Multidisciplinary teams of school- and community-employed mental health, health, and educational staff work together in schools to offer a full continuum of mental health promotion, prevention, early intervention, and treatment services and supports. Intentional teaming structures and practices are essential to ensure teams deliver effective,…

The purpose of this guide is to illuminate best practices for meaningful engagement of youth in Community Schools and to recognize youth voice as a community asset that can help advance more equitable school systems. Youth voice plays an important role in redesigning how public education functions. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education and…

A risk manager's job is to assess what could go wrong on campus, how likely this is to happen, and what the consequences would be--and then take action to protect the college, its people, and its assets. These steps might include introducing new policies and procedures, training stakeholders, instilling a culture of safety, and making sure the…

While most community colleges admit all students who apply for admission, the vast majority have required students to demonstrate specified levels of literacy and numeracy before they can take college-level courses. Typically, students have been assessed using a single placement test, such as the College Board's ACCUPLACER. Colleges--or sometimes…

The higher education policy implementation landscape has substantially shaped postsecondary education opportunities for undocumented youth, who are already negatively affected by discriminatory public policies, and institutional agents, who are often unprepared to address their needs. Guided by Bressers's contextual interaction theory that…

The book analyses and evaluates several key community college reform programs that emerged after the Recession of 2008 and as a result of major initiatives in California, New York, Tennessee, Florida, Connecticut and Wisconsin. Because of the economic downturn in the early 21st Century, an already eroding financial base for public higher education…

This brief focuses on how colleges participating in the Career and Technical Education CoLab (CTE CoLab) Community of Practice are implementing student navigation strategies to improve outcomes for students of color. The CTE CoLab aims to reduce disparities in academic and career outcomes for historically marginalized students--especially students…

With the majority of "good jobs" that pay a family-sustaining wage requiring at least some college education -- such as a technical certificate, associate degree, bachelor's degree or another credential of value -- ensuring the existence of high-quality postsecondary CTE [Career Technical Education] programs and programs of study is more…

American public education policy and practice has long focused on what can be done to meet the academic needs of all students during the school day. Today, more families and students are facing challenges outside of school that affect student academic performance in classrooms. Challenges such as homelessness, food security, mental health and…

As additional states embark on the process of implementing four-year degrees at community colleges, they can learn from others' experience for help navigating the legislative, regulatory, and program approval processes. This brief uses examples from states currently offering bachelor's degrees at their community colleges to provide guidance for…

This study provides an overview and a snapshot of new student orientation (NSO) and new student e-orientation (NSEO) programs, with a focus on the content and feature analysis of the NSEOs. It offers an overview of currently available NSO programs of 100 randomly selected community colleges from a master list of nearly 900 community colleges in…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine institutional actions that influence service use among SEAA community college students. More specifically, this study investigated the effects of access to services (service access), validating staff members (staff validation), and caring staff members (staff care) on the use of campus services…

This paper asks the question: Is now the right time to consider a statewide policy initiative to support increased access for Massachusetts community college students to paid internships that can help them improve their employment and earnings trajectory? Is this something that employers, colleges, and state leaders would see as a welcome…

This study examines 45 community college institutional agents across four states in their role as implementer of policies that affected undocumented and DACAmented students. The findings delve into the role of changing implementation landscape, policy vagueness, implementation burden, and institutional support in this implementation environment.…

This brief highlights examples of career pathway models funded by TAACCCT [Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training] that were designed for adult students who require accelerated timelines because they are often under pressure to enter or reenter the workforce quickly to support their families. In each of the cases chosen,…