Community colleges serve the noble mission of making higher education accessible to a broader spectrum of society than traditional 4-year institutions. A side effect of this broad access is a lower level of student preparedness for success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. This work describes our efforts to…

As an alternative to Hunt et al.'s (1997) general guidelines for strategic planning and Chance and William's (2009) summative rubric for evaluating university strategic plans, this article proposes a new rubric, the Rubric for Formatively Assessing Strategic Plans in Higher Education. The purpose of this new rubric is to provide institutional…

Colleges use academic success strategies to improve the retention rates of students with disabilities. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate community college faculty's perceptions of their level of self-efficacy in meeting the learning needs of students with hidden disabilities (SHD) in higher education. Bandura's theory…

Bachelor's degree attainment for community college transfer students is one underutilized but essential pathway for reducing equity gaps in higher education. One way to achieve this at scale is through state-level initiatives dedicated to supporting transfer from community colleges to not-for-profit independent colleges. The Teagle Foundation and…

Purpose: The military medic/paramedic population has desired to seek further education in healthcare with a program that provides earned credit for their prior learning and experiences. The population specifically wants to become a registered nurse (RN). As the nursing shortage continues, these military medics and paramedics are an untapped…

Community colleges, known for their open access and inclusion, have seen consistent enrollment declines for several years. At Outward Flats Community College, the research setting in this study, student enrollment has consistently declined and a widening admission yield gap between students of color and white students occurred. The researcher…

There has been a call from the national community of biologists and biology educators to increase biological literacy of undergraduate students, including understanding and application of core concepts. The structure and function relationship is a core concept identified by the wider biology community and by physiology faculty. Understanding of…

In order to help assist all students, with or without disabilities, SUNY Corning Community College (CCC), located in the Southern Tier of New York, chose to purchase a new software embedded directly into its LMS platform, Blackboard, called Blackboard Ally. This software is designed to automatically calculate the compliance of a document, video,…

Successful colleges require effective leadership and governance. Effective governing boards are comprised of trustees who are committed to excellence in performing their duties. How do governing boards assure they are effective? One way is through ongoing board and trustee education and development, to provide the skills necessary to govern well.…

The article highlights the importance and challenges of identifying program-level outcome assessment strategies for associate's degree psychology programs. We discuss the value of such program outcomes for quality assurance, improved teaching and learning, and efficient transfer. However, as we document, there is little uniformity in the…

In partnership with the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB), the Office of Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL) has had an ongoing commitment toward providing support for Illinois community colleges, with the goal of advancing equitable outcomes for students. In pursuit of this objective, OCCRL researchers have worked with…

College student retention literature has traditionally focused on the residential university setting. Likewise, research on student service programs and intervention designed to increase persistence and completion have also focused on the four-year residential university. Limited research has been focused on students who are pursuing career…

The vast majority of students who enroll in a two-year college intend to earn a bachelor's degree. However, only about 14% transfer and earn a bachelor's degree within six years (Jenkins & Fink, 2016). The need to increase the number of bachelor's degree holders (Torpey, 2018), and the increasing number of students beginning at two-year…

This paper advances a model describing how peer assessment supports self-assessment. Although prior research demonstrates that peer assessment promotes self-assessment, the connection between these two activities is underspecified. This model, the assessment cycle, draws from theories of self-assessment to elaborate how learning takes place…

Despite the attention given to student retention for nearly half a century, college graduation and persistence rates have not improved in over two decades. Furthermore, time to degree rates suggest that it is taking more time to earn degrees. Consequently, there is a significant amount of individual and financial expense required to earn a college…