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…

Completion by Design, an initiative sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, seeks to raise community college completion rates for large numbers of students while containing college costs, maintaining open access, and ensuring the quality of college programs and credentials. The goal of this guide is to assist community college…

Philanthropy has shaped American higher education from inception. While religion earns the biggest slice of philanthropy, education runs second and well ahead of other causes. Most community college donations are earmarked for scholarships. Foundation dollars can be used strategically to meet the needs of students who cannot qualify for federal…

"Building Institutional Capacity for Data-Informed Decision Making" is the third installment of the Cutting Edge series, which aims to help colleges engage faculty, scale successful interventions, and create a strong culture of evidence through use of data to strengthen their institutional change and student success efforts. Though the…

Student affairs practitioners must reconceptualize traditional support services in order to use the resources allocated to them more effectively, meet the needs of today's students, and increase their value to community colleges. This chapter identifies student affairs programs that are vital to the community college's mission, describes best…

This chapter, aimed at both new community college student affairs professionals and experienced practitioners hoping to further develop their skills, provides resources and information about the expanding focus on student learning, translating student development theory into practice, and assessing student learning outcomes.

This chapter identifies eleven factors that, when present in a community college, substantially increase the probability that student affairs professionals will be able to create programs that matter to the institution's core mission. The chapter also provides student affairs practitioners with tools to assess the climate in student affairs as…

In a professional world characterized by change, uncertainty, and increased pressure to demonstrate that what they do really matters, community college student affairs professionals need clear definitions, a shared understanding of critical professional issues, and professional values that are consistent and congruent. This chapter provides those…

Fall 2005 enrollment data show approximately 73,000 students under the age of 18 enrolled in California community colleges. Given that students under the age of 18 are legally considered minors, community college faculty and staff are often uncertain about their roles and responsibilities for these students. Laws governing the opportunities for…

As community colleges embrace learning-centered practices, student affairs professionals have an opportunity to recommit to building and maintaining partnerships with their academic colleagues. This chapter explores the development, nature, and culture of learning-centered partnerships between academic and student affairs professionals, identifies…

Students in traditional as well as online classrooms need more than grades from their instructors--they also need meaningful feedback to help bridge their academic knowledge and skills with their daily lives. With the increasing number of online learning classrooms, the question of how to consistently assess online learning has become increasingly…