Concerns about college costs and affordability are widespread, but who is impacted and what does that impact look like in California? Twenty-two higher education and financial aid experts with a broad array of experiences and viewpoints were asked these questions to understand more about college affordability and the policymaking landscape in…

Research demonstrates that the vocational education sector continues to experience an exceptionally high dropout rate, suggesting the need to further understand why students fail to complete their education. However, it was not known what or how the three key factors of admissions practices, staff leadership skills, and accreditation standards…

This document contains the technical appendices for the report "Dual Enrollment in California: Promoting Equitable Student Access and Success." Appendices include: (1) Data and methods; and (2) Additional tables and figures. [This report was written with research support from Bonnie Brooks and Gabriel Gutierrez Aragon. For the full…

The California Community Colleges serves more than 2.1 million students each year and is the largest system of higher education in the nation. The state's 113 community colleges are charged with providing workforce training, basic skills education and preparing students to transfer to four-year postsecondary institutions. Seventy-seven California…

The California Department of Education (CDE) released statewide chronic absence data in December 2017 via DataQuest, an interactive data portal. To better understand chronic absence at the school level, Attendance Works collaborated with the Center for Regional Change at UC Davis and Children Now to analyze the data available from DataQuest and…

Latinos are the fastest growing college population in California, but less than one-quarter of all Latino adults in the state earn a college degree. To reverse this trend, both the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office and the California State University (CSU) Office of the Chancellor launched new initiatives in 2017 to raise Latino…

California's higher education system is not keeping up with the economy's changing needs, and California stands to face a large skills gap by 2030--it will be 1.1 million workers with bachelor's degrees short of economic demand. Closing the gap will require increasing the number of degrees awarded by every higher education sector in the state. New…

As students return to full in-person learning in 2021-22, California public schools face considerable challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Record-high funding distributed through the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) will provide some of the resources that will be key to an equitable recovery. In order to examine how school districts…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the Student Transfer Reform Act of 2010 (SB1440) on student success. For the purpose of this study, student success metrics were identified as time to degree conferral, unit accumulation, and transfer attainment. Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADT) were systematized as a result of the Student…

Enterprise software implementations are subject to high failure rates. Organizations of higher education can be particularly resistant to technology implementations as they can be perceived as eroding the traditions of the institution. The California State University (CSU) system is moving into a new phase of data-driven accountability for…

Many students face unique and significant obstacles as they pursue postsecondary degrees, including the navigation of two complex systems: higher education and financial aid. Given the importance and complexity of the issues, multiple stakeholders, including philanthropists and researchers, have dedicated resources to understanding and improving…

Unlike many universities, the historically under-represented (URM) students at California State University, Monterey Bay, typically graduate at a higher rate than non-URM students. Intense efforts have been made by staff and faculty to increase retention and graduation rates of all students. This paper examines the graduation rates in the context…

Though 80 percent of the 1.1 million community college students who enroll each year intend to transfer and earn a bachelor's degree, only about 14 percent of them end up getting a bachelor's degree within six years, according to a 2016 report from the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College. Across the nation,…

This dissertation studies the effects of foreign presence on the performance of domestic institutions and economic agents. We identify three types of foreign presence: international students, inward foreign investment, and exporting activities. The first chapter investigates the impacts of international students on the graduation performance of…

This is the executive summary for the report, "Dual Enrollment for Students from Special Populations: Improving College Transitions for English Learners, Students with Disabilities, Foster Youth, and Young People Experiencing Homelessness." Interest in dual enrollment is rising in California and nationwide, but students from special…