Community colleges are complex organizations and assessing their performance, though important, is difficult. Compared to 4-year colleges and universities, community colleges serve a more diverse population and provide a wider variety of educational programs that include continuing education and technical training for adults, and diplomas,…

Alternative schools give us a perspective for viewing our educational system as a whole, while also considering the message and purpose of our institutions. Who does alternative schooling serve? What is the job of alternative schooling? Hugh Cale Community School, located in eastern North Carolina, offers insight into the role and purpose of…

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,…

Focused on community colleges in North Carolina participating in the Scholars of Global Distinction initiative, the goal of this article is to assist librarians in their efforts to thoughtfully increase global and area studies online resources available at their libraries. Through this article, the author hopes to increase global library resources…

Every year, millions of college students borrow money to help bridge the gap between college costs and available income, savings, and grants. Experts agree that, for those who need to borrow to pay for college, federal student loans are the safest and most affordable option. Unfortunately, some colleges choose not to participate in the federal…

Since 2012, community colleges have made a considerable effort to increase student success and completion. Today, as much greater attention is being paid to drawing stronger linkages between education and workforce needs, institutions are becoming more strategic and deliberate in this work. In particular, many institutions are building stronger…

Community colleges, with their commitment to open access, admit millions of students each year who are unprepared for college-level work, even though they have earned a high-school diploma. For decades the schools had a built-in base of students attracted to their open doors and relative affordability. But enrollment at public two-year college has…

With support from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and Jobs for the Future (JFF) formed the Greenforce Initiative--a two-year venture that will work with community colleges across the nation to strengthen their capacity to implement or refine quality pathways…

Tutoring is an important form of academic support for developmental education students. A comparison study was conducted to investigate the benefits of tutoring on the final grades for developmental English students who participated in tutoring versus those students who did not. The final grades for three consecutive semesters were analyzed to…

Objective: The labor market success of community college students depends on both the attributes of individual students and the characteristics of the community colleges they attend. In this article, we examine the impact of community college characteristics on the earnings of first-time college students who enrolled in the North Carolina…

When students first enroll in college, they are required to demonstrate readiness for college-level work. Course placement depends on standardized assessments, and students who do not attain a satisfactory score are typically assigned to developmental (e.g. remedial) education courses. The theory behind this approach has been that remedial…

The majority of public schools and districts in the U.S. report they are working to support the social and emotional learning of students. But in too many places, the approach is to focus narrowly on changing student behavior rather than implementing practices that build relationships and create learning environments that support positive social…

Donations made to the American nonprofit sector have grown exponentially in the past 10 years to an estimated $298.4 billion dollars in 2011 (Giving USA Foundation, 2012). Although consultants offer many different solutions as to how organizations can best capitalize on the e-philanthropy trend, communication theory may offer some of the most…

Following World War II, North Carolina created public junior colleges and industrial education centers to meet the educational demands of veterans and expand the technical skills of the state's workforce. Despite the creation of these campuses, in the early 1960s North Carolina ranked 47th in the number of citizens in college, and 66 counties in…

The annual number of certificates (non-degree awards that typically require less time to complete than degrees) awarded by community colleges has increased dramatically since 2000, but relatively little research has been conducted on the economic benefits of certificates in the labor market. Based on detailed student-level information from matched…