"Aid Like A Paycheck" is a large-scale pilot evaluation of whether an innovative approach to disbursing financial aid can improve academic and financial outcomes for low-income community college students. Lessons from the pilot evaluation were used to create and fine-tune a logic model depicting activities, outputs, mediators, and…

This Data Point examines the persistence and attainment of students who enrolled in postsecondary education for the first time in 2003-04, focusing on subbaccalaureate students (those seeking a certificate or associate's degree) and, among subbaccalaureate students, those who pursue occupational education. Their progress was tracked over 6 years.…

Many administrators and faculty within higher education institutions have grappled with identifying and employing effective strategies to facilitate student success and persistence. The current study focuses on assessing nontraditional students' self-efficacy beliefs and their perception of the orientation program at a 2-year continuing education…

The purpose of this study was to explore students' perceptions of their experiences with non-face-to-face counseling at a California community college. The use of a mixed methods design provided quantitative and qualitative data surrounding students' perceptions of their experiences in a non-face-to-face counseling program in comparison to those…

In recent years, TRIO Programs have been targeted for budget cuts. The development of more data-based arguments is needed to defend these programs. Arguments against the continuation of TRIO programs stem from concerns about the program's relevancy and success. Specifically, Student Support Services (SSS) operates at higher education institutions…

The foci of this doctoral research were whether community college students in homogenous, rural community colleges are being educated in intercultural acceptance, diversity, and alternative perspectives and, if so, how the community colleges are assessing these items. These two statements are conceptually different but are intertwined from an…

The completion agenda has driven many community colleges to focus on alternative advising approaches in place of traditional advising practices. Appreciative Advising is a paradigm shift in academic advising that centers more on individual students by helping identify and build on their strengths. Advisors apply positive psychology and reality…

Community colleges in the United States are faced with several challenges, one of which is increasing the percentage of students that earn an associate degree. Research (American Association of Community Colleges, 2012; Amey, 2005; Eddy, 2010; Roueche, 2008) suggests that community college administrators need to think, act, manage, and lead in…

Promoting online academic success is complex for underserved, unprepared, educationally marginalized students who display lower engagement. Instructors typically suggest tutoring or generic resources, but two factors found to influence online success are engagement and self-regulated learning (SRL). We embedded then evaluated (a) the GAME plan for…

In this study, I use data from California to estimate the returns to a community college education for students who do not complete postsecondary credentials. I find strong, positive returns to completed credits in career and technical education (CTE) fields that are closely linked to employment sectors that are not credential-intensive, such as…

Recent research suggests that most 4-year college students diagnosed with specific learning disability (SLD) do not meet objective criteria for the disorder, show normative deficits in academic skills, or have childhood histories of SLD. The purpose of this study was to examine the functioning of students diagnosed with SLD attending community…

This article describes Sondra Perl's retrospective review of the composing processes of unskilled college writers and whether her assumptions and values in the designing of research projects have changed over her long teaching career. She uses her college dissertation "Five Writers Writing" as the basis to reflect on the authors and…

Credit by Exam is a mechanism employed in the California community colleges as a means of granting credit for student learning outside of the traditional classroom. In some instances, credit by exam is the means used to award college credit for structured learning experiences in a secondary educational setting, while in other instances knowledge…

Community colleges report opening Spring term enrollment figures to the Illinois Community College Board using a brief web based survey. Overall, short term statewide results of the fiscal year 2014 Spring enrollment survey show decreases from last year. Compared to the same term one year ago, statewide Spring 2014 headcount enrollments and…

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of various realistic levels of talking-head on students' emotions in pronunciation learning. Four talking-head characters with varying levels of realism were developed and tested: a nonrealistic three-dimensional character, a realistic three-dimensional character, a two-dimensional character, and…