Rural communities face incredible challenges and emerging opportunities. Land-grant universities are well-positioned to assist by developing new approaches to inspire university students to become civically engaged, rural community members. With this aim, the Rural Scholars program at Oklahoma State University was developed as an opportunity for…

Increasing graduation rates continues to be a high priority for administrators at community colleges nationwide. While several factors affect graduation rates, many researchers focus on how a student's status as declared or undecided may impact their likelihood of graduating. This study aims to examine the potential relationship between…

This study analyzed the impacts of participation in short-term study abroad programs at Oklahoma community colleges through a quantitative research design. Student retention and degree completion are concerns for all types of higher education institutions, but U.S. community colleges experience an even greater struggle to retain students from…

The problem addressed in this qualitative grounded theory study was that there are different curricula designs for online biology courses resulting in students having significant challenges. The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to use the theories of Mezirow (1990) and Tomlinson (1996) as the theoretical framework to explore…

As the first inquiry of a Historically Native American Fraternity and Sorority (HNAFS), the purpose of this research study was to provide greater understanding of the impact of a Native American sisterhood. The genealogical connections (literature review) examined the recent work written about HNAFS and narrowed down the influence of HNAFS on…

This book highlights the exciting work of two-year colleges to prepare students for their future careers through engagement in undergraduate research. It emerged from work in five community college systems thanks to two National Science Foundation grants the Council for Undergraduate Research received to support community colleges' efforts to…

In 2021, the Oklahoma School Librarians (OKSL) won the ABC-CLIO Leadership Grant. The OKSL division of the Oklahoma Library Association has always been a small division, but as budget shortfalls and teacher shortages ramped up in the early 2010s, as the author states, they reached a crisis point. According to the author, they were losing school…

The Chancellor of the Oklahoma state system of higher education has focused on two overarching objectives: expanding workforce development efforts and creating paths to a better life for Oklahomans. Oklahoma public institutions and elected officials are partners in developing an educated, engaged workforce prepared to meet the state's current and…

The Chancellor of the Oklahoma state system of higher education has focused on two overarching objectives: expanding workforce development efforts and creating paths to a better life for Oklahomans. The Regents are working closely with public colleges and universities across the state to advocate for investment in higher education and ensure the…

Agriculture is a significant part of the culture and heritage of indigenous people. This is especially true for Mvskoke people. Today, the issue of sustainable food sovereignty embodies the roots of the College of the Muscogee Nation's (CMN's) mission and goals as a tribal college and land grant institution. The college utilizes a community garden…

Promise programs are proliferating across the United States, with wide variation in their design. Using national data on 33 Promise programs affecting single, 2-year colleges, this study examines program effects on first-time, full-time college enrollments of students by race/ethnicity and gender classification. Results suggest Promise programs…

This study examines the efforts of higher education systems in six states to implement large-scale changes to improve student outcomes in mathematics in community colleges and four-year colleges and universities as part of the Mathematics Pathways to Completion (MPC) project. The three-year project was launched in 2015 to help Arkansas,…

This article discusses Promise Scholarships in community colleges and sources of funding. The following community colleges and their scholarships are mentioned in this article: (1) Oregon Promise, Oregon; (2) Ventura College Promise, California; (3) Kalamazoo Promise, Michigan; (4) Pittsburgh Promise, Pennsylvania; (5) SEED Scholarship, Delaware;…

Rural communities all too often face scarce funding, instructors and facilities, forcing institutions to choose between offering a variety of introductory courses across a breadth of subjects or providing more narrowly focused, sequenced programs within one or two priority Career Clusters. Providing learners access to diverse career pathways in…

Professional development opportunities provide teachers with enhanced learning experiences, deeper subject knowledge, and improvement of their teaching practices, all for the goal of increasing student achievement (Nelson, 2009). Unfortunately, most rural teachers have much less access to professional development opportunities compared to their…