At Zane State, guided pathways has served as a framework for bringing multiple changes together to support student success. The college has placed particular emphasis on helping students enter and stay on a program path by connecting them to faculty and advisors called success coaches from the start. A focus on early engagement and onboarding is…

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…

This article highlights a two-year institution's efforts to deliver personalized guidance and direction to students, providing essential support resources in hope of facilitating meaningful connections that will lead to increased enrollment, persistence, retention, and three-year graduation rates. The project includes efforts by student services…

This study examined the relationship of a medium-sized coastal community college with African American males' choices concerning college transfer or career and technical education. The studied college serves two counties, forming a diverse community located in a southeastern North Carolina city. The combined population of both counties was nearly…

The purpose of this study was to examine ways foreign-born graduates of West African descent (WAD) at a midsize community college achieve college education and what lessons we learned about their motivation, success, and barriers to success. The researcher used qualitative research methodology for this study, which was designed to measure this…

The purpose of this nonexperimental, quantitative study was to analyze relationships between three learning mindset dimensions (growth mindset; purpose and value; and sense of belonging) to retention and persistence to graduation among first-time, full-time Tennessee community college student graduates and nongraduates who attended one of 13…

This Equity Alert discusses why goal setting matters for improving how colleges serve students of color and low-income students, and it shares guiding principles advocates can use to help ensure each college's goals: (1) are accessible and transparent to all stakeholders; (2) focus on closing equity gaps; (3) have engaged their community and…

While scholarship on faculty orientation and development is prevalent in traditional four-year universities and community colleges, the same cannot be said for for-profit (proprietary) career colleges. Given the proprietary nature of most private, career colleges and the lack of required faculty research, little research exists on the practices…

Based on responses that Ohio community colleges provided on CCRC's Guided Pathways Scale of Adoption Assessment (SOAA) as well as on semi-structured follow-up interviews, this report examines how these colleges--which have been engaged in guided pathways reform for several years--are innovating within the model to provide personalized support…

The past year has been a test like no other for the California Community Colleges' students, faculty and staff, serving up pain and loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic and racial injustice. Yet despite these challenges they continue to show progress toward meeting goals of the system's Vision for Success, which sets a path to increase certificate…

Past research has shown that using an online student orientation can decrease anxiety for students taking online classes for the first time. This study focuses on the experience of first-time online students from a community college in South Texas using a multiple regression analysis to determine first-time online student readiness in the areas of…

Wyoming community colleges provide dynamic lifelong learning environments through higher education, workforce development, innovative partnerships, and civic and global engagement that lead to responsible citizenship and economic, social, and cultural prosperity. Planning for the future of Wyoming's community colleges and fulfilling the mission of…

This paper explores the L2 motivation of 11 students about to start studying English as junior college English majors. The participants took part in a ten-day L2 motivational program designed to help them with L2 skills and life on campus. To understand how they participated in the program, data gathered from online learning logs were coded using…

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how students perceive participation in a new student orientation program (NSO) as influencing their academic and social integration experiences during their first two years at a community college in the Midwest. Student retention models provide the framework for researching student attrition and…

Contemporary literature underscores the salience of First-Year seminars (FYS) in supporting the success of college students. The problem is that the research outlining the characteristics of FYS at two-year colleges is sparse, particularly when certain populations are required to enroll in these courses. There is little information about how these…