The community college has one of its missions to provide access for students who intend to transfer to a 4-year university using a vertical transfer pathway. As potential advocates for students in the transfer process, faculty who work in community colleges need to recognize the importance of supporting transfer students and help to improve the…

After a sharp decline associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, 2023 marked two consecutive years of increase in the number of freshman and high-school dual enrollees, with under-18-year-olds driving a disproportionate share of this growth. The rising importance of this latter student group presents new opportunities for colleges as well as…

College student activists catalyze reform on campus and beyond--yet, we know little about how these students perceive mattering on campus. Given that mattering is linked to positive student outcomes, educator commitment to caring for student activists is critical. This work, grounded in semistructured interviews and a constructivist lens, explored…

A promising solution for reducing costs for students, especially textbook costs, is Open Educational Resources (OER). We explored community college faculty members' perceptions of using OER compared with publisher textbooks. In this comparative context, we investigated how OER impacted faculty, their instructional decisions, and their students as…

There is a decrease in completion rates for students with learning disabilities enrolled at community colleges. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how community college faculty who taught at a small rural institution in southeastern Virginia perceived modifying course instruction for students with learning disabilities.…

Brightpoint's HyFlex Pilot Program was a year-long project funded by the Online Virginia Network (OVN) to support faculty in the design and delivery of an actual HyFlex course. The cohort consisted of faculty who teach in the biology, architecture, early childhood, and web design disciplines. Participants worked in collaboration with one another…

Last summer, the National Education Association (NEA) developed a New Business Item to explore retrenchment: "The NEA shall make a statistical study on the effect of significant faculty retrenchment at community colleges on future faculty cuts" (NBI 78, 2022). ASA Research (ASA) conducted exploratory research in an attempt to identify…

The view that colleges are generally safe has been challenged by threats of violence on campuses across the country, causing fear among stakeholders. Community college faculty are not immune to crime-related fear on campus; however, the research has largely ignored this population. This research serves to fill that gap. The purpose of this…

Interfaith America's 2023 Landscape Analysis explores the purpose, range of desired outcomes, promising models, challenges, and opportunities of bridgebuilding efforts across U.S. higher education. This article articulates the importance of bridgebuilding for the sector and summarizes key findings from the Landscape Analysis. It highlights…

Remedial courses have been part of the college landscape in the United States since at least the 1800s when nearly 250,000 students were placed into remedial courses. Traditionally, students who enrolled in remedial courses were placed into that course solely based on one test score. Students who enrolled in traditional remedial courses were more…

As universities moved to remote teaching environments in response to COVID-19 pandemic, many teacher educators were forced to make the switch without any professional development. This paper presents an example of how faculty at one large public university in Virginia were supported through this process. In Phase 1 of our response we rapidly…

This poem was written as a final project for the author's Critical Perspectives in Education course at George Mason University in Fall of 2021. In addition to having students read critical works, Dr. Dodman, the professor, encouraged creative reflections and non-traditional reading responses. The author also engaged in an Extended Communal…

This report describes findings from a study of the Engaging Adjunct Faculty in the Student Success Movement project, a two-year initiative led by Achieving the Dream to develop and implement strategies to support adjunct faculty in improving student outcomes. Work in the project--guided by design principles related to classroom activities,…

Community colleges in Northern and Southeastern Virginia have struggled with enrollment and retention of adult learners. Addressing adult learners' needs is an important focus for instructors, yet few studies have addressed how instructors can use andragogy, the art and science of adult learning, to influence their instructional practices to…

Our department is in the early stages of a multi-year effort to nurture a culture that values active learning. We focus on the change process, including specific, pragmatic ideas from the literature on grassroots leadership and systemic change. We briefly review Wenger's work on cultivating communities of practice and use Wenger's evaluation of…