Community colleges have long been recognized as enrolling a disproportionate share of first-generation college students, low-income students, women, and students of color. Additionally, community colleges have significant enrollments of students who identify as immigrants; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT); and disabled. Many of these…

This study investigated the conceptual understanding of measures of spread among community college students in an introductory statistics course. The course is centered around deemphasizing computational skills and focused, rather, on development of conceptual understanding. Open-ended questions were developed to explore and assess students'…

Recent research on mathematics remediation in community colleges indicates that there are large differences in the rate of successful remediation between students of differing levels of initial math deficiency. One might presume that these "skill gaps" in successful remediation are a result of differing rates of student retention. That…

Lynette Brown-Snow, vice president of marketing and government relations for the Community College of Philadelphia, is one of several community college leaders across the country who have taken up one of the challenges proffered by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) in its 2012 report, "Reclaiming the American Dream:…

The goal of this study was to understand how students' attitudes were connected to their mathematics learning and achievement. This investigation of students (n = 78) and their attitudes was specific to web-based homework in developmental mathematics courses in a two-year community college located in a large urban city in the United States. A…

The present study examined the efficacy of clickers in a community college classroom. Specifically we sought to compare the effects of clicker technology on perceived knowledge and exam scores with the effectiveness of essays and pop quizzes. One hundred students completed surveys measuring presemester motivation to take psychology and baseline…

The purpose of this research was to determine the extent that computer-related factors affect the success of nontraditional college students. Since nontraditional students typically have fewer skills than traditionally-aged students, they may be less efficacious regarding their ability to use technology. Unfortunately, such reduced confidence may…

Drawing on a nationally representative sample of high school seniors from the Educational Longitudinal Survey of 2002 (ELS), this study examines the influence of the high school socioeconomic context on students' decisions to attend two-and four-year postsecondary institutions. The results provide evidence of resource imbalances based on…

This article defines the term "under matching" as the behavior in which mostly less-affluent, highly qualified high school graduates choose not to enroll at an institution that matches their qualifications--behavior which threatens their chances of earning a degree. The supporting research--rigorous, compelling, and…

The federal government plays an indispensable role in helping community college students pay for their education. It is hard to imagine today's community college campuses without needs-based federal student aid, such as the Pell Grant program and subsidized loans. There are, however, significant differences between community college students and…

During their senior year, students in the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools develop a postsecondary plan indicating their intentions upon graduation from high school. Postsecondary plan data were generated and consists of several categories, including attending a four-year college/university, attending a two-year/community…

We introduce an educational game-based assessment that measures the choices students make while learning. We present Posterlet, a game designed to assess students' choices to seek negative feedback and to revise, in which students learn graphical design principles while creating posters. We validate our game-based assessment approach with three…

"Student Success Center Toolkit" is a compilation of materials organized to assist Student Success Center directors as they staff, launch, operate, and sustain Centers. The toolkit features materials created and used by existing Centers, such as staffing and budgeting templates, launch materials, sample meeting agendas, and fundraising…

The extent to which community college students experience labor market success depends on both the attributes of the individual students and the characteristics of the community colleges they attend. In this paper, we examine the impact of community college characteristics on the earnings of first-time college students who enrolled in the North…

This report shares findings from a three-year longitudinal study of three Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs)--one of the newest minority serving institution (MSI) designations--and provides evidence for the impact of federally-funded campus programs on persistence, degree attainment, and transfer…