The largest system of higher education in the nation, the California Community Colleges (CCC) has disappeared more than one million students in the past 15 years, a 35% decrease in its student body since 2008 despite California's population increase. This dramatic shrinking of the CCC system was not an accident. It was manufactured by a vast…

Hispanic-Serving Community Colleges enroll and educate a large share of Hispanic postsecondary students. Due to work trends and demographic changes, Hispanic and other historically underrepresented students play a crucial role in shaping the next generation of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) scholars and practitioners. We use…

California legislation (AB705, signed 2017) mandated accelerated community college writing education and implementation to begin just before the COVID-19 pandemic. This study captures faculty experiences with mandated pandemic-era acceleration via analysis of 131 open-ended faculty survey responses representing 60 of the 116 California community…

The evidence deployed in the policy process is often done so from sources hoping to shape policy along preconceived ideological lines. This chapter presents the data and research cited as evidence in tuition-free community legislation proposed and enacted by 10 states, along with the sources that produced this evidence when applicable. Results…

In the spring of 2020, the US Department of Education updated Title IX guidelines addressing the way campuses investigate gender-based violence. This paper explores how then Vice President of Student Affairs at Phoenix College handled changes to Title IX compliance in the early months of the Coronavirus pandemic while also transitioning to remote…

This study examined differences in reported campus criminality on selected community college campuses in the years between 2005 and 2016 representing the years preceding and succeeding the implementation of Mississippi's 2011 concealed carry legislation. Each campus included in this study is a public-funded community college in Mississippi. Using…

Developmental education (DE) reform took place among the 28 Florida College System (FCS) institutions in 2014. In this study, we examine how cohort-based passing rates in college-level English and math courses changed at different colleges for pre- and post-policy period and explore what institutional characteristics were related with various…

Under Florida's developmental education (DE) reform since 2014, recent public high school graduates and active-duty military personnel became exempt from DE and traditional placement tests. The legislation also required colleges to provide accelerated instruction strategies for students remaining in DE and offer enhanced advising and support…

The Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) provides leadership, professional development, advocacy, and communication for the field of adult education. In our leadership role, we often have the opportunity to recognize exemplary work taking place at the state and local levels. Such was the case with a grassroots training that was developed to…

This study examined perceived implications for equitable outcomes of students based on organizational changes related to developmental education reform, California Assembly Bill 705. The research site was a Hispanic Serving Community College with a majority Latinx student population. This instrumental case study employed various methods, including…

The legacy of career and technical education (CTE) in years past, stretching into the vocational education era, was lower college enrollment after participating in CTE. More recently, others have concluded that college enrollment is not affected but that CTE students enroll more frequently in 2-year degrees over 4-year degrees. I revisit the…

The purpose of this paper is to not analyze how effective or ineffective Senate Bill 1720 has been since its implementation five years ago; rather, the paper's guiding goal is to closely examine a report recently published in February 2019 by The Center for Postsecondary Success (CPS) at Florida State University, claiming SB 1720 a success. In the…

There must be transparency about the total cost of education in order to give students an opportunity to make informed decisions about which courses and programs fit not only their career goals but also their budgets--and that includes the price of course materials. In fact, the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008 requires it. This…

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates that all Title IV-participating institutions of higher education publish web accessible websites for students with disabilities. This study sought to evaluate the web accessibility of Hispanic-Serving Institutional (HSI) websites (n = 217). Results suggest that the average HSI website landing page…

This chapter describes and documents anticipated areas of federal community college advocacy. Changes in Congressional behavior are described with specific illustrations of federal legislation, specifically the Higher Education Act. Discussion on the role of the college president and CEO in advocacy focuses on the role of the president and the…