Community college student success metrics have become increasingly synonymous with the completion rate and other key academic performance measures over the past quarter century. These measures, however, do not fully capture students' subjective interpretations of success, including their individual goals and aspirations. This article aims to…

Objective: This study examines whether there are differences among first-generation and continuing-generation community college students in the importance they place on achieving college-related goals and difficulties they face from college- and other life-related challenges. Methods: Data were drawn from the "Community College Libraries and…

Purpose: Supporting community college transfer students represents a critical strategy for broadening participation in STEM. In addition to being a racially diverse group, students who pursue STEM degrees by way of community college report frequent interests in graduate study and academic careers. Thus, supporting and expanding transfer students'…

Objective: Theorists have posited that community college students' socio-academic integrative relationships with other students, college staff, and instructors, as well as their sense of college-related aspiration, mindset, grit, and agency, may impact their academic success. When community college students narrate (i.e., create stories that help…

This study examined factors influencing veterans' postsecondary institutional choices. Individual interviews were conducted with 30 veterans separating from military service and twelve military education officials and counselors. Results indicated most veterans transitioning from the military who aspire to enroll in postsecondary education intend…

Two hundred and four students completed a web-based questionnaire distributed to a stratified sample of California community college students (n = 2,300) enrolled in hospitality management or related programs to assess the influence of community college personnel on students' degree aspirations and upward transfer of community college students to…

Empirical educational research nearly universally tacitly assumes that people attend college only in order to improve their likely earnings. Thus, it ignores the immense cultural importance ascribed to education (and particularly higher education) in modern culture, or at least proceeds as if this cultural valorization is irrelevant to…

Objective: The purpose of this study is to highlight the type of community cultural wealth developed and used by Latina/o community college transfer students who encountered limited pre-transfer assistance and unreceptive cultures at their transfer institutions. Method: This study took place at Southwest State University (SSU), a Predominantly…

When students apply to a four-year college or university directly from high school, they know they want to earn at least a bachelor's degree. Not all students who enroll in community colleges have the same clarity about their future. This lack of clarity about their educational goals is one of many hurdles that community colleges face in helping…

Background/Context: Sociologists of education have studied how community colleges' institutional authorities and organizational barriers stratify students' postsecondary aspirations. Notions of how students might diverge in their pursuits are less understood. This study builds on imagined futures and postsecondary aspiration literature to…

Objective: This study examined the statistical association between net tuition and changes in degree aspirations among community college students. In addition, the study explored the moderating influence of unmet financial need. Method: Analyses relied on data from the most recent iteration of the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal…

We use regression discontinuity design to examine the impact of placing into developmental math on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) participation in community colleges and whether these relationships differ for underrepresented racially minoritized (URM), women, STEM-oriented, and STEM-aspiring students. Results show that…

"Cooling out" is the theoretical process in which community college counselors and faculty seek to adjust the academic goals of low achieving students. Though the rationale behind the concept has changed since it was proposed almost 70 years ago, it is still relevant in the present political environment in which leaders are stressing…

In this study, we use a narrative inquiry approach to present the stories of two Latino males attending community colleges in the Great Plains region of the United States that includes the Dakotas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, popularly referred to as "flyover states." The purpose of this inquiry, part of a larger study in an area of the…

Objectives: We explore the influence of initial enrollment at a community college on the attainment of a bachelor's degree. Methods: Using the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS: 12/17) and propensity score analysis, we compare baccalaureate degree outcomes of recent high school graduates who reported their intention to earn…