Near-Peer Mentoring (NPM) is an innovative form of Peer-assisted Learning that has been gaining traction in educational settings. Traditionally, NPM is characterized by a more experienced student (typically a year or more advanced) offering guidance and support to newer, less experienced students, with the aim of helping them navigate the…

Guided pathways reforms are emerging as a promising strategy for improving student outcomes and closing equity gaps at community colleges, but little is known about how the guided pathways approach can help address challenges facing adult students. This report discusses strategies that three Tennessee community colleges that have implemented…

This groundbreaking volume is the first to concentrate specifically on the experiences, challenges, and triumphs of immigrant-origin community college students. Drawing on data from the Research on Immigrants in Community College Study (RICC), chapters highlight the unique needs of these students, the role of classrooms and campus settings,…

The purpose of this single case study was to gain a deeper understanding of the supports provided by postsecondary education institutions to students in Educational Opportunity Programs (EOPs). EOPs provide typically low-income, first generation, academically underprepared, and underserved students, who are often overlooked but show potential,…

Chemistry graduate education is under considerable pressure. Pharmaceutical companies, long a major employer of synthetic organic chemists, are drastically paring back their research divisions to reduce costs. Chemical companies are opening new research and development facilities in Asia rather than in the United States to take advantage of…

Interviews with faculty, administrators, staff, and students at four engineering programs reveal the role of undergraduate student employment on retention and timely degree completion among engineering students. Dueling narratives reveal how student approaches to earning an engineering degree differ greatly from faculty, administrator, and staff…

Latinos consistently have the lowest degree completion rate throughout the United States (Kurlaender & Flores, 2005). At the same time, Latinos are the fastest growing sector of the U.S. population. Taken together, these facts demonstrate an ongoing and growing inequity in educational opportunities and outcomes for a significant portion of the…

This paper uses national data from the American Council on Education (ACE) to study the progress of different ethnic groups through the academic pipeline--stages studied include the Bachelor's, Master's, doctoral, levels, and then progress to the Assistant, Associate, and (full) Professor stages, to full-time administrators and finally to the CEO…

Describes Rutgers University's Gateway retention program which involves a number of academic departments in the development of retention programs. Highlights particular Gateway courses in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences. Discusses the benefits of faculty involvement and the importance of incentives for involvement. Reports a 90%…

One of the working papers in the final report of the Arizona Board of Regents' Task Force on Excellence, Efficiency and Competitiveness, this study considers issues of minority access and persistence in Arizona's universities. Themes abstracted from personal interviews with minority students, faculty, and staff and minority and nonminority…

This chapter continues and expands the dialogue regarding the oppressions experienced by African American women in higher education. Stakeholders of postsecondary education are invited to use this dialogue to become more aware of the needs of African American women on college campuses, as well as African American people in general.

To ensure reliable, accurate, and timely data, which are necessary to monitor the progress of education in the United States, Congress has mandated that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produce an annual report, "The Condition of Education." This year's report presents 59 indicators of important developments and trends…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…