This paper presents a qualitative study that used student interviews to investigate the influence of non-cognitive barriers on developmental student success in a corequisite first-year composition course that was offered on line following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students answered open-ended questions about their previous educational…

The COVID-19 pandemic was a challenging time for community colleges. Due to pandemic-related issues and inequities, there was a need for flexibility on the part of both students and faculty. This paper reflects on both teacher and student perceptions of participating in a post-pandemic flipped classroom at a local New York City community college…

Informed by interviews with administrators, faculty, and students at LaGuardia Community College, this case study explores how a vibrant two-year institution and designated Minority-Serving Institution (MSI), centers the needs of a diverse student body to achieve their academic and professional goals. The case study delves into LaGuardia's…

In community colleges in the United States, graduation rates remain frustratingly low. Students face many challenges, including the financial costs of attending college; the demands of school, work, and family; complex institutional systems; underfunded student support services; and insufficient preparation for college-level work. To address these…

Few student success programs nationally have been as effective as CUNY's Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) initiative, which has grown to serve 25,000 community college students. CUNY has a promising program modeled on ASAP that is helping students at senior colleges complete their bachelor's degrees on time: the Accelerate, Complete,…

Background: Between 70 million and 100 million Americans have a record of interaction with the criminal legal system, a group facing stigma and discrimination in civic participation, housing, employment, and education. Justice-impacted people face collateral consequences in the community, making reentry programs essential to success at…

With an urgency to leverage existing and emerging policy reforms to improve student outcomes by centering educational equity, this manuscript explores the critical role of policy implementation in higher education--specifically in community colleges. In doing so, we explore historical and contemporary approaches to higher education, highlighting…

This paper reports the findings of a study of student writing that assessed the skill needs of a cohort of developmental writing students enrolled in a co-requisite composition course at a community college that is part of the City University of New York (CUNY). This credit-bearing course fulfills the first half of the required composition…

How do you teach fieldwork methods when your students are suddenly prevented from entering the field? This was a pressing question faced by faculty at Guttman Community College who were teaching "Ethnographies of Work," a required first-year course centered on the observation and analysis of real-world workplace dynamics. During the…

Only 11% of community college (associate's-degree) students transfer vertically and obtain a bachelor's degree within six years, despite over 80% originally intending to do so. These leaks in the transfer pipeline disproportionately affect students from underrepresented groups, who are more likely to attend community colleges and to leak out of…

This paper describes the different elements of a Professional Development School (PDS) partnership between a Community College in New York City and a public elementary school in a low-income neighborhood that serves predominantly children of color and low-income families. A major component of the partnership was a school-wide comprehensive…

Purpose, Objective, Research Question, or Focus of Study: This paper seeks to understand the withdrawal patterns of students enrolled in an urban community college during the COVID-19 outbreak, by focusing on what students voiced about what made college-going so challenging for them from spring 2020 to fall 2021. What was revealed about their…

This work examines what appears to be the most effective comprehensive learning support program ever available for underprepared college students. The Accelerated Study in Associate Programs initiative was designed and implemented at the City University of New York Community Colleges. It offers a wide range of integrated college acclimation,…

At the first and only public Montessori charter school in New York City, teachers create learning environments, materials, and lessons that help students guide themselves to find information needed to arrive at a necessary learning outcome. The sudden shift to online instruction in March 2020 required parents, teachers, and administration to…

Interdisciplinary pedagogy can enhance Introduction to Psychology curricula. We developed an interdisciplinary project to make meaning in a learning community (LC) clustering Introduction to Psychology with Introduction to Criminal Justice. Our purpose is to describe the project as a model and report on students' evaluations of the project and…