In 2014, urban wildlife refuge managers throughout Southern California responded to a challenge issued by United States Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS) leadership to connect the urban dwelling population in the region with wildlife and urban refuges. Five years later, the SoCal Urban Wildlife Refuge Project's reach and impact are significant.…

In January 2016, I co-organized a Jamaica cultural immersion and faculty development trip in which ten professors from two Southern California universities participated. Our objective during the week-long program was to explore opportunities for faculty to incorporate community immersion and engagement into existing international programs, and to…

The successes of corequisite remediation courses and supplemental instruction over traditional remediation courses such as the modular Math Essentials have been widely and recently documented (Logue, Watanabe-Rose, & Douglas, 2016). Corequisite reform is an important strategy to improve student completion of higher education goals. A robust…

The California Community Colleges (CCC) is the largest system of higher education in the United States. In the past two decades, CCC has effectively shut hundreds of thousands of students out of higher education by increasing the cost of tuition. The drop in student enrollment resulted in fewer students meeting their educational goals within a…

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…

Emblematic of democratic principles and composed of diverse people and cultures, the California community colleges are a confederation of 114 accredited campuses. Accreditation is a quality assurance conventionalism reflective of American values and ideologies and provides a stamp of approval to ensure public confidence in the virtues of the…

Middle leaders are emerging as a powerful resource in California's community colleges, driving change and advancing student success. The term middle leader has typically been used to describe middle managers in business and principals or district leaders in K-12 schools. In community colleges, the term has been used to designate positions below…

Every year, continuation high schools in California serve more than 60,000 students who are in danger of not earning their high school diploma. Students attending continuation high schools have been labeled at-risk for myriad reasons including, credit deficiency, truancy, behavior and emotional issues, teen pregnancy, substance and alcohol abuse,…

This article reports on professional development of nine U.S. social work students of color who participated in a delegation exploring human trafficking in Thailand through a reverse mission program. Through the use of the 2015 Council on Social Work Education's (CSWE) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) as a conceptual…

Dual enrollment allows high school students to take college courses and earn college credits that can provide a valuable head start toward a college degree. The practice has multiple benefits for students in both systems, improving college preparation and increasing efficiency toward completion of degrees and certificates. Many states--including…

The state of Michigan has set a goal to increase the percentage of residents with a postsecondary degree or credential to 60 percent by 2030. Achieving that goal will require a concerted, strategic, and multipronged effort. Today, less than 50 percent of residents have attained a postsecondary degree or credential. While making college more…

The purpose of this study was to explore the mentorship women of color leaders provide other women of color seeking leadership advancement in Student Services at California community colleges. Specifically, the interviews and observations were designed to capture the identity-conscious strategies, related to the intersection of race and gender,…

Personalized learning offers instruction that matches students' learning preferences and specific interests. Taking innovative approaches to engaging with students' individual contexts and interests through place-based education can be particularly meaningful. Place-based education (PBE) is anytime, anywhere learning that leverages the power of…

Subsidized transit policy is a strategy used to lessen environmental impacts and increase institutional accessibility in higher education. Program funding to support this subsidized transit policy can vary between institutions. This research focuses on the geographic analysis of Eco Pass, a student led initiative implemented in the Foothill De…

An ongoing debate in K-12 education policy has been between the "reform" agenda, including charter schools and school vouchers, and advocates of traditional public schools, led by educator unions. A similar split has emerged in higher education, particularly community colleges. Using California as an example, this paper: 1) summarizes…