The study explores the faculty, staff, and student perceptions of how leadership decisions impacted Odessa College, a Texas community college, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Community colleges in Texas have experienced a decrease in enrollment in recent years. The pandemic exacerbated the problem, as evidenced by the further drop in enrollment in…

More than half of community college students nationwide intend to pursue a four-year degree; however, in Texas only one in four community college students transfer to four-year institutions successfully. Among students who do transfer to a Texas four-year institution, roughly 60 percent go on to graduate with a bachelor's degree. The result is…

Objective: The purpose of this study is to highlight the type of community cultural wealth developed and used by Latina/o community college transfer students who encountered limited pre-transfer assistance and unreceptive cultures at their transfer institutions. Method: This study took place at Southwest State University (SSU), a Predominantly…

As employers struggle to fill 9.5 million vacant positions with only 6.5 million workers available across the United States, the role of community colleges becomes critical in educating workers. Open-door access and lower-tuition costs make community college an essential resource for people to access higher education; however, research shows the…

This study was conducted to examine the impact of spirituality and religion on a student's College experience at a large Hispanic-serving community college in South Texas. The problem is that in the realm of higher education literature and research, there is scant information regarding spirituality and religion as factors in a student's motivation…

This research study examined the developmental and prescriptive academic advising preferences of two Texas community first-time-in-college (FTIC) students. For more than 100 years, higher education institutions have employed academic advisors to undertake meaningful interactions with students to assist with their academic progress. Their…

The purpose of this study was to better understand the perceptions and experiences of students in a learning community that incorporated culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) into its curriculum. The field site of this instrumental case study was a community college learning community situated in a Hispanic Serving Institution in Texas. Data from…

Drawing on interview data collected as part of a qualitative study among thirty-two local educators and community advocates in the borderlands context of the Lower Rio Grande Valley (RGV), we inquire about the fundamental characteristics of being a community-engaged teacher for sustainable and equitable Latinx student teaching and learning. The…

This study examined factors impacting the examination and course passing rates for students taking an online Child Development course (CDEC 2328) at a community college in Texas. Through a qualitative case study approach data was collected successively and analyzed using the NVivo 14 software before being merged into this study. A total of 12…

Community colleges play an essential role in providing student-athletes with the opportunity to continue to pursue athletics and go to college. Community college student-athletes' experiences, specifically those of female student-athletes, are critical to examine. Female student-athletes have unique academic and social experiences that can…

Student enrollment at community colleges within the U.S. has remained flat or decreased for over a decade (AACC, 2019). Before COVID-19, community colleges had been experiencing a steady decline in enrollment for approximately ten years (Irwin et al., 2021). The purpose was to determine whether demographic, environmental, and academic variables…

There is a growing perception in society that people are losing faith in the value of a college education (Craig, 2015; Hart Research Associates, 2018). Declining enrollments at higher education institutions for more than a decade support this assertion (NCH Research Center, 2021). To remain relevant as an industry, higher education institutions…

Criminal justice scholars and practitioners have sought to identify strategies to increase and improve diversity in police agencies since the 1960s Civil Rights era. Moreover, the difficulties recruiting racial and ethnic minority police officers indicated there is distrust and fear of the police, which includes police culture/practices that…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive design study was to explore the perceptions of faculty, staff, and students regarding how academic and social integration affected student retention. The theoretical framework used for this study was Tinto's theory of student integration. The two research questions focused on how faculty, staff, and…

This study explored student perceptions regarding persistence in online coursework at the community college level. Using a case study design and thematic analysis, the researcher conducted focus group interviews and then identified themes related to the academic, economic, and social supports and barriers that impacted student persistence at one…