Many Virginians aspiring to earn a four-year degree intentionally begin their journey at one of the 23 community colleges within the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). In concert with those aspirations, the VCCS is committed to providing its residents an affordable and accessible program of study that prepares them to transfer and earn a…

The demographic profile of the United States has been rapidly changing; by 2020, minority students will constitute the majority of the public school student population nationwide. This makes cultural competence a necessity for today's school leaders. Educational leadership preparation programs are responsible for preparing culturally competent…

In spite of the well-paying, in-demand jobs that many STEM degrees can lead to, just 18 percent of the 1.9 million bachelor's degrees awarded in the U.S. in 2015-16 (the most recent data available) were in STEM subject areas.3 Given that about 5 percent of workers with a non-STEM undergraduate degree work in a STEM field, a large proportion of a…

Over the past decade, educators and policymakers have sought to increase the number of students pursuing and completing postsecondary credentials. Community colleges play an important role in efforts to increase the percentage of Americans with postsecondary education. Community colleges play an important role in educating the early childhood…

The old saying that time is money is nowhere more true than in U.S. higher education. Time is measured two ways in academia--by the calendar and by the credit hour. Both can be costly, whether in the form of tuition, taxpayer subsidies, or the wages students lose with each additional term enrolled. For many years, in credit terms, the standard for…