Two-year public colleges educate more than 50% of all U.S. undergraduates, yet graduation rates (29%) fall far below their 4-year counterparts (63%). It is critical for students of 2-year public institutions that their faculty have the appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) to effectively guide students toward graduation. This study…

Segregation is often seen in terms of race. However, it can also be based on socioeconomic status. Public colleges and universities in the U.S. had highly divergent responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite operating under similar health and legal considerations, campuses at most elite institutions were treated as essential functions while the…

Objective: No studies have assessed the need for abortion access at California Community Colleges (CCCs), despite recent research and legislative attention toward on-campus medication abortion access at California's public universities, and the fact that CCCs enroll more than twice the number of students per year as the public universities.…

This study responds to a national conversation about the role that Career Technical Education (CTE) might play in meeting workforce demand for soft skills. It is challenging for CTE programs to offer soft skills for several reasons. Both educators and employers tend to associate CTE with hard skills, or technical skills and therefore the programs…

In March 2020, COVID-19 sent shocking changes through California's public higher educational institutions' means and methods of operating, which resulted in sharp drops in revenue along with sudden costs associated with on-campus COVID-19 safety measures and with moving courses and student services online. To make matters worse, state funding also…

The most recent data on tuition, appropriations, and state grant aid present an economic outlook that appears favorable in the West. Tuition rates remained relatively flat for the past decade, total state funding to higher education increased across the region in the past year, and state grant aid continued to increase since 2010-11. Despite these…

The California Community Colleges (CCC) system is the largest, most diverse public college system in the nation. As the system works to improve outcomes for all students, and in response to the racial climate in the United States during 2020, the system's Chancellor's Office released a call to action, asking all colleges to address systemic racism…

This dissertation describes a study that examined the experiences of community college leaders engaged in leading institutional change to improve student success. The study was conducted at a mid-size, public, 2-year institution in Southern California. Eight participants were chosen through purposeful snowball sampling of leaders from across the…

Home to the nation's largest Latinx (15 million), Asian American NHPI (almost 7 million) and the 5th largest Black (2.8 million) populations, California is our nation's most diverse and populous state. This diversity is one of the state's greatest assets, yet, representation of racially minoritized leaders in California's colleges and universities…

Home to the nation's largest Latinx (15 million), Asian American NHPI (almost 7 million) and the 5th largest Black (2.8 million) populations, California is the nation's most diverse and populous state. This diversity is one of the state's greatest assets, yet, representation of racially minoritized leaders in California's colleges and universities…

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) annual survey of tuition and fees collects the resident and nonresident tuition and fees at public two- and four-year institutions in the WICHE region for undergraduate and graduate students. WICHE administered the most recent survey to state higher education executive offices, system…

Latinas are underrepresented in top level leadership positions in higher education, comprising a small fraction of the 5% of women of color who serve as college and university presidents. Recent data revealed that the number of Latinas in senior-level leadership positions decreased, signaling a concerning downward trend. While much research has…

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of students formally enrolled in a California community college promise program at Mountain View Community College, Lakeview Community College, Hillcrest Community College, and Ocean Valley Community College, each located in Southern California. The…

TICAS partnered with higher education researcher Dr. Donald E. Heller to examine the "affordability gap" that students are facing when paying for college. The report uses federal data to determine the so-called "college affordability gap" in three states--California, Michigan, and New York--with a focus on students who are…

California's public higher education system has catapulted the state into global leadership such that, the state is the 5th largest economy in the world today. A bachelor's degree, in particular, provides unrivaled economic and health benefits for the individual earning the degree and for the state. To better understand how California's public…