At a community college in the state of Florida, student retention has become a critical concern because more than half of the first-year first-generation students fail to graduate. That rate is four times higher than for other first-year students. Guided by Tinto's Student Integration Model as the conceptual framework, this intrinsic qualitative…

Retaining people no longer credited toward college completion--a group known in academic parlance as "stop outs"--is a core concern among administrators seeking to remove barriers to education. Preventing stop outs from becoming stay outs means re-enrolling students beset by debt, or targeting vulnerable demos close to graduation.…

This Perspective builds on a related RAND Corporation report that describes the implementation of Findhelp at four North Carolina community colleges in 2021 and 2022. Findhelp is an online tool to connect students to resources in their communities to help meet their basic nonacademic needs. The North Carolina Community College System, with support…

In 2019, MDRC launched the Scaling Up College Completion Efforts for Student Success (SUCCESS) project to improve college completion rates for traditionally underserved students, such as students from low-income backgrounds and students of color, at community and broad-access colleges (those that have open or minimally selective admissions…

While the value of mentoring has long been presumed in the literature as well as in practices, little is known about the success of formal, and informal mentoring practices (Crisp, 2010; Crisp & Cruz, 2009; & Ward & Ball, 2016). In addition, there is a lack of research on community college student mentoring in higher education…

The College Completion Network was established to expand the field's understanding of promising strategies that could support more students in attaining degrees at open- and broad-access institutions. Funded by a 6-year grant (2017-2022) from the Institute of Education Sciences, the network brought together research teams focused on postsecondary…

11 community colleges in New Jersey and two Historically Black Community Colleges (one in Alabama and one in Mississippi) joined the OnPath project, which had the goal to help community college students stay enrolled during the pandemic. OnPath facilitated a powerful combination of people and knowledge by bringing together college staff members…

The purpose of this proposed study was to address the issue of the effectiveness of community college retention programs, particularly their impact on poor or low-income students. Indeed, this study sought to identify actions and events that contributed to students choosing to drop out and the positive impact that college retention programs did or…

This dissertation examined the decision-making experience of students receiving an early alert notification at a community college and what influenced students' responses to the alert. Early alert programs are identified as a high impact persistence practice and may involve significant financial, technology, and personnel investments. Examining…

To help students realize their goals, community colleges across the country are working toward redesigning the student experience utilizing the guided pathways framework. Guided pathways is an institution-wide approach to student success that is based on giving students clear, coherent, and structured educational experiences that build in a…

Historically, higher education research has focused on traditional students (i.e., recent high school graduates at a residential, 4-year institutions), but community college students are quickly becoming the new traditional student (Jenkins, 2012). In the fall of 2011, more than one third (36%) of all students enrolled in postsecondary education…

This hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions examines reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, focusing on opportunities to improve student success. Following an opening and prepared statement by Honorable Lamar Alexander (Chairman, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) and an opening statement by Honorable…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "School Holding Power." Contents include: (1) Texas Higher Education Law Aims to…

The College and Career Readiness Expansion project was a five-year, federally funded effort to implement early college strategies in comprehensive high schools. This report presents the results from a quasi-experimental impact study of the project and a mixed methods examination of its implementation. Results showed that the program increased the…