LaGuardia Community College is an international leader recognized for developing and successfully implementing initiatives and educating underserved diverse students. LaGuardia's STEM students are holistically advised by a team of dedicated faculty and staff members from different departments and divisions. As an innovative approach to advisement,…

The purpose of this action research study was to explore how community colleges increase their capacity for community engagement. Faculty and staff members who were identified as community engagement leaders within a public community college participated in a series of interventions to improve community engagement practices within the college. The…

Participatory action research, photovoice, diversity, and immersive learning comprised the most important aspects of the Community Colleges and Diversity graduate course taught during the 2014 spring semester. This project involved eight graduate students, five community college students, three community college administrators, and one university…

As today's students become more technologically savvy, social, and collaborative using social media, there are new and innovative techniques educators can use in the classroom. For example, action research is a newer technique using collaborative group processes, drawing upon the experiences of the individuals to promote positive results. This…

To improve academic ESL, a community college has been experimenting with linking an ESL class to a Sociology class. The primary goal was to use the methodology of Content Based Instruction to develop a curriculum that would promote academic vocabulary acquisition, critical thinking, and authentic communication in a sheltered environment. The…

Two-year community colleges are commissioned to close the assessment-outcome loop, which includes the research site for this study. This action research study, which utilized quantitative and qualitative data sets, was designed to close the assessments, learning outcomes and the professional development budget proposal process gap. The developed…

The purpose of this study is to examine what, if any, impact a Student-scheduled Child Care (SSCC) program had on the families of students completing their higher education goals at a college in the southwestern region of the United States. Student completion rate is a concern for most college and university administrators. Research conducted by…

This article aims to theorise a storyline account of a collaborative three-year action research project into schooling re-engagement using a Bourdieusian framework. In the article we discuss how we (two teachers and a social worker) developed an alternative senior secondary school that re-engaged a sizable minority of marginalised young people…

Concerned about the phenomena of early school leaving in our region, we are two teachers who initiated and developed a new school from the "ground up" to re-engage young people disenfranchised with schooling back into formalised learning. Using critical action research methodology over a three and a half year developmental period, this…

Low retention rates for students enrolled in online developmental reading courses prompted instructors at 1 large Texas community college to examine their online classrooms for elements that were creating psychological distance and disconnectedness for their students. The purpose of this action research study was to assess the efficacy of using a…

This study examines the experiences of a number of participants from urban community colleges with high percentages of students from underrepresented populations in Central California. The participants were involved in action research with the Center for Urban Education (CUE) at the University of Southern California. The purpose of the study is to…

This paper discusses the findings of a group of co-researchers involved in a participatory action research (PAR) project conducted with adults in a developmental education program. The co-researchers were mostly individuals of Hispanic descent, who had struggled in the past with schooling. Because the educational experiences of Hispanics often…

In 2007, Tulsa Community College (TCC) joined the national Achieving the Dream (ATD) network, which is dedicated to developing data-informed interventions to increase persistence and completion among community college students. TCC's participation in the national initiative set it down a path for positive institutional change, but it was the…

In higher education, and in community colleges in particular, there is a need to engage faculty and staff in closing the loop--using evidence for assessment, planning, and decision-making. Connect to Learning, a Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) funded grant project brings together 26 colleges and universities to work as…

Instructional leadership remains a complicated and debated issue for education. In fact, traditional theories of leadership from within both education and the organizational sciences increasingly face criticism. Drawing from ideas applicable to differentiated contexts of learning, this article develops an alternative model of instructional…