Nationally, community colleges continue to have lower retention, completion, and transfer rates for African American students (National Student Clearinghouse, 2019). Specifically, 55% of African American students who enroll in postsecondary education at twoyear colleges leave without earning a credential in 6 years. Teaching and learning must be a…

The advising experience of students who start their academic studies at a community college is often critical to their success. Students with an intent to earn an associate degree may find that academic advising helps them define their academic goals, affirms their educational plans, and provides them continual guidance. This study explored the…

Current student success measures have been shown to be necessary, but insufficient, often masking the successes of specific student populations by virtue of their 4-year institutional centricity, aggregate calculation, and reflection of hegemonic definitions of student success. For far too long, academics and policymakers have valued what they…

The role of intrusive advising in the persistence of community college students has not been well-studied even though intrusive advising has been touted as a practice to improve retention in U.S. community colleges. Student retention is important for sustaining community colleges that serve as open admissions institutions because they are…

Community colleges provide a key point of access to higher education across the United States. These colleges are especially important for underprepared students, especially in mathematics. This is especially true of rural students, who often have lacked the access to educational resources. Research on growth mindset theory has provided promising…

The national shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on March 13th , 2020 caused education systems to close on an unprecedented scale. Many educators were not prepared to continue instructing online then, and students continue to grapple with the new reality of navigating online modalities now. Without face-to-face interaction, learning changed as…

This sponsored study establishes quantitative data about the training effectiveness of a leadership education program in a southern Indiana community college by comparing the pre-intervention and post-intervention MLQ-5X test scores of 11 students participating in a leadership education program and then comparing the students' performance during…

This dissertation examines how education and migration policies negatively shape access to and opportunities within post-secondary education for Latinx students in mixed-status families. To do so, I develop the concept of deficit policies, or policies that presume deficits in the targeted population and then produce those deficits. Engaging a…

AB 1705 requires colleges to validate their math placement policies and associated enrollment practices to ensure that students begin in coursework that gives them the best chance of completing the initial transfer-level math requirements for their academic goal. If students are required to enroll in prerequisite coursework prior to the…

This study examines community college students (N = 292) enrolled in introductory criminal justice courses, comparing access, use and perceptions of open education resource (OER) textbooks with traditional textbooks. Data were collected over three semesters from students in a large metropolitan city using an online survey. The sample pool is…

The COVID-19 pandemic was a challenging time for community colleges. Due to pandemic-related issues and inequities, there was a need for flexibility on the part of both students and faculty. This paper reflects on both teacher and student perceptions of participating in a post-pandemic flipped classroom at a local New York City community college…

For-profit colleges' have generated regulatory scrutiny and litigation because of their recruitment tactics, graduation rates, costs and loan default rates. Compared to public higher education institutions, for-profit colleges have been criticized for being more expensive with similar or worse job market outcomes for graduates, who tend to be left…

Latin@ undocumented students confront unique and significant barriers in accessing and obtaining postsecondary certificates and degrees within community colleges. This study explored 4 current and 1 former community college part-time (6-8 credits) undocumented students, specifically how they described their help-seeking experiences within a…

Throughout history, higher education institutions (HEIs) in the United States (U.S.) have espoused the goal of developing an educated citizenry with the capacity to engage across difference and contribute to solving the major issues in society (Association of American Colleges & Universities [AACU], 2019; Kezar, 2004). Although significant…

As colleges and universities are required to report graduation rates when receiving federal and state funding, student outcomes can become a substantial concern for these institutions (Hennon, 2022; United States Department of Education, 2020). Many postsecondary institutions may be equally concerned with successfully assisting the increasing…