Community colleges enroll millions of students across the United States in urban, suburban and rural communities. Specifically designed to address the unique needs of the communities they serve, these institutions are often the engines of the local economy and at times the only pathway out of poverty. Community colleges strive to uphold their…

When examining career pathways, post-secondary institutions such as community colleges align education and training to career success, aiming to connect students to gainful employment. Career pathways support the skill needs of industries and incorporate competencies in an occupation or field represented by certificates and degrees awarded by the…

The role of racial diversity at colleges has been debated for over more than a half a century with limited quasi-experimental evidence from classrooms. To fill this void, I estimate the extent that classmate racial compositions affect Hispanic and African American students at a large and oversubscribed California community college where they are…

Studying best practices in the aftermath of COVID-19 can offer evidence-based solutions to the challenges faced by postsecondary correctional education (PSCE), both those created or exacerbated by the crisis. This pragmatic, interpretive case study aimed to contribute to this effort by conducting a qualitative analysis of interviews and documents…

This research study focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of improvement efforts made for ENG 111 online courses at Brunswick Community College (BCC). The primary goal is to enhance student satisfaction, increase course completion rates, and improve course success rates. The study assesses the strategic redesign of ENG 111 courses and aims to…

The purpose of this quantitative correlational associative study was to determine if, or to what extent, there was a statistically significant correlation between the sub-scales of transformational leadership (inspirational motivation, high performance expectations, modeling appropriate behaviors, individualized consideration, intellectual…

Community colleges provide broad access to postsecondary education to students of every identity, background, and level of academic preparedness. However, while community colleges offer a diverse range of educational and career pathways, completion rates remain low. In the past decade, the guided pathways framework emerged as a model for how…

Learning assistance services offered by U.S. community colleges are vital to the academic success of many students, but the tutors themselves remain understudied. This paper attempts to narrow both the research and recognition gaps by exploring and categorizing prominent aspects of professional community college tutors. Using a small-scale,…

While many community college (CC) students come to higher education with specific career or life goals, these aspirations may be forced to change if students are not able to get past the gatekeeper of remedial mathematics coursework. Racially minoritized students are disproportionately tracked into non-credit-bearing remedial (NCBR) mathematics…

The purpose of this quantitative ex post facto research study is to determine if there is a difference in students' pre-calculus knowledge and mathematical skills achievement based on pre-calculus instructional conditions and gender at a community college in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Three research questions were used to…

Basic needs insecurity, including insufficient or inadequate food, housing, and other personal necessities, is a common problem on college campuses, especially at community colleges (Baker-Smith et al., 2020; Broton & GoldrickRab, 2018), and an increasing number of higher education institutions are attempting to ameliorate this issue (Broton…

Community college students graduate at low rates nationwide which prevents many noncompleters from benefiting from the economic and employment advantages of a degree or certificate. Despite myriad strategies to address this problem, little is known about the impact of faculty job satisfaction on student completion. The purpose of this study was to…

The purpose of this qualitative narrative analysis was to explore how men of color have experienced stereotype threat in their lives and used community cultural wealth to manage stereotype threat and achieve academic success while persisting at a large urban community college. Racial tensions have manifested through blatant acts of racism,…

Although the community college's original intent was to fulfill a mission dedicated to offering a low-cost, high-quality education to its community, fulfilling its mission is has become more difficult based on ever-increasing financial stresses being placed upon it by various constituent groups. As such, a growing piece of the community college…

In this interview study, I examine how student affairs administration (SAA) works at rural community colleges as well as how rural senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) function in their leadership roles. The study purports to understand student affairs in the context of "rurality," or what it means to be rural. Two primary research…