The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how the staff of campus-based programs that support foster youth describe the program interventions as they influence student competency, autonomy, and relatedness at a community college. This study employed the self-determination theory (SDT) as a lens to better understand the needs…

In Chicago, despite an increase in high school graduates and college enrollment, only one in four community college students graduate within three years. COVID-19 exacerbated longstanding barriers to college success faced by students from low-income backgrounds, as well as for Black, Latino, and Indigenous students. Without proactive interventions…

Wellness, persistence, and retention in higher education have a common goal of student success. Colleges and universities explore various methods to help students succeed and continue towards degree completion. Most of the research has focused on traditional predictors (e.g., high school GPA, ACT/SAT scores) of persistence and success. There is…

Community college students are more likely to be low-income, people of color and first generation in their family to attend higher education than their four-year peers. For a combination of these reasons, they are more apt to be housing insecure. This article discusses how some community colleges are providing new solutions for residences for…

Over the last several years, Achieving the Dream (ATD) has engaged in a number of initiatives to help community colleges build their capacity to ensure that more students can reach their education and career goals. During the course of that work, ATD has come to see clearly that enhancing and integrating student support services is central to…

In this article, the authors present a collegiate recovery model of service that prioritizes a programmatic approach and intentionally designed services, activities, and mentoring that is structured upon a foundation of what we identify as five "Healing Pillars of Collegiate Recovery." The guiding principle of service is to provide…

Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) have become like hospitals where there are multiple offices in centralized locations. One of the areas that need further study is how to integrate these services effectively and efficiently to service students. Healthcare has developed the triage model and IHEs are starting to bring this model into the…

This chapter defines the integration of academics and student support services and offers examples of models and strategies from colleges nationally.

Because The Maine Community College System (MCCS) is aware of that fact that student veterans and those veterans seeking to enroll in college have specific needs, each of the colleges in the MCCS system is working to develop and strengthen target responses to meet those needs. The Maine Community College System is therefore providing this report…

This report presents findings from a review and analysis of literature on the importance, effectiveness, and availability of support services for participants in job training programs in the United States. It assesses current knowledge about these services by examining reports on training and education programs, as well as literature on the…

This case study examined a multi-college community college district in northern California in a primarily rural area, to understand how their practices compared to management best practices designed to improve student success, barriers that may exist in implementing best practices, and how the institution may improve its own practices. The problem…