Studies show a need for career and technical education (CTE) faculty to have more instructional training. Greater use of evidence based instructional practices (EBIPs) would likely improve community college CTE program instruction by providing research-based guidance for effective instruction. Use of EBIPs remains low across all levels of…

Nearly half of all college students and the majority of college students of color begin their studies at 2-year colleges. The educational quality that these students experience will affect future success, but little research to date has focused on the professional development (PD) of their instructors. We offer an exploratory study on PD needs and…

Muddiest point and peer instruction are evidence-based instructional practices that can be used to address student learning gaps. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of modality (face to face or online) on student perceptions of the effectiveness of combined muddiest point and peer instruction activities in community college…

While active learning strategies have been promoted by researchers as practices to increase performance and retention, some practices have been shown to have unintended negative effects on students such as increasing anxiety. Students often report the debilitating effect of test-taking anxiety on their performance. This study investigated the use…

This chapter explores how the Wisconsin Technical College System Student Success Center and the Success Center for Ohio Community Colleges provided support that encouraged data-informed decision-making among 2-year college stakeholders. A case study for each Center is presented to illustrate data-related strategies and lessons learned. The…

Evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) have been shown to benefit students in undergraduate biology, but little is known about the degree to which community college (CC) biology instructors use EBIPs or the barriers they encounter. We surveyed CC biology instructors to characterize how they use EBIPs, their capacity to use EBIPs, and…

Developed by the Institute for Evidence-Based Change (IEBC), Caring Campus is at once a reform effort that colleges engage in to improve the daily experience of their students and an approach aimed at influencing the norms, values, practices, beliefs, and assumptions that comprise the culture of a college. Drawing on interviews with the presidents…

This chapter presents research and evaluation results on the SAGE 2YC project's intentional focus on a cycle of change rooted in modeling evidence-based pedagogies and facilitating change in teaching and leadership among faculty peers on multiple levels. Based on five years of qualitative and quantitative data involving 40 community colleges and…

We investigate whether student participation in undergraduate research--a high impact practice at TBR community colleges--has an effect on (1) academic performance; (2) probability of graduation, university transfer, and student departure; and (3) time to completion, transfer, and departure. Using enrollment, graduation, and course-taking data on…

Rising rates of individuals with mental illness in the United States have policymakers, education officials, and medical professionals worried about the need for additional support for struggling college students--and the ability of higher education institutions to provide it. Many colleges have designed and implemented a variety of interventions…

Biology education research (BER), currently conducted mostly at four-year colleges and universities, is changing the culture of teaching biology and improving student success. We are community college faculty participating in the NSF-funded CC Bio INSITES network, getting training and support in BER to ask questions to improve student success in…

In this study, we develop and implement a text messaging re-enrollment campaign to encourage former community college students to return to college. Former students are randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups that either receives information to simplify the re-enrollment process or receives both information and a one-course tuition…

Evidence Based Instructional Practices (EBIPs) have been shown to increase student engagement in college classrooms. Education research conducted to date on the effectiveness of these EBIPs and their impact on students' has largely focused on four-year and research-intensive institutions, and community colleges represent a significant gap in the…

Although active learning improves student outcomes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs, it may provoke anxiety in some students. We examined whether two psychological variables, social anxiety (psychological distress relating to the fear of negative evaluation by others) and academic self-efficacy (confidence in…

This chapter will demonstrate how Achieving the Dream, a nonprofit leader of a national reform network of community colleges and open-access universities, uses assessment to guide institutions toward a culture of evidence, equity and continuous improvement to improve student success.