While the number of Latino students taking advantage of higher education opportunities has steadily increased, the completion of degree programs does not mirror this increase (Radford, Berkner, Wheeless, & Shepard, 2010). Prior research has focused on the barriers faced by Latino college students (Garza, 2011; Hernandez, 2002; Radovic, 2012).…

The statistics about community college developmental math level and completion rates can seem disheartening, especially for those who work with these students day-to-day and know their life stories. When it comes to teaching her students, the author chooses not to focus on the statistics. Instead, she pays attention to their varied career goals…

Research suggests that student loan borrowing has increased at the community college level. This trend is worrisome to many, as research is inconclusive regarding whether loans are positively correlated with achieving a college degree. Many also contend that choosing not to borrow a student loan due to loan aversion can negatively impact a…

The purposes of this study were to investigate (a) the effects of volition support (VoS) on students' motivation, effort regulation, and performance as well as (b) the perceptions of students about VoS in an online mathematics course offered at a community college. VoS was developed based on the theories of and research on volition (e.g., Corno…

Self-presenting effectively at job interviews presents significant challenges for students at urban community colleges, especially those identified as low-income Black and Latinx. Current practices provide minimal support, if any, for enhancing the self-presentation of these students at job interviews. Too often, instead, students simply do not…

English Learners (ELs) attend community colleges at a greater rate than four-year schools, making community colleges primary sites of ESL education in American higher education. These institutions' recent embrace of the corequisite structure -- a pairing of a non-credit developmental course with a credit-bearing disciplinary content course in…

Policy implementation research tends to document the failures of reform, describing the myriad ways implementers miss the mark in translating intent into impact; or in the words of Derrick Bell, policy scholars are left with examining the "unfilled hopes of racial reform" (2004, p. 185). In contrast, this article presents an intrinsic…

This article seeks to make the case for how relationships are essential to meeting the tapestry of student needs by examining experiences and challenges of several student threads in that tapestry, using both two-year and four-year institutional perspectives. How faculty, staff, and administrators respond--or don't--in building rapport and…

College completion rates are low--nearly 40 percent of students do not earn a degree within six years of enrolling in college. Community college students face the highest hurdles--about 60 percent are without a degree six years after matriculating. Research has identified strategies that institutions can use to improve student success and degree…

The current economic crisis hit Californians with less education hard and brought greater attention to the role public workforce training can play in an equitable recovery. To support workforce needs and the economic success of residents, California invests heavily in access to education beyond high school. The state deployed between $6 and $7…

Objective: We estimated the correlations between the "pathways" chosen by community college students--in terms of desired credentials and fields of study, as well as other choices and outcomes along the paths--and the attainment of credentials with labor market value. We focused on the extent to which there were recorded changes in…

This chapter describes a new conceptual framework that informs research on factors influencing transfer in STEM fields of study from 2-year to 4-year institutions, presents a new survey instrument based on the framework, and offers directions for future research in this area.

Two-year institutions of higher education are critical to state educational attainment (Auguste, Cota, Kartik, & Laboissiere, 2010; Wildavsky, Kelly, & Carey, 2011c), but the institutions may be hindered in contributing to attainment increases by the arrangement of governance (McLendon & Ness, 2003). The purpose of the study was to…

A national survey of a professional field is an appropriate and logical undertaking for a professional membership association such as the Association for Institutional Research (AIR). The National Survey of Institutional Research Offices is the most comprehensive survey of offices of institutional research ever undertaken. The goal was to collect…

The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand how educational scaffolding may explain changing patterns of student success in mathematics in the era of developmental education (DE or remediation) reform in Florida College System (FCS) institutions. Specifically, we apply the concept of scaffolding to underprepared FCS students who are at…