Two decades of growth in dual enrollment, also accelerated during the COVID pandemic, demands attention to equal opportunities available in rural areas. We use the IPEDS database to explore geographic equality of dual enrollment availability offered by two-year public postsecondary institutions in rural America. Shifts in economies and demographic…

The purpose of this article is to provide a blueprint to conduct equity case studies in rural community colleges. Informed by our field work experiences applying case study design and equity-minded frameworks, this blueprint involves four distinct steps: (1) identifying rural community colleges in North Carolina; (2) operationalizing equity in…

Most Black males envision community colleges as a gateway to higher education and upward mobility. Unfortunately, success metrics from across the United States reveal that community colleges fail to facilitate equitable outcomes for these students. A combination of factors creates campus climates that are not conducive to Black male student sense…

Community Colleges have an open-door policy that publicly states all are welcome but after acceptance, the student encounters the hidden locked door of placement testing. For some students, placement testing is the key that unlocks the door and provides them access to their path toward their academic journey. But for most students, placement…

Americans pursue college degrees with hopes that this achievement will open doors and create opportunities for life- and family-sustaining, professional employment. But due to systemic barriers, institutionalized racism and intentional denial and exclusion of women of color, many would-be graduates are still denied access to a college degree…

This annual report details how California's 1.8 million community college students continued in 2022-2023 to make progress toward meeting -- and in some cases exceeding --- systemwide goals and again demonstrated why the state's 116 colleges are engines for equity and social mobility. As the Vision for Success has served students and California…

Providing pathways that support geoscience transfer students from two-year colleges (2YC) to four-year colleges and universities (4YCU) addresses enrollment challenges, diversity, equity, and inclusion issues, and helps build the 21st-century geoscience workforce. Building bridges between 2YC-4YCU programs can happen in various ways, all of which…

This article describes the change process at East Los Angeles College (ELAC) to address the unique barriers that Latinx students face in transferring to 4-year institutions. Since 2014, California Community Colleges have had an unprecedented opportunity to target disparities in academic outcomes through the Student Equity Policy (SEP) and its…

Data use in higher education continues to increase as college and university leaders aim to meet accreditor and governmental expectations to use data to improve student outcomes. However, the steady increase in data use over the past decades has not been accompanied by an increase in employee data literacy in order for employees to use the data…

The first step to addressing equity gaps is to identify them. How can community colleges determine, with some degree of certainty, whether one or more student groups on a campus is in need of assistance in order to succeed? This paper tackles this question by delving into the three methods typically used to identify equity gaps, comparing and…

Addressing the Student Success Center Network's newly adopted statement on racial equity and economic recovery, this chapter describes actions the student success centers and their affiliated college networks are taking to address policies and practices that perpetuate systemic inequalities and recommends additional steps to enhance educational…

Existing research has suggested numerous advantages of dual enrollment, which allows high school students to concurrently earn high school and college credit through enrollment in a single course, including an increased likelihood of high school to college transitions and stronger postsecondary outcomes such as a reduced time to degree completion.…

This scholarship-to-practice paper examines the importance of engagement among college students and highlights a partnership between two online institutions -- a two-year community college and a university -- dedicated to fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Guiding this work is the premise that higher education should be…

This Education Leadership Portfolio (ELP) examines Delaware Technical Community College's new dual enrollment pilot program: the Dual Enrollment Corequisite High School Program (DUL/Coreq HS Program). As Delaware Tech offered too few specific college readiness supports for middle achieving students (MAS) in high school, a new initiative, the…

This qualitative study contributed new insights into the complex interplay between California Community College (CCC) campus climate and faculty-led diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) changemaking. Using focus groups and interviews with 22 full-time faculty, this study found that supportive campus policies and practices, such as…