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…

Objective: The objective of this study was to create a model of English learners' (ELs) persistence based on theory and empirical research. Findings from this research informs community college educators in helping ELs persist and guide future research regarding this important student population. Method: We examined ELs' persistence using…

Although many Black male students begin their collegiate experience at community colleges, a greater understanding of their four-year transfer experience is needed. This qualitative narrative study critically explores pathways of Black male engineering students who transferred from community colleges to four-year research-extensive institutions.…

Do older community college students build momentum toward graduation differently than their younger peers? One-third of students in community colleges are 25 years of age or older, and these students tend to have lower rates of graduation than their younger peers. Yet, we know little about how the factors that influence college graduation differ…

The objective of this study was to examine differences across developmental groups of community college students to compare anxiety, depression, positive coping, and negative coping with particular focus on emerging adults (ages 18-28) experiencing quarter-life crises. A total of 807 students participated in this study and were divided into three…

This study examined the initial impact of the 2021 amendment to the Student Excellence Equals Degree (SEED) legislation on adult student program recipients at Delaware Technical Community College (Delaware Tech) in the state of Delaware. Additionally, the study explored the characteristics of adult student program recipients. The researcher used a…

Adult students are generally classified as a single group for study, yet developmental psychologists recognize separate developmental periods during adulthood that suggest adult students at midlife may experience development within higher education differently that younger adult students, in part due to ageism expressed at individual,…

Recent state policy efforts have focused on increasing attainment among adults with some college but no degree (SCND). Yet little is actually known about the SCND population. Using data from the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), we provide the first detailed profile on the academic, employment, and earnings trajectories of the SCND…

The purpose of this study was to explore how an intergenerational group of music students (ages 16-71) mentored each other in an online jazz improvisation course. This study is framed in Dewey's notion of students sharing their knowledge and experiences with the teacher as facilitator and the following research questions guided this investigation:…

There has been a little research on emotion, cognitive load, or learning performance for digital game-based learning (DGBL). However, there is still a dearth of research on investigating the interactive effects of scaffolding DGBL and cognitive style on the above three outcomes. Participants were 97 middle-aged and elder adults from a community…

Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a peer-led academic support program in which SI Leaders help students develop study habits and note-taking strategies as well as facilitate test preparation. While the effects of SI on students receiving the instruction have been thoroughly investigated, there have been far fewer studies that have assessed the…

Since the late years of the Eisenhower Administration, when alarms were first raised about the impact of what was then called cybernation there have been cycles of interest in the role of training policy for addressing perceived national challenges. During the War on Poverty youth unemployment and juvenile delinquency motivated initiatives…

In this chapter, we discuss changes in the age structure of the labor force, the need for continued skill upgrading over the life course to remain employable, patterns of participation in adult learning and development activities, and the role community colleges play in providing education and training to middle-aged and older adults. In an…

An increasing number of students are enrolling in colleges underprepared for the demands of college-level coursework. There is a need for innovative approaches for developmental reading instruction to improve long-term academic and career success. The purpose of this study was to investigate adult developmental reading students' attitudes…

In this case study, we explored how nontraditional community college students regulate their motivational efforts to achieve their goals in a blended technology course. Specifically, we investigated nontraditional community college students' perception of their participation goals in a blended learning course, their use of motivational regulation…