through four agents of change: instructor, peer, curriculum and individual. It is based on Piaget's four constructs of reflective abstraction: interiorization, coordination, encapsulation, and generalization, and includes the notion of reversal, as refined into a…

Nearly a decade ago officials at New Jersey's 19 community colleges sought a way for the state's two-year career and technical college system to work together to more efficiently serve the workforce development needs of the state. The goal was to say to businesses, "If you have a training need, we can help by delivering the…

Building on previous research (Thirolf, 2012), this longitudinal qualitative study uses positioning theory (Harre & van Lagenhove, 1999) and discourse analysis methods (Gee, 2011; Johnstone, 2007) to closely examine the faculty identities of three community college adjuncts who teach in the humanities. Results reveal that these adjuncts…

We report on the development of a life sciences curriculum, targeted to undergraduate students, which was modeled after a commercially available physics curriculum and based on aspects of how people learn. Our paper describes the collaborative development process and necessary modifications required to apply a physics pedagogical model in a life…

In the midst of disciplinary and public debates about education at open-access institutions, it's more important than ever that institutions set a clear path for inquiry and scholarship that will meet the needs of the professional community. This essay provides an assessment of the research achievements in two-year college English, particularly…

On the first day of class, what should an instructor do? What do the students expect? What might ruin the first day of class? The author asked 270 students these questions, and their answers apply to any class's first day.

In this study, students completed two different projects about personality. The results showed that while the students learned more about themselves, personalizing the material also increased their ability to understand core concepts.

Research indicates that Black male collegians tend to disproportionately seek out postsecondary educational opportunities at community colleges; despite this, a paucity of Black men actual transfer to four-year colleges and universities. In order to help facilitate transfer for Black male community college students, this article investigates the…

The authors present Sisters of the Academy's (SOTA) adaptation of the KEMET Academy model, an academic and cultural enrichment program for African American students attending under-resourced schools, to strengthen the pipeline for community college students from undergraduate through professional school. The KEMET model was designed by SOTA…

United States community college students face numerous barriers both externally and internally that impede overall success. There are noted interventions that when employed by the college, have a greater chance of leading students to increased persistence (finishing the term) and completion (finishing their academic/professional program).…

The Community College Completion Agenda is the West Virginia Community and Technical College System's (WVCTCS) commitment to awarding 16,000 new degrees by 2015. With this new completion agenda the West Virginia Community and Technical College System has realigned its master plan, Meeting the Challenge 2010-2015. Its focus from primarily…

This research study was a constructivist case study designed to elicit the strategies utilized by African refugees and immigrant students in order to persist in their post-secondary career and technical education programs. The eleven students interviewed were currently enrolled in or recently graduated from a technical college in a suburb of the…

The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (Public Law 78-346), generally referred to as the GI Bill, provided any veteran, who had served for at least 90 days from the time period of September 1940 to July 1947, paid full-time education. The original Act also called for the creation of a central agency dedicated to the administration of all…