A crucial first step to academic success is being present at school and ready to learn. This is a particular challenge for students in foster care, who experience considerable home placement and school instability. Missing school for any reason impacts youth's engagement with learning and their ability to do well in school. Chronic absence rates…

In response to the significant and still growing number of college students experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity in California, the State Legislature appropriated $9 million in the 2019-2020 State Budget for ongoing funding to provide housing services to students. Per section 9795 of the statute, colleges, in partnership with local…

Academic support services such as coaching and mentoring programs have shown the most promise, but only when they are implemented in a very proactive manner--when they provide students with personalized follow-up and attention. Unfortunately, these programs are often expensive, making them hard to implement or scale at a regional or national…

This study's purpose is to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international students who were studying at U.S. community colleges at the onset of this public health crisis. While previous work has explored the impact of the pandemic on international students generally, we argue that community college international students deserve…

Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success (iPASS) is an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support colleges seeking to incorporate technology into their advising and student services. In iPASS, such technology is intended to increase advising's emphasis on a student's entire college experience, enabling…

Every adolescent faces challenges as they navigate their teenage years, but for some these challenges imperil their ability to complete their education. While these four students' experiences are dramatically different, they have one thing in common: high school didn't work for them, meaning that each faced long odds of ever attaining a diploma,…

The Rostrum is a quarterly publication of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Power in the Collective: Faculty, Collegial Consultation, and Collaboration (Julie Bruno); (2) The ASCCC Budget and Fiscal Reporting (Julie Adams and John Freitas); (3) Building Bridges:…

These are the technical appendices for the report, "Supporting Student Parents in Community College CalWORKs Programs." The appendices include: (1) CalWORKs and EOPS Programs at California Community Colleges; (2) Survey of Program Directors; (3) Survey Instrument; (4) Survey Summary Statistics; and (5) Analysis of CalWORKs Students.…

Low-income students face a number of obstacles that go beyond the cost of tuition and fees. For instance, their schooling often requires expenses that aren't covered by financial aid, such as books and commuting costs. What's more, education is often competing for their time with other responsibilities, such as the need to work or take care of…

Many Californians face difficulties connecting to good jobs because of limited education. This is especially true for poor families who receive cash assistance from the state's CalWORKs (California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids) program. Few CalWORKs parents have more than a high school degree, and many struggle to balance family and…

Although the United States is touted as a country where anyone could be successful regardless of social class or national background, upward social mobility is hard to attain. Less than one in 10 children born into poverty will reach the top of the income distribution. For many individuals, postsecondary education has historically been a way out…

This paper examines the educational status of and services available to older adolescents in foster care in California, both from the viewpoint of the young people themselves and from the viewpoint of caseworkers who work with foster youth. Not only does California have the largest state foster care population in the nation, it also is one of the…

This study used a mixed-methods approach to examine the effects of the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program from the student perspective, specifically focusing on factors associated with student resilience. The AVID program aims to close the achievement gap among predominantly minority and low-income students without a family…

The second year of college can be as important as the first year but far fewer studies have been conducted on second-year students. About 12% of students leave California State University - Fresno during or after their second year. In this report, we examined second year students to find the differences between those who graduate and those who…

While many of the concepts and approaches that comprise student-centered learning have deep roots in learning theory, the cognitive sciences, and youth and child development, empirical research on student-centered learning's impact in K-12 classrooms remains limited. This report offers highlights from three studies commissioned by Nellie Mae,…