While community colleges intend for their students to complete their associate degree before transferring to a university, that is not always the case. Many students transfer when they are only a few course credits short of an associate degree. The study was conducted at a public university in Texas. The option of the reverse transfer process…

Using intrusive advising principles and the four Cs framework, the Strong-Start Program was developed and implemented to improve student outcomes in developmental math, reading, and writing courses. An intrusive advising protocol was used to help students recognize, adopt, and engage in the behaviors needed to complete instructor-assigned…

In this article, the author describes the college-school district collaboration called the "Academy of Health Sciences," an innovative approach to learning that located a high school on the college campus and gave students the opportunity to earn a college degree, too. The Academy of Health Sciences is just one of a slew of ideas that…

With the national spotlight on community colleges, the sector has a unique opportunity to seize the moment and collaborate with K-12 to increase student success. Efforts to increase community college access and open doors to more students must include a complementary focus on improving readiness. Otherwise, remediation rates will remain…

As increased attention and proposed funding are being directed toward community colleges, it is important to consider the sexual and reproductive health care needs of this growing population. Existing data suggest there are significant sexual health needs among this population and often insufficient provision of services. Some community college…

National Council on Disability's (NCD) study found that students with disabilities are not "on the radar" of colleges in their sexual assault prevention efforts, policies, or procedures for response and support after an assault. This includes the absence of procedures to communicate with victims who are Deaf or hard of hearing and…

One key objective of California's Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) Student Mental Health (SMH) initiative funded under Proposition 63 is to establish a formal process for ongoing collaboration between higher education systems and county mental health, as well as to increase collaboration among higher education campuses to improve student…

In a knowledge-based economy, a postsecondary credential is vital for gainful employment and upward socioeconomic mobility. Unfortunately, the path a student takes from high school graduation to college course work is too often characterized by a troubling detour, namely, "remediation." According to Complete College America (2012), over…

The transition to upper-level course work of transferring students, predominantly students from 2-year/community colleges, has been explored in recent education research literature. Yet, it has not been sufficiently explored whether and what academic support programs could be successful in supporting transfer students with the transfer process.…

Although the United States is touted as a country where anyone could be successful regardless of social class or national background, upward social mobility is hard to attain. Less than one in 10 children born into poverty will reach the top of the income distribution. For many individuals, postsecondary education has historically been a way out…

In 2011, working groups from across the eight campuses of Miami Dade College (MDC) conducted a wide-ranging examination of why many students were not completing their programs. These groups identified a number of reasons for student attrition. Students were unclear about how to progress through programs--they had too many course and program…

The idea behind guided pathways is straightforward. College students are more likely to complete a degree in a timely fashion if they choose a program and develop an academic plan early on, have a clear road map of the courses they need to take to complete a credential, and receive guidance and support to help them stay on plan. However, most…

A growing number of community colleges and four-year universities are seeking to improve student outcomes by redesigning academic programs and student support services following the guided pathways approach. These institutions are mapping out highly structured, educationally coherent program pathways for students to follow by starting with the end…

In recent years, discussion has arisen among educational researchers and practitioners on how best to teach academically underprepared community college students the basic skills they need to be able to learn from a college curriculum. Research conducted by the Community College Research Center has found that many creative approaches are used in…

An alarmingly high percentage of recent high school graduates are not prepared to succeed in college-level courses, and the impact of this educational shortcoming is substantial. Underprepared college students incur a monetary cost of enrolling in remedial courses, and states and taxpayers subsidize much of the overall cost of developmental…