The Sullivan Report (The Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce, 2004) identified the lack of racial diversity among health care practitioners as a major issue. This report points out that, while the U.S. population has continued to become more diverse, the composition of health care workers has not kept pace with these…

Community colleges serve as crucial gateways to social and economic prosperity for millions of Americans, providing opportunities for career stability and social advancement. The success of this educational pathway hinges on the seamless alignment of a college's mission and goals, creating an environment conducive to faculty excellence in…

Epistemic beliefs, epistemic cognitions, and self-regulation processes have a significant role in students' learning. Through this study, I investigated the role of mechanical engineering students' epistemic beliefs and epistemic cognitions involved in self-regulation processes while working on tasks with different difficulty levels. In this…

The "college for all" ethos pervasive in American education, combined with open admission policies at community colleges, has allowed academically underprepared students to persist from high school to college. We ask: how do college advisors help academically underprepared students navigate decisions about their careers and upcoming…

This dissertation takes an in-depth look at the unique experiences of five Florida State University study abroad alumni who self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer after their experiences overseas. The purpose of this research was to understand if study abroad played a role in participants' sexual identity formation. To…

Until recently, most community colleges have done little through the new student onboarding process to help entering students explore academic and career interests, choose a program of study aligned to their interests, and develop a plan for completing such a program. This has been the case even though many students start college without clear…

In two earlier studies, we developed a new method to measure students' ability to transfer physics problem-solving skills to new contexts using a sequence of online learning modules, and implemented two interventions in the form of additional learning modules designed to improve transfer ability. The current paper introduces a new data analysis…

Inherent challenges affect first-generation students' persistence from as early as the first college year. Using cultural capital as a guide, this study is unique in that it investigates the contribution of first-year policies and programs to the success of first-generation students in 57 bachelor's degree-granting institutions across five states…

The issue of low community college retention and completion rates has become an important concern in recent years. The lack of persistence among college students has led to a variety of institutional initiatives including first-year experience courses, intrusive advising, and other innovative approaches. Among these approaches, First-Year…

In this article we report on our exploration of academic advising practices at 19 community colleges in the Florida College System after the implementation of Senate Bill 1720. This bill made developmental education optional for many students and mandated that colleges provide academic advising for all new students. Descriptive statistics of…

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting financial crisis are forcing millions of students to reconsider their educational plans--a development that's likely to increase the number of students transferring among institutions in the years ahead. Affordable and close to home, community colleges in particular are now poised to attract more students…

Guided pathways reforms require colleges to rethink how they teach and support students. The case studies in Part 2 of this practitioner packet examine how colleges at the forefront of these reforms are transforming their programs and support services by implementing three key guided pathways practices: (1) meta-majors (clusters of programs in…

As we approach the year 2020, it is important to consider the impact of the Housewright Symposium, and to evaluate the development of music education since the publication of the "Housewright Declaration". The purpose of this article was to (1) examine music education in America through the lens of selected "we agree"…

Previous research has suggested that culturally relevant teaching is central to teaching African American students. This study explores relationship building and use of students' funds of knowledge during a field placements practicum as tools to help predominantly White, preservice teachers achieve intended outcomes of culturally relevant teaching…

Across the United States, a growing number of colleges are redesigning their programs and student support services according to the "guided pathways" model. Central to this approach are efforts to clarify pathways to program completion, career advancement, and further education. Equally essential are efforts to help students explore…